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As a 30th Birthday present my wife booked me a putter fitting with licence to purchase a new flat stick at the end of the session.
I went with a completely open mind, disptite before hand being convinced I needed a mallet head and kind of had the Scotty Cameron Kombi-s in mind.
After the introductions were out of the way, Pete (The fitter) took me to the green (Which was indoors, so a little miffed although the putting serface was excellent and not biased (running) towards the hole) and had me hit putts with my, then current, putter as a loosener.
He then handed me a PING adjustable putter with a telescopic neck and hinged head and began to find the correct length for me. He started off at my then current putter length of 35", this was soon whittled down in 1/2" incriments to a 33" which had me nicely over the ball. He checked this is a very scientific way. He had me address a ball as I would be if I were to be making a stroke. He then placed a ball directly in my eye line and then dropped the ball to see where it fell. When it bounced off the top of the addressed ball it was pretty obvious I was over it.
He did actually say that most people of my height he fits would have a 34" length but because my arms are quite long, he thought it best to take the shaft down to 33" to alow my shoulders to rock with less bend in the elbows.
Next he used the adjustable neck to work out the correct lie. Turns out im to the "Industry standard" of 71*. He did actually say this may change depending on the putter head I chose
but would re measure once I'd chosen.
So at the minute 33" and 71* lie.
Onto head type. As I was playing a blade we started there. I told him I was sure I needed a full mallet type as sometimes on my take away I have a bit of a wobble. He had me hit a few putts, understood what I meant, but to my surprise, rather than going straight to the full mallet went to a mid-mallet head with an insert (Odyssey White Ice #9).
Take away was much smoother but I didn't like the feel off the face. To me it felt very firm and a little clicky. Tried a few other mid-mallet heads with inserts but didn't like the feel of any and some of the noises were horrendous. So we moved to milled face. Tried a Rife Abaco Island, this was lovely, nice feel, weight really nice. Also tried:
Odyssey Protype Tour Series #9
YES! Marilyn
YES! Mollie (Again this was really nice)
Scotty Cameron California Del Mar (Both models)
Nike Method Concept
....... And a few others which I forget (I tried quote a few)
The milled face just feels right for me. managed to whittle it down to 2 putters in the end
The Rife and the Scotty.
In the end I went for the Scotty. Simply because the whole package seeme to be there. The grip is excellent, the feel of the face was like butter, even with the pebbles they used for the fitting and most importantly seeing as the wife was paying I thought why the hell not :thup:
The fitting process took about 50 minutes but me being me took an hour to decide between the two putters :mmm:
The Scotty was much more consistant roll wise and I seemed to be able to judge the pace better as based on the 15ft putts I was hitting, the ones that didn't go in were either hole high or about 2 feet past. The Rife was also an excellent putter and gave great results, the feel off the face was a little inconsistant at times which, in all honesty, is probably what swung it towards the Scotty.
One happy boy here. Roll on the weekend
I went with a completely open mind, disptite before hand being convinced I needed a mallet head and kind of had the Scotty Cameron Kombi-s in mind.
After the introductions were out of the way, Pete (The fitter) took me to the green (Which was indoors, so a little miffed although the putting serface was excellent and not biased (running) towards the hole) and had me hit putts with my, then current, putter as a loosener.
He then handed me a PING adjustable putter with a telescopic neck and hinged head and began to find the correct length for me. He started off at my then current putter length of 35", this was soon whittled down in 1/2" incriments to a 33" which had me nicely over the ball. He checked this is a very scientific way. He had me address a ball as I would be if I were to be making a stroke. He then placed a ball directly in my eye line and then dropped the ball to see where it fell. When it bounced off the top of the addressed ball it was pretty obvious I was over it.
He did actually say that most people of my height he fits would have a 34" length but because my arms are quite long, he thought it best to take the shaft down to 33" to alow my shoulders to rock with less bend in the elbows.
Next he used the adjustable neck to work out the correct lie. Turns out im to the "Industry standard" of 71*. He did actually say this may change depending on the putter head I chose
but would re measure once I'd chosen.So at the minute 33" and 71* lie.
Onto head type. As I was playing a blade we started there. I told him I was sure I needed a full mallet type as sometimes on my take away I have a bit of a wobble. He had me hit a few putts, understood what I meant, but to my surprise, rather than going straight to the full mallet went to a mid-mallet head with an insert (Odyssey White Ice #9).
Take away was much smoother but I didn't like the feel off the face. To me it felt very firm and a little clicky. Tried a few other mid-mallet heads with inserts but didn't like the feel of any and some of the noises were horrendous. So we moved to milled face. Tried a Rife Abaco Island, this was lovely, nice feel, weight really nice. Also tried:
Odyssey Protype Tour Series #9
YES! Marilyn
YES! Mollie (Again this was really nice)
Scotty Cameron California Del Mar (Both models)
Nike Method Concept
....... And a few others which I forget (I tried quote a few)
The milled face just feels right for me. managed to whittle it down to 2 putters in the end
The Rife and the Scotty.
In the end I went for the Scotty. Simply because the whole package seeme to be there. The grip is excellent, the feel of the face was like butter, even with the pebbles they used for the fitting and most importantly seeing as the wife was paying I thought why the hell not :thup:
The fitting process took about 50 minutes but me being me took an hour to decide between the two putters :mmm:
The Scotty was much more consistant roll wise and I seemed to be able to judge the pace better as based on the 15ft putts I was hitting, the ones that didn't go in were either hole high or about 2 feet past. The Rife was also an excellent putter and gave great results, the feel off the face was a little inconsistant at times which, in all honesty, is probably what swung it towards the Scotty.
One happy boy here. Roll on the weekend
