{"id":5704,"date":"2012-10-13T17:51:42","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T21:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buffalogolfer.com\/wordpress\/?p=5704"},"modified":"2012-10-13T17:51:42","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T21:51:42","slug":"putter-fitting-whats-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buffalogolfer.com\/wordpress\/putter-fitting-whats-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Putter Fitting: What&#8217;s Important"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Tom Tucker teaches all aspects of the golf game at <strong>The Plum Creek Driving Range &amp; Practice Facility<\/strong> in Batavia. His putter fitting tip comes just in time for the gift-giving season. Tom may be found online at <a href=\"https:\/\/go.madmimi.com\/redirects\/1347451288-c667cabd5d7d52f01fa3faa4944519cd-1cb53c6?pa=220836120716292444\" target=\"_new\">http:\/\/www.TomTuckerGolf.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I get a lot of questions about putter fitting, and here&#8217;s the first thing you<br \/>\nshould know &#8211; you should have a firm idea of how you want to stroke putts before<br \/>\nyou get fitted. If you don&#8217;t, take a putting lesson first before you dump money into<br \/>\na putter that might not be optimal for your personal stroke preferences.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In other words get a putting stroke before you get a putter or get fitted for a putter.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have an idea of your preferred technique, here&#8217;s a brief synopsis of how you<br \/>\nshould be fitted. BTW, I&#8217;ll be doing putter fitting indoors over the winter at Plum Creek.<\/p>\n<p>LENGTH<\/p>\n<p>This might be the most important factor, because without the correct length for your<br \/>\nparticular style, your wrist and elbow angles will be incorrect and will effect your<br \/>\nactual stroke. It also helps determine your posture. In the past, the industry<br \/>\nstandard for length for male putters was a putter with a 35&#8243; shaft, but more off the<br \/>\nrack options are available now.<\/p>\n<p>Players that favor a straight back and straight through stroke would need a shorter<br \/>\nshaft than those that prefer an arcing stroke path.<\/p>\n<p>I often recommend a longer shaft (not belly length) with a long (belly) grip, because<br \/>\nI teach an inside to down the line stroke for longer putts, and a straight back and through<br \/>\nstroke for very short putts.\u00a0 The longer grip accommodates different hand positions<br \/>\nfor the different strokes.<\/p>\n<p>LIE ANGLE<\/p>\n<p>The lie of the putter is determined by the correct length, posture, and eye positioning.<br \/>\nLie angle is not as critical with putters as some may lead you to believe, but I do like the<br \/>\nputters to sit flat on the green at address. Robot testing shows that putts from 5 feet to<br \/>\n25 feet are not affected by different lie angles, even when extreme.<\/p>\n<p>However, lie angle is more important for players using belly or broomstick length putters to prevent<br \/>\nfat hits. Yes, you can hit putts fat.<\/p>\n<p>LOFT<\/p>\n<p>The average manufactured loft of a putter is 3.5 degrees, but actual playing loft varies<br \/>\naccording to the players putting technique. Ball position, angle of attack, forward<br \/>\npress etc., all come into play.<\/p>\n<p>Loft is needed to reduce the skid zone on a putt, which is the transition stage<br \/>\nfrom back to top spin, and is the most unstable period of the putt.<\/p>\n<p>Phil Mickleson has putters that are identical except for different lofts for different<br \/>\ngreen conditions, some as low as one degree of loft. John Daly used to use a<br \/>\nputter with over seven degrees of loft when he used to employ an extreme forward<br \/>\npress with his stroke.<\/p>\n<p>GROOVES<\/p>\n<p>Many modern putters have grooves on the face these days, yet many major<br \/>\nmanufacturers have not gotten on board.\u00a0 Limited research seems to indicate that<br \/>\ngrooves can help a ball get into pure roll quicker, so I would be inclined to<br \/>\nbe open minded towards them.<\/p>\n<p>TOTAL WEIGHT<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, there still are not a lot of manufacturers that offer a wide variety<br \/>\nof putter headweight options. Swingweight is not as important to a putter as total<br \/>\nweight, because it is the total weight that gives balance and feel.<\/p>\n<p>THE GRIP<\/p>\n<p>This is where the variety of options is almost overwhelming. The main function of<br \/>\nthe grip is comfort, but it also can influence the wrist action during the putting stroke.<br \/>\nLarger grips reduce wrist action, smaller grips enhance it.<\/p>\n<p>HEAD DESIGN<\/p>\n<p>The shape and style of a putter is extremely personal, but research has shown<br \/>\nthat mallet heads are the most forgiving. The head style can also effect balance,<br \/>\nwhich should be fitted to the stroke.\u00a0 Face balanced putters work best with<br \/>\na straight back and through stroke. Toe hang putters work best with an arcing stroke.<\/p>\n<p>The player should bear in mind that really is no right and wrong in a putter, it&#8217;s<br \/>\ntotally a matter of personal choice, and trial and error is not a bad idea for<br \/>\nchoosing this particular club.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy your golf,<\/p>\n<p>Tom<\/p>\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Tucker teaches all aspects of the golf game at The Plum Creek Driving Range &amp; Practice Facility in Batavia. His putter fitting tip comes just in time for the gift-giving season. Tom may be found online at http:\/\/www.TomTuckerGolf.com I get a lot of questions about putter fitting, and here&#8217;s the first thing you should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tom-tucker"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Putter Fitting: What&#039;s Important &#062; BuffaloGolfer.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/buffalogolfer.com\/wordpress\/putter-fitting-whats-important\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Putter Fitting: What&#039;s Important &#062; BuffaloGolfer.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Tucker teaches all aspects of the golf game at The Plum Creek Driving Range &amp; Practice Facility in Batavia. 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