Putters

Just starting to get into golf and was wondering what you guys look for when buying a putter.

What do we look for? A very 'to the beholder' type of question, which I will do my best to answer. For ME, I am looking at these things: Price, headshape, length, ability to make putts, feel, in that order. I'll elaborate:

Price: No sense falling in love with a putter and finding it to be $300 over budget. It's sad but it's a fact.

Headshape: Putters come in 2 primary styles; blade and mallet. A blade putter is of the Anser, 8802, Calamity Jane, or bullseye design (among others) but the primary characteristic is a single blade of metal that is rather shallow face to back of the clubhead. A mallet putter is any of a number of styles; 2-ball, spider, etc. where there has been mass/shape has been added away from the clubface. These tend to offer higher MOI, moment of inertia, which adds stability in the stroke. I am personally of the blade persuasion, and do not tend to look much at mallets. Please note by the way that this is more of a continuum than a pair of universals, and putters range in a number of shapes and sizes within these broad classifications.

length: simple enough, when I hold the putter, do I like the length, or is the length so peculiar that I am not capable of properly swinging the club.

ability to make putts: Have the magic putter fairies blessed this putter with the ability to get the ball in the hole? Because I will tolerate a putter that feels off if 6 footers are going down all day. (You can tolerate a lot of things when you're splashing everything inside 10 feet.

Feel: how does impact feel. Can you tell when you have mishit the ball? When you miss the sweet spot, what happens? Loss of distance? Accuracy? both?

As others will mention, there are many other attributes a putter can have, but I believe the vast majority of them will contribute to one of the above categories. Weight, insert, milled face, all translate to feel, for example. As a beginner, think of a putter as a billiard cue. They are all more or less the same; when you walk into a bar you pick up a cue or two, see if it's straight, and then go. Start out this way with putters. All of the complicated stuff is designed to help someone who knows their putter isn't working. You aren't there yet, so go ahead and test out a couple of putters and pick up a cheap one. Later on you can start looking at things like a Kronos D'Arcey.

Honestly...just grab something and start putting with it. You don't know what you don't know to select a putter. So, pick what suits your eye and just start practicing.

Price.

Cash is king - as with any club.

But, look at look, length,grip, and above all - feel. Putting is all feel.

Look at your putting motion. Is it geared more towards a blade or a mallet...This you can look at online.

This club you will use more than any other -get the one you want.

Older models like Yes! Putters are quite good.

To add to the above I would say have a putter that you can control the distance on short or long putts is most important. Alignment /aiming comes second.