Finding a Putter that Works for You (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Finding a Putter that Works for You (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

So when it comes to choosing a putter, there are a lot of different factors that go into it and its very difficult for me to actually tell you which putter will be better for you. Best thing for you to do is go out to a shop that has a nice big wide selection of putters and just work your way down the line and try different types. One of the times you’ll pick up a putter, it will just sit behind the ball nicely, it will rock backwards and forwards nicely with a good grip and a good weight and when you strike the ball that will feel nicely.

Like I say, it’s very difficult to quantify what’s good about that putter; the different things you’ll be looking at would be the grip, the length, the weight of the club. What the club looks like, whether the club has an offset in the neck or whether the neck is straight into the putter, whether the club is a phase balance putter. Now phase balancing is this issue that if I balance this putter, you can see the toe end hangs downward slightly yet if I change putters and hold this one, the toe edge sits a lot more level when I do that.

So a phase balanced putter wants the toe to set nice and leveled rather than to hang down to the floor. When I make a putting stroke with a phase balance putter, it would encourage the club to swing in a straight line backwards and forwards where as a heel shafted or heel weighted putter like this one would be inclined to swing a little bit more of a curving kind of stroke. So one of those putters would suit your stroke if you have a slightly in to out gaited action where as if you’re straight back and straight through, that maybe is more suitable to a phase balanced putter, so you’ll try a few putters out, some will feel nice, some won’t feel nice. Now once you got the idea that you’re a phase balanced or a heel weighted putter, whether you’re a bladed putter kind of guy or whether you’re a mallet putter kind of guy, the next thing would be to make sure you get the one with the right phase insert. Some manufacturers just go for a straight forward steel phase or there’s now similar to this putter here, have a little sort of phase insert on there. And that can determine how you feel when you hit the ball, the type of ball that you hit and also the type of greens that you play on.

If you’re playing on very fast slick summer greens, it’d probably be better to use a softer inserted putter so that when you hit ball, it doesn’t come off quite so quick and it gives you a bit more feedback and feel. Yet if you’re playing on very slow longer winter greens, a slightly firmer material in the phase that you can zip through the ball with a little bit more club hand speed and still get a nice contact on the ball, rolling the ball quicker towards the hole. So dependent on your stroke, dependent on your budget I guess, dependent on what looks better and what feels better, try out a few different clubs, try and work on feeling in your stroke so that it feels good. A feeling when you strike the ball it feels good, one that’s going to seat the right type of greens. And if you look at Thomasgolf.com, they’ve got a good selection of putters there and a good explanation of which putter would suit your stroke.

 2012-06-07

So when it comes to choosing a putter, there are a lot of different factors that go into it and its very difficult for me to actually tell you which putter will be better for you. Best thing for you to do is go out to a shop that has a nice big wide selection of putters and just work your way down the line and try different types. One of the times you’ll pick up a putter, it will just sit behind the ball nicely, it will rock backwards and forwards nicely with a good grip and a good weight and when you strike the ball that will feel nicely.

Like I say, it’s very difficult to quantify what’s good about that putter; the different things you’ll be looking at would be the grip, the length, the weight of the club. What the club looks like, whether the club has an offset in the neck or whether the neck is straight into the putter, whether the club is a phase balance putter. Now phase balancing is this issue that if I balance this putter, you can see the toe end hangs downward slightly yet if I change putters and hold this one, the toe edge sits a lot more level when I do that.

So a phase balanced putter wants the toe to set nice and leveled rather than to hang down to the floor. When I make a putting stroke with a phase balance putter, it would encourage the club to swing in a straight line backwards and forwards where as a heel shafted or heel weighted putter like this one would be inclined to swing a little bit more of a curving kind of stroke. So one of those putters would suit your stroke if you have a slightly in to out gaited action where as if you’re straight back and straight through, that maybe is more suitable to a phase balanced putter, so you’ll try a few putters out, some will feel nice, some won’t feel nice. Now once you got the idea that you’re a phase balanced or a heel weighted putter, whether you’re a bladed putter kind of guy or whether you’re a mallet putter kind of guy, the next thing would be to make sure you get the one with the right phase insert. Some manufacturers just go for a straight forward steel phase or there’s now similar to this putter here, have a little sort of phase insert on there. And that can determine how you feel when you hit the ball, the type of ball that you hit and also the type of greens that you play on.

If you’re playing on very fast slick summer greens, it’d probably be better to use a softer inserted putter so that when you hit ball, it doesn’t come off quite so quick and it gives you a bit more feedback and feel. Yet if you’re playing on very slow longer winter greens, a slightly firmer material in the phase that you can zip through the ball with a little bit more club hand speed and still get a nice contact on the ball, rolling the ball quicker towards the hole. So dependent on your stroke, dependent on your budget I guess, dependent on what looks better and what feels better, try out a few different clubs, try and work on feeling in your stroke so that it feels good. A feeling when you strike the ball it feels good, one that’s going to seat the right type of greens. And if you look at Thomasgolf.com, they’ve got a good selection of putters there and a good explanation of which putter would suit your stroke.