DIY Putter Fitting

[RickAstley]

Just spent a lot of money getting fitted and buying new irons, wedges and driver. Will get a true putter fitting next year if needed but not in the cards at the moment so I’ve been reading about at home fittings and checks. Some things make me seem like this is a good fit, others make it seem like I might need a small tweak. 
 

current putter: Scotty California Del Mar 34”, lie angle 70ish (trig of length and measured height on wall when putter was flat. Yay math!)

measurements:

height: 6’

wrist to floor: 36”

wrist to knuckle: 32”

 

Putter stroke (vid attached) seems to show pretty good arc so I feel like putter style being full toe hang is probably a pretty good fit. I do seem to struggle to get the face to fully close and miss a lot of putts right. Also struggle heavily with distance control. What are your thoughts?

[Nessism]

Putter fitting:  take natural stance you are comfortable with.  Swing putter.  Feels good?  Done.  

 

Distance control is on you and your swing.

[TKS]

Yes,

comfort = length and grip size & texture.

Putter head = visually appealing

50% < practice time

[RickAstley]

4 hours ago, Nessism said:

Putter fitting:  take natural stance you are comfortable with.  Swing putter.  Feels good?  Done.  

 

Distance control is on you and your swing.

yes yes, that’s the way I’ve always done it. Trial and error. I feel like I’m close with the putter I have. Feels great and looks good to my eye.

 

but I also know putter fitting is a legitimate thing that helps people improve and has an impact on swing characteristics like path and face angle based on your natural swing. Why not make sure equipment and natural swing are optimized? Figured the club tech section of this forum was an appropriate place to have a discussion on that 

[RickAstley]

Adding some more putter stats since I didn’t get to the course today and need to occupy time some way. Measured out the balance point at 27.25” and total weight of 510, which puts it at E4 based on the online calculator I found. Might be my next thing to tinker with

[grochol17]

A true putter fitting might be the best way to go... I did a fitting with Quintec a year and half ago and found out that most of my putter set up was quite good for me, but I was really hitting up on the ball, getting lots of inconsistent topspin and causing some distance issues.  Part of the issue was the heavy counterweight I had installed, which was causing me to "flip" a bit near impact.  We removed the weight and found that my stroke naturally is coming up at impact (I think because I like to play the ball forward), so the fitter adjusted the loft to 0*, giving me a better roll off the putter face.  Loft issues aren't really something you can figure out yourself, so if that is causing your distance control issues, then you'll need professional help.

 

Missing to the right could be a number of things... a lot of people might tell you to go to a face balanced putter, but it really depends on why you're missing to the right.  I used to have a miss to the right that was due to using a face balanced putter.  I grew up using putters with a good bit of toe hang (think 8802 or Anser 4 style) and so I tended to rotate the putter open on the backswing.  With the face balanced putter, it didn't want to "unrotate" on my downswing, so I'd often have trouble squaring up the face at impact, leaving things to the right.  I'm able to better square up a putter with some toe hang even though most advice would tell me that that won't work.  Note that I do still miss to the right, but that is more of a path/alignment issue at this point.

 

Lastly, in the video you posted, it looks to me like you might take the putter away a little outside of your line and then at impact you're also outside of your line, meaning that you'd be making contact with the ball a little bit heel side of when you set up.  I saw this by placing the point of my cursor even with the toe of your putter at set up and then when you get back to the same point my cursor is well onto the topline of your putter.  You can check this for yourself by putting a piece of paper on the ground and lining up the alignment line on your putter with the long edge of the paper.  The contrast of the paper against the dark wood will really help you see what your path is like on the backswing.  For some people having more weight on the grip side of the putter, or going with a lighter putter head, can help that "outside" move on the takeaway.