Putter fitting
Sixty minutes, $110, run on a real green surface rather than a strip of carpet. Forty percent of your strokes go through this club and most golfers have never had it measured.
Length is wrong more often than anything else
Stock putters come at 34 or 35 inches. That length was standardised for a tall adult male and has been applied to everyone since. A large share of the golfers we fit — particularly women and anyone under about five foot six — end up between 31 and 33 inches.
Too long and you stand too far from the ball, your eyes sit outside the target line, and you perceive the line as further right than it is. Golfers in this situation compensate by pulling putts, then work on their stroke for years to fix a hardware problem. Cutting an inch off is a fifteen-minute job and occasionally the most valuable thing that happens in a session.
What we measure
Loft matters more than people think
A putter needs a few degrees of loft to lift the ball out of its own resting depression and start it rolling. But if you press your hands forward at address you may be delivering the face with negative loft, driving the ball into the turf and producing a hop before the roll begins. That is a distance-control problem disguised as a green-reading problem.
Head weight and Charleston greens
Heavier heads suit slower greens and golfers with a jumpy short stroke; lighter heads suit fast greens and a smooth tempo. Around here the greens change speed considerably between a July afternoon and a February morning, and between a muni and a private club.
We keep counterweights and head weights on hand so you can feel the difference in a few minutes. It is one of the cheapest adjustments in golf and one of the least offered anywhere in town.
Blade, mallet, and the arc argument
The conventional guidance says a strong arc stroke suits a toe-hang blade while a straight-back stroke suits a face-balanced mallet. It is a decent starting point and it is not a law. Plenty of golfers putt beautifully with the "wrong" combination because it fits how they see the line.
We test the conventional match, then test the opposite, then let the ten-footers decide. Gwen runs most of these sessions and will watch you putt for a while before touching anything.
Keeping the putter you love
Most putter sessions do not end in a new putter. Length, lie, loft, weight, and grip are all adjustable on the club already in your bag, and if you have a sentimental attachment to it we would rather modify it than replace it. A twenty-year-old putter set up correctly beats a new one set up wrong, every time.
Book a putter session
Sixty minutes, $110. Most adjustments are made the same day while you are here.