Putters – Cut and Boo….

The most important club in a golfer’s bag is the putter. Getting the right balance and feel in a putter can make all of the difference between being able to sink 3 footers and roll long putts well. And if the putter does not have the right feel and you do not know it, you might think you have poor putting technique when the truth is you have a poorly fitted putter.

But what happens if you find a putter in a store that you like but it is too long for you? Well, your friendly golf club dealer can offer to cut the putter to make it shorter. That sounds like a good idea, so you do it.

But when you do this, you affect the feel of the putter…………..you reduce the “swingweight” of the putter and – unless you compensate for cutting the length – you make the putter feel lighter and have less feel of the putter head.

If you reduce the length of a putter by 1 inch, you need to add about 12 grams of weight to the putter – either lead tape or perhaps putting tungsten powder down the shaft – to compensate for this length change and get the putter head feel that the longer putter had.

So if you need to reduce your putter length, realize that you also need to modify the putter weight so that you keep the right weight feel for the most important club in your bag.

Tony