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In this video, equipment expert Joe Ferguson pits a LAB Golf Mezz.1 Max putter, arguably one of the most cutting-edge designs money can buy, up agains the old school Ping Anser and Wilson 8802 in a series of tests to find out if putter technology makes a real difference or if you should consider investing your money in other areas of your bag!
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Right, lab putters. Now they might be the most talked about club in the game of golf over the
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past two years, full of tech and full of science. But a lot of people think putting is more art than
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science. So let's find out. So I've teamed up with my friends at Golf Clubs for Cash, one of the
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leading retailers of pre-loved equipment in the UK. And I've delved into their archives
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to dig out two of the goats of putting. I've got the Wilson A802, just a pure blade
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and I've got the original Ping Anser. And I'm gonna be putting these putters
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up against one another in a series of little tests to find out how far technology has come
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and if it can actually help you. Right, before we start testing these putters out
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I just wanna talk to you a little bit about the differences and the tech of what we've got in front of us here
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So starting with the Wilson 8802, we could probably split this up into a couple of categories
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We want to go into toe hang first. So this is very much just a pure blade putter
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When I hold this unaided on the shaft and just let that putter hang how it wants to
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the toe pretty much points straight at the ground. We call that like a full toe hang
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What that tends to do is promote a little bit more opening and closing of the face during the stroke
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Then we go up to the Ping Anser. That's kind of in the middle. It's got about a 45 degree toe hang
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You'll notice the face, the toe doesn't point straight down. pointing off to the side a little bit at around that 45 degree angle so that's kind of a mid toe
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hang putter we'd call that and then you get into the lab which we're calling zero torque if i hold
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that on aid it tends to want to orientate itself toe up and what labs suggest is there's zero torque
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force on the putter face so it just wants to match the path of your stroke so it'll be interesting to
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see how that performs from short range the other bit i want to measure here is kind of a stability
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story and to me that generally comes from the depth of the head i always find so if we look
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again at this wilson double 802 when you put it down on the ground you'll see from the leading
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edge to the back edge it's barely over a centimeter in depth when you've got that it's very difficult
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to put masses of moi in moi tends to come from moving that weight back in the head and adding
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stability so again for me that's going to be interesting from long range if i miss hit my putt
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how much am i going to lose from there now the answer also from front to back isn't that deep
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It's a touch deeper than the 8802, but what they have done is they've implemented
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some perimeter weighting. So we've got a bit of heel and toe weight, whereas all the mass is evenly spread
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across that Wilson 8802. So in theory, that should give me a little bit more insurance
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on strike on those longer putts. Then we get into the lab and again clearly this is the deepest front to back We got more depth from the leading edge to the back edge there And we also got these wings which act as perimeter weighting So we
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got a lot of depth, we've got some perimeter weighting. So in theory, this should very much
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be the most stable. But let's not just talk about it, let's test it. And let's go to eight feet
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and I'll tell you why now. 50% of putts from eight foot on the PGA Tour are missed and 50% are hold
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So this should be a good barometer and a good test for these putters. So we're going to hit 10
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with each, I'm going to count up the score and see how they get on. I'm going to start with the 8802 first. This is a relatively straightish uphill putt
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5 out of 10, bang on PGA Tour average. Let's go and try again and let's see how the Ping
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answer gets on
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Okay that's more like it, that was three missed there so seven out of ten
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Let's get on and try again with the lap. I have to say I mean I'm a big proponent of the lab technology and that kind of theory the club
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face doesn't want to rotate away from square in my head that makes a lot of sense there's a lot
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of people who just think zero torque is an option that can be fitted alongside toe hang and stuff
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like that again to me I'm maybe a bit more of an absolutist I just can't fathom a world where I'd
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want my putter to actively rotate away from my path and from short range at
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least that showed out really really well come out on top there at nine out of ten
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so but we all know putting is more than that right so we're not just gonna have
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to hold out from eight feet we're gonna have to do some lag putting and get some feeling and a lot of the tour players I've spoken to actually about zero torque
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have commented to me that they struggle a little bit from longer range because
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they feel like when the face isn't rotating they lose a bit of awareness of where that club head is in time and space and as such lose a little bit of feel
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on those longer putts. Well let's put it to the test. I can see a really nice
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kind of 80 foot uphill swinger here. Let's test all three out against one
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another. How we're going to do it is I'm going to take my little tape measure, we're going to go from the same place, we're going to hit six putts with each, three up, three back
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We're going to measure them all out and the winner of this round will be the
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putter that has the cumulative lowest distance from the hole. I hope that makes sense Let get some putts Right so for the second part of this test we come for a long range putt So this one I found here it that top flag up there on the putting green It the best part of 70 feet up the hill
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up a couple of tiers actually, so this will be a good test for these putters. But before you get in the comments
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and start complaining about it's not a fair test because of the order and stuff
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I agree, it's difficult to get a scientifically spot on test. So I've tried to mix up the order a bit here
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because inevitably I'm gonna learn a little bit about this putt as I go along. So I'm starting with the ping answer
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said i have hit this putt a few times beforehand just to get a feel of it so i know what's going
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on to try and make it as fair as possible so i'm going to do i'm going to hit six putts with each
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of these putters i'm going to hit the first three go up there measure the cumulative distance away
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of each three putts come back hit three more do the same again and the winner of this round is
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going to be the putter obviously that has the lowest cumulative distance let's start with a
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ping answer and roll some away it's going to need hitting up that hill
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Should get a little bit of help off the slope on the right. Hasn't quite made it
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Not bad. Right, let's hit a few and see how we get on
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Right, so that's the first three done at 14 feet cumulatively. So it's 1 foot 5.5 and 7.5 feet
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Right, so that was 24.5 feet the second time round. I didn't really learn much there, that's
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not great. 24.5 and 14 is 38.5 feet to beat for the other two. Let's go with the lad next
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Okay, so 15 and a half feet there, cumulatively. I thought it was a bit better than that
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The one I thought I'd miss hit didn't quite make it as far up as I'd like and left me
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I think it was eight and a half feet. So 15 and a half. The first lot of the ping was 14 and a half, so I'm behind schedule
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So let's see how the second lot goes. Right, I've got to do my maths here
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It's at 17 feet in total for the second lot, 15 and a half for the first, so 32 and a half feet
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Let's see how that Wilson 8802 gets on. Right so 16 and a half feet to start with so very similar to the first two
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So, yeah, it's crunch time, let's see if the olden can come up trumped on the last three putts
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Right, well that's put the cat amongst the pigeons
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I was on 16 and a half feet and I was cooking on gas there with those next two
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Well, just under two feet, so we'll add that one, so that's two feet together
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And nine feet, eleven feet to go with 16 and a half feet is 27 and a half feet
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a comprehensive victory for the wilson double 802 there right outros and summaries are usually a
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little bit easier than this but that was as you've seen relatively inconclusive in terms of the shorter
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putting test that was more comprehensive the lab was pretty much bulletproof there nine out of ten
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was a great performance in that regard and i have to say i really did notice the difference of
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the face awareness or the face not wanting to move away from square it felt a little bit more
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automatic to me in terms of just pointing, pulling the trigger, not manipulating face
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and the ball was starting on line. With particularly the 8802, which scored a little bit lower
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that was 5 out of 10, I did feel like I was trying to have to find square a little bit. I could
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actively sort of feel that putter, and that's a really strong example of toe hang, but I could
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feel it kind of working against me and trying to have to re-find square from when I set up
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However, then, when we went to the longer range test, the Wilson 8802 was brilliant. I nearly
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hold three of them and it comprehensively won that test which is against what I thought might
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happen based on the strike discrepancies and the lack of MOI and stability so it really put the cat
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amongst the pigeons for me there but I think you'll agree that's a pretty small sample size
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it's not a hugely scientific test it's just a little glance at what's possible so I have to say
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make a bit what you will draw your own conclusions from it but I have to say I really did enjoy
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putting with these older putters. The feel of the face of the Ping Anser was just beautiful
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really lively. It's got that very familiar Ping Ting. And actually on the longer putts with the
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802, I really enjoyed the feel of flow of the toe through the straight, which might have something
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to do with the results. Like I said, I don't know what to make of it. I'm going to leave you to draw
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your own conclusions. But if you are in the market for any secondhand equipment, there's some
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brilliant bargains and some great old clubs on the Golf Clubs for Cash website, so get yourself over
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