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Belly putter: Watch what you eat

Thursday, October 6, 2011 Comments
Lost in the hysteria over belly putters these days is one of the most crucial elements in making these things work: Fitting. 

In fact, a survey of Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Best Clubfitters suggests that one of the reasons players may resort to the belly putter in the first place is, unknowingly, because of a poor fitting putter in the first place.

"With the recent peak in interest, those looking are generally trying to 'fix' their poor putting," said Dana Upshaw at Dana Golf in Warner Robins, Ga. "The overwhelming majority of these golfers have a poorly fit putter anyway whether it's an improper lie angle, or the wrong length, or the head's too light or too heavy, or even, and this happens a lot, the grip is on crooked. So there is little chance for them to putt effectively if the belly putter is also misfit."

While belly putters are flying off store shelves (a call to a local Golfsmith store in Norwalk, Conn., revealed belly putters were going out the door almost as fast as they were being delivered), many fitters urge patience to get the right setup. 

"We see fitting the belly putter as strictly custom," says Brandon Collier at Pure Performance Golf Lab. "Not every golfer uses the same length or even same grip. Some do better with a round grip and some do better with a squared off grip. You really need to be custom fit with Tomi or SAM PuttLab to understand which belly putter works best for you."


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More on Mickelson's new long putter

Thursday, September 1, 2011 Comments

Since Phil Mickelson's use of a belly putter has generated so much conversation today, it's only natural to seek out the backstory on the club.

According to Odyssey, Mickelson's belly putter is an Odyssey Sabertooth with a White Hot XG insert. The club is 45.5 inches long with a lie of 70 degrees. The putter also was custom weighted to put more weight behind the face. Lefty worked with Austie Rollinson, Odyssey's principal designer, on the putter.

Here's a close-up photo of Phil's flat stick courtesy of Odyssey:

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Rollinson initially consulted Odyssey PGA Tour rep Johnny Thompson, who was responsible for developing the putter spec used successfully by Keegan Bradley. Mickelson has played with Bradley recently and during practice rounds this year, allowing him to see Bradley's putter up close. After Rollinson and Mickelson spent time in the Odyssey Putting Lab in Carlsbad this week, Rollinson made a couple of slight changes to the putter. The version Mickelson is using in today's pro-am at the Deutsche Bank Championship is a half-inch shorter and 2 degrees more upright than what Bradley used in winning the PGA Championship.

-- E. Michael Johnson

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Stats unclear on the long putter debate

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 Comments
With three wins in three weeks, the long/belly/anchored putter buzz is going viral. I recently chatted with one manufacturer who suggested retailers are trying to order belly and long putters "by the thousands."

In other words, what we have here is classic media-induced frenzy. Golf's answer to a flash mob. The belief is that the longer putter is not merely a miracle cure for the deeply afflicted poor putter, but also is quite simply a better idea that every golfer should adopt in much the same way as he switched to Softspikes or metal drivers. Nick Price, who switched to a belly length putter last year and won with it, thinks the trend isn't necessarily a given but the technique does work. 

"The belly putter isn't the easy cure that a lot of people think it is. It still requires a lot of practice," Price told John Paul Newport in the Wall Street Journal."But it simplifies the fundamentals of putting so much that increasingly guys who have putting problems or inconsistencies are going to end up turning to it."

But do the stats suggest an overwhelming advantage for players who switch to a putting stroke that anchors the putter to some portion of their thoraxes? Adam Scott has been noteworthy for his switch in February to a "broomstick" long putter. In 2010, he ranked 136th in putting average. This year, he's 81st. Of course, maybe he's just hitting the ball closer to the hole. How's he rank in 3-putt Avoidance, where the longer putter might excel in those nervous, potentially yip-filled situations? A year ago he was 188th, this year, he's 172nd. Hardly alarming. What about those short putts, like say 4-footers? He was 183rd last year, 174th this year. You would think he'd gone from 183rd to 2nd, no?


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Will Bradley's win prompt a rush on long putters?

Monday, August 15, 2011 Comments

blog_bradley_putter_0815.jpgBy winning the PGA Championship at Atlanta AC, Keegan Bradley became the first player to win a major with a long putter.

Now before folks get all worked up. This means one of the Grand Slam events. There have been senior majors won with long putters (Charles Coody, Bruce Lietzke and, most recently, Bernhard Langer) and Angel Cabrera won the Masters in 2009 using a belly-length putter (although he did not stick it in his stomach). And although Bradley calls it a "belly putter" and uses it as such, in our mind it's the length of the club, not the technique used, that matters. Bradley's Odyssey White Hot XG Sabertooth with a double-bend ski-pole shaft is 46.75 inches long -- or just more than two inches shy of Adam Scott's 49-inch Scotty Cameron by Titleist broomstick. That qualifies.

Of course, Paul Runyan started this whole thing. In the 1936 Belmont Open held in Boston, Runyan used the forebearer of the belly putter by sticking his putter in his stomach and widening his stance for balance in the wind. When he found after a while that he couldn't find the touch on longer putts, he lengthened his putter. Runyan later wrote in Golf Digest something that seemed to side with the point of view that broomsticks should be swept away because they provided an advantage for those feeling nerves on the greens.

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Long putter talk: Wonder drug or cell phone?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011 Comments
If we're going to go forward with the idea that the long putter is chosen because of some kind of affliction, it's worth noting some comments from a couple of those who've chosen to adopt the long putter recently. Reading these makes one wonder: Is the long putter more like a wonder drug (curing an illness) or a cell phone (a smarter solution that helps all perform a task simpler, smarter and better, particularly those most adept at adopting to the new technology)? 

From his press conference today, here is Adam Scott's assessment for why he switched:

"Well, it wasn't one specific tournament or anything or I reached boiling point.
I came back from the Hawaiian events this year early in the year, and I lost my rhythm quickly when I was in Hawaii with the putting.  Frustrating, because one day it's there and the next day it's not, and that's kind of how the whole of 2010 went.  I think my coach, Brad, had seen enough of that, and he knew how frustrated I was, because the rest of my game was in good shape.


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Clubfitting: Don't forget the putter!

Thursday, June 16, 2011 Comments
When we mention the term "fitting" in this space, is your first thought "Drivers"? Maybe "irons"? There might even be a few golfers who think "golf ball."  But it's a rare golfer whose thoughts on fitting initially turn to the putter.

That's unfortunate, because other than the ball, it's the one piece of equipment you use the most, it's the easiest to adjust and it's where you'll see almost immediate results. 

Putter fitting is getting some attention thanks to the increasing availability of devices like the SAM PuttLab, which does for putters what the launch monitor has done for drivers. And putter fitting is gathering more steam with the annoucement by Ping this week of an iPhone App to analyze your putting stroke and help you get in the right putter for your stroke. 

iping.jpg

The iPing Putter App works with the device's imbedded accelerometer and gyroscope to detect the movements in your stroke. The accelerometer determines stroke tempo, while the gyroscope hones in on your stroke's rotational acceleration to determine face angle and stroke type (arc vs. pendulum, for example). It's user friendly and a highly practical training device. The app is a free download from the iTunes App Store for the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch (4th generation). The App works in conjunction with a Ping cradle attachment that clips on to the shaft of your putter just below the grip. The cradle and app will be available June 20. 

The app allows you to both measure and practice your stroke where it provides feedback about the consistency of your face angle at impact, your tempo and the type of stroke you have. It also allows golfers to compare their session results with past efforts, as well as against tour players on the Ping staff. Scores in the measurement mode are used to determine a putting handicap.

Tuesday I spent the day with the team at Pete's Golf in Mineola, N.Y., one of America's 100 Best Clubfitters, and in addition to the usual suspects, they walked me through a putter fitting with the SAM PuttLab device at their shop. What I essentially discovered was that it's a miracle that I ever finish a hole with the ball ending up in the cup. The SAM PuttLab, which works with a small lightweight, tuning fork device that clips to your putter, measures all sorts of movement and calibrated disorientation with your flatstick, including face angle at aim and impact, swing path, impact locations, timing and effective loft. There's a lot in there, and it's probably too much for regular human golfers like me to fully digest and implement, but it can be a motherlode of data for a fitter or a teacher. In short, like a launch monitor, it lets them detect what's wrong and what fix will work.

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After looking at the reams of information communicated to his laptop computer about my stroke, fitter Kevin Gregorios tried to be kind. "The length of your putter is perfect," he said. "I wouldn't change that."

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Need a new putter? Be like Boo

Thursday, January 20, 2011 Comments
We've said it before, we'll say it again. When it comes to equipment decisions, tour players are no different than the rest of us. Take this week's case: Boo Weekley.

Frustrated by his putting (been there, brother), Weekley started searching for a solution in equipment. A change in head style, a change in length and voila, an opening round 65 at the Bob Hope Classic.

How bad was it? He tells us in typical Boo fashion:

"After last week it was so bad I needed a change," he said. "The last 36 holes I felt like I was holding a rattlesnake. I was afraid to even take it back. I felt like I had the yips or something. I didn't know if I was pushing it, pulling it or what was going to happen, I just wanted to get it in the hole and get to the next hole so I could tee off, to get something in my hand I feel comfortable with."

The answer came after some work with the Cleveland/Never Compromise team, and the result was a new model from the Never Compromise Gambler line, 34 inches, an inch longer than the 33-inch Never Compromise GM2 Exchange model he'd been using since his days on the Nationwide tour in 2006.

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"It's a different look. You got to change it up every now and then. You got change the look up. And it's helped out and my old putter was a center shafted putter where it went straight in on the top of the club, where this is a heel shafted putter. And it's solid, it's heavy, it's like my other one, it's heavy like that--I don't know how many grams it is, but it's solid--and I rolled the ball well with it today and unfortunately I left a few out there, but that's part of golf."

Want to change putters, but don't have a team of manufacturers' representatives looking you over? Take the advice of a quality fitter, like Brent Norton at Miles of Golf in Ypsilanti, Mich. 

"When customers walk out of a proper putter fitting, they know what type of putter will complement their stroke, why they miss putts the way they do, and what they need to work on."

Here are the six areas to take a look at. A 65 isn't guaranteed, but anything's got to be better than holding a rattlesnake in your hand. 

--Mike Stachura
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Some quick answers to our readers

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Comments
Checking the recent over-the-transom notes:

Rapete checks in with a Hot List question: "I would like to see comments comparing 2011 Hot List to 2010 Hot List. For example, is there really that much difference in the R9 vs. R11 driver that would justify the extra bucks? Is the Ping G15 from last years list the same as this year?" 

First, the G15 is the same, although note that the G15 Draw version is being fazed out of the line. The K15 is Ping's new solution to those fighting a slice. 

As for R11 vs. R9 and the "justify the bucks" question: To us, it's pretty clear that R11 does things that R9 didn't, specifically the ability to have the setup appearance not be dictated by the rotating hosel and its effect on lie angle, loft and face angle. If those things don't matter to you, or if price is the only thing that matters to you, then you may not be all that intrigued with their current offerings. Let's put it this way, if you update your cell phone more than you update your golf equipment, I'd have to wonder where your priorities are.

See our thoughts on the entire driver category here. 

On the recent purchase of Yes! Golf by Adams Golf at auction, GPPGolfdotcom writes, "Wow, what an incredible deal for Adams, not so much for Yes!" There likely will be more developing on this story next week during the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, but here's one take: Even in the last year, when Yes! Golf was financially uncertain, it was maintaining a small but meaningful share in the marketplace. Even if Adams did nothing but maintain that position, it seems likely it could make up that purchase price in a few years. With Adams' proven track record in R&D, and a solid footing in marketing, there's genuine potential for Adams to do something interesting here. In fact, in the area of picking your battles, I'd take my chances at finding some opportunities for growth for my company in the putter market, rather than trying to find room in the top-heavy, tour-use-driven, investment-heavy driver market. 

--Mike Stachura
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Going once ... going twice ... sold, to Adams Golf!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Comments
OK, that probably wasn't the exact wording used, but the fact is Adams Golf won today's auction for putter maker Yes! Golf (run online via a webcast at the company's headquarters in Denver). According to those with knowledge of the situation, Adams paid $1.5 million to acquire Yes! Golf's assets, including its intellectual property.
 
The future of Yes! was uncertain after the board of Progear Holdings (which did business as Yes! Golf), authorized Francis Ricci, as president and CEO of Yes!, in November to liquidate the assets of the company in the optimal manner. That led to the company filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in United States Bankruptcy Court in Colorado. Court papers dated Dec. 2, 2010 reveal a company bleeding red ink the last three years with losses of $215,942 in 2008, $1,804,713 in 2009 and $1,248,170 this year.

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According to those with knowledge of the situation, Adams was one of six bidders and was the lone existing golf company in the bidding.


The move makes sense for Adams in that the Plano, Texas-based equipment company has previously dipped its toe in the water on putters, but never was able to translate its technological horsepower into commercially successful putters. The Yes! brand comes with an interesting technology story with its grooved face and the visibility of having had two U.S. Open wins with Retief Goosen  and as recently as late September, more headlines in the form of Jim Furyk winning the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup using a used Yes! Sophia he bought at a golf shop for $39.
 
At the time it seemed that might have been the last hurrah for a putter company that had been part of the professional golf scene for the last decade. With Adams' acquisition of the brand, there may be more successes to come.

- E. Michael Johnson
 

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