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Mistakes Golfers Make When Buying A Putter
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Apr 1, 2025
Golf Monthly Staff writer and PGA Pro Joe Ferguson runs through the 6 most common mistakes golfers make when buying a new putter! With so much choice on the market, it can be easy to not consider everything you need to and overlook some key areas when it comes to ensuring your new putter is perfectly matched to you. Hopefully this video will ensure you don't make the mistakes some golfers make when choosing a new flat stick.
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Right, we all know that putting is one of the most important parts of the game for your score
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but I still see so many avoidable mistakes when people are buying new putters
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For this video, we've teamed up with Odyssey, and they've provided us with some gorgeous models from their AI1 range
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so let's take a look and see if we can help you make some better choices. First mistake I often see happens long before we even think about the putter we're going to use
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It's to do with the golf ball. Take this for example, I found a beautiful model that I love the look of here. It's the AI1 number 7
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Sits great, feels great and I've been holding putts all over the place with it
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But I've just noticed I've been using the Chrome Tour golf ball and my game would be the Chrome Tour X golf ball
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So I've had all these great results and I'm going to order this putter but when it arrives
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I might get a significantly different feel because those are two very different feeling golf balls
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different golf balls will come off the putter face at different speeds which
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can affect your distance control so it's not just a field thing it can actually
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be a performance thing so the remedy for this is make sure when you're trying a
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putter either just knocking it around in the pro shop or even in a custom fitting use your gamer golf ball so you can marry up the field and the distance
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control and you don't have to make an adjustment further down the line
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Another mistake I see a lot is people buying their putter purely on looks, not really understanding
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the functionality. For example, these two putters here, at first glance, look identical, but they're actually
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designed for very different stroke types, and I'll show you why. The putter I've got here is actually a face-balanced putter, but what does that mean
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Well, if I hold it unaided, and I just hold it at its balance point there, you'll see how the putter face is pointing pretty much straight up at the sky. Now this face balance
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style of putter doesn't want to rotate too much during the stroke, so it tends to suit
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people with a very square to square path who don't want to see too much opening and closing
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However on the same head I've got a slightly different shorter slant neck here which gives
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us what is essentially a toe hang putter. So again, I'm holding it unaided there when
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I can find the balance point and the toe is pointing more down at the ground. Now, putter
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putters can have different degrees of this toe hand and what that does is encourage a bit more face rotation through the stroke and that tends to suit people with a bit more of a pronounced arc so it really important you match
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that up with your stroke type but how do you find out what stroke type you've got now the smart and
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precise way of doing this is to head to your local pga professional who will get you on some
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technology like sand putt lab quintic ball roll capto those types of things and give you an exact
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quantifiable number for your face rotation and your arc and they'll be able to make a really good recommendation of what style is going to work best for your
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stroke but if for any reason that's out of your reach either financially or geographically there is another way you can begin to get a good starting point
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for what style of putter might work for you. Simply get a friend to video your
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stroke in slow motion from a vertical position ideally you put something like
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an alignment stick down here and just make a nice uninhibited stroke and
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And you'll begin to see, when you look at it back in slow motion, how far your putter is coming away from that line and how much the face is rotating
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Now, it's not an exact science by any measure, this, but it might just give you a better idea of your stroke and where to begin your putter search
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Another mistake that I see a lot of times is people not considering the grip that they've got on their putter
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Now, it's the only point of contact you've got with this putter, so it's absolutely crucial to get right
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Nowadays there's so many different shapes, textures and sizes of grip it can be very difficult to know where to start
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and it's not just feel that it affects, it can actually influence performance
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For example, a lot of people using thicker grips have found that really useful to
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minimise the effect of the hands controlling the clubface and particularly useful on those shorter putts
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However, some people also feel that the thicker grips can impede feel a little bit and lose a bit of distance control on those longer putts
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so there can be a little bit of a trade-off. Another thing that people don't think about is grip weight
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There's such a variety. You can get grips from 50 grams to well over 100 grams
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and that can have a dramatic effect on the feel of the club through swing weight
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Essentially, if you put a lighter grip on the club, the swing weight of the club will increase
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because the bulk of the mass is distributed down the head end then
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Conversely if you get a very heavy grip you can start to lose the feel of the putter head because it feels lighter from a swing weight point of view because there more mass at the butt end It really important you get this right for the feel that you want and again a good custom
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fitter will be able to guide you through that process. Before we get on to the next mistake, if I can ask you if you're enjoying this video
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please hit the like button, subscribe to the channel so you can see all of the upcoming
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videos and comment down below if you ever made any big mistakes when buying a putter
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One of the most underthought about areas of the putter is the shaft. We've all spent ages procrastinating over which style, flex, weight
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bend point of driver shaft we need, but I'd wager that many of you out there
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have never even considered the shaft in your putter. Well, companies over the last few years have put a lot more research into this area
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particularly someone like Odyssey with their Stroke Lab 90 shaft. This is a very lightweight steel shaft that features 20 to 30 grams of counterweighting
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depending on what weight of head it's going into. There's graphite shafts available, there's different flexes and different profiles, all the way through putting
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And as the vessel that carries the impact feel all the way up here to your hands
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it's one of the biggest influences on feel and it's a real opportunity to fine-tune that
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So make sure you have a real think about what shaft is going to work best in the putter that you select
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Another thing that people overlook when selecting a putter is the multitude of styles available now
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and I don't just mean the different types of heads I mean styles of putting. Switch on any PGA
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Tour golf and for everyone you see putting with a normal length putter right below left you'll see
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at least as many people using some more unconventional methods such as broom handle
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arm lock or even this cruiser model here that I've got from Odyssey. So this is the cruiser
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number seven. And what's different about this? Well for starters it's longer. So
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standard putters tend to come in around the 34 inch mark. This is 38 inches and
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this introduces a bit of counterbalance. It's heavier than a standard putter in
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all places. The grip's heavier, the head's heavier and the shaft heavier here. So
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most of the Odyssey range has the Stroke Lab 90. This has a 140 gram version. And
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the idea with this cruiser putter is the weight distribution where it put around the putter it helps the putter swing really freely and uninhibited It almost like it swinging itself and it done a really good job for the likes of Ricky Fowler and Wyndham
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Clark over the last couple of years and when I think of the effect the broom handle and things
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like that have had on their careers of people like Will Zalatoris and Lucas Glover I think if you're
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not considering one of these more unconventional styles you might be doing yourself a disservice
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And finally, the biggest thing I see that people don't pay enough attention to is alignment
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You can have the most glorious putting stroke owned over hours of practice, but if you can't
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point your putter at the intended target, then you're not going to hold many putts
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And the important part about getting your putter aligned correctly is selecting the correct alignment cue
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And what do I mean by alignment cue or alignment aid? Well, take this Odyssey 2 ball for example
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This is one of the most blatantly clear alignment aids you can get in golf and it's really stood
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the test of time. We've got these two balls here that you simply line the third ball up with to show you the
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intended start direction and get your face square. On this model they've gone a step further and they put the tall line through it as well
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for those you see a little bit more in straight lines. Now Odyssey offer a multitude of alignment cues from small lines in the flange of a putter
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to lines on the leading edge, and some models with no alignment aids whatsoever
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And it's important they do that because we all see square very differently
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What I can line up well, you might really struggle with, and vice versa
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But how do you figure out what alignment cue is gonna work best for you
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Well, the most accurate way, and this is the answer to a lot of the problems, the most avoidable problems
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that we've mentioned in this video, is to go for a putter fitting
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Now, a good fitter will try you out with a number of different models with all sorts of different alignment cues
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and use a laser to accurately figure out what you're aiming the best
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and what you're aiming most consistently. But once again, if that's out of your reach
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you can use your friends to help you with that. Simply just getting someone to crouch down behind you
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you're telling them where you think you're aiming the putter blade, and they can give you the feedback
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as to where you actually are aiming it, or if you don't trust them, make sure they use a phone so you can prove it
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That's another really good way to make sure you've got an alignment aid that is accurately aiming that putter blade for you
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Right I hope that's helped. Avoid those mistakes and go and hold some putts
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