Putters, Putters Everywhere

Filed in archive Golf Equipment on January 2, 2007

I was searching for some news on the latest golf equipment so I could pass it along here.

I came across a site called Golf Review.com on which you can read or write reviews of equipment.

I clicked on "putters" and stopped short. I have never seen so many putters listed in my life. There were putters I'd never heard of like the Big Oak Havana or a Bettinardi ( a great name for an Italian sports car). Maybe I'm living in a bubble.

In fact, I quickly surfed over 4 pages of putters - more than 200 - and I still hadn't come to the end of the list.

What is an amateur golfer to do? If I was looking for a new putter and I came across this collection, I wouldn't know where to begin. And, by the way, 95% of them were not reviewed at all, which really isn't surprising.

The default action would be to buy a putter (after trying it, of course) from a well-known manufacturer. But then you run the risk of paying for the name and not the engineering.

A little logic might be in order. Keeping in mind that a putter is meant to tap a golf ball along a smooth surface no more than, say, a hundred feet (the length of most of my birdie putts...), then maybe you don't have to worry too much about the engineering. After all, it's not a driver with which you want to launch a golf ball 230 yards or more.

What's important with a putter is how it looks in your hands as you stare down at the ball, how it feels when you swing it back and forth (how's the balance? Can you feel the putter head? Is it too light or too heavy?) and, probably most critical, whether the shaft is the right length or not. You don't want to be hunched over because your putter is too short - you'll look ridiculous and your back will ache after 3 holes.

In short, I just can't believe anyone needs 200 or more putters from which to choose. You just need one. The one that feels right.

And, in the meantime, I'll keep searching for some meaningful equipment news.