With so many putters to choose from, how do you know which one is right for you? The most popular styles of putters are blade, mallet, perimeter weighted, insert, and offset. Each one of these putters has its own uniqueness.

Blade putters are narrow and flat with the best feel for the ball. Low handicappers favor blades. Blades differ in where the shaft enters the head. The shaft is either at the heel or center, where it enters more in the middle of the blade. Tending to be face balanced, blade putters will suit a player with a straight putting stroke. These putters are a good fit for hard, faster greens that require soft control, making them a good safe choice.

Mallets have a large rounded head. The deep design of the putter’s head allows for a lower and deeper center of gravity that is far away from the face, reducing backspin on your putts. A lot of mallet putters have inserts on the face offering a soft hit from a large head. The weight is usually balanced throughout the club, providing golfers with a more consistent putting stroke.

Perimeter-weighted putters are very forgiving because the weight is distributed around the edges. This putter provides for a larger sweet spot because the perimeter weighting stabilizes any slight mishits. These putters are great for beginning golfers or high handicappers.

Insert putters are designed with composite inserts made of a softer material. The advantage of using a light insert means the weight of the putter can be redistributed elsewhere on the putter face. Therefore the weight is added to the heel and/or toe, offering a wider area for pure strikes. This wider area makes a larger sweet spot with more forgiveness. The inserts provide for a better feel on the putt and a smoother role, rather than a hop or skid. The only drawback is they do not produce sound. If you believe sound is important feedback, this may not be the putter for you.

Offset putters places the actual putter blade back from the shaft slightly. This allows the golfers eyes to be more directly on top of the ball when standing over the putt. This will increase top spin for a truer roll.

Don’t forget that it’s also very important to choose the right length putter. If a putter is too short or long it can lead to bad posture, throwing off your view of the putting line. It is important to choose the right length for your body type.

Traditional length putters are the most common. They are approximately 33-36 inches in length. These putters use the golfer’s natural swinging motion of the arms, like a pendulum, giving the putt a true roll.

Belly putters are the latest craze. They are approximately 41-46 inches in length. The end of the putter rests on your belly button while you swing the club back and forth. Resting the club shaft on your belly button creates a third point of contact, stabilizing the stroke and anchoring the body. The wrist action is easier to control as the length of the putter changes the dynamics of the swinging motion. The main disadvantages are distance control and feel. The belly putter requires golfers to use more large muscles and fewer small muscles during the putting stroke. Additional practice is required to develop the feel for distance control.

Long or Broom Handle putters are the least popular length to use. They are approximately 48-52 inches and up in length. Golfers stabilize this putter by pressing its top against their chest or resting it on their chin. These putters require a completely different grip. Most players grip long putters with their left hand, holding the putter into their body (thumb up), and the right hand working as a claw in the middle section of the putter to pull and push through the line of the putt causing the putter to swing like a pendulum. All the power of the stroke is in the right hand. This is a tough skill to master and hard to use in the wind.

Now that you’ve got a feel for what putters are available to you and how they work, choosing the right putter will be easier. With about 50 percent of your shots in a round being putts, it’s important to pick a putter that works for you. Great putting will always save par.

Tracy Patton and father Paul are both golf enthusiasts who wanted to work doing something they enjoyed, so they created EzyGolf, an online discount golf store. While there are many discount golf stores to choose from, they try to give theirs a personal family-operated touch.

For a wide selection of top quality, low cost putters custom-built to your exact needs and specifications, visit GigaGolf, Pinemeadow Golf and Hireko Golf. 

By Scott Myers

All too often, golfers will purchase golf clubs, including putters, straight off the shelves of your local sporting goods store, their local retail outlets, or from a fellow golfer. These purchases are made with no thought as to whether that particular putter is even a proper fit to them or their game. Just like a fine suit is tailored to every inch of your body for exact fit, your putter and every other club in your bag should be tailored to not only your body but your game as well. Everybody is different and unique.

There is no one off the shelf set of clubs designed to fit every single golfer, or even the majority of golfers. If you take the putter measurements of 10 professional golfers, you will find that all 10 have in some way different measurements including length, lie angle, loft, offset, weight, and design. All are blended together with one single purpose in mind: to help the golfer make more putts!

Can you imagine the frustration the pros would go through if they had to change their putting stroke to accommodate a different putter every time they decide to change their clubs? Yet 99% of all recreational golfers go about purchasing new clubs this way. They buy a club straight off the rack and then make the adjustments with their body to compensate for this new putter.

Let’s take a look at the biggest factor in putter fitting and how to correct it:

Putter Length

The length of your putter has a direct effect on how you set up to your putt. If you are like the majority of recreational golfers, you’re playing with a putter that?s either too long or too short for your natural stroke. Using a putter that’s too long for you will set the ball too far away from your body. This affects how your eyes are positioned over the ball, having your eyes not over the target line, but inside of it. This will also cause your arms and hands to be much closer to your body than you want, not allowing your arms to hang naturally. This causes you to manipulate your hands and arms through the stroke to compensate for the length.

Putters that are too short have the opposite effect. The ball is set too close to your body, causing your eyes to be well outside of your target line. Too short of putter will also cause you to have to extend your arms out further from your body causing to have to ?reach? out to the ball during the stroke. To find your ideal putter length, you can use a very simple method right from your own home.

Without a putter in your hands, set up to address the ball as if you were going to putt. Let your arms hang naturally in front of you as you reach out and grip an imaginary putter in the most comfortable and natural feeling manner. This will set your hands in their most natural position without being influenced by gripping an actual putter.

Now without moving your hands or arms from this position, have a friend or spouse place your putter back in your hands. Notice where your hands are on the club NOW compared to where you gripped it in the past. You?ll probably be a bit surprised at where your hands end up on the putter. This is the correct length you should be playing with. Now with a piece of tape, mark one half-inch above the hand closest to your body on the putter grip, if your grip is now lower than before. If your new grip is higher up on the grip, wrap the tape ? in. below the bottom hand. This is how long of a putter you should be playing with.

Your local golf outlet or pro shop can take this information and make the necessary adjustments for you at a very minimal cost.

Scott Myers has helped people of all skill levels start shooting the best golf scores of their lives by teaching a new step-by-step putting formula, Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed, designed to drop 7-to-9 stroke from your score in just 4 ? minutes!

By Susan Dean 

Collecting is a great hobby for many people, from spoons, cards, music memorabilia to collectible golf clubs and putters. Whatever it is that takes your fancy you can be an avid collector.

And now with the use of computers and the Internet, collecting has become easier and much more popular. You can find almost everything online without ever leaving home. Whether you are a collector or a seller the Internet is the perfect tool for you. You will find many other enthusiasts such as yourself that collect all types of items including special release items.

There are groups and societies that have their own websites for you to join or check out. You have the option of eBay to purchase many different types of golfing items that you may want to collect. Not only are there collectible golf clubs and putters but you may be interested in obtaining other items of interest such as balls, books, score cards, medals, trophies, tees, club histories and much, much more.

The sky really is the limit when looking for collectibles for your interest online. You may be more interested in antique golfing items or only more modern ones. The choice is yours. Of course there is much more to think about than just what you want to find and buy. You need to work out how much you can afford to spend before falling in love with something you’ve spotted.

There is of course the added option of swapping. If you are a keen collector and have a large selection of different items then you may be able to swap something from your collection with that special something that another collector has on offer. Whatever you decide is right for you, doing it through the Internet is the most convenient and efficient way.

So, whether you are looking for collectible golf clubs and putters or some other golfing memorabilia why not take a good look around right now and see what is out there for you to find. We have researched and found the best golf merchandising online companies that may also be able to help you out with collectibles as well as up to date new and used golfing equipment and accessories.

Susan Dean is the webmaster and publisher of Discount Golfing Shop. Visit her site for discount golfing supplies.

I originally mentioned my “quiver of putters” in my report, Clone Golf Clubs: Are They Good Enough? A Real World Answer, and wrote a bit more about it in my Golfdirt.com post, Assemble a Quiver of Putters. The following post has some practical tips on where to buy putters for your quiver.

If you do decide to assemble this quiver of putters, you better have one dead serious bank account (and an understanding spouse) if you stick with brand name equipment. $200 putters are no longer uncommon; with the highly desirable and very popular Scotty Camerons regularly $300 each, other manufacturers’ prices have been creeping up, with many approaching Cameron territory.

You could, of course, try your luck on eBay, where you can see there is no shortage of putters. Or even Callaway Golf Pre-Owned (for Odyssey and Callaway putters; previously owned and outlet sections) and Golfsmith (all brands; previously owned and outlet).

However, you’ll likely find it really beneficial to consider clone putters from highly-rated outfits like Hireko Golf, Pinemeadow Golf and GigaGolf. Besides the fact they produce and sell high quality cutting edge and traditional putter designs, each priced well below their brand name counterparts, these companies custom build each club to your specifications.

Take this selection from Hireko Golf, for example (Hireko is the actual manufacturer of a lot of the “brands” you may recognize in the clone marketplace). We can pick up all five of these fully-assembled clubs for less than a single typical $200 putter! (Click on the thumbnails to magnify.)

Prophet Putter
Unique design; dual fixed weights in the heel and toe portions of the putter, coupled with a very broad face-to-back design helps stabilize putts. The milled aluminum insert provides a more solid feel. Also features a bold alignment line and it is bored to create a face-balance design.

Bionik HP425 Putter
Sleek black finish contrasts sharply with its sight line to facilitate an easy and simple alignment of the putter head to your intended target line. Center shafted for straight back-straight through putting stroke. 425-gram head weight provides plenty of head feel for a true sense of the pendulum stroke; grooved aluminum insert provides a solid feel.

Technica DX470 Putter
Oversized, 50% wider than a standard putter. Constructed of durable stainless steel. Weight is redistributed around the perimeter to create an enormous moment of inertia (MOI) for superior accuracy. The parallel struts along with the unique alignment system ensure proper takeaway for straighter, more accurate putts.

Bionik 105 Red Insert Putter
Features a soft alloy insert anodized for a striking new look. The zinc body is highlighted with a beautiful tin-nickel finish and contrasting red precision milled face to ensure superior performance.

Bionik 201 Mallet Putter
Exclusive ball bearing alignment system assures proper set up. Anodized alloy inserts provide soft yet solid feel. High moment of inertia (MOI) is created from weight being redistributed to the center and rear of the putter.

Obviously, there’s no need to go overboard — a small quiver of just 2 or 3 putters may very well do the trick — but you can see that at these prices, going the clone route won’t break the bank even if you need more than a couple.

REMEMBER: If you do decide to try this quiver thing, mix it up! Besides different style heads (traditional blades, mallets, and even different kinds of mallets), you may want to consider different shaft lengths (some days I feel and play better with short putter shafts instead of longer ones… and vice versa; go figure).

But I have to repeat again: As I mentioned in the Golfdirt post, if your putting’s OK with your current putter, don’t mess with it, even if these clone putters make it really affordable to play around with different toys!

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Callaway Golf Pre-Owned
• eBay
• GigaGolf
• Golfdirt.com
• Golfsmith
• Hireko Golf
• Pinemeadow Golf