Enhance Your Feel with an Insert Putter (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Enhance Your Feel with an Insert Putter (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

A lot of golfers ask me, “Pete, you’re a good putter; tell me which putter I should buy. Should I buy your putter?” And then they pick my putter up and they look at it and they go, “I don’t like that.” So, there’s no real good in the professional giving you advice on exactly the putter that you should use because a putter is a very personal thing. What I like the next guy doesn’t like. And this is what you see on PJ Tour when you watch the guys on the TV. They’ve got every different sizes and shape of putter going. So, there’s no one size fit all in terms of what’s the best putter for you. But the important thing when you go looking for a putter is you understand the differences between the putters and why they might be more or less suitable for your game.

One of the things we’re going to talk about now is the insert, the face insert on the front of the club. Now you can see my putter doesn’t have a face insert, yet if I pick up this other branded putter you’ll see here the white Insert in the face. So that’s a different material from the rest of the head and we call that the face insert. So, there’s different reasons for using face inserts and different reasons why they might work for you. Generally the face insert is going of give a softer feel on contact in relation to a non-inserted putter. Now a softer feel might feel nice as you hit it, but it might also give you a different roll on the ball. So, here is the break down; if you generally hit the ball short of the hole or you play on relatively slow greens, I would suggest you’re better without a face insert at all. Because the softer green – sorry, the softer material on the face is going to bring the ball short of the hole and if you’re playing on slow greens that’s going to encourage you to hit it harder. So, when you’re playing slow greens maybe even in the winter time when the greens aren’t rolling as quick, I would suggest non-inserted putters might be better for you. Then as you go to the faster greens and you move into the summer or if you are a golfer that often hits the ball too far, races over the path – over past the hole, or you like a real soft feel when you hit the putt maybe it would be better to put a face insert in there. Now often this insert is actually made urethane, the same material the golf ball is made of. So the two contact each other. They feel lovely and soft when you hit it, but just be careful if you’re now leaving all of your putts short and you’re having to really whack them to get them back up to the hole, maybe an insert isn’t exactly the right thing for yourself. Or possibly you should try a slightly firmer insert. So, you have a soft insert, you have a firm insert or you have no insert at all. So, get yourself down the local fitting centre or professional shop, try out a few different putters and work out which is the best insert or no insert at all for the way you play the game. 2014-01-20

A lot of golfers ask me, “Pete, you’re a good putter; tell me which putter I should buy. Should I buy your putter?” And then they pick my putter up and they look at it and they go, “I don’t like that.” So, there’s no real good in the professional giving you advice on exactly the putter that you should use because a putter is a very personal thing. What I like the next guy doesn’t like. And this is what you see on PJ Tour when you watch the guys on the TV. They’ve got every different sizes and shape of putter going. So, there’s no one size fit all in terms of what’s the best putter for you. But the important thing when you go looking for a putter is you understand the differences between the putters and why they might be more or less suitable for your game.

One of the things we’re going to talk about now is the insert, the face insert on the front of the club. Now you can see my putter doesn’t have a face insert, yet if I pick up this other branded putter you’ll see here the white Insert in the face. So that’s a different material from the rest of the head and we call that the face insert.

So, there’s different reasons for using face inserts and different reasons why they might work for you. Generally the face insert is going of give a softer feel on contact in relation to a non-inserted putter. Now a softer feel might feel nice as you hit it, but it might also give you a different roll on the ball.

So, here is the break down; if you generally hit the ball short of the hole or you play on relatively slow greens, I would suggest you’re better without a face insert at all. Because the softer green – sorry, the softer material on the face is going to bring the ball short of the hole and if you’re playing on slow greens that’s going to encourage you to hit it harder. So, when you’re playing slow greens maybe even in the winter time when the greens aren’t rolling as quick, I would suggest non-inserted putters might be better for you. Then as you go to the faster greens and you move into the summer or if you are a golfer that often hits the ball too far, races over the path – over past the hole, or you like a real soft feel when you hit the putt maybe it would be better to put a face insert in there.

Now often this insert is actually made urethane, the same material the golf ball is made of. So the two contact each other. They feel lovely and soft when you hit it, but just be careful if you’re now leaving all of your putts short and you’re having to really whack them to get them back up to the hole, maybe an insert isn’t exactly the right thing for yourself. Or possibly you should try a slightly firmer insert. So, you have a soft insert, you have a firm insert or you have no insert at all. So, get yourself down the local fitting centre or professional shop, try out a few different putters and work out which is the best insert or no insert at all for the way you play the game.