Putter Fitting???

Get fitted. Putting is probably overlooked when getting fitted for clubs. After all, it's the most used club in the bag.

The newport is fairly straightforward in adjusting the lie. Try looking at your set-up in the mirror to see what the lie is like.

Could just go to the local GG and get fit for the correct loft lie etc for cheap and they would be able to change the lie also for much cheaper. If you want more feedback look into getting a SAM fitting it will tell you everything that you are doing wrong.

yeah i have a bunch of changes so i am going to my clubmaker in the next few weeks, i think i will do it while i am there. how much should it cost?

I bet you miss to the left most of the time? I did and for the same reason. I was amazed at the difference a fitting made. I was fair with the length, but I was three degrees upright at 71*. Once Ben bent it to 68* and knocked a degree off of the loft I was dead on with a lot smoother roll. My fitting was included in the putter price, but I would not think it would be much considering you have hundreds invested in that Cameron.

yeah, i miss left a lot, i just need to get it fixed and be comfortable with my stroke. i get it done through scotty for only 60 bucks, so therefore i cannot imagine the clubmaker will charge much, if so i will just send it to scotty.

I would highly recommend a fitting. Without seeing your stroke, you may need a substantial reduction in your lie angle. I was fitted earlier in the year after missing a ton of putts to the left, and it was because the toe was almost 9* too upright, and it did not have enough loft. My toe was barely off of the ground. Having too little loft, and too upright a lie angle places a tremendous hook roll on the ball. On a 15' putt with my old putter I was missing the hole by 2'! Granted the test green was a 17 on the stimp meter, but that is substantial. It was almost a miracle I could make a putt!

Good luck, and have a professional club fitter, or your PGA pro, take a look at your stroke.

Jeff

yeah the guy is a professional club fitter, its all he does. i have heard that it is a necessity.

Go to www.pinggolf.com , use their putter web fit, and wear street shoes when you take your height and wrist to floor measurement.

This will give you the correct specs for a putter that best fits you.

Regarding the toe of your putter in the air, a "professional club fitter" might try to adjust a putter to "fit" your natural stroke. For example, he might recommend flattening the lie of the putter 2* to 6* so that the putter sole is flush with the ground. This will harm your putting game.

The better approach is to get a putter with specs correct for your physical body type, a static fitting at www.pinggolf.com .

After that, learn a fundamentally sound putting address technique (grip, posture, alignment). Once you learn correct address technique then you will naturally have the putter sole flush with the ground. Naturally, nothing artificially manufactured.

Note: the majority of players hold grip their putter with the thumbs canted to the side , which is bad. This grip puts the wrists/hands in a relatively low position, and from there the putter toe is always airborne. A bad putting grip causes other problems as well.

Conversely, a player with a fundamentally sound putting grip, Tiger for example, enjoys many benefits from using the correct grip method. Putter sole relatively flush with the ground, wrists relatively firm, grip pressure moderate etc... all are born from the correct grip (thumbs flat on the top flat side of the grip, not canted off to the side).

yeah the guy is a professional club fitter, its all he does. i have heard that it is a necessity.

you could get fit by a pro at golf galaxy for 20 bucks and the loft and lie changes will be included in the price

I just don't buy this notion of putter fittings. Assuming you have a decent stroke, success in putting requires...

1) reading greens

2) judging speed

3) confidence

If you have ALL of the above going for you, you''ll putt well with an old Bullseye pulled from a barrel.

If you are missing any ONE of those elements, getting a putter that "fits" will make little difference.

Play well!

I just don't buy this notion of putter fittings. Assuming you have a decent stroke, success in putting requires...

 

1) reading greens

2) judging speed

3) confidence

 

If you have ALL of the above going for you, you''ll putt well with an old Bullseye pulled from a barrel.

 

If you are missing any ONE of those elements, getting a putter that "fits" will make little difference.

 

Play well!

Just my .02, but I couldn't disagree more. I have a friend that is a head pro and he invested in software and cameras to conduct putter fittings. His findings show over 90% of off the rack putters don't fit (most due to loft). I'm not sure I buy the Ping static fitting either, granted it is a starting point, but what you do at impact is the most important aspect. I went from the std 4* loft to -1* because my hands were behind the ball at impact. That change, while extreme, has allowed me to ROLL the ball better, it is not bouncing off the putter as I naturally add loft at impact. It amazes me that more don't get a putter fitting since it is the most used club in the bag.

what you do at impact is the most important aspect

I believe the most important aspect is determining a line and matching a speed to the chosen line. If either is off, you have missed the putt before you even address it.

Two ways to look at it, I am clearly in the minority, but I'll stick to my guns.

Play well!

yeah, putter fitting is a DEFINATE. if you have not done it, get it done. Today i played a round, had about 8- 1 putts. NO 3 putts. and from 5 in, no misses. from 10 in I hit a bunch! Go get it done. its amazing. I feel like I got a new putter.

Not to discount the importance of fitting, but confidence with the flatstick is an amazing thing. Sounds like you may have not only gotten a better fit, but also a bump in the confidence.

Fitting to me is VERY Important. I was a pretty good putter, got a SAMM Fitting, Made some minor adjustments, and it has done wonders.

-Chris

OK, I can see that a putter fitting would benefit the highly skilled player, especially touring pros, who play on a variety of surfaces all over the world and are acutely aware of the most subtle adjustments. Much like fine tuning a high performance race car.

But for "Joe the Putter" on muni greens? Come on. If Joe putts poorly, chances are it's not because of an off the rack putter that has not been properly fitted. It's because Joe would rather hit balls on the driving range than learn the fine art of putting, which requires hours and hours of practice. Joe's idea of putting practice amounts to nothing more than spending a few minutes on the way to the first tee.

Unless Joe the Putter changes his ways, he'll always be an average putter. Send him in for a SAMM fitting and he'll still be an average putter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Scotchblade,

I agree what your saying in your last couple of posts to a point. Certainly if someone cannot determine the line and speed their never going to be a good putter. What I ment by impact being the most important aspect, is the putter adding loft and getting the ball airborn or not enough loft resulting in the ball skidding off the putter face. If either of those are happening it adds variables that make it much more difficult to have a consistant speed because the ball isn't rolling off the putter. A friend of mine is a 12 hcp, much closer to Joe than a tor pro, he had a putter fitting that reduced the amount of loft on his putter. That simple change has enabled him to get the ball rolling end over end, and as a result his putting has improved.

Have a good one

The putting green is the only place on the golf course where you can meet or beat the tour pro.

If you play with ill fit equipment your chances of success are already slim.

Seeing the line and putting the line is the object of the game.

The flat stick is the number one club in your bag....where would you invest your time, or technology dollar?

Fitting is key.....just ask Tommy 'two gloves' Gainey.

Any putter fitting or club fitting professional recomendations in SE Michigan....

To look at Scotchblade's posts from another angle: what if the guy can read the green correctly and keeps missing putts because his putter is not fitted correctly? With a correctly fitted putter, he could play on the correct line that he's been reading and not have to compensate for a putter that is pulling everything left.

Frozen Rope...We have similar thoughts on the fitting of clubs in general.

When it comes to putters, I believe length is extremely important. Once you get the length correct, the other variables seem to fall into place.

The reason I'm posting is to make sure players don't make that one extra change and mess up their expensive putter. You flatten the lie a degree or two (like Utley says to do) and the putter doesn't quite look the same to you at address. Whether it's right or wrong, it's harder to make putts with something that looks a little closed (or open).

I've had my best luck looking at 2 or 3 putters of the exact same model and seeing which one looked the best to me at address. Usually one looks a little funny and two look good. Then you narrow it down to the one you'll buy. It's easy to do with Camerons at the bigger stores because they have enough of a selection.

I've also had good luck with Ping Redwoods. I've ordered them special (to get my model in 34 inches) and they've all come back looking good to my eye.

the static vs. dynamic club fitting discussion has been beaten to death, but just an fyi- even if Tiger satisfies "good fundamentals"- he putts with the toe up.

Couldn't find a very good picture, but if you do a search there's some discussion of it.

Yep and a lot more Tour Pros putt in the "toe up" style. They putt how they are comfortable doing it, from when most were growing up and learning the game.

Not from a putter fitting. ;)

the only thing I'm worried about that "fits" me with my putter is the overall length.

peace

You are correct that flattening the lie is the wrong way to get the putter sole flush with the ground.

Regarding putter length, it is significant, but with correct address posture 99% of the players are going to fall in a range of about 34" to 35.5".

Regarding lie angle, with correct posture, 99% of players will be in a range of about 69* to 73*.

Striking solid putts is more important to scoring than striking solid tee shots, yet most players never associate putting with solid versus mishit.

The two important factors which promote solid ball striking when putting are the correct grip (thumbs square and flat on the flat topside of the putter grip). Very few players use this correct grip. And posture is important to putting. If a player can get his upper body in a relatively vertical posture then his stroke will be naturally powered by the shoulders, which is correct.

Frozen Rope...We have similar thoughts on the fitting of clubs in general.

 

When it comes to putters, I believe length is extremely important. Once you get the length correct, the other variables seem to fall into place.

 

The reason I'm posting is to make sure players don't make that one extra change and mess up their expensive putter. You flatten the lie a degree or two (like Utley says to do) and the putter doesn't quite look the same to you at address. Whether it's right or wrong, it's harder to make putts with something that looks a little closed (or open).

 

I've had my best luck looking at 2 or 3 putters of the exact same model and seeing which one looked the best to me at address. Usually one looks a little funny and two look good. Then you narrow it down to the one you'll buy. It's easy to do with Camerons at the bigger stores because they have enough of a selection.

 

I've also had good luck with Ping Redwoods. I've ordered them special (to get my model in 34 inches) and they've all come back looking good to my eye.

Mishits with my putter are a worse feeling than a mishit drive! I can instantly tell I hit a bad putt....with too much toe or heel, bad skid before roll, off balance swing, etc.....horrible feeling.

Peace.

In my fittings and demo days I see solid trends among amateur golfers and professionals.

When it comes to fit a majority come to me with putters that are too long. The natural tendency to grip the shaft almost to the top end of the grip will cause the putter to be more toe up and dramatically outside the eye line.

By shortening up we both flatten the lie angle and bring the eyes closer to the line.

If you have a true stoke then lie angle is perhaps not as critical as it could be but for most amateurs the flat sole at address will assist in making a truer stroke from the start.

Saying that fitting is without merit flies in the face of modern science. Experiment with a five iron that is not soled correctly and watch the ball flight. Putter fitting is key to both stroke improvement and better scoring. Remember if your putting is on track the rest of your game often follows. Confidence is the key.

That's an interesting pic of Tiger's putter there. I've never noticed that he's *toe up*. This is something that I've struggle with before. It's mostly corrected now, especially since I went to a mallet head putter.

I figured Tiger, as particular as he is about ball position and alignment, would have the putter sole flat at address.

My .02 is the idea one can have a putter fitting on any particular day and it will solve everything is bogus. First we all go through changes in how we putt and swing a club from day to day and week to week. Your swing and stroke are in constant flux, a putter fitting at any particular time may [and thats a big may] work for a while but in a short time things will change again, thats why so many people buy so many putters. One thing can be said for all fittings if you go to 3 different fitting you will get 3 different recommendations so how can these fittings be suggested by so many time and again they cannot be repeated.

I went through 3 fittings and the only fitting that did anything was Bettinardis fitting but it only lasted for a time and it didn`t make any meaningful change. There was only one thing that helped. I happened to purchase a Rife 2 bar blade putter that had a lie adjustment tool, this putter is made so you can easily adjust it. It took 1 monthe of trial and error to get a improvement in my puttting. I purchased a second; this putter is offered with and without offset. I went through the same process with the new putter fitting it. The second putter ended up not having the same specs of the first. So before I go to play I see which putter works for that day, I then use it to play that day. These putters have gone through minor adjustments over the last year but I am putting over that period almost 20% better.

Most of the time Tiger's putter sole is flat at address. Occasionally his posture is not what he wants and that moves his hands/wrists lower, which in turn causes the toe of the putter to raise in the air.

That's an interesting pic of Tiger's putter there. I've never noticed that he's *toe up*. This is something that I've struggle with before. It's mostly corrected now, especially since I went to a mallet head putter.

 

I figured Tiger, as particular as he is about ball position and alignment, would have the putter sole flat at address.