Ping UG-LE

mr_divots · May 10, 2006

Anyone using this flatstick?

I watch all the tours when I get the chance. One player that has her game back on track is Karie Webb. I watched her win a few weeks back and put in another good showing recently. I noticed she is using the Ping UG-LE, and the commentators remarked how confidently she was putting of late.

Anyone have this putter or demo'd one? What did you think? Better than the Craz-e or about the same? Thanks!

dfung · May 10, 2006

I've got and Ug-Le 33". There was a discussion thread about this back in March (too lazy to find it). I got it about a week after it came out.

There are things good and bad about it. The good part is that I haven't stroked any putter that feels more directionally stable to me. The back weighting "arrowhead" shape really works. I normally use a Big Ben which is also massive and stable with a lot of weight in the back. I like the G5 insert as well.

There are bad things too. I didn't notice this in the store putting on carpet, but when I was out on real, sloping greens, I noticed that the neck joint to the body has a weld line that's not lined up with the face of the putter (the gusset slants off 10 degrees or so). Because the shaft joins right at the face, I found it very distracting when I set up. You don't really think about this on the flats, but it becomes hard to ignore when you've just missed a put by about 10 degrees! The other bad thing for me was that I found that the bottom of the back "wings" of the putter seemed to really catch when putting from the fringe. It's curved down there like any other putter, but the unusual shape of the head presents two edges back there that you can feel hanging up in the grass. I've never had that particular feeling with the Big Ben or Odyssey 2-ball Blade that I used before.

Maybe it was just bad luck on that first round that I took it out on, but the last thing I wanted to think about were these distractions, so I pretty much have gone back to the Big Ben.

The Ug-Le is much more stable in the stroke to me than the Big Ben. The only putter I've tried that rivals the Ug-Le are the MacGregor Bobby Grace putters, especially the bigger ones.

I find that the Craz-E is much more conventional feeling than the Ug-Le, even comparing to the Craz-E center shaft. You can steer it a lot more (whether intentional or not) while the Ug-Le really feels like it's gliding on rails.

I'm going to give the Ug-Le another try this summer.