More Toe Hang = Better Feel??

BrendanH · August 2, 2018

I have a bit of a putter conundrum at the moment and I'm hoping you guys can help me validate some thoughts, or steer me in a different direction.

First, a brief history of my flat stick flailing. I have been playing for about 35 years off and on, best index +1.6 but after a lengthy break I am now more like a 10. I have always tended towards a simple Anser-like blade and that is what I used when I was playing my best. Last year I started to play a little more regularly after a lengthy absence and I found my putting was not where I wanted it. I tried many different putters and settled on an Evnroll ER2. I loved how stable it felt in my hands and for a while I made a lot of putts. I still do make quite a few but I have noticed a real problem with distance control on the longer putts. I just can't get a good feel for anything beyond ~20 feet and sometimes I will miss substantially short or long. Other than that, I will occasionally push a short putt, but not often. That is probably more my stroke than anything else.

So, I have a putter fitting/lesson booked for this weekend and I spent an hour or so trying some different putters at a store this morning. I went in there thinking less toe hang may help get rid of the occasional push, and something non-counter-balanced could help with feel for distance control. Oddly, the putter I felt best with was a Scotty Laguna, which has way more toe hang than anything I have putted with before. My accuracy was dead on and the head felt heavier during the stroke. I am putting that down to a greater resistance to squaring up before impact, which I will feel more in my hands as I accelerate. That makes me wonder if more toe hang adds more feel for what the face is doing and as such will help with both accuracy and distance control??

That conclusion seems to contradict at least some of the traditional putter wisdom you typically come across these days so I could use some input on whether I'm on the right track??

Thanks folks!