Golf Australia – August 2019

T

hereisnooneperfectwaytohita

putt–justlikedriversandirons,

everygolferhastheirown

uniquewayofpresentingthe

putterfacetotheballatimpact.

Impactthoughtakesafractionofasecondand

because 75 percentofwheretheballrollstois

determinedbytheaimofthefaceatimpact,

therereallyisn’tmuchroomforerror.

Thankstoimprovementsinanalysis

technology,putterfittingswithlaunchmonitors

arebecomingmuchmorereadilyavailable.And

wereckonifyou’relookingatinvestinginanew

flatstickyoureallyshouldgetfittedforit,too.

Thebestputtinglaunchmonitorscapture

thousandsofframesasecond,andrevealexactly

howaputtbehavesatimpact,aswellasshowing

howfaritskidsbeforestartingtorollacrossthe

green’ssurface.

Justlikeadriverorironfitting,therearekey

numbersyoureallyneedtobeawareofwhen

gettingaputterlaunchmonitorfitting.Here’s

whatyouneedtoknow.

strikepointThankstolaunchmonitortechlike

ForesightSports’GCQuad,youcannowseewhere

everyputtimpactstheputterface;it’sthesame

technologyTaylorMadeusedonwoodswhen

theycameupwithTwistFace.Knowingwhereyou

typicallyimpactputtsis crucial;youreallywantto

keepaneyeondeviationtomaximiseconsistency.

FaceAngleSelf-explanatory;ideallyit shouldbe

ascloseaspossibleto0°.A squarefaceangle

meansyou’rebacktopointingtheputterbladeat

thetargetyouaimedat.Over 90 percentofthestart

directionofa puttis determinedbyfaceangleat

impact...soit’simportanttogetyoursassquareto

yourtargetaspossible.

Launch Angle To get the ball rolling smoothly you

needtoimpact putts on the upstroke, but ideally by

nomore than 1.5°. You defi nitely don’t want to hit

puttswith a downward stroke.

Ballspeed It’s highly likely, like us, you’ll see

a difference in ball speed switching between

insertand non-insert putters, but the fact there’s

a difference isn’t important. What is crucial is

lookingat deviation. For consistency it wants to be

aslowas possible. Poor numbers see more than

1mphdifference, while an elite player can expect a

deviation of less than 0.35mph.

Launch spin All of our test putters came out with

averages of topspin, but some golfers will get

backspin (it all depends on your technique), which

isn’tideal if you’re after true, smooth-running putts.

Measured in rpm just like a driver, the higher the

forward number you can get the better.

Efficiency or Smash Factor Just like a driver,

eachputt is awarded a measure of how effi cient

it washit. What you’re looking for here is

Availableon

Spider Mini (Face

balanced – ¾ shaft offset);

Spider Tour Double Bend

DOUBLE BEND

The traditional shaft/hosel set

p for mallets. Like single bends it’s

shaft that’s bent, not the hosel. The

blebend sets the putter’s head behind

hands and helps designers with face

ancing, which usually means double-

d models suit straighter strokes. The

choice between double and single

bends comes down to cosmetics

more than performance.

T

here’salmostasmany

di€erenthoseldesigns

nowadaysasthereare

putters.Eacho€ersnotonly

adi€erentlook,butalters

toehangandgivesvaryingamountsofo€se

Here,weuseTaylorMade’scomprehensive

line-upofflatstickstoshowcasethemost

commonhoselset-upsyou’llfindonaputte

rack,andexplainhowtheycaninfluence

yourperformanceonthegreens.

H

HOSEL

Howthatshaft-headjoin

affects performance

I

IMPACT

BYSIMONDADDOW

Available on

TP Collection Red

Ardmore (face balanced

• centre shaft)

52 AUGUST 2019 | golf australia

A Z OF PUTTING