Putter Fitting and Putter Adjustments

Thanks to Slinger and his engineering feat, the Evolution was finally installed, christened and ready to rock...

S70B...you are first in line.



capable of bending all putters, hosel, single bend, double bend except centre-shafted.

DGman

Swee! See u later. Now doing some work.

Oh dear.... More poison!

hey, are you able to show how it works??

weesern wrote:

hey, are you able to show how it works??

You got a putter?

Awesome looking piece of precision engineering.

Cannot blame putter no longer for bad putts after putter is adjusted properly.



CK

What's involved in putter fitting? Can someone elaborate so we're all better educated?

3 Ls:

Lie

Loft

Length

Better to demo than to explain.

my putting so lousy adjust liao also cannot putt properly...

On a separate note, but not completely OT, I happened to be at the Den today when KT was bringing carrying in 2 boxes. I can't really describe what was inside suffice to say that for the first time ever, I felt like I should thump KT (pity he's soooo tall) unconscious and flee with the goods.

What were they? 3 SC putters fresh from SC's custom shop, if I'm not mistaken. Each meticulously crafted and downright gorgeous. *drool*

when your putter is the right length and lie. you will naturally have a better set up without having to compensate. with a better set up, you should have achieve eye-over-ball and your hands should fall nicely into a natural aim and release position.

however, it gives you the proper set up but most of the time, golfers still need to work on their putting stroke and judgment for distance.

there is one observation, the longer you take to execute your putt, the more likely you are going to misjudge distance and inability to execute the desired stroke.

why? its because the golfer is thinking before the putt or stress about the execution. When executing the putt, the distance should have long been registered in your subconscious mind, the brain will instructed the hands how much to take away and release. some call it motor memory. if you decide at the point of the execution, its likely to end up with a bad putt...think about that!!!

DGman

Thanks to DGman, my putter is finally ready.

Had bought an SC from Kopi Towkay. A quick measurement of the putter found that the lie was 74* and 0* loft.

74* is fine....if you are like 6'6". Too bad I'm oni 5'10" so thats a no-no. Having a putter thats too upright will cause the toe to be pointed skywards. Same as your irons, if the lie is not right for you, expect putts to not find its target.

How about loft? the lesser the better right since it gets the ball rolling? Wrong! That's because even on the fastest of greens the ball is sitting slightly down in the grass. Loft is necessary to lift the ball out that depression and get it rolling as quickly as possible.

Many players are not fitted for loft on their putters. Those who play the game long enuff knows about the basic rule of 'eye over the ball' for the correct ball position. However, not many pay attention to anything else.

From thesandtrap article, here is an extract on the importance of loft:

On a 10-foot putt according to former USGA Technical Director Frank Thomas: the clubhead approaches the ball at a speed of approximately three to four miles per hour with impact lasting a little more than ½ millisecond. Putter loft lifts the ball off the surface of the green and imparts a small amount of backspin. The ball remains in flight for about four inches before it hits the green and skids for about 10-12 inches before taking on its true roll.

His description hints at why fitting putter loft can be so tricky. Because it isn't the built-in loft of a putter that matters, it's the loft at impact that counts. And because that's only 0.0005 seconds, it's very hard to measure precisely without very sophisticated equipment.

Scotty Cameron is firm in his conviction that four degrees at impact is the ideal as is a vertical shaft at impact. In his Putter Studio he keeps a putting area surrounded by high-speed video cameras that let him measure and assess a player's dynamic loft at impact. As a result, some of the PGA Tour players who make the pilgrimage to his studio come away with some interesting lofts:

Player Putter Loft
------ -----------
Ben Curtis 4.5°
Peter Jacobsen 3.4°
Davis Love III 4.2°
Mark O'Meara 3.8°
Brett Quigley 4.5°

Putting guru Stan Utley maintains that most players have too little loft on their putters and subconsciously compensate by hitting up on the ball. This leads to a little "flippiness" with the hands that obviously becomes very difficult to repeat consistently. Utley likes to feel like he's stroking down and through the ball with the shaft leaning slightly forward at impact. Thus, his putter carries 5.25° of loft.

Loft Fit Factors
Here are some suggestions on ways to assess and tweak your putter loft:

Forward Press?
If you employ any sort of forward press in your putting stroke (as does Utley), you may want to consider a putter with more loft. The more forward you press, the more loft you're likely to need.

Green Grass
The broader blade of Bermuda grass greens, even when tightly mowed, seems "stickier" to me. I think the ball is sitting a little lower in that kind of grass. I also think that's why certain putters with greater loft have always worked better for me on Bermuda greens. If you putt them regularly, you might want to think about more loft.

The Dew Line
Next time you're on the practice green early enough to find it covered in dew, pay attention to the line made by the ball as it comes off the face. You'll see how long it's airborne and you'll also be able to detect any bouncing early on in the roll. If it is bouncing off the face, you know your loft is off.

It may be too high and your lofting the ball too much, or it may be too low and you're driving the ball against the depression it's in and pinching it. Either way, you need to further assess your loft.

DGman wrote:

there is one observation, the longer you take to execute your putt, the more likely you are going to misjudge distance and inability to execute the desired stroke.

why? its because the golfer is thinking before the putt or stress about the execution. When executing the putt, the distance should have long been registered in your subconscious mind, the brain will instructed the hands how much to take away and release. some call it motor memory. if you decide at the point of the execution, its likely to end up with a bad putt...think about that!!!

DGman

So very true Towkay!

Another thing that we do often is use the terms 'touch' and 'feel' very loosely. Do we know the diff?

Touch = Knowing WHAT to do (ie length of putt, power requirement)

Feel = Knowing HOW to do it (ie size/length of stroke, awareness of stroke)

Having studied Dave Pelz's book, chapter 5.6 describes that the longer u take to putt, the more you lose the feeling. In a nutshell, he drew a graph that shows that for every 8 seconds that you take, you lose about 30% of whatever feelings you have left after the previous 8 seconds.

So, hesitation means more likely that you will miss the putt. Stick to your pre-shot routine!

i asked MM during the last hole at TMCC last week how he handle those thousand dollar putts where dropping a putt means a load of thousand of dollars lost.

he revealed that he does breathing exercises and he focus on keeping loose. Loose shoulders, loose grip but the stance and focus remains the same.....firm and believing that you will make the putt. he also stress tha visualising the putt is important.

he says he is confident he will make it and he will.

it comes back to a memorable game with Slinger many years back. it was down to the last hole at classic. i had a 12 footer to make the putt to win the game. it was down slope and when i was lining the putt, i concentrated on visualising how the putt will fall. never think about the distance just keep visualising. when i finally stand over the putt, no more thinking, just aim and release....make the putt and win the game. Phew!!!!

DGman

I think putting is somehow same as snooker or wakeboarding. You must never think about what to do when you line up for the shot or the jump. All these should be done before you align yourself.

For snooker, what to do and what to position is done and decided before I actually go down for my next shot.

For wakeboarding, if you think of what to do while you are attacking the wakes, then you are in for big trouble.

We must decide what to do and when you align yourself, just think of executing it and thats when the feel part comes into play.

What Eric said makes good sense to me. And it's not just with the putting. I was watching Fred Funk on the Golf Channel this morning (or it may have been O'Meara) where he said that rather than focusing what not to do, focus instead on what to do, i.e. concentrate on what elements go into a good swing/smooth stroke. I believe this builds confidence rather than flames the fears.

Technospaz: rather than focusing what not to do, focus instead on what to do

This is true. My coach and Bob Rotella (Padraig's sports psychologist) agree with positive thinking always, not just while putting.

Visualise possible good shots, not visualise (and fear) possible bad ones. It has something to do with how the human subconscious mind works. Especially, when faced with hazard-, greenside bunker- or water-carry shots.

CK

As Tiger was taught: See the Green as a Beautiful Picture........then go and PAINT that picture with your putt.

Stop Thinking, Let things happen, and..................

My Scotty Phantom mallet2 can't be cut 1" is it? regret bought 35" check with scotty US they can only cut half inch only...thinking to do 34" or 33.5"

fabulous wrote:

My Scotty Phantom mallet2 can't be cut 1" is it? regret bought 35" check with scotty US they can only cut half inch only...thinking to do 34" or 33.5"

The Custom Shop always resists cutting or adding more than .5 inch with the resultant Balance/Swingweight changes.

Take her to BFG and speak with Eric and I'm sure he can help.

Kopi Towkay wrote:

fabulous wrote:

My Scotty Phantom mallet2 can't be cut 1" is it? regret bought 35" check with scotty US they can only cut half inch only...thinking to do 34" or 33.5"

The Custom Shop always resists cutting or adding more than .5 inch with the resultant Balance/Swingweight changes.

Take her to BFG and speak with Eric and I'm sure he can help.

But before you cut, speak with Eric to see what length suits you the most. I thought I was a 35" but it turned out that I'm a 34" (or even a 33.5"). Eric offers great advise in this area

i think cutting 1 " will have to add weight in the head... better consult Dr Ng..

normal putter u can cut and add weight 10grams or similar but for mallet2 centre put might cant do, check around , i will contact with Eric to check cos now I just left my putter n using different one. maybe i better sell to buy new model Scotty

fabulous wrote:

normal putter u can cut and add weight 10grams or similar but for mallet2 centre put might cant do, check around , i will contact with Eric to check cos now I just left my putter n using different one. maybe i better sell to buy new model Scotty

Now, That's the Spirit!!

What Spirit...lost money liao...lor...maybe i can sell here , hope can find buyer for phantom mallet2 35" scotty. honestly i like the putter now using it grip all the way down..felt funny.