I am excited to tell you about what happened last summer. Why am I excited, I hear you ask. Well, I am going to tell you.
I completed a round of golf that involved 25 putts. TWENTY-FIVE! With a brand new putter that I was fitted for. Before I get to that, let me give you a little context.
Why Did I Need a Putter Fitting?
For years I used a Ping Anser because just about anybody who was anybody in the world of golf used it. I got on okay with it and I loved the sound it made when you hit the perfect putt out of the middle of the face. The problem was that I didn’t get to hear that sound often enough.
I went for a club fitting and the fitter asked me if I had ever considered a custom-fitted putter. I hadn’t. And for a while I did nothing.
I am a huge fan of custom fitting. I cannot understand why anybody would spend around £500 on a driver off the shelf or why they would buy a new set of irons or fairway woods without having them built to suit their game.
You will use a driver perhaps 14 times in a round of golf. But which club do you use more than any other? The putter, obviously. So I reached the conclusion that going for a putter fitting was an absolute no-brainer.
I decided to bite the bullet and the results were surprising, to say the least.
I was told that my stroke was perfect for a bladed club, something I had never used in my entire life. And so it was that I ended up with a Wilson Staff 883 BLK in my bag – exactly the same design as the club a certain Nick Faldo used when at the peak of his powers. It has remained with me for around 15 years and it has served me pretty well.
Struggles on The Greens Became Too Much
But I recently became aware of an increasing tendency to miss putts from 6-10 feet to the left. Time and time again. It reached the point where it was driving me to distraction. I have always prided myself in my ability to read putts so I reached the conclusion that my right hand was becoming too dominant. I tried everything but nothing worked. You don’t need me to tell you that when you keep missing decent birdie opportunities and fail to get up and down for pars and even bogeys it quickly affects your overall confidence.
And that is how I came to beg Ryan Rastall, Golfshake’s resident professional, for help at his base at Howley Hall Golf Club. He performed miracles for me in 2024 with a custom-fitted TaylorMade Qi10 driver that has now become my go-to club. So it made perfect sense to see if he could restore my sanity on the greens.
How I Found The Right Putter For My Game
We started off in his studio where he had a good look at my putting stroke and delivered the positive news that it actually wasn’t too bad.
We then headed outside to the practice putting green where Ryan asked me to attempt a series of putts from 10 feet – my nemesis distance. I hit a couple as he looked on and of course they missed on the left initially. I had read the putt with a right to left break of around three inches – and I was convinced that I was aiming three inches to the right of the hole. Wrong! It turned out that my putter was actually aiming left and that I was compensating for that by doing all sorts of unspeakable things with my hands.
I was using Wilson Duo Soft balls with an alignment line that runs around the entire perimeter of the ball but I informed Ryan that I had never used an alignment line on any golf ball. “That alarms he a little,” he said. “It is the perfect way to line up the ball on the path you want to strike your putt so why wouldn’t you use it.” It is a fair point!
And that is when I once again became aware that perhaps my reading of putts was not quite as good as I had believed. I will now be using those lines as a matter of course.
I had always steered clear of trying a putter with a fat grip because I believed that you lose an element of feel but Ryan was convinced it would help me. The theory with these grips is that it takes your hands out of the stroke – and that makes perfect sense.
We worked our way through the Wilson Infinite range. I started with the West Loop, which immediately felt more stable in my hands. Unlike my 883 BLK, it had three alignment lines. It felt better but it still didn’t feel like the club that was going to solve my problems.
I also tried the Wilson Staff TM22, a twin-tail mallet boasting a high Moment of Inertia (MOI) design that aims to bring together forgiveness and stability. It also comes with adjustable weights. It is a beautiful club but, again, it just wasn’t for me.
But the moment I picked up the Buckingham I knew that I was onto something as the putts began to drop.
Ryan noticed that when I addressed the ball, the toe was slightly raised so off he went to his workshop to adjust the lie.
We also realised that my eyeline was not directly over the ball – even I know that this is something that is not going to help you hole putts. The Buckingham is 34 inches long – Ryan got me to choke down on the grip by about two inches and, hey presto, my eyes were now in Position A. And guess what? I started holing putts for fun.
The proof of the pudding is out on the golf course though and I am here to tell you that my first outing with my new Buckingham putter was off the charts. And I cannot wait to get out there and use it again.
The best news of all is that this putter retails for just £149.
For more information on how a putter fitting could help you, please visit https://ryanrastallgolf.co.uk and check out https://www.wilson.com/en-gb/golf to discover their exceptional range of putters.
Derek Clements is a seasoned sports journalist and regular Golfshake contributor, specialising in tour coverage, opinion pieces, and feature writing. With a long career in national newspapers and golf media, he has reported on the game across Europe, the United States and Australia. A passionate golfer, he has played and reviewed numerous renowned courses, with personal favourites including Pebble Beach, Kingsbarns, Aldeburgh, Old Thorns and the K Club. His love of the game informs his thoughtful commentary on both professional golf and the wider golfing community.