A Putter Bending Experiment!
Changing Your Putter Lie Angle
Can Change How Your Putter Performs!
Experiments can be the best teachers – and so I thought this week I would share a "small" putter bending experiment I performed last week. I did a SAM PuttLab session with a local golf professional. He wanted to compare three of his putters, and see which putter produces the best results. One of the putters was a clear winner in terms of aim, face at impact, and stroke consistency.
However – as you can see from the image above – at impact the lie angle of his putter was up in the air by about 7 degrees at impact. Though he achieved great SAM PuttLab, he wondered if his putting might improve even more if I flattened the lie angle of his putter by about 7 degrees.
You may recall that putters can differ by the amount of Toe Hang they have, and different golfers may benefit from different amounts of Toe Hang. The two most often seen types of putters are ones that are Face Balanced, and ones that have some amount of Toe Hang. The major factor that produces Toe Hang is where the axis of the putter shaft points related to the Center of Mass of the putter face.
So, I had a putter that I could use for some experimenting. It started out as Face Balanced. I reduced the lie angle of the putter by about 6 degrees, and checked to see what the balance was – and it became Toe Up! Really this should not have been a big surprise, since the bend caused the shaft to point ahead of the Center of Mass of the putter head. But it was still a great learning experience for me.
Bottom Line – be careful if you are thinking of changing the lie angle of your putter by a large amount – certainly by 6 degrees. You may, without knowing it, also change an important performance characteristic of your putter.
Taking YOUR Game To New Heights!
Tony
