"Little Ben" - Ben Crenshaw's Putter History

[mbaisley]

What does Crenshaw putt with most often?

Here's a question for all of the Ben Crenshaw experts out there....

Everyone knows about "Little Ben," Ben Crenshaw's famous 8802 that he's had since he was 15 and which he won the 1984 masters with. I think he won the 1995 masters with a Cleveland "Designed By" model of some sort.

Anyway, here's my question:

What the heck has be been putting with on/off for about the last 6 or 8 years?

I have seen him UP CLOSE, IN PERSON on at least four or five occasions (including the 2006 masters final round) and he had this blade putter that looked like an 8802, but it had a shorter hosel and.... here it is..... it has a FERRULE on it.

What the heck is this putter???? Has anyone else ever noticed this???? It looks like an 8802 head, but it has a shorter hosel and appears to have a ferrule. I can't tell if it is a shaft-in-hosel or shaft-over-hosel design, but it definitely has a ferrule and it looks pretty beat up (not like "Little Ben", which looks pretty good considering its age).

If anyone has any information on this, or better yet, some pictures of that putter, I'd love to know more.

Thanks.

[RobotDoctor]

The putter that Ben Crenshaw used to win the '95 Masters was a Cleveland Designed by Ben Crenshaw model. He helped develop this putter with Roger Cleveland. Scotty Cameron was also involved with the milled version of this putter.

 

As to what the ferruled putter is, I have no idea.

[burgerlee]

I am not positive but I think you may be seeing his old 8802 with the chrome peeling off the top of the neck of the putter. I have seen him a couple of times lately on TV and at the Masters and thats what it looked like to me. I could be wrong though because I only saw him from about 50 feet at the Masters.

 

Lee

 

I think I right if you look at this picture I foungd on Getty Images.

 

 

 

 

[mbaisley]

Excellent observation. I think you may be right, although it's hard to tell. It looks like maybe some chrome has peeled off of the shaft, too, because the dark area goes up too high to be just on the putter neck itself.

 

Thanks for pointing that out, and thanks for the picture. That's most definitely an 8802 in that picture.

 

If anyone else has any other information or theories, I'd love to hear them.

[pitbull808]

bigger..........

 

 

The only blades I have with ferrules are Macgregors. Crenshaws doesn't look like any of them.

 

Brad......where are you? I know you probably know. :tongue:

[stage1350]

I know he putted with a Reid-Lockhart in the last decade as well.

 

Putters that I know of:

8802

Hagen Gentle Ben

Cleveland Designed by.

 

Like everyone else, he always goes back to the 8802, but I think he's tried about everything.

[dodger]

I think David Mills built him an 8802 style with a ferrule. David built one for me and when he asked me about the ferrule, indicated that Crenshaw had one with a ferrule. As I have putted with this style since 1978, mostly because of Crenshaw's success at that time, I had to have what he has, great to see the picture of him and the putter.

[reebus]

This is a post that reminds me of why I love places like this. The history of the implements that these guys use

is especially interesting to me. And the knowledge of those who post is incredible. I've got an old , beat up

8802 just like the one in the picture that I wouldn't give up for all the tea in China. Heck , I can't even game the thing anymore.

I used it for about 10 to 15 years during my "salad" days when I played some serious money games, and it was my friend!

 

I pull out the old 8802 every once in a while and take it to a putting green. You can't imagine the memories it brings back.

 

Thanks for the post and thanks for the replies..... (He wipes a tear from his eye as he leaves the keyboard)

[curryj]

The BBC masters coverage this year had a segment where Ken Brown had a look in some players bags. He pulled Ben Crenshaw's putter out and from what I remember said that it was an 8802 ( Also seem to recall he didn't give much care or consideration putting it back) .

[rollingrock]

Here's a related question:

 

Anyone know how long Crenshaw's putter is? I know it's typical for people that play this sort of heel-shafted blade to go short (32-33") and let the hands really hang. I've never been able to go shorter than 34.5", mainly because the most of these heads are light to begin with...

[Seve424]

This was on Cameron's site for his masters coverage a couple of years ago. I think Scotty did some work on it for Crenshaw.

[mbaisley]

Seve 424:

 

Those are awesome pictures!!! Thanks.

 

Up close and personal with what is arguably the second or third most famous golf club in history - the first being Calamity Jane (Bobby Jones' putter), the other being Ben Hogan's 1-iron from Merion in 1950.

 

Those are great.

[bma725]

Cameron made all sorts of handmades for Crenshaw, several that were just exactly like what he has, but there were also "exotic" ones out of MgBr and BeCu but none of them stayed in the bag that long.

[jake]

After looking at the putter in the Scotty photo, I think that may be his old 8802. If I am not mistaken he broke Lil Ben at the hosel a while back either that or it wore out like DiMarcos, I think he sent to Scotty to fix the shaft. It makes sense because of the ferrule which is probably used to reinforce the shaft connection.

 

Jake