Fit to be tried: New high-tech tools and methods can help you find the perfect putter

Golf Digest, April, 2001 by Barry Salberg

It's one of golf's hottest topics--custom-fitting. According to research conducted by Golf Digest, 62 percent of golfers in the market for new woods and irons will tell you that custom-fitting ensures buying the best club for you. An even higher percentage of golf retailers--76 percent--say custom-fitting is the most important factor in purchasing new clubs.

But putter fitting is a subject that gets scant attention. The average golfer walks into a shop and is clueless about the right combination of variables that, taken together, can account for 30 to 40 strokes of every round. Some 14 percent of golfers say they play with a putter that was given to them or won at some sort of golf outing. In fact, more than a third of all golfers rate the undeniable yet indefinable concept of "feel" as the main reason they buy one putter over the other, reports the Darrell Survey (see accompanying chart).

"Fitting a putter is probably more important than getting fit for your other clubs," says Dr. Jim Suttie, the PGA of America's Teacher of the Year in 2000 and swing coach of such world-class putters as Loren Roberts. "With a putter you don't have the length of swing or produce the centrifugal force that you do with a wood or iron, so you don't have the chance of compensating during the swing. If you're not setting up to the ball correctly or using a type of putter that doesn't fit you or your putting stroke, those problems are only going to be magnified."

So how do you find the putter that's right for you? The experts say by taking advantage of existing custom-fitting programs for putters--and learning from some of the high-tech dynamic fitting systems developed for tour players by putter makers like Scotty Cameron and Robert Bettinardi.

In recent years the leader in putter fitting at the retail level has been Ping. Available at selected retailers and described on its Web site (www.pinggolf.com), the Ping Putter Fitting System employs a proprietary Putter Fitting Gauge to help calculate correct length, lie, and loft angles as well as key variables like grip styles, shaft bends and putterhead designs. Though Ping's system is largely based on static measurements, Ping putter fitters are trained to monitor dynamics like hand position at impact, body type, the type of putting stroke used, and what kinds of greens--fast or slow, bent grass or Bermuda--the golfer normally plays.

"Static fitting isn't enough," maintains Titleist designer Scotty Cameron. "The second you take the putter back, things change, and you need to know at impact, not at address, what the angles are."

Cameron has set up a state-of-the-art "putter studio" where he has worked with dozens of top players, from Brad Faxon to Dottie Pepper to Tiger Woods. The shop is filled with gizmos and gear, including a 50-foot putting mat brightly lit by camera lights. "His high-speed camera and laser work with face alignment is one of the coolest things I have ever seen in golf R&D," says Pepper.

Woods ranked 120th in putting stats before his fitting session with Cameron. Last year he made practically every putt he looked at, finishing his monumental 2000 season ranked second to Faxon in putts per hole. What does Tiger have access to that, at least for now, the average three-jacker can only dream about?

"We start with measuring the putter that the person comes in with, and check the existing loft, lie, clubhead weight, flex, and overall weight," says Cameron. "Then we go to high-speed video, ball performance, shaft angle, and then an overhead view of the path angle." His research reveals that conditions can change considerably from address to impact. For example, a forward press or variance in stance will have a dramatic effect on the fitting elements. And an ill-fitted putter will have a decided influence on the mechanics of the stroke.

Another advocate of high-tech analysis is Robert Bettinardi, whose milled putters were used by the winners of five PGA Tour events in 2000. The Bettinardi Vision System involves four synchronized cameras to evaluate and measure various elements, as well as to provide a computerized analysis and individual specs. It's used to fit Bettinardi's tour players, with other versions deployed at fitting clinics and demo days held around the country (for details, visit www.bettinardi.com).

"Through film analysis we can catch some things that happen to the putter off the ball, and how the ball reacts off the putterface," says Suttie.

Bettinardi's system keys on "skid" and "squareness." A ball that skids too far along the ground after impact is often indicative of a poor match between a putter's loft and the putting stroke. "The sooner you get the ball rolling, the more accurate the putt will be," says Bettinardi marketing manager Dave De John.

Squareness is the angle of the heel and toe relative to the target line when they make contact with the ball. "If the face is open, it affects the path of the ball," says De John. "If the actual stroke is off in terms of squareness at impact, then the putter can be adjusted." Adds Suttie: "Cameras at ground level can catch a lot of that stuff."