Putter fitting

[HomerJSimpson]

Might have a Ping Anser II Karsten up for sale at a reasonable price in a month or so. Got myself a new putter from the For Sale section on here and am loving it and feeling so much more confident on the greens so just need a couple more rounds to confirm that I'm ready to get rid of the old one.

Cheers for the offer. Think I might get the fitting done first in case the blade and my stroke aren't mutually compatable

 

[MadAdey]

So here's a question. Why does the loft of a putter have such an effect on distance control?

You tell me, but when I got picked for the PING putter fitting at Forest of Arden it made a difference. The last thing they did to my putter was alter the loft and after that the roll and distance was so good. Surely the idea of putting is to keep the ball on the deck so if your putter has too much loft on it then it can be lifting the ball at impact which then as it lands the distance can be influenced depending on how it contacts the green. Well that was what the PING blokes in the tour truck told me anyway....

Would never say that having a putter fitted perfectly is going to take someone from being a 10 handicap to scratch, but it may just knock 2/3 shots off a round, I know it has for me.

 

[garyinderry]

The loft lifts the ball in the air slightly so that it starts to roll quicker than it would if the ball was to skid along the green for too long which happens with too little loft on a putter or if someone overly de-lofts the face.

 

[woody69]

According to the people who have come up with the "strokes gained" calculations, the long game is more important and the very best players (Rory included) are better at the long game than putting.

I follow a variation of the Rugby saying "the forwards decide who wins the match, the backs decide by how much", just substitute forwards with long game and backs with putter.

I'm not sure if that is a particularly useful stat tbh. Strokes gained is all well and good, but if from within 100 yards they are terrible then strokes lost would wipe out anything gained! I know David Pelz thinks the finesse side is the most important and had some statistical research that showed a positive correlation between those players who were the best in the world at that versus their world ranking. If it was as simple as saying the long game was most important then long drive champions would be #1 in the world. Whilst I don't completely agree with the article in that "putting is the most important part of the game", as an amateur I would certainly place more emphasis on it than being able to hit the green from +200 yards.

 

[MadAdey]

I'm not sure if that is a particularly useful stat tbh. Strokes gained is all well and good, but if from within 100 yards they are terrible then strokes lost would wipe out anything gained! I know David Pelz thinks the finesse side is the most important and had some statistical research that showed a positive correlation between those players who were the best in the world at that versus their world ranking. If it was as simple as saying the long game was most important then long drive champions would be #1 in the world. Whilst I don't completely agree with the article in that "putting is the most important part of the game", as an amateur I would certainly place more emphasis on it than being able to hit the green from +200 yards.

i think putting is the most important bit for us. When you look at a lot of club golfers how many regularly knock it in from 8 foot, like the pros. More often than not when we have bad days we start talking about missed putts and 3 putts. It is all well and good hitting the green from 200 yards, but if you then 3 stab from 20 foot, you are worse off than the bloke who gets it up to the green from 200, then chips it to 6 foot and Taps in for a par.