Lengthening a putter that has been shortened

[jomatty]

My buddy bought a Scotty kombi long putter that was a belly putter that had been shortened. I don’t believe the lie was changed or anything, I th8nk it was just shortened. Yesterday he was talking about getting a longer shaft and trying it as an armlock. It seems to me that lengthening the shaft should not be over difficult though...if it was just an inch of added length needed then it would be very simple but I’m not sure exactly how to add 5-6 inches. I’m very new to club modifications and have lengthened clubs for a friend who is 6’7” and shortened clubs for kids, swapped out shafts etc. so I’m not totally clueless but fairly new to this sort of thing, and there is a lot I don’t know. Is it as simple as using the tip end of a shaft and cutting it and epoxying it in place? Any other tips for turning this belly putter that was cut to be a regular putter, into an arm lock? I’m very interested in armlock putters so if it would be mutually beneficial if I could figure out how to do this for him (he doesn’t work on his clubs).

[Howard_Jones]

Steel shaft extensions for IRONS, will most likely NOT fit to a"Long putter shaft" since most of them has a very large diameter on the butt, so start with a measurement of shaft OD: Right below the grip should be good enough as a start, and if that point is larger than 0.600, next would be to pull the grip and measure shaft ID (OD = outside diameter, ID inside diameter)

The "long putter" shaft i have at hand has a OD of 0.620, and then a iron extension want fit. (we can shim it up with fiberglas mesh tape, but its not "strait forward" and demand some handyman skills)

IF, but only if that shaft is 0.600 as OD, you can use a standard extension for irons. They comes "2 sided" and is 12 inch long, but since they are 2 sided, they are made to be cut in 2 for use on 2 clubs for each extension we buy.

Im afraid some handyman skills or a new shaft is needed, the grip often cost more than the shaft, so dont try to save money on the wrong part, since its hard to save a grip if this extension job turns out wrong.

Here is how a IRON steel shaft extension looks like, the smallest OD goes into the original shaft.

[gunmetal]

Howard is correct. If you're ID is too large, you'll likely just need to reshaft (I haven't tried the fiberglass tape, but I will be buying some now, lol). If not, you could "try" the route that you are thinking of inserting the tip end of an iron if you don't have any iron extensions on hand. I once did this in a pinch when i was out of iron extensions but you have to be very careful so as to not introduce unwanted vibrations. I cut down the tip section to minimize the inserted portion and added some electrical tape for dampening and it worked out okay for me, but I wouldn't feel good doing this for a customer.

[gdb99]

I think these arm lock putters have a lot more loft than a standard putter...

Odyssey Arm Lock putters have an extra 4* of loft.

[c3customgolf]

gdb is correct, it will need to be bent to a higher loft. I think I've seen most around 8*. As far as the extension, since its just a putter - you can use an old iron shaft - push it down in the butt and mark where it stops with a sharpie. Then just cut 1.5" below the sharpie line and epoxy it in. A lot of those shaft extensions aren't great. I'd be happy to bend it for you. I have a digital loft/lie putter bending machine from golf mechanix

[jomatty]

What about the armlock grips that add loft? Are those gimmicky? Something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Arm-Lock-Putter-Grip/153486501260?hash=item23bc82258c:g:rEAAAOSwZcJel16I

[DallasSteve]

When you put the shaft/grip against your lead arm, you deloft the putter 4 or 5 degrees. Gotta put that back somehow or you'll just be pounding ball into the turf!