LAB Golf Link Putter Arrived Today.

[nsxguy]

19 hours ago, theorangeman said:

 With the current 20% discount on custom putters that Golf LAB is offering, there isn't really any discount on going stock.  In fact, doing the math, I think with the discount, it's actually a few bucks cheaper.  Therefore, I'm going custom in part due to that.

 

Link (to the offered discount) ?

 

TIA

[coreyhr]

47 minutes ago, nsxguy said:

 

Link (to the offered discount) ?

 

TIA

Enter CUSTOM20 at checkout. Today is probably the last day it will work. 

[nsxguy]

3 minutes ago, coreyhr said:

Enter CUSTOM20 at checkout. Today is probably the last day it will work. 

 

Thanks, but I just wanted to read about it right now and couldn't find any info about it on the site.

[theorangeman]

It's right on their home page...

Edited November 27, 2023 by theorangeman

[PNW]

On 11/26/2023 at 12:39 PM, theorangeman said:

I just finished reading all 10 pages of the thread and it has been incredibly helpful.  I've decided that I'm going to order a custom Link but the only question that remains is whether I should spend an extra $100 for the Accra shaft.  There is some discussion about this above but I'd be really interested to hear what people think who have tried the stock shaft and the Accra shaft and what differences they found.  Is the upgrade really worth it?

 

Hard to say what will be worth it for you, but if I were ordering another LAB putter especially with 20% off custom then including the Accra is a no brainer. I had one in a Link and have another that is in a Bettinardi. It's a quality graphite putter shaft. Depends on you whether you find it worth it. There are a few threads on whether graphite putter shafts in general are worth it. Maybe read into those to see what you might prefer. 

[Jajo]

To people who have used both, which do you prefer, Mezz Max or Link?

[nsxguy]

8 hours ago, theorangeman said:

It's right on their home page...

 

Tried their "Home" page.

 

https://labgolf.com/

 

Don't see it.

[tcbringhurst]

20 minutes ago, nsxguy said:

 

Tried their "Home" page.

 

https://labgolf.com/

 

Don't see it.

Coupon isn’t good anymore, so it’s too late now

[theorangeman]

Yep, too late unfortunately.  Because I sent in video a couple days ago for a remote fitting, they emailed me last night letting me know that the coupon would soon expire.  That being the case, I ordered my Link.1 last night with the 20% coupon.  I would imagine they will likely have another coupon around Christmas.  I'd reach out to them and ask.    

 

Now on to find a new home for my Scotty Select Newport 2.

[theorangeman]

14 hours ago, Jajo said:

To people who have used both, which do you prefer, Mezz Max or Link?

 

I would recommend spending the time to read this whole thread.  I did, and came away better educated/informed on things like what you're asking.  The cliff notes version from what I gathered... if people can get by the size and looks of the DF, it's perhaps the best putter in the lineup for stability and short putts.  However, several people in this thread have talked about issues with lag putting - that apparently takes more time to get down with this putter.  I haven't read many posts of people preferring the regular Mezz over the Max.

 

As for Mezz Max versus Link.1, I have no idea myself because I've never owned either but from what others have said... most (but not all) prefer the Link over the Mezz Max.  Several guys have moved from the Mezz Max to Link and are happy with the switch (based on what I've read).  I chose the Link simply because I think eventually, the look of the Mezz Max would cause me to look for another putter.  The Link is just a classic, great looking putter but still with the technology.  I currently play with a Scotty Newport, so this putter fits my eye well.  We will see though when I get it in a few weeks.  Hope this helps somewhat.

[Rearviewmirror]

On 11/28/2023 at 12:35 PM, theorangeman said:

We will see though when I get it in a few weeks.  Hope this helps somewhat.

What shaft did you go for? 

 

My biggest takeaway is that there's an adjustment process for sure. I have days with my Link where I'm lights out (or half a round like that) and then rounds when I feel like my distance control is all over the map. I've been making a few technique adjustments which I'm hoping will lead to more consistency. 

Funnily enough I'm wondering if I should have gone Mezz - but I think I'll wait and see the reviews of the DF3 next year, and if I'm still struggling may take a look.

[ilikegolf26]

How long between going into production and the putter actually being shipped?

[theorangeman]

5 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

What shaft did you go for? 

 

My biggest takeaway is that there's an adjustment process for sure. I have days with my Link where I'm lights out (or half a round like that) and then rounds when I feel like my distance control is all over the map. I've been making a few technique adjustments which I'm hoping will lead to more consistency. 

Funnily enough I'm wondering if I should have gone Mezz - but I think I'll wait and see the reviews of the DF3 next year, and if I'm still struggling may take a look.

 

I went with the steel.  However, today I had a change of heart and contacted LAB Golf and had them change to Accra.  It's only $100 more, so whatever.  I have no idea if that will be any better in terms of performance, but what the hell.  I feel like I'm going blindly a bit here.  

 

I went to the PGA Superstore today and they had all three putters available to demo.  I spent 30-40 minutes putting.  I really liked the feel and looks of the Link.  It reminded me a lot of my current putter - Scotty Select Newport 2 (which probably helps).  Then I picked up the DF and started to scare myself (I began to really like it).  I really don't want that monster in my bag (but if it works, so be it).  I can see why people like it.  It has a great feel to it.  However, as I tried all three multiple times, the Link became more and more comfortable to me from shorter putts to longer ones. 

 

Neither the Mezz and Mezz Max did anything for me so I spent most of my time with the DF and Link.  I left the store feeling even better about my Link order.  I got fitted remotely a couple days ago so probably have a few weeks before I get it.

Edited December 1, 2023 by theorangeman

[TimBuma]

I’ve been in contact with LAB and was curious if they’ve done any testing with eye dominance and if certain putters help with forward or rear eye dominance. They mentioned they haven’t but they usually recommend the Link for a right handed player that is right eye dominant. Not sure if that helps anyone or not but thought I’d share.

[Rearviewmirror]

12 hours ago, TimBuma said:

I’ve been in contact with LAB and was curious if they’ve done any testing with eye dominance and if certain putters help with forward or rear eye dominance. They mentioned they haven’t but they usually recommend the Link for a right handed player that is right eye dominant. Not sure if that helps anyone or not but thought I’d share.

I have a Link and I'm right handed, left eye dominant - maybe that's why I'm struggling! But I went for the tiny face line which helps on aiming...
 

21 hours ago, theorangeman said:

 

I went with the steel.  However, today I had a change of heart and contacted LAB Golf and had them change to Accra.  It's only $100 more, so whatever.  I have no idea if that will be any better in terms of performance, but what the hell.  I feel like I'm going blindly a bit here.  

 

I had a stock steel Link and went Accra in my custom Link and really prefer the feel. It's much better for lag distance and overall distance control - at least for me!

[tcbringhurst]

On 11/30/2023 at 1:35 PM, ilikegolf26 said:

How long between going into production and the putter actually being shipped?

Depending on order date (they likely got 500+ on Nov 22nd alone), probably about two or three weeks at the most. Some on the Facebook page have already received a shipping notification from their Nov 22nd order. 

[jblough99]

On 12/1/2023 at 5:05 AM, TimBuma said:

I’ve been in contact with LAB and was curious if they’ve done any testing with eye dominance and if certain putters help with forward or rear eye dominance. They mentioned they haven’t but they usually recommend the Link for a right handed player that is right eye dominant. Not sure if that helps anyone or not but thought I’d share.

 

11 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

I have a Link and I'm right handed, left eye dominant - maybe that's why I'm struggling! But I went for the tiny face line which helps on aiming...
 

 

I had a stock steel Link and went Accra in my custom Link and really prefer the feel. It's much better for lag distance and overall distance control - at least for me!

 

 

If your right handed and left eye dominant (which I am) the typical recommendation is use a putter with no shaft offset.  So the Link.1 or really any of the LAB putters would be ideal.  I’ve always struggled with alignment using plumbers necks or really any hosel setup with offset.  The Link.1 has been a revelation for me, not only from the technology it provides, but the ease of alignment for me due to my eye dominance.

[theorangeman]

I ordered a Link.1 over a week ago and it's still not fully processed.  They're moving sloooooow.  I had a remote fitting, so that's part of it but also they're really slow at responding.  This is no dig on Lab, just my experience thus far.  Therefore, I'm just trying to get myself to forget I ordered it and when it shows, it shows.  🙂 

 

As for eye dominance.  That's interesting, as I never heard of such a thing.  I just tested myself and I'm right eye dominant - which I understand is much more likely being that I'm right handed.  Does anyone do anything different though, knowing which eye is dominant?

Edited December 2, 2023 by theorangeman

[TimBuma]

5 hours ago, theorangeman said:

I ordered a Link.1 over a week ago and it's still not fully processed.  They're moving sloooooow.  I had a remote fitting, so that's part of it but also they're really slow at responding.  This is no dig on Lab, just my experience thus far.  Therefore, I'm just trying to get myself to forget I ordered it and when it shows, it shows.  🙂 

 

As for eye dominance.  That's interesting, as I never heard of such a thing.  I just tested myself and I'm right eye dominant - which I understand is much more likely being that I'm right handed.  Does anyone do anything different though, knowing which eye is dominant?

General rule of thumb is that right eye dominant right handed players usually like alignment on the back of the putter and left eye dominant right handed players usually like either no alignment or it on the front of the putter. 

[TimBuma]

18 hours ago, TimBuma said:

General rule of thumb is that right eye dominant right handed players usually like alignment on the back of the putter and left eye dominant right handed players usually like either no alignment or it on the front of the putter. 

Again it’s a very general statement but right eye dominant players usually like more offset while left eye players like the least amount of offset.

[nsxguy]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:56 AM, theorangeman said:

I ordered a Link.1 over a week ago and it's still not fully processed.  They're moving sloooooow.  I had a remote fitting, so that's part of it but also they're really slow at responding.  This is no dig on Lab, just my experience thus far.  Therefore, I'm just trying to get myself to forget I ordered it and when it shows, it shows.  🙂 

 

As for eye dominance.  That's interesting, as I never heard of such a thing.  I just tested myself and I'm right eye dominant - which I understand is much more likely being that I'm right handed.  Does anyone do anything different though, knowing which eye is dominant?

 

I've heard of eye dominance in the past but never paid much attention.

 

I've recently tried tilting my head a little left and a little right and then stroking the putt. Feels really weird and putts are not very good either. That said, it wasn't something I gave a great deal of time.

 

Here's an interesting thread here on WRX about putter SHAPE and its influence on stroke.

 

And another one on the "quiet eye" - now THIS one has made a great deal of difference in my putting recently.

 

[TimBuma]

31 minutes ago, nsxguy said:

 

I've heard of eye dominance in the past but never paid much attention.

 

I've recently tried tilting my head a little left and a little right and then stroking the putt. Feels really weird and putts are not very good either. That said, it wasn't something I gave a great deal of time.

 

Here's an interesting thread here on WRX about putter SHAPE and its influence on stroke.

 

And another one on the "quiet eye" - now THIS one has made a great deal of difference in my putting recently.

 

Love that thread and it’s honestly one of the most informative ones on golfwrx!

[Rearviewmirror]

I've been playing around with heads up putting in my practice this week (after hearing Sasho Mackenzie from The Stack talk about it) and the results have been insanely good with my Link. Taking it to the course tomorrow and will report back. I have a hunch that LAB putters are uniquely suited to heads up given the lack of torque and forgiveness on off center strikes.

[nsxguy]

28 minutes ago, Rearviewmirror said:

I've been playing around with heads up putting in my practice this week (after hearing Sasho Mackenzie from The Stack talk about it) and the results have been insanely good with my Link. Taking it to the course tomorrow and will report back. I have a hunch that LAB putters are uniquely suited to heads up given the lack of torque and forgiveness on off center strikes.

 

Yup. Large and forgiving heads.

 

I know this is a little off topic but,,,,,,,,

 

I watched a little bit of Sasho's video on YouTube. Only watched a few minutes so maybe I missed something further down the line in the video but essentially he's looking at the hole, or if a breaking putt, at a point near the hole while he hits the putt.

 

I was actually discussing this very thing a few weeks ago with a buddy and he pointed out that a QB is looking where he's thowing, not at the ball. BB pitcher the same. Shoot an arrow. Same thing.

 

So I gave it some thought and essentially came up with Mr Sasho's "2 targets"; near and far.

 

When one has physical control of an object, he looks at the "far", target, like a baseball pitcher. No need to look at something you're throwing.

 

But when the player has no control of the object, he looks at the "near" target - the object/ball. A batter sure ain't looking at the left-field seats while swinging - he'd get killed.

 

A golfer has both a near and a far target but he has no control other than striking the ball. So logically, he HAS to be looking at the ball, not where he wants it to go.

 

Anybody ever seen a golfer, from say 100 yards, looking at the pin while trying to hit the ball ? Neither have I.

 

Anybody on Tour look at the hole while putting anymore ? I know Sergio did it for a while and so did Jordan Spieth. Others I think I've seen do it here and there but does anybody on Tour do it anymore ?

 

To me, the logic is inescapable.

[Rearviewmirror]

7 minutes ago, nsxguy said:

I watched a little bit of Sasho's video on YouTube. Only watched a few minutes so maybe I missed something further down the line in the video but essentially he's looking at the hole, or if a breaking putt, at a point near the hole while he hits the putt.

 

His key point that you didn't mention is that memory of a target you can't see decays extremely fast - so basically for distance control (i.e. shooting a free throw, tossing a ball) you will have superior distance control. He talks about the factors influencing whether a putt goes in (speed you hit it, starting line, swing path, face angle) and basically says that only speed and face angle make meaningful differences on putts given to the relatively slow club speed and short distances.

 

7 minutes ago, nsxguy said:

When one has physical control of an object, he looks at the "far", target, like a baseball pitcher. No need to look at something you're throwing.

 

But when the player has no control of the object, he looks at the "near" target - the object/ball. A batter sure ain't looking at the left-field seats while swinging - he'd get killed.

 

A golfer has both a near and a far target but he has no control other than striking the ball. So logically, he HAS to be looking at the ball, not where he wants it to go.

 

Anybody ever seen a golfer, from say 100 yards, looking at the pin while trying to hit the ball ? Neither have I.

 

Anybody on Tour look at the hole while putting anymore ? I know Sergio did it for a while and so did Jordan Spieth. Others I think I've seen do it here and there but does anybody on Tour do it anymore ?

 

To me, the logic is inescapable.

 

This is close to what he says but not quite spot on (as I understand it). The example he gave in one of the things I heard/read him say was an ice hockey player hitting a slap shot - they're looking at the goal, not the puck when hitting it. The main component you are "missing" is that a golf ball is static on a flat surface for putting, and your club to ball path is pretty short compared to a full shot (with way slower clubhead speed). On a full iron or wood shot, quality of club to ball contact is arguably the most important factor in how close your ball gets to the hole so looking at strike location makes complete sense.

 

Sasho's argument is that it's impossible to hole any putt if you get the speed completely wrong (all short putts won't go in, way long putts might lip out) - so because speed control is the factor he believes to be the most important in holing putts, that's why he argues good distance control will overcome a worse strike. This does also seem to tie in to a lot of the mental golf stuff I've read on being fixated on target vs having physical swing thoughts. I feel like putting is even more mental than full swing, and so taking technical putting thoughts out of the equation also sounds face value sensible to me.

 

We'll see how my round tomorrow goes - I'm committed to heads up for all 18 holes. I was actually trying to find why Spieth stopped and couldn't find any news articles. As far as I know, nobody on tour is using it currently. But these guys are also draining 600 putts a day (at least Tiger is) and so I think for them their sense of speed control is otherworldly even when not looking at the target.

[nsxguy]

23 minutes ago, Rearviewmirror said:

 

His key point that you didn't mention is that memory of a target you can't see decays extremely fast - so basically for distance control (i.e. shooting a free throw, tossing a ball) you will have superior distance control. He talks about the factors influencing whether a putt goes in (speed you hit it, starting line, swing path, face angle) and basically says that only speed and face angle make meaningful differences on putts given to the relatively slow club speed and short distances.

 

 

This is close to what he says but not quite spot on (as I understand it). The example he gave in one of the things I heard/read him say was an ice hockey player hitting a slap shot - they're looking at the goal, not the puck when hitting it. The main component you are "missing" is that a golf ball is static on a flat surface for putting, and your club to ball path is pretty short compared to a full shot (with way slower clubhead speed). On a full iron or wood shot, quality of club to ball contact is arguably the most important factor in how close your ball gets to the hole so looking at strike location makes complete sense.

 

Sasho's argument is that it's impossible to hole any putt if you get the speed completely wrong (all short putts won't go in, way long putts might lip out) - so because speed control is the factor he believes to be the most important in holing putts, that's why he argues good distance control will overcome a worse strike. This does also seem to tie in to a lot of the mental golf stuff I've read on being fixated on target vs having physical swing thoughts. I feel like putting is even more mental than full swing, and so taking technical putting thoughts out of the equation also sounds face value sensible to me.

 

We'll see how my round tomorrow goes - I'm committed to heads up for all 18 holes. I was actually trying to find why Spieth stopped and couldn't find any news articles. As far as I know, nobody on tour is using it currently. But these guys are also draining 600 putts a day (at least Tiger is) and so I think for them their sense of speed control is otherworldly even when not looking at the target.

 

I didn't mention his "key" point because I didn't get to it. Once I got the drift of looking at a "far" target I "changed the channel".

 

As for the hockey "slap shot", I'd also thought of that one. Slap shot or not the player has control/"control" of the puck. Even without direct sight of the puck, he knows where it is so I would consider it under his control. That's why his head is up looking for where to put it.

 

And of course, we know a putt is speed and distance. Whether one "loses" the feel for distance, no matter how one actually gets it, concentrating on the ball rather than the distance to the hole and losing feel for same, is an interesting POV. Don't recall ever reading about that.

 

Then again I don't ever recall any great instruction/method of distance control.

 

Let us know how you make out. 👍

 

 

 

[TimBuma]

My Link.1 is being built right now, can’t wait to get some practice in with it this offseason.

[johnsomp]

I missed the coupon code last week. If anyone knows a code for more than 10% off, message me. Thanks

[JohnBrew]

6 hours ago, Rearviewmirror said:

I've been playing around with heads up putting in my practice this week (after hearing Sasho Mackenzie from The Stack talk about it) and the results have been insanely good with my Link. Taking it to the course tomorrow and will report back. I have a hunch that LAB putters are uniquely suited to heads up given the lack of torque and forgiveness on off center strikes.

I recently played a round with a husband/wife team from DC. The distaff side used the heads up style of putting and put all of us to shame!

[Rearviewmirror]

Reporting back on my first round heads up putting with the Link! Great putting day all around. Fourth lowest SG Putting since getting my LAB Link (-4.2 SG vs a tour pro) with 32 putts, but I feel like that only tells some of the story.

 

I jarred a monster putt from 20+ feet, holed another 15 footer from off the green, and carded 4x one putts. I had two 3 putts - one I under-read the break inside 4ft, and the second was a lapse in concentration on 17 as my round had gone a bit pear shaped. I think I am now a believer in heads up putting! Almost all of my leaves from lag putts were inside 4ft, and on the one occasion it wasn't I made the second from 7ft.

 

I will report that I felt a bit of unease at various points staring at the hole rather than the ball, but I've heard that goes away after a few rounds. I'll continue on for my next couple of rounds, but I think I may be a convert!

Edited December 4, 2023 by Rearviewmirror