Toe Hang, or Not Toe Hang..

[Hobbit]

Christ, was there really a need to pull rank and be so condescending? We're only talking about putters, it's not life and death.

Chill your beans big boy, some of us actually know what we’re talking about

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I have the ping cradle of anyone needs it

Blimey they were all the rage at one point - used to be an app as well

 

[Oddsocks]

Blimey they were all the rage at one point - used to be an app as well

Does the app still exist? I think the cradle was for gen4 or gen6 iPhones

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Does the app still exist? I think the cradle was for gen4 or gen6 iPhones

https://eu.ping.com/en-gb/fitting/iping-2-0-putting-app

You have to use this ApP now

Not sure if the cradle fits newer phones now

But plenty of other ways to attach phone to the putter

 

[PJ87]

Piggybacking on this post I’ve always found it very amusing that people fiddle about with putters in the winter. It’s out of season for the vast majority of the U.K., and the greens are invariably awful.

By all means buy putters in winter, if that’s what people want to do, and fiddle about with thin/fat grips but do people really believe that a putter that suits a green in winter will be spot on in summer.

Bit of advice; change your irons/woods anytime of the year, the ball spends the majority of the time in the air. Change the putter when the greens are at least half decent.

Whilst it's a bad time of year to change the change certainly improved my putting today

Word for round from my 3 ball to my mates 2 ball that my putting was outstanding

Got a txt off the other group lol

Shame the rest of the round was poor

 

[Hobbit]

Whilst it's a bad time of year to change the change certainly improved my putting today

Word for round from my 3 ball to my mates 2 ball that my putting was outstanding

Got a txt off the other group lol

Shame the rest of the round was poor

People focus more, and practice more when they put a new club in the bag. If a club, especially a putter plays fine through the previous summer, don’t put too much emphasis on how it behaves when the weather, the course and 4 layers of clothing come into play.

 

[Daff]

In case it might help anyone else, I made a simple cradle for my phone using a cheap case and one of the rubber vice adapters that you use to clamp your clubs. Works really well with the app and I find the app really good.

 

[Therod2]

Christ, was there really a need to pull rank and be so condescending? We're only talking about putters, it's not life and death.

I agree with hobbit. You could putt with a shovel this time of year* and it would make no difference. Wait until the greens are rolling better.

*make sure it’s a face balanced shovel!

 

[PJ87]

People focus more, and practice more when they put a new club in the bag. If a club, especially a putter plays fine through the previous summer, don’t put too much emphasis on how it behaves when the weather, the course and 4 layers of clothing come into play.

One I'm finding regardless is lag putting is better . The 2 ball I always felt I had to hit it hard to reach and it would either be really short or long

This just seems to roll to where I want (roughly)

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Piggybacking on this post I’ve always found it very amusing that people fiddle about with putters in the winter. It’s out of season for the vast majority of the U.K., and the greens are invariably awful.

By all means buy putters in winter, if that’s what people want to do, and fiddle about with thin/fat grips but do people really believe that a putter that suits a green in winter will be spot on in summer.

Bit of advice; change your irons/woods anytime of the year, the ball spends the majority of the time in the air. Change the putter when the greens are at least half decent.

I disagree to a point. I concede that trying to work on holing out from 3-6 foot is difficult and you will get some jumping off line which will skew any stats but I've found our practice green's pace represents those on the course well so working on stuff in the longer 10-30 foot range and some speed control from one end to the other up and down a slope using one ball and holing out is reducing the three putts

 

[PJ87]

I disagree to a point. I concede that trying to work on holing out from 3-6 foot is difficult and you will get some jumping off line which will skew any stats but I've found our practice green's pace represents those on the course well so working on stuff in the longer 10-30 foot range and some speed control from one end to the other up and down a slope using one ball and holing out is reducing the three putts

Add on top in the UK the weather seems to be rubbish 70% of the time so winter is almost the norm

Our place the greens are pretty much the same all year round bar obviously the wetness they have on the day. But they roll true and are in tip top condition

 

[Voyager EMH]

If you balance the putter shaft on your finger with the face pointing up, then let gravity show you how much toe-hang there is. You let it hang and the face is pointing straight at the sky, it's face-balanced. If the toe drops lower than the heel it's toe-hang.

Thanks for this.
Tried it on more than ten of my putters - they are all toe hang.
I will guess that all the ones in the loft (more than ten again) are the same.
I've probably never held a face balance putter in my hands. Could be why I was not aware of the two types.

Does anyone know if any of these players ever won a major with a face balance putter?
Palmer, Player, Nicklaus, Trevino, Faldo, Ballesteros, Mickelson, Woods.

 

[Orikoru]

Thanks for this.
Tried it on more than ten of my putters - they are all toe hang.
I will guess that all the ones in the loft (more than ten again) are the same.
I've probably never held a face balance putter in my hands. Could be why I was not aware of the two types.

Does anyone know if any of these players ever won a major with a face balance putter?
Palmer, Player, Nicklaus, Trevino, Faldo, Ballesteros, Mickelson, Woods.

I don't think it's ever documented, other than what putter they used and you can go and look that up I suppose. Tiger's famous Scotty looks like it'd be a slight toe-hang. I remember Mickelson using a heel-shafted putter that would have been full toe-hang.

I don't even know when face-balanced putters first became a thing - I'd imagine the putters of 50 years were just naturally toe-hang by default, since they were mostly blade styles, unless you had your centre-shafted ones back then.

 

[PJ87]

Thanks for this.
Tried it on more than ten of my putters - they are all toe hang.
I will guess that all the ones in the loft (more than ten again) are the same.
I've probably never held a face balance putter in my hands. Could be why I was not aware of the two types.

Does anyone know if any of these players ever won a major with a face balance putter?
Palmer, Player, Nicklaus, Trevino, Faldo, Ballesteros, Mickelson, Woods.

Did any use a mallet type? Mullet type are face balanced

 

[Voyager EMH]

I don't think it's ever documented, other than what putter they used and you can go and look that up I suppose. Tiger's famous Scotty looks like it'd be a slight toe-hang. I remember Mickelson using a heel-shafted putter that would have been full toe-hang.

I don't even know when face-balanced putters first became a thing - I'd imagine the putters of 50 years were just naturally toe-hang by default, since they were mostly blade styles, unless you had your centre-shafted ones back then.

I have a few centre shafted putters.
I have a Petron U5 like this one, but it turned out to be massively toe hang.



One in the loft that I have not yet tested for toe hang is a Lynx Right Angle #4

 

[Orikoru]

I have a few centre shafted putters.
I have a Petron U5 like this one, but it turned out to be massively toe hang.

View attachment 51981

One in the loft that I have not yet tested for toe hang is a Lynx Right Angle #4

View attachment 51982

Yeah, being centre-shafted doesn't necessarily mean it is face-balanced. I was just thinking for a putter of that age to be face-balanced it might be more by luck than by design. Perhaps @Crow can help us establish when deliberate face-balanced putters started showing up?

 

[Voyager EMH]

Well, whaddayerknow?
The Lynx Right Angle #4 is face balanced. By my naked eye, it even appeared slightly heel-hang, if there is such a thing.
My assertion that I had never handled a face balanced putter was completely wrong.
I've never taken it on a golf course however. I will later this year. Don't like the look or feel of it, though.
Not certain of its date. I can only guess at early to mid 1980s. But I would not be surprised if I'm completely wrong about that as well.

 

[Crow]

Yeah, being centre-shafted doesn't necessarily mean it is face-balanced. I was just thinking for a putter of that age to be face-balanced it might be more by luck than by design. Perhaps @Crow can help us establish when deliberate face-balanced putters started showing up?

The first centre shafted putter that rose to prominence was the Schenectady putter, used by American Walter Travis to win the US Amateur Championship in 1903 and (heaven forbid) the British Amateur Championship in 1904, becoming the first American to do so.

It's said that some at the R&A were so outraged at an American winning that they said the Schenectady putter gave Travis an unfair advantage and this contributed to the R&A amending their rules in 1910, banning centre shafted putters.

The USGA continued to allow their use.

It wasn't until 1951 that the R&A allowed centre shafted putters again and so fell back in line with the USGA.

Coming back to the original question of face balanced putters, I'm not sure that the actual Schenectady putter was, but variations of it must have been.

 

[Singlefiguregokfer]

Did any use a mallet type? Mullet type are face balanced

Not all are.
The TM Spider isn’t.

 

[Orikoru]

The first centre shafted putter that rose to prominence was the Schenectady putter, used by American Walter Travis to win the US Amateur Championship in 1903 and (heaven forbid) the British Amateur Championship in 1904, becoming the first American to do so.

It's said that some at the R&A were so outraged at an American winning that they said the Schenectady putter gave Travis an unfair advantage and this contributed to the R&A amending their rules in 1910, banning centre shafted putters.

The USGA continued to allow their use.

It wasn't until 1951 that the R&A allowed centre shafted putters again and so fell back in line with the USGA.

Coming back to the original question of face balanced putters, I'm not sure that the actual Schenectady putter was, but variations of it must have been.

That's funny, never knew they were temporarily banned. I can't think of any top pros that use centre-shafted putters off the top of my head. Apart from the guys using those LAB broomsticks of course.