PXG Mini Gunboat

ajlacombe · August 11, 2020

This comment is not totally related to the Mini Gunboat, but that is the subject putter I am using right now so here goes :)

This spring/summer I have rolled my entire bag over. I have drifted from being a 1 putter player to having 5-6 to 10 to rotating 30ish putters - yeah really stupid. So I decide to cold turkey back to a single putter. Chose the PXG Gen2 Min Gunboat. The specs were

Mini Gunboat #1 - 34" 70º lie, Lamkin SInkfit Pistol grip - 584 total grams and a D7 swing weight

I had all kinds of issues with my putter - tool much in my head and I started messing with my putting and went o more arm hang and a more vertical shaft, so I ordered a second Mini Gunboat

Mini Gunboat #2 - 33" 73º lie, Lamkin Sinkfit Pistol grip - 584 grams and a D0 swing weight

This was better but I have been struggling with short putts and totally lost confidence - coming from being a feel putter for many years.

The next step after watching many Edel fitting videos was to mess with the headweight. I swapped out two 10g weights in the head for 2 5g weights - well I started with 1 5g for a subtle change. That was good and then tonight I was putting on my green (artificial green in yard) and I took out the second 10g and swapped for 5g. This obviously reduced head weight by 10g. What this did was to make the putter feel like it weighs nothing, despite now being in the 574 grams. The grip btw weighs 114g, so there is a ton of counter weighting.

This was kind of magic and my short putting was back - one of those things where you can just tell. My theory on what had happened was that the effort to move the heavy putter got me out of sync with my stroke. Changing the head weight changed the balance point to where it is a heavy putter but the balance is perfect for me.

Has anyone done anything like this? I am wondering if I am drinking my own Kool Aid or if I have finally figured out the source of my putting wows of late? Thanks for reading this book :)

Myherobobhope · August 11, 2020

Have you check out the LAB putters? Seems like they’d be a good fit for you.

?

ajlacombe · August 11, 2020

The #1 thing for me on putters is that they have to be appealing and the visual on the LAB putters would not cut it for me. LAB and Edel do that type of fitting for sure. I am at a good place with the putter - the question was if anyone else had done something like this with their putter fit and gotten to a weightless feel with a heavy putter.

Myherobobhope · August 11, 2020

I’m pretty happy with my counterbalanced putter... I wouldn’t call it weightless, but it’s got a nice balanced feel.

K13 · August 18, 2020

Feel is a crazy thing. Sounds like you may be overthinking a little too much instead of just making a natural stroke with it too. If it gives you confidence and works for you I’d go with it though.

The only trouble I’ve had with that kind of setup is that, as weight starts creeping higher, touch on the longer lag putts has become a challenge. As long as you hit it to less than 15 ft that won’t be an issue though, so I recommend you just do that.