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Golf Monthly Staff writer and PGA Pro Joe Ferguson runs through the 6 most common mistakes golfers make when buying a new putter! With so much choice on the market, it can be easy to not consider everything you need to and overlook some key areas when it comes to ensuring your new putter is perfectly matched to you. Hopefully this video will ensure you don't make the mistakes some golfers make when choosing a new flat stick.
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00:00Right we all know that putting is one of the most important parts of the game for
00:03your score but I still see so many avoidable mistakes when people are
00:07buying new putters. For this video we've teamed up with Odyssey and they've
00:10provided us with some gorgeous models from their AI-1 range so let's take a
00:14look and see if we can help you make some better choices.
00:20First mistake I often see is happens long before we even think about the putter
00:24we're going to use it's to do with the golf ball. Take this for example I found
00:28a beautiful model that I love the look of here it's the AI-1 number seven. Sits
00:32great, feels great and I've been holding putts all over the place with it but I've
00:37just noticed I've been using the Chrome Tour golf ball and my game would be the
00:41Chrome Tour X golf ball. So I've had all these great results and I'm going to
00:45order this putter but when it arrives I might get a significantly different feel
00:49because those are two very different feeling golf balls. Different golf balls
00:53will come off the putter face at different speeds which can affect your
00:56distance control. So it's not just a feel thing it can actually be a performance
01:00thing. So the remedy for this is make sure when you're trying a putter either
01:04just knocking it around in the pro shop or even in a custom fitting use your
01:08game of golf ball so you can marry up the feel and the distance control and you
01:11don't have to make an adjustment further down the line.
01:17Another mistake I see a lot is people buying their putter purely on looks not
01:22really understanding the functionality. For example these two putters here at
01:26first glance look identical but they're actually designed for very different
01:30stroke types and I'll show you why. The putter I've got here is actually a face
01:35balanced putter but what does that mean? Well if I hold it unaided and I just hold
01:39it at its balance point there you'll see how the putter face is printing pointing
01:43pretty much straight up at the sky. Now this face balanced style of putter
01:47doesn't want to rotate too much during the stroke so it tends to suit people with
01:51a very square to square path who don't want to see too much open opening and
01:55closing. However on the same head I've got a slightly different shorter slant neck
02:00here which gives us what is essentially a toe hang putter. So again I'm holding it
02:04unaided there when I can find the balance point and the toe is pointing more down
02:09at the ground. Now putters can have different degrees of this toe hang and what
02:13that does is encourage a bit more face rotation through the stroke and that
02:17tends to suit people with a bit more of a pronounced arc. So it's really important
02:22you match that up with your stroke type but how do you find out what stroke type
02:26you've got? Now the smart and precise way of doing this is to head to your local
02:30PGA professional who will get you on some technology like Samputlab, Quintet Ball
02:35Roll, Capto, those types of things and give you an exact quantifiable number for
02:39your face rotation and your arc and they'll be able to make a really good
02:42recommendation of what style is going to work best for your stroke. But if for
02:46any reason that's out of your reach either financially or geographically there
02:49is another way you can begin to get a good starting point for what style of
02:52putter might work for you. Simply get a friend to video your stroke in slow motion
02:57from a vertical position. Ideally you'd put something like an alignment stick down
03:02here and just make a nice uninhibited stroke and you'll begin to see when you
03:07look at it back in slow motion how far your putter is coming away from that line
03:11and how much the face is rotating. Now it's not an exact science by any measure
03:15this but it might just give you a better idea of your stroke and where to begin
03:19your putter search.
03:21Another mistake that I see a lot of times is people not considering the grip that
03:28they've got on their putter. Now it's the only point of contact you've got with
03:32this putter so it's absolutely crucial to get right. Nowadays there's so many
03:36different shapes textures and sizes of grip it can be very difficult to know
03:40where to start and it's not just feel that it affects it can actually influence
03:44performance. For example a lot of people using thicker grips have found that
03:48really useful to minimise the effect of the hands controlling the clubface and
03:53particularly useful on those shorter putts. However some people also feel that
03:57the thicker grips can impede feel a little bit and lose a bit of distance control
04:02on those longer putts so there can be a little bit of a trade-off. Another thing
04:06that people don't think about is grip weight. There's such a variety you can
04:10get grips from 50 grams to well over a hundred grams and that can have a
04:14dramatic effect on the feel of the club through swing weight. Essentially if you
04:19put a lighter grip on the club the swing weight of the club will increase
04:22because the bulk of the mass is distributed down the head end then conversely if
04:28you get a very heavy grip you can start to lose the feel of the putter head
04:32because it feels lighter from a swing weight point of view because there's
04:35more mass at the butt end. It's really important you get this right for the feel
04:39that you want and again a good custom fitter will be able to guide you through
04:42that process. Before we get on to the next mistake if I can ask you if you're
04:46enjoying this video please hit the like button subscribe to the channel so you
04:50can see all of the upcoming videos and comment down below if you ever made any big
04:54mistakes when buying a putter.
04:58One of the most underthought about areas of the putter is the shaft. We've all
05:03spent ages procrastinating over which style, flex, weight, bend point of driver
05:08shaft we need but I'd wager that many of you out there have never even considered
05:12the shaft in your putter. Well companies over the last few years have put a lot
05:15more research into this area particularly someone like Odyssey with their Stroke Lab
05:1990 shaft. This is a very lightweight steel shaft that features 20 to 30 grams of
05:25counter weighting depending on what weight of head it's going into. There's
05:29graphite shafts available there's different flexes and different profiles
05:32all the way through putting and as the vessel that carries the impact feel all
05:37the way up here to your hands it's one of the biggest influences on feel and it's a
05:41real opportunity to fine-tune that. So make sure you have a real think about what
05:47shaft is going to work best in the putter that you select.
05:53Another thing that people overlook when selecting a putter is the multitude of
05:57styles available now and I don't just mean the different types of heads I mean
06:01styles of putting. Switch on any PGA Tour golf and for everyone you see putting
06:06with a normal length putter right below left you'll see at least as many people
06:10using some more unconventional methods such as broom handle, arm lock or even
06:16this cruiser model here that I've got from Odyssey. So this is the cruiser number
06:19seven and what's different about this well for starters it's longer so standard
06:24putters tend to come in around the 34 inch mark this is 38 inches and this
06:29introduces a bit of counterbalance. It's heavier than a standard putter in all
06:33places the grips heavier the heads heavier and the shaft heavier here so most of
06:37the Odyssey range has the Stroke Lab 90 this has 140 gram version and the idea
06:43with this cruiser putter is the the weight distribution where it's put around
06:47the putter it helps the putter swing really freely and uninhibited it's
06:51almost like it's swinging itself and it's done a really good job for the likes of
06:55Ricky Fowler and Wyndham Clark over the last couple of years and when I think of
06:59the effect the broom handle and things like that have had on their careers of
07:02people like Will Zalatoris and Lucas Glover I think if you're not
07:06considering one of these more unconventional styles you might be doing
07:09yourself a disservice and finally the biggest thing I see that people don't
07:16pay enough attention to is alignment you can have the most glorious putting
07:20stroke owned over hours of practice but if you can't point your putter at the
07:24intended target then you're not gonna hold many putts and the important part
07:28about getting your putter aligned correctly is selecting the correct alignment
07:32cue and what do I mean by alignment cue or alignment aid well take this Odyssey
07:38two ball for example this is one of the most blatantly clear alignment aids you
07:42can get in golf and it's really stood the test of times we've got these two
07:46balls here that you simply line the third ball up with to show you the
07:50intended start direction and get your face square on this model they've gone a
07:54step further and they put the tall line through it as well for those you see a
07:58little bit more in straight lines now Odyssey offer a multitude of alignment
08:03cues from small lines in the flange of a putter to lines on the leading edge and
08:08some models with no alignment aids whatsoever and it's important they do
08:11that because we all see square very differently what I can line up well you
08:16might really struggle with and vice versa but how do you figure out what
08:20alignment cue is going to work best for you well the most accurate way and this is
08:24the answer to a lot of the problems the most avoidable problems that we've
08:27mentioned in this video is to go for a putter fitting now a good fitter will
08:32try you out with a number of different models with all sorts of different
08:34alignment cues and use a laser to accurately figure out what you're aiming
08:38the best and what you're aiming most consistently but once again if that's out
08:42of your reach you can use your friends to help you with that simply just getting
08:46someone to crouch down behind you you're telling them where you think you're
08:49aiming the butter blade and they can give you the feedback as to where you
08:52actually are aiming it or if you don't trust them make sure they use a phone so you can
08:56prove it that's another really good way to make sure you've got an alignment aid
09:00that is accurately aiming that putter blade for you right I hope that's helped
09:05avoid those mistakes go and hold some putts
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