Ping Putter Fitting - Report

Oh well time to bore you with more love for my new toy.

Played today in one of the big annual comps. Managed to get round in 38 point with with 29 putts, so if I am correct that is a total of 83 putts over 3 rounds with it now, which I believe is averaging 27.66 a round. I will take that thanks as that is a hue improvement on what my putting was before. I have a feel I will be dangerous once the new swing has sorted itself out.

I will now hold my hands up as I always knocked people who blamed their equipment for their short comings, as I always said they should have some lessons and sort their technique out. Well I have been well and truly proved wrong. A combination of working on my putting and getting a custom fitting has improved me by 4 or 5 putts a round.
 
I've said it before, GM and the manufacturers really pull the stops out on this type of day and so it is a privilege and a money can't buy opportunity if you are lucky enough to get selected. I was up for this one big time and jealous of the lucky winners. I love Ping putters and still have my original Anser 2. Would love to have got something suited to my stroke and actually found out from the real experts a bit more about how I put and what suited and why.

Congrats to the guys that went and some fantastic write ups. The FoA off the whites is a mighty fine way to end the day too
 
Would love to have got something suited to my stroke and actually found out from the real experts a bit more about how I put and what suited and why.

Go do it mate. I ended up getting a putter that I would not have picked up off the shelf, but it was what I putted best with. I learnt a lot about my putting style from Paul the guy that fitted me. I will never buy a putter again without being fitted, but then again I will keep this putter until it wears out.
 
I'd second what Adey says, go do it. The Ping guys where sceptical about some specialised custom stuff such as shaft pureing (not wanting to upset anyone....:mad:) But you cant argue with the physics of loft, length and lie which are all sorted in the putting fitting.

For me, the Ping guys were in a league of their own, amazing knowledge and cracking guys also! I cant wait to get my putter on my own clubs greens. Confidence can be a dangerous thing :D

Rob
 
Yeah you are probably right. It would be like poking a hornets nest.....

What's the line from that film... "Truth, you cant handle the truth..." :rofl:

Great putting by the way :thup:

Rob
 
Congrats, you have won a Matrix Ozik TP6HD shaft that has been pured, spine aligned, half inch tipped, with extra swing weight and dipped in gravy :D

Next stop, the tour.... :D

Rob

you can keep it mate or use it to stir a tin of paint with next time you are decorating. I am happy with my bright pink Aldila NV thanks....:ears:
 
Congrats, you have won a Matrix Ozik TP6HD shaft that has been pured, spine aligned, half inch tipped, with extra swing weight and dipped in gravy :D

Next stop, the tour.... :D

Rob

Now I can handle the dipped in gravy bit but half inch tipped and an extra swing weight - you're talking out of somewhere Rob....
 
Now I can handle the dipped in gravy bit but half inch tipped and an extra swing weight - you're talking out of somewhere Rob....

Oh I am completely clear that I don't know what I am talking about :rofl:

I thought that was a requirement for most forums :clap::clap::clap:

Rob
 
Write up of my putter fitting and first use on my home course:

The fitting itself was fairly simple as has been described by the other guys:

The Ping App was fitted to my Scotty X5, and after 5 putts it gave me a putting handicap of 6. My stroke path was a slight arc (green label) and I was hitting the ball with a slightly closed club face.
As such Ed, the fitter, chose a Shea putter with a green label for me to try as this had the closest head shape to my current putter. This was slightly toe weighted and improved my putting stats a bit, but not enough.
Ed pointed out that I was in the top end of the slight arcs, nearing the strong arc (red label).
So we tried a couple of other more toe weighted green labels, a B60 and then the Answer. Both of these showed improvement, with the Answer having a putting handicap of +1 and was generally square at impact.
We were both happy that the Answer was the right choice for me but Ed wanted to just try a couple of putters from "outside the box". First we tried a large headed putter with longer pronounced aiming line (Greyhawk?) with the green label but I altered my swing with this and actually found myself watching the putter go back and through following the line.
We then tried a gooseneck style, red tab strong arc putter as I was so close to a strong arc swing. But this turned out to be a step too far.
So we were both happy with the Answer and Ed measured the lie angle and we went inside for it to be bent by 1.5*. As Adey said this is a scary moment, your brand new club specially fitted to you is put in a vice and a bloke with a wrench starts bending it.
So there it is I have my new putter to try on the Arden course.

On the course my long game, despite a snap hook on the first, was in top nick. I was hitting long drives and good iron shots. But on the greens I struggled for pace. Partly having to get used to the new putter with its insert and partly as this is my big weakness. But I was happy with the strikes and I do believe the insert helps those miss hits. I liked the weight of the putter and the nice thick grip, not too thick like some you see in the shops but a nice midsize like I have in my irons. I think this may help keep my hands quieter.

To my home course this weekend.
On arrival I spoke to an old fella who moaned about the state of the greens so I was a little apprehensive. But on the practice green I was hitting and holing putts well from all ranges.
To the first: a nice 15 footer was sunk for a dodgy par. The 3rd I sunk my first birdie, after a 180yd 6 iron to within 3 feet I confidently knocked in a downhiller (left to right). After this the course fought back, I only just sunk a 2 footer on 4 and missed a 6 footer on 5 for par, both of these horseshoed after changing direction dramatically on the uneven putting surface. Then to the 6th, another 6 iron to 3 feet. But this time the severe downhill, right to left was hit with confidence but bounced off line and left me with another 3 footer for par which tried it's best to miss. I realised at this point that the old fella in the pro shop was right it was like putting on the Dolomites the greens were so uneven. but despite this I managed only 29 putts, 36 points and no 3 putts.

So despite the course letting itself down I am happy that I like my putter, I hit some good putts and felt confident.

Thanks GM & Ping.

(Sorry if I've rambled on too much)
 
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Finally got around to writing up my ping putter fitting day experience in full…
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Arrived bright and early and was the first there, *saw the massive death star ping tour truck lurking near the bar looking awesome.* I wondered about like a lemon for a bit and then bought some brekkie, after that I found Paul O’H and a bunch of blokes in ping jumpers hanging out on the patio and was informed there was a tab open… doh!
Everyone was really genuine and welcoming, and jealous of my sausage bap, I listened in on all the industry chat and took the opportunity to grill one of the Ping fitters about my upcoming driver purchase which will almost certainly be a Ping in either Anser or G25 flavour.
After the other fellas arrived we piled onto the tour truck for a bit of an intro.* Paul introduced the guys, set out the agenda and thanked the suave looking chap (Neil I think?) from the PR company for hooking us up with the day.
There were 2 club fitters from Ping (Paul and Ed) and one guy in the workshop (Stevie), we were in good hands as both Paul and Ed used to work on the tour truck (now do fittings at the Ping centre in Gainsborough) and Stevie is the current tour truck guy looking after all the ping pros on the Euro tour, he would be doing any adjustments needed to the putters.
We were all given a free hat and after the rush to avoid getting left with the beige one (who did get that one?), we split into pairs as there were two fitters, myself and James (gil_emott) went first by virtue of being stood closest to the door.
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Now the interesting bit – the fitting….
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Paul looked after my fitting.
Much like the other chaps have said, we started with my own putter, a nike method core 5i mid-mallet jobby, and hit a few putts with that with the app turned on.* *I came out about a 12 putting h’cap, which is a measure of the consistency of your stroke.
The app came out recommending a slight-arc putter, which was pretty much what I suspected already.* **This is ideal for my current putter, so it would be interesting to see whether there could be much improvement just through the fitting.* You’ve already read how Adey had a dramatic putting improvement just through putting the new putter in the bag, it may not be so drastic for me as my old putter was already an appropriate type.
We also checked out where my eye line was in relation to the ball, with the ideal being eye-line directly over the ball.* We did this very scientifically… haha… *by addressing the ball then dropping another ball from the bridge of my nose and seeing where it landed.* It was landing a good 6 inches inside the line of the ball, which considering I thought I was over the ball is a heck of a lot.* I suspected already that my putter was too long for me at 34”, this confirmed it.
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Next up was trying out the Ping putters.* I started off with the Shea in slight arc, as it is a classic mid mallet shape and I do like that style.* The first thing was to get the length.* We went through the same drill with dropping the ball a few times adjusting it each time, Paul also gave me a couple of tips to improve my posture at this point as I was a little hunched over.
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Length sorted I started hitting a few putts with the Shea, my putting handicap immediately dropped to a 4.something.* I strongly suspect this was to do with it being a more appropriate length.* I also realised at this point that I really liked the feel of the midsize grip, I much prefer it to the standard pistol grip on my method.
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The app was telling us that the face angle was a little closed through impact so Paul wanted to try a strong arc putter with additional toe weighting to see if that helped me keep the face square through impact.* Actually what happened was it made it worse, I seemed to fight the additional weight and with my usual touch of a rhino closed it off even further.
So we went counter-intuitive and tried a face balanced putter, this had the expected effect of me closing the face even further.* It was inescapable that I had the best results with the slightly toe weighted slight arc putters, so we went back to them.
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At this point we were happy with the arc type and the length of the putter, with a small adjustment in my posture Paul was happy to keep me in a standard lie putter rather than bending it like some of the other chaps were having done.* So now what remained was for me to try them all out and see which of the various styles gave me the best results.
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With the Shea as the benchmark I tried out an Anser style.* This was nice and all but I’m not so into the anser shape that I would give up the additional MOI and forgiveness of a mallet style.* I went from there, through the shea again as benchmark to the Senita.* This putter didn’t really appeal to me visually but I started holing everything, so it forced itself into the reckoning.* At this point it was really down to personal preference and the performance.* I alternated between the two models (Shea and Senita) for a good while and found the performance pretty much evened out.
So performance being equal, I went with the Shea for two reasons
1)***** I prefer the shape to look at
2)***** I found the Senita to have a very metallic ping off the face, the Shea was a little more muted and I preferred the sound and feel
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So I have ended up with a Ping Scottsdale TR Shea putter, adjusted to 32.5” in length with a standard lie.
I finished the fitting by holing 4 of 6 from 10 feet and leaving the other 2 within 6 inches. :thup:
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A word about the putters…
The grips are fantastic, best putter grip I have tried, a lovely shape in a mid-size.* Very very nice.
The grooves seem to work really well, and as advertised.* The putts out of the heel and the toe don’t hurt nearly as much using one of these as other putters I have used.* At one point the photographer got down behind me to shoot a down the line video or picture (not sure which) and I thought right, hit a good one now, I proceeded to bang one so far out of the heel that I almost missed the ball – it rolled nicely and it went in, so that was nice – very forgiving on off centre hits!
The adjustment thingymabobby is pretty unobtrusive when you are looking down at it, I forgot it was there pretty much straight away.
This would need confirming but I’m pretty sure you can’t change the grip on these putters to a different style, it is something to do with the adjustment ring being there and with another grip the club becomes non-conforming.* Stevie mentioned it in the tour truck and I didn’t think to clarify as the grip is the best I’ve tried so why would I change it.* Sorry guys.
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After the fitting I was mic’d up and shot a cringeworthy interview video with Paul O’H and the photographer.* I was aware at the time that I probably sounded like an infomercial guy, I can promise you that I was not scripted, it was off the cuff in the first take, and I genuinely liked the putters.
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Then there was time to practice on the putting green and get a tour of the bus, which was really interesting.
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We got the low down on Westwood and his reluctance to change his clubs, finally moving into the I20 irons and G25 driver, they were starting to think they’d never get the G10 out of his bag.* All ping staff players are apparently *on an 11 club deal, no exceptions, so they have some room to play different clubs in there.* Most of the top names seem to have a full Ping bag anyway.
The TR putters are proving popular on tour apparently, Westwood has used a couple of different styles, Angel Cabrera had a shea in the bag for the Masters and most of the models are being rolled by someone on tour.
The drawers full of shafts were a club hoe’s dream, they had thousands upon thousands of pounds of top end shafts in there.* Did you know Bubba’s driver shaft has a steel tip section?* And that his grip has 10 layers of tape under the left hand and 12 layers under the right? Apparently it feels like a cricket bat!
Miguel Angel Jimenez is apparently as cool in real life as he appears to be, and pretty generous with his wine collection by the sound of it.* What a legend that man is.
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After we were treated to lunch by GM we went out on the Arden course for a round. *I played with NWJocko and MadAdey, proper nice chaps both of them and good golfers to boot.* We all had a bit of an up and down round with some nice play and some not so nice.* Adey was holing everything with his new putter to keep his score ticking over and is the only one who returned a decent score, I think we finished with 36, 32 and 31 points if I recall correctly.*
NWjocko burst into life on the par 5 17th battering a huge 3 wood for miles, leaving himself a long shot in over water that he took on and knocked onto the green with a hybrid to give himself an eagle chance and walked off with a two putt bird, what a great couple of shots.
It’s a nice course, you definitely have to think your way around it, lots of dog legs and challenging club selection on a few tee shots.* My usual approach of pull the big dog and give it a rip was paying dividends on some holes and getting me right in the rubbish on others.* A more conservative approach if I play there again I think.
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All in all a fantastic day overall, big thanks to Ping and to GM for whole thing, and to the other forum lads for being good company on the day.
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Nice to see you enjoying the putter Stu. Was a really good day and I enjoyed your company, shame you do not live closer so we could meet up for another game sometime, I could quite happily spend another afternoon with you and NWJocko playing golf.
 
*Did you know Bubba’s driver shaft has a steel tip section?* And that his grip has 10 layers of tape under the left hand and 12 layers under the right?
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How is that legal ???
I might as well put a moulded grip on - I thought it had to be a linear reduction in circular cross section?
 
How is that legal ???
I might as well put a moulded grip on - I thought it had to be a linear reduction in circular cross section?

Surely it would be a reduction; 12 tapes under top hand, 10 under bottom. He is left-handed remember.
 
Nice to see you enjoying the putter Stu. Was a really good day and I enjoyed your company, shame you do not live closer so we could meet up for another game sometime, I could quite happily spend another afternoon with you and NWJocko playing golf.
Cheers Adey. Took some money in the roll up on Saturday so it seems to be working.
I'll try and get involved in forum meets so sure we'll tee it up again sometime.
 
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