WHY LONG PUTTERS ARE SO EFFECTIVE | Golf Putter Fitting Discussion

This golf putter fitting discussion focuses on why long putters are so effective. Long putters, such as counterbalanced putters or Broomstick putters, are becoming more popular.

0:00 Intro – Why Long Putters Could Be The Answer
5:19 Testing with Quintic + Discussion
16:08 Larry’s “Eyes Closed” Test
18:40 Conclusion and Next Steps

In this video, 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald is joined by master fitter Larry Bobka in the 2nd Swing Tour Van Putter Fitting bay. Drew recently ordered a long putter for himself, an Odyssey Ai-One Cruiser Jailbird putter, and wants to ensure the setup is right for him. Through the golf putter fitting and discussion, Drew and Larry discuss why long putters are so effective.

SUBSCRIBE to the 2nd Swing Golf YouTube channel for more in-depth golf equipment reviews and club fitting insights.

Schedule a Tour Van golf putter fitting today and dial in your putting: https://fitting.2ndswing.com/schedule-now/

FOLLOW 2ND SWING GOLF ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2ndSwingGolf

X: https://X.com/2ndSwingGolf

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2ndswinggolf/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@2ndswinggolf

hey golfers I’m Drew molder second Swing
Golf joined here today by Larry bobcut
in the second swing at minetonka putter
fitting Bay here in the tour van with
Quint tech technology um got a couple
things to go over today I’m really
excited about this because my new putter
is here uh it’s the Odyssey ai1 Cruiser
jailbird yeah because you’re going to
benefit from this video yeah I am and
that’s why I’m the most excited yeah I
don’t blame me um but also the sort of
the tread you know of of these longer
Putters I know we’re really excited
about it here at second swing but you’ve
been fitting golfers into these types of
you know there’s the cruiser lineup from
outy there’s um a bunch of other options
out there for manufacturers that are
kind of longer than the standard 35 in
right um so what are the benefits that
golfers are getting out of this in well
you know I think you kind of have to
look at the history of you know kind of
where did this putter come from you know
back in the day when we could anchor
into our belly you know those Putters
were about 41 42 in long you’d put them
you’d put it in your in your belly
button and and you’d putt with it well
you know I think then everybody kind of
went short because of the USGA ruling
and now it’s kind of like all right well
let’s find an alternative way to putt I
mean you know we did a podcast about
this I mean if you’re playing good golf
and you’re striking it really good and
you’re not putting well there’s
alternative ways to putt um to me this
gives you another opportunity to strike
the ball solidly and make some putts I
mean one of the things again from the
podcast we talked about what’s the
biggest problem with most people that
come in here it’s over acceleration it’s
a short back swing and it’s a long
follow through they control the distance
that are putts with their follow through
and then they never Strike it the same
way twice right the advantage of these
this is a bigger heavier putter this you
know it kind of wants to swing itself
yeah you know and that’s what you’ve
seen with on tour where these guys are
out there the best players in the world
they know they need to swing the putter
the best they can to make putts well you
know so the trend kind of started have
had a lot of interest a lot of people
coming in you know I just see we got our
we just got our shipment of of jail
birds in today so um you know that don’t
that’s going to Peak even a little bit
more interest this weekend um but it’s
it’s it’s it’s a good way to go it’s a
good way to try I mean what’s the sense
you know I mean what’s the definition of
insanity trying to do the same thing
over and over again with and expecting
different results well here’s something
that you know potentially is going to
give you different results yeah and for
me you know I have the the account for
Aros you know it’s got the statistics
and and tracking for kind of the four
major parts of the game there’s you know
off the tea approach short game putting
and for me putting’s the worse statistic
I lose shots putting compared to others
of my handicap so it’s cool that Aros
has that feature but also it tells me I
need to get better at putting um so I’m
going to try this and it’s kind of like
what you’re saying I I haven’t been a
plus putter for my handicap right really
ever so might as well try something well
and it’s also too you know think about
it you know is is the golfing public you
know hey everybody plays golf from
Juniors on the seniors and yeah but hey
if I’ve got a little bit of back issue I
got a longer putter now I can stand over
I can practice it more you know it it
has a lot of advantages okay does it
have some dis yeah maybe you know for
the for the player that you know still
wants to stroke it corly you know it’s
not a good putter if you want to try to
have a short back swing it because it
really does kind of make you it creates
a swing for you so and most of these
Putters are not built for a strong Arc
really either there’s a few maybe out
there but traditionally most of them are
pretty face balanced face balanced
because you do you want to stand up to
it a little bit more you want to get a
little bit closer you want the putter to
do the work you know usually the someone
that’s going to an alternative style of
putting has too much face rotation in
their in their stroke yeah so they’re
trying to limit the face rotation so
thus hey we’ve got a bigger heavier grip
we’ve got a face balance putter um it
you know it’s kind of all the things
that should you know theoretically go
boy I’m gonna hit solid putts yeah yeah
so this is going to be fun then as we
mentioned I’m going to get fit for my
putter so I ordered this this is the ai1
cruiser jailbird y I ordered that 39 in
I got kind of the stock Odyssey right
grip here um so right otherwise then
Loft length L angle and really any other
recommendations you might have well and
I think lengthwise I think you made the
right choice why not order it longer
yeah okay because you’re gonna go down
on the grip to find out where you’re
comfortable so if there’s two or three
inches putter above your hands that’s
fine yeah you know kind of counter
counterbalances whole point of design
it’s a whole yeah it’s the whole point
of the design it doesn’t make any sense
to order it at 37 or 38 and then be at
the end of the grip I mean it’s kind of
pointless so well why don’t we hit a
couple putts let’s see what you have and
you know we I’ve seen your stroke before
it’s it’s okay okay well I I I think I
appreciate
that you know no it’s a Friday snowy
morning Drew you don’t get much more
than that for me hey we were the fact
that we’re here it’s already great I
know all right so let’s just see what
you do with it okay all right go
ahead all right so there’s a pretty good
roll there’s a pretty good stroke and
okay Drew we’re not going to do a darn
thing to your P because as you know in
is in the past you know quintex kind of
like a stop light yeah red means stop we
need to fix everything the yellow is
kind of like keep an eye on it green is
go so now we’ve got a pup where you’ve
launched it absolutely perfectly at 1.16
it has tons of overspin at 74 it’s got
eight
RPMs of draw spin which is 10 or less is
considered perfect so you pretty much
hit a perfect pot that’s I mean I don’t
know maybe I what’s the point of the
video then right well yeah what’s the
point of the video we’re going to do
let’s let’s hit a couple let’s hit a
couple more one put yeah let’s hit a
couple more let’s grab that golf ball
and let’s see what happens but here’s
here’s the thing though here’s the
initial and this is kind of what we see
is all of a sudden somebody who’s who
has struggled with a short putter now
all of a sudden steps up to this goes
okay I’ve got a bigger Longer heavier
putter I’m just going to swing it I’m
going to allow it that all of a sudden
it gets better yeah you know the whole
idea of making putts is trying to make a
better putting stroke at it it’s about
the process you know you’re talking
you’re talking about we’re trying to do
you’re trying to do a perfect thing on
an imperfect surface yeah okay you’ve
got grass you’ve got you know you got
ball marks you got Spike marks if soft
greens you got groups in front of you I
mean the only way you’re going to make
putts is by hitting it with those kind
of numbers at the right speed yep okay
and and then you just have to accept the
results yeah but the more and more you
do that the more and more the ball’s
going to go in the
hole I like that it’s minus three on the
RPM for uh minus three on the
RPM okay so that’s slight that’s very
slight hook spin okay so a really good
friend of mine is Derek uo who teaches
Xander shafley Max hom putting okay so I
get those I get those guys numbers all
the time that’s every bit as good as hom
and shley but see but you can do people
don’t realize I mean it’s the thing that
you can do in golf as well as a tour
player there’s no reason that you can’t
putt doesn’t take any physical strength
we have all the we have all the
information we have all the tools
available to help you putt better so the
one thing you can do as an average
player is putt just as well as a tour
player okay you got to put the time in
you got to get fit okay which still to
this day you know I’m four and a half
years at at second swing and it’s still
amazes me how many people come in and
still haven’t been Fit For A putter
they’ll do the driers the iron they’ll
do the driver all day long and they have
no idea how their golf balls rolling and
this is 40% of the game okay so here’s
what I’m going to do we didn’t check the
Loft and lie I want to check the Loft
and lie for you just to see what see it
is see what it
is okay so it’s four it’s 4 and
70 okay which is stock yeah okay let’s
hit it again I mean how does this feel
here here’s the thing how does this feel
compared to the short putter cuz we
we’ve worked before with short Putters
and you’ve always felt like the putters
always kind of wandered on you yeah yeah
so I mean and i’ I’ve used the most
forgiving putter head the Ping hardwood
you know that thing is massive right um
and looks like a battleship looks like a
battleship to me it’s just it’s so much
easier there’s the it’s stable that’s
really the the best way to put it um
it’s actually interesting that you noted
the L is four because I’ve been I’m used
to three degrees Y and I think I even at
one point played before that a two and a
half right um and so going up and loft
is interesting cuz I’m looking at where
this ball is at a the launch and B the
start of the forward rotation is
happening right away yeah immediately
that’s that’s cool to see well the other
thing too is think about this okay you
know it’s kind of like I’ve got a
heavier putter at now the Putter’s kind
of guiding you got to remember you know
everybody thinks that when a PGA T
player hits the ball their putter is
accelerating it’s actually not when it
makes contact with the golf ball their
putterhead slows down okay they’re
trying to create constant back constant
through which causes for a more constant
strike okay and we know the better you
strike it Time After Time the more putts
you’re going to make okay there’s no
Accel that you can’t really accelerate
that putt correct yeah tougher to do
that yeah the other thing too is because
of the weight it keeps your hands moving
better what what’s one of the problems
that people run into in short Putters
they stop and they flip yeah okay it’s
hard to flip that I mean if you flip
that you’re going to hit the back of the
you’re going to hit the back of the that
putter on the green right right you’re
going do one of these so yeah so it’s
going to keep your hand I mean so
there’s so many advantages
to for it okay does it work for
everybody no okay you know I I got I got
one of my own prototypes in my hand you
know I puted with I puted fine with it
will I take out P absolutely not because
you know I’ve putted with a blade putter
for so many years at 35 in that it just
it it it for me to look at something
it’s just uncomfortable for me to look
at yeah okay and I’ve been looking at a
crazy looking Mallet for a while so this
you’ve been looking in a Crazy M this
isn’t anything different from but I’ve
putted you know the reason I played well
I’ve played good golf my entire life is
because I can make a bunch of pots yeah
oh I know you’re the you’re the you’re
the you’re the opposite okay you know
and there’s a lot of people that are the
opposite so why not again why not
looking an alternative so let’s try this
again yeah the goal here is to be at the
level of putting that Larry bkin so well
here’s what I’d like you to do on this
one I don’t even want this one to get to
the hole you can leave it short because
I want to see what I want to see what
happens when you slow the putter down
okay so even like halfway there almost
yeah even just like halfway there
there you
go okay that’s important because I want
to make sure that you don’t throw the
putterhead and you absolutely did in
fact you even created more
overspin okay okay so you did you did a
great job maintaining that and
that’s I mean what do people most people
don’t come in here and say oh you know
my lag putting is terrible blah blah
blah I can’t make a three-footer can’t
make a four-footer okay well you just
put a fabulous roll on basically a 4f
foot putt yeah okay now if you do that
all summer you know we need to reconvene
in a couple months and find out how your
puttings going because I’m going to tell
you you’re going to make more putting
okay so what does this do now it
instills confidence now Drew is going to
walk out of here going man I’ve hit I
I’ve never rolled the ball any better on
quinch than I have right now okay and
we’ve done virtually nothing to the
putter most people you know it’s a
little bit of a lie adjustment it’s a
little bit of a loft adjustment but for
you this could
be this could be your savior you know
this could be this could be the thing
that all of a sudden where you know I
always look at a a confidence scale from
1 to 10 yeah okay if Drew’s always been
at two let’s get through to six or seven
yeah how much better are you going to
putt how much how much more excited are
you going to be after you hit a nice
drive and a nice iron shot in there and
you got a 10 12 footer man you’re
excited to go roll it or it’s even the
the five six footer saving power always
you can’t do though is you just have to
maintain the process you have to go
there and just feel like you’re strok it
because you cannot try to force the golf
ball in the
hole okay because then you’re going to
just revert back to where you were what
you need to do is just concentrate we’ve
talked about this in the past three most
important things are speed speed and
speed okay everything revolves around
your ability to hit the putt the right
speed but
now with some practice with this new
Putter and the way you’re striking it
your speed control should go from here
to here interesting yeah that’s good
yeah you know that’s the whole that’s
the whole reason to get your quintech
numbers good get your quintech numbers
consistent because then your speed gets
consistent you know and really you know
this is you know this is from this is
from a dinner one night at Brad faxon’s
house after a few bottles of wine sure
you know we broke it down what do you
got to do to putt we I got to line my
putter up on the intended line I got to
get my body into a comfortable position
and I have to roll the ball the right
speed yeah okay that’s what you guys are
coming up with after yeah so if I can
line that so if I can line that up and
you can get more comfortable because
it’s longer and now you can roll at the
right speed because you can it it’s a
home run yeah you know and that’s why
why wouldn’t you try this so in the cool
thing about this is granted this is like
not even really A fitting it’s more of a
conversation conversation slash confirm
that it’s it’s it’s right for me and now
I know I I I was already gaining
confidence just holding this thing and
and yeah setting up but now that I see
the green numbers on quintech I know I’m
going to go out on the course and so I’m
feeling pretty confident say that so I’m
going to give you I’m going to give you
one of my fun tests okay that I make
everybody do that comes through here
yep you set up and you tell me you tell
me when you’re ready to hit
it are we going to the hole yeah we’re
going to go to the hole it doesn’t get
there that’s fine you ready to go I am
close your eyes and hit it oo okay well
Michael Jordan at the free throw line
yeah close your eyes and hit
it center
cut that putter works that was good that
good that putter works well because now
now you take the visual out yeah now you
take the I want to watch the ball go in
the hole and now it’s just your brain
and your hands working well right now
your brain and your hands are working
pretty good with that thing yeah that’s
good I like that yeah no maybe I’ll P my
eyes Clos all the time
well it just proves it just proves how
much your head needs to stay still yeah
that’s you know I had a guy in here
yesterday that you know the death of
putting is this the head going backwards
because then the putter comes up okay
and again I can’t do that if I did that
with that putter you’d hit the back of
the putter on the on the Green so again
kind of forces you forces you into a
stroke I mean it’s just like somebody
who goes long I mean you’re forced
you’re you’re forced into a stroke right
yeah so maybe this is a stroke that
we’ve been looking for your entire life
yeah you know seriously young your young
life not old life well now I’m so it it
stinks at it’s it snowed overnight
because I kind of want to go play golf
now but but what you need to do is you
need to keep working it you you got to C
now you got to get the feel you got to
get the feel for distance it’s going to
feel different the ball’s rolling so
much better the roll Ball’s rolling with
so much overspin for you now that your
speed is going to be easier it’s going
to take less effort to get the ball the
so it does take time you know it’s like
hey we’ve got magical numbers here right
and we’re beautiful and the confidence
level’s high but now you got to get out
now you got to get outside and you got
to get comfortable with speed from 3 ft
20
33t you know and figure out how this is
going to work but this is you know this
is everything you want in the putter fit
you know this so question for you sure
uh how often or at what point would
somebody come back in like I know with
golf swings they change a lot right is
somebody going to come in and like their
putting stroke changes or does that not
really happen as much what I like to do
especially so if you if you were a
customer and you went for from a short
Putter and we found this magic right
here with this long this I mean what I
would I would like you to come back in
about four to six weeks okay in
confirmed numbers just come back in hit
a few hit a few putts for me see what’s
going on and if you and thus if you know
if we get a chance to play in those four
to six weeks tell me about how it is on
the tell them you know are are we
reading are we are we we feeling like
we’re hitting our lines on the breaking
putts are we struggling with anything on
long or short putts you know that’s the
conver that’s the follow-up conversation
especially when you’re changing your
style okay so when I change a style for
some you know um you know our guy that
we’ve done some stuff with more um Mitch
out of Waconia okay great player really
good player you know Hazel team club
champion Island View Club Champion well
he’s gone he’s gone to the he’s gone to
lab oh yeah okay he’s gone to that well
the broomstick he’s gone to the
broomstick came in we had good numbers
in here went down took it down to
Florida and he prob goes I just putted
terrible with it okay well again you
know I’ve had some text conversations
going to get him back in and say okay so
what’s going so you
know it’s kind of like cone of the
doctor requires it’s an ongoing
conversation
this First Step obviously but you know
now it’s the next part is confirming it
on the golf course which is how it is
with any no absolutely but no I think I
I think this is a home run I think it’s
I think it’s a I think it’s a great
opportunity I you know hey I always look
at things this way for so many things
that so many things that I’ve done for
so many years on tour if it works on the
PGA tour it works yeah okay you usually
don’t you you don’t usually see things
that work that a PGA Tour player two or
three or five or 10 haven’t haven’t
tried and haven’t had success with yeah
so so the concept Works yep that’s the N
to me that’s the that’s the validation
of the concept is that it’s being used
at the PGA Tour level and being used at
the PGA Tour level with success yeah I
think that’s I mean that’s what drew me
to this in the first
that’s that’s that’s to me that’s always
been validation for a golf club well
sweet um all right I got my putter
perfect I love that awesome you didn’t
really do a whole lot of fitting per se
but I appreciate the Insight on the
Putter and um and some I mean honestly
sometimes the fittings it’s that simple
you know where somebody grabs a putter
that you know hey their putter is so
different than what they’ve what they’ve
had in the past and you grab something
and they hit it and they look at you and
I’m like you we’re done all right you
know well I thank you for coming in now
now it’s now it’s time now it’s time to
take it out to the real world which we
said and get comfortable with it sweet
well I got my putter sweet and if you’re
interested in uh getting your own you
know longer length putter something like
this maybe even the broomstick that we
talked about come in right here to a
second swing tour van get fit with
someone like Larry we’ll get you dialed
in you’ll see your Quint Tech numbers
and they’ll have some more confidence on
the greens so lar thank you again you’re
welcome
[Music]
he