How to Choose a Putter

We take you through the different kind of putters, hosels, grips and shaft to help make an informed decision about your next putter

All right with so many Putters out there to choose from I figure I’ll help you out let’s go over how to choose a good putter for You welcome back to MC Golf Shop Jim mcclear here and this is the MC Golf Channel where we talk about Golf Club repairs Golf Club reviews golf club fittings also your scores can go low if you would like subscribe and that way more of this information gets out to the

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Green got my green chair got everything out here and St Patrick’s day’s putter putter preference how about that let’s just keep going the piece we need to understand about why what Putters work all right they’re in in the put in the golf industry one of the easiest ways to get into the golf

Industry is by the use of a putter or designing of a putter or making a putter because it’s inexpensive to make to an extent in comparison to all the other things that go into irons and drivers and what they have to do to compete on the open market it’s a very small thing

That you can can do in order to gain notoriety very fast okay and normally what happens is once you’ve done very well with Putters then you expand maybe wedges and irons and you just keep building and building and building and building until eventually you’re a full-on OEM of golf equipment all right

So because of that there are several Putters to choose from several manufactures to choose from but we’re going to find out there really aren’t a lot of Putters to choose from and we’re talk about that so what we’re going to do is we’re going to talk about

This in several steps like what is a putter what are the putter necks shafts grips a whole n yards and what can work with you so stay tuned it’ll be it will take it’s going to go for a while not a long while but it’ll be there for a bit

All right so number one is what is the type of putter let’s break it down into two categories one would be a mallet putter okay a mallet putter a mallet putter would be exactly what one would think it is a big hunk of material at the

Bottom of a club and it comes in various shapes and sizes quite possibly the most popular right now and thanks to thanks to my my Odyssey Wilson and mauno folks for we’re going to get this thing through but right here is probably one of the most popular Styles in mallets and the

Reason being uh is because it’s Moi and we’ll get into that here in a second the other style is a blade and the blade started out as what they call the BB 8802 so if you ever been to putt putt or any of those places where they have mountains where they go golfing

On that particular kind of putter is very similar to the shape of a 8802 is just this really kind of funky toe look with a rounded nose and there are several versions of that in the day in fact Wilson still makes a copy of the 8802 for those people that like it it’s

A it still has its purpose it just with everything that’s going on in the world as far as Putters go it uh it can be left behind very rapidly all right the other one being a blade all right the blade and as you can tell it is much

Much smaller than than the Mallet it has a particular kind of shape here and a look here now the blade has is almost synonymous with an aner Style aner Style came from ping all right uh if I say the name right Carston was the was the originator of ping and he made the

Answer he first his first putter which the the company’s name ping came from was the sound that the putter actually made it was like Ping and it was a very distinctive sound and it’s basically two rails of metal with they were joined at each end where the the hosle was adapted

Into the heel and made this really obnoxious sound he designed the answer the answer became a a staple an absolute staple throughout the putter industry everybody has one that looks like this right odyssey’s got one Wilson’s got one mizuno’s got one Bard’s got one paretti’s got one they all have one and

They have their own little takes on it so they can’t be saying that they’re copying but look all right if you got a lot of weight out here a lot of weight out here the toe goes down like this in the face like that it’s an Ander style

Putter nobody’s going to debate that part it’s their idea of how they’re improving on it okay how they improve on it so we have the two basic Styles now there are all kinds of versions of that right I showed you two versions of the Mallet with here’s a third this one’s

New on the scene this one could be considered a mallet all right and we have the two blades and here’s a and another blade that is just double wide and that’s what it’s called it’s double wide of a normal aner style bladed putter so as you can see the if

You if you narrow it down into these two categories that that that and it becomes uh almost Cosmetic in its appeal now that’s the style now the next thing we got to talk about is how it goes into the head because in the day it used to

Be mallets were only face balance which means that the that the putter would only look like that when you held it up like this one does right here and then the other one would be a tow hang which would be like this one does when you hold it okay

So in the day there was really only two you had one that if you had a very arcing style putt that you would like a blade because it fit that stroke more and it was straight back straight forward was more Mallet okay well those days have gone right those days are gone

So here’s the reason being if we go back to My Double Wide and we’ll just start with the blade so this has a double Bend shaft that’s over the hosle double Bend meaning it bends here and then it bends here and if you look oh look at that it’s more of a face

Balance kind of bladed putter so if you really if you’re more of a person that dealt with angles say carpentry or some or mechanical and you like something with an angle but yet you were straight back and straight forth you may find that this might be better for you okay

Now let’s say you can’t line up a putt to save your life and all right let’s say that you can’t line up a putt to save your life and you like uh lines on a putter you like a lot of lines so if you had something let’s just say that looked like

This and it had a lot of lines on it right so easy to line up and that’s always been the thing is that people could make more putts if they could align the putter okay so there it is but now you got this AR you have an arcing stroke

Well then that putter is going to fight you all day long right now we introduce What’s called the S neck or the z neck and what it is it’s this little bit right here you see that right there that comes off of a mallet now this one’s the

Mauno and of course it’s the popular design and it has the S neck and what it does is if you look there’s tow dangle right so now you have a mallet that arcs right that arcs and now you have alignment kind of The Best of Both Worlds

Right so you have all of that all right so now these are all clubs that are primarily focused that go into the heel of the golf club right right so you can have this one you can have this one and you can even have this one they

All go into the back of the into the heel of the golf club which is where it’s really got to go there are some rules rules of golf talk to how big the golf club could be uh front to back side to side tall where it goes in how short

It can be how tall it can be all that kind of stuff so when designers got to go they got to get really really familiar with these golf clubs or with the rules of golf so they can make a conforming golf club now the one Mallet

That there’s kind of a a smaller Mallet which you’ll see looks like this one or even like this one these two they’re the mini mallets we’ll call them mallets these are what the original mallets were came from you see their shape where they’re rounded on on the bottom and typically these are

The ones with a double Bend and they both do the face balancing okay so now we know where to go so back into the there was one place that you could put a golf shaft that you would think well if you’re straight back straight forward this thing ought to be

Really really good hence Center Shaft Center shaft all right center shaft the these guys uh came in to play these guys came play a little bit later in the in the history of golf in order to make this in make this thing work and really it came from a croquet

Stroke right it was in the middle of the club and croquet Strokes because they’re between your legs and your your straddling line totally illegal you’re not allowed to do that however you’re allowed to be from the side which came side saddle and then those guys that

Really just wanted to use their arms and it would come like like this and you know Center shafted tended to work however it was very delicate this way you could miss a putt if you’re on a muscle twitch now yeah you could on another one but it was it was more

Intensified with the center shafts so now we have heel mounted we have steel or Center shafted we have mallets we have blades we have different kind of neck configurations and the last thing we need to talk about are grips All Right Grips there are a ton of grips and I like different grip

Manufacturers they you know even with the with the with the established ones right we got all kinds in here let’s get these two all right there’s all kinds right there are all kinds in here you know the biggest companies Golf Pride they’re more about the standard or what

We call the traditional where it has a flat across the top in more of a triangular shape so it sits into your fingers and and uh right now probably one of the more popular ones you’re going to see in that is made by lampin the etched model you see a bunch of the

Lines that are coming down through there not only in here but in Muno is real popular with them I think what it is in a lot of cases it’s a familiar shape and you can also do a lot of Graphics because the the face is very very wide

All right so somebody uh a an upstart company comes on to the scene super super stroke and dares to challenge the way that golf grips are supposed to be made for Putters and so super stroke hits the ground with a rounded one big wide ones right just huge and all of a

Sudden this became popular why because it sort it was to quiet the wrist down that whole flippy thing that was going on totally removed that that’s what they were saying and in some cases it did right now super stroke is an established company that makes really neat golf

Grips or putter grips and they also make full swing grips uh this is just one example there are several of them out there here’s another one right with the if you look at the profile of it all right now that’s out there and here’s wind they’re known for their soft golf

Grips and they’re also making a large grip they also make standard ones they also make uh midsize and that kind of stuff right now from my from what I’ve seen mid sized pistol grips are pretty much the more popular as far as what you see on stock golf clubs but don’t let

That stop you from experimenting these don’t cost a ton and they can get out there now the next one you don’t see hear a lot about but I do like them is jumo Max all right jumbo Max makes long putter grips I.E Bryson D Shambo type

Stuff but they also make one to compete with the super stroke has a bit of a different Tack and the way you go with that one the next one which I just think is just the really coolest story is the garon grip of course green St Patrick’s

Day green green and he has several different shapes with the idea that it makes to bring your hands in or your elbows in so that you make a more aligned stroke all right the ultimate here is a golf grip that was designed for all the different grip Styles so you

Now you’re seeing the the gator or the pencil or whatever you want to do so this one will hold like this it’ll hold like that it’ll hold like that you know it’ll hold like that and there’s just all different kinds this one would fit a lot of those typical golf grips so what

Am I saying so once you get the the putter that matches the way that you swing the putter right then you get the the shape that you like then you have the grip that you like you’re almost there you absolutely almost there and those are the things that you can trade that you

Can try out right those are when you go get fit the fitter will know these different things for you so you don’t have to guess so I always suggest getting fit I always do it’s one of those things now let’s say you’re in a rural area and there are no Fitters so

This is what should help you out now that you know how a putter is going to work for you you go oh that’s the reason why I kept pushing these shots okay this is the reason why uh I kept pulling a shot this is the reason why I always felt uncomfortable over a

Putter this is one of those reasons okay now the last bit here is is Loft and lie length Loft and lie as a matter of fact length now is very very important in a putter he’s like oh I just choked down well you could but you want to be very

Very consistent I don’t recommend doing that so when you do this you know there there’s going to be a point in time where they’re going to say oh you want your eyes right over the ball well that’s half the truth all right half of the truth so if you had the golfball you

Got a golf ball and if you’re looking at it right here and you’re right down there and everything is in a line that’s not a bad spot what I what I’m seeing nowadays is that when you go to look down upon this upon the the golf ball

And you need somebody to eye it for you because unless you’re looking into a mirror you’re not going to see it properly you’re going to think oh yeah I’m right there I can see it because your eyes have a very wide field of vision you want to have your eyes over

The ball or somewhere inside the line not over over is what I like to say is taboo except for certain occasions where people have eye stigmatism wear glasses and it’s not an everyday case it’s a very few folks that can get over the line and see it why is that important is

So that you can actually see the line of the putt okay okay some the way that you line up whether you’re very tall at a dress whether you’re very bent over at a dress or you’re cockeyed or whatever and order to be able to see the line of the

Putt so over the ball or just slightly to the inside I don’t mean two foot and I was getting fit for my putter found out I was about this far inside the Putt and I was like whoa that’s not right and immediately my putter got better and

Where your eye alignment will help you determine your length all right once you get that length down there is now where you help hold you hold your hands how you hold your hands whether you’re very up or where very down there’s a whole and it could be whether you do an arm

Lock whether you’re doing a broomstick right all these things have a different play on how you address the ball you know it be very upright with a broomstick it’ll be a little bit less upright with an arm lock and then more traditionally you’ll be bent over unless

You have some sort of medical issue okay fine now what that does is that will that will change how this gets to here now the idea here is that you want this to be sold mean flat on the ground and then this will come up and how you

Hold the club so if you press the club down that would come up which means that you would need a flatter lie or if you hold it like this and you go up now that would mean you need a more upright lie in order to get the club back down to

This Center area all right so there’s the second one so now the next part of it is so now they have the right length to the right Li angle that’s awesome now it’s Loft most greens are done nowadays are very manicured as opposed to the era of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicholas where

They are considered hay they’re very they can be very fast they can you know and and fast and slow is relevant to the golfer but in the modern time they’ve gotten faster all right when they’ve gotten faster you don’t need as much loft meaning because there’s not as much

Grass actually in order for it to get on top of right and so you need a little bit less Loft it used to be four to 5 degrees sometimes 10 and the max is 10 but about 5 to 6 degrees in the day now

It’s 3 to 4 and the idea is to get that ball rolling as on online as quickly as possible now you’re going to hear stuff about overspin and and getting the ball rolling forward roll that whole nine yards there is something to the forward roll I don’t know if anybody body’s ever

Really got immediate forward roll on every single putt uh there’s always there’s been studies that would say it’s the first 10% is is a given that it doesn’t and that’s the skid that you got to fight and then the rest of the put is

Out there so if you had a 20ft putt two foot of that putt is going to be launching and skidding and then it’s going to take off and go rolling can you create immediate overspin yes but I would think it’s more of an accident than anything else okay now so now we’ve

Got the style we’ve got the necks we got the grips we’ve got how they putt we know the Loft length and lie and the last bit of this okay and then now we get to the last bit of this the the last couple here now are uh how you release

The golf club now how you release the golf club and is is related to two things the shaft and the weight of the club all right in a lot of these cases in almost every one of these cases that these Putters all now have weights on

The bottom of the on the bottom of the putter we can thank Scotty Cameron for that one and and they put different weights in there so it can help you keep the putter open can help you close it just make it so it’s heavier so that you

Can sense it or even make it lighter so it feels better to you so you might want to consider some of those now tons and tons of testing have been done and all these Putters have been optimized from under the bell curve number of golfers so that these weights hit the most

Amount of golfers possible so if you’re somebody likes a super heavy putter you might have to invest into more weights if you like a super light putter you might have to invest into you guess it more weights just less right so there’s going to be that one now the last bit

Here we got to talk about is the putter shaft in the day used to be that the the professionals would get the stiffest particular shaft that they could get in Iron they would put it in a putter why we didn’t continue that I don’t know but hence what happens is putter shafts were

Made and putter shafts were supposedly made after that particular item they were shafts that were very very stiff that we could Bend I’ve bent plenty in my time and or they would be over the hosle they would go into a hosle they had several different kinds they had

Flares even had some that had little indentations that ran up and down called fluting all right and and that was the standard for years and years and years and years and years well here in the last couple of years putter shafts have made a jump into making a putter better

Okay uh my Discovery was with btts and breakthrough golf technology and a very low torque putter shaft and it works right it works and if you do a comparison between a standard putter shaft and one that doesn’t uh and I did it I I had make field Putters

Identically made one was with a standard putter shaft one with a bgt and if you putt without it and you’ve never puted with another one you would never know it but you putting oh that feels great until you put the other one in then it feels like the first one’s flopping like

A fish just is now that’s created a whole another Market of golf shaft low torque putter shafts and there’s tons available out there uh stroke lab for Odyssey they’ve changed from their graphite steel mixture to now a steel mix you have KBS that has one you have

Even Golf Works has their own inh house model uh you have uh Acra Acra has several different models in fact it’s the one that I use it’s in this one for my lab golf putter all right so they’re they’re all out there they’re at different price points to be sure and

I’m here to tell you it does make a difference okay unless you’re not standing putter already but it does make a difference okay so hopefully we got all this together so now we got grips we got shafts we got necks we got heads where they go into the head the types of

Putters they are the types of Strokes that we want to marry up to it how you would find out that you want to go through it now the next part is once you get this you got to practice this does not make you an expert by any shape of

The imagination just by getting a a good putter it gives you better chances to be a better putter but unless you you practice you can never expect to get better okay and the be one of the best drills is what I call the ladder drill

You can do it in your hallway you can do it in your living room you can do it on a kitchen floor for that matter set you up a soup can or a cup or if you got a favorite cup and go about 6 in increments all the way back out to about

Say six or seven feet and just try and hit that soup can or try and and fill up that cup and don’t hit the ball behind you it will it will give you feel for for the long putts and the short putts without having to go way out and way

Down in order to make sure that your putt is way more consistent in order to get into it yeah there’s plenty of instructors out there I’m not that guy but this is a drill that I use in my fittings to ensure people get the idea

Of the fit okay so the last thing we got to do is Happy St Patrick’s Day glad that you’re all on board today everybody can be Irish with me today we’ve got this right here I’ve got my I got my golf ball glass with my bit of a Jameson

So salute to everybody in St Patrick’s Day go find your good putter enjoy Golf and let’s see your scores go low