Business and equipment analyst Rick Young explores the putter fitting process with Callaway at Ontario Golf Academy at Whistle Bear Golf Club, showing how the right flatstick can transform your performance on the greens.
One of the things that people don’t think very much about when it comes to fitting is fitting for your putter. A big percentage of what we do in golf with our scorecard is involved on the greens. It’s easy to go out and get fits for a driver. Everybody understands that. But driver you only might hit 13 or 14 times in a round. The putter you use a lot more often. That’s why it’s important for this putter to be right for you. [Music] So Luke, so few people really give any credence to putting or putter fitting as as being a big deal. But it is a big deal, isn’t it? Absolutely. I would say, you know, it’s very important that we feel comfortable over the putter. We hit our lines, we’re set up correctly, and there’s a few factors that will go into that. for a blade style putter is it’s more for an arcy stroke. Somebody who opens and closes the face a lot. The toe hangs lower than the heel. You had talked to me about how you like face balance putters like this. You can see how the face points towards the sky sort of thing. Has less face rotation and we do have this square to square putter. It is for those people who have too much rotation. So it kind of helps you keep that face square throughout the putting stroke. One of the things too we need to to make people understand as well is is the static fitting of a of a putter is still very important. Meaning you the length of the putter, the weight of the putter, um what your your wrist to to floor length is like. That’s all that’s all factors into making sure that you have the right putter in your hands. Not to mention as well as grip because there’s money many grip sizes out there as well. Absolutely. Yeah. Some people like that bigger grip feel, less handsiness. I mean, we have different styles. More of a rounded back here and more of a pistol grip feel here. So, a little bit more in the fingers. All of this kind of fits into how comfortable you are over the putter. And I think today when we do the putter fitting, we’re going to try um these here for you. Um just see which one is most consistent overall. All right, Rick. So, to start off here, we have a pretty straight putt. Um I’m just going to stand behind you. See where you hit it on the face. See where you’re aimed. Listen for heel or toe strikes. How far over the golf ball or underneath the golf ball? And from there, we’ll try these three different putters and see which one works out best. Nope. Okay. I I think from there what I really saw was we do have a little bit more of an arcy stroke. Yeah. Um a little bit more face rotation. I think for you, if we were to try the square to square, really see if we can keep that face um from being manipulated open and closed, we might be able to hit more square putts and more putts in the hole sort of thing. So, I’m going to hand you this one now. It has a little bit of a bigger grip on it. Keep in mind, you know, how it feels when you grab it. If you don’t like that grip, you can always order one with a pistol grip, something smaller and whatnot. That was awesome. Again, right on the line. I think for you what I just saw there was more consistent strike and it definitely started more on your line with something a little bit more square to square. That’s kind of what this technology is all about for somebody like yourself. Right. And interestingly enough too, I’ve I’ve never been center balance or or center shafted. I’m not really that type of person, but this one, I mean, that that really showed and I can really feel that those were consistent strikes for sure. And the look, is that something maybe you could get used to or I could get used to this look? No, no problem. I’ve had a Jailb bird in the past and I can look at that technology with the black white that that Odyssey is is known for and um and really get into it. If we’re looking at consistency and something that’s going to help you day in and day out, it’s definitely the square to square putter. No question. And it’s just not about grabbing one off the shelf anymore. I mean, there’s things that you can do to really help you putt better and perform better on the golf course. Absolutely. I mean, I do get the people that have their old trusty that they’ve had for for 20 years and they can’t get away from it. And that’s totally fine. But if you’re going out there to just grab something off the shelf, you you don’t want to spend 500, 600 bucks without knowing what you actually need. Having a putter fitting is something that’s going to benefit you in the long run and be an investment. And it’s going to help you shoot lower scores.
