The Loop

Stop guessing which putter is best for you. Go get fit for one instead

January 23, 2014

ORLANDO -- "Oh no. Oh no, no," Rock Wu, a Managing Director of Areso Golf, said after I pointed to the kind of toe-heavy, half-mallet putter I've used most of my life. "Scientists usually don't like these putters because it's a really old model. Very hard to control."

Like most golfers out there, I had never been fit for a putter before -- which doesn't really make much sense. It is, after all, the most important club in the bag. That's how I gravitated towards Areso, a German company that measures, diagnosis then fits a golfer to a putter model that suits them best.

The whole process takes about 20 minutes; the staff attach sensors to your club, make sure you're lined up correctly and have you hit seven putts. Once the results come back, you hit another seven putts with an Areso putter more suited to your game. My prescription? A 35 inch, face-balanced mallet with 4 degrees of loft and a lie angle of 70 degrees.

"Selecting a putter used to be a shot in the dark," Wu said. "Now, it's about science."

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