[eropiereetuekm]

Great topic here guys. Lets clear some things up. Even in a "straight back straight through" type of putting stroke the putter face will open and close during the stroke. It will open and close more on an arching type of motion. There are a number of things that go into picking out what type of putter is best for you. First is looking at how much the face opens to the top of the back swing. This is a must have piece of information. The next thing to look at is do you miss more left or right.

The purpose of a face balance putter is to allow the player who moves the putter with minimal face rotation to square the face up through impact. While a putter with a full toe down is designed for a player who opens the face more than 5* at the top of the back swing. The extra weight in the toe helps that type of stroke to square the face. If you tend to fall between these two this is where the 1/2 to down putter comes in. It will help release the toe of the putter but not as hard as toe down will.

Looking at the picture at the start of the thread your putter face really opened up at the top. Just off of that info alone I would lean to a more toe down type putter. Are your misses more right? If so more weight in the toe will help bring them more on line.

[Foriaelalse]

Thanks for the help Andy. I ordered my new putter FB, but know have to wonder, lol.

Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab

[Hoijdxvh]

This is an awesome thread! I love learning something new every day. I've always wondered exactly what it all meant and what works best for me. I guess this explains why i putt better with those that I estimate are FB to 1/2 toe. I should probably be somewhere around 1/4 but I need to bite the bullet and do a putter fitting.

[ensuppono]

Great topic here guys. Lets clear some things up. Even in a "straight back straight through" type of putting stroke the putter face will open and close during the stroke. It will open and close more on an arching type of motion. There are a number of things that go into picking out what type of putter is best for you. First is looking at how much the face opens to the top of the back swing. This is a must have piece of information. The next thing to look at is do you miss more left or right.

The purpose of a face balance putter is to allow the player who moves the putter with minimal face rotation to square the face up through impact. While a putter with a full toe down is designed for a player who opens the face more than 5* at the top of the back swing. The extra weight in the toe helps that type of stroke to square the face. If you tend to fall between these two this is where the 1/2 to down putter comes in. It will help release the toe of the putter but not as hard as toe down will.

Looking at the picture at the start of the thread your putter face really opened up at the top. Just off of that info alone I would lean to a more toe down type putter. Are your misses more right? If so more weight in the toe will help bring them more on line.

Thank you for the reply Andy, good info!

But Im confused by the part in bold. Im right handed so if im missing right wouldnt I want to have less toe hang? Because If I add more that means my face would be open more and I would still be missing to the right? I thought if my misses where more left then more toe hang would help, and if my misses were right less toe hang would help?

With my face balanced putter, I miss left, but as I add more toe hang it straightens them up. My Kia ma seems to work pretty good and I think its 1/2 toe hang and my full toe hang putter seems to miss a little to the right more.


Here is a picture of my Kia ma, is it 1/2 toe hang?

[Baromaro]

Hey bridges if you miss right you're pushing the ball and leaving the face open at impact. Having more toe hang (which means there is more weighting towards the toe) will help you close the club face at impact.

[ensuppono]

Hey bridges if you miss right you're pushing the ball and leaving the face open at impact. Having more toe hang (which means there is more weighting towards the toe) will help you close the club face at impact.

How will more help me close it though? I figured with more weight on the end in would cause me to leave it open more and push the putt. Know what I mean?

More weight on the end means I would not be able to square it up and it would hang open hitting the ball causing it to push right. Im really confused if more toe hang causes putts to go left instead of right. lol

I pull my putts left with a face balanced putter, but when i start to add toe hang they gradually start going to the right because im closing the face to much with the face balanced but with toe hang it opens it up some and cause me to be online and them to go right of where I was with the face balanced putts. But what your saying is I would see putts go to the left with more toe hang? how?


edit: I mean take something simple, like a pencil kind of move it like your putter head does opens a little then closes ok now put about 5 rubber bands on the very end of it, its a little harder to close because weight on the end keeps it open, more rubber bands you add more its harder to close so that would mean the putt would go right with more toe hang you have. I might be way wrong but it just seems like thats what it would be. I need some putting information lessons lol

[ensuppono]

Forum member seemoreputters has informed me that they're working on a video for this thread. Should be up early next week, Im pumped to see it!!

[WaydayFep]

I could be wrong on this Bridges but I think it depends on how much you open up as you take the putter back. If you open up alot' then the extra weight at the toe actually helps the putter come around and square up at impact.

I think some of this also depends on how freed up your putting stroke is as well. Mine is a pretty freed up stroke but the face does not open up a super amount when I take the putter back. So I would not be surprised if in my case if I went all the way to a 6:00 putter all that weight at the toe might have the putter really turning too quickly. I putt best with a very free putting stroke so in my case a bunch of weight at the toe would likely really bring that thing around. Funny I have always thought my freed up putting stroke was something of an oddity and that how it works for me is the opposite of how it works for most folks.. Maybe it is less odd than I think. in my case if I tense up over a putt or if I try to exert too much control over the stroke I am in alotta' trouble as I have to allow the putter some freedom or I won't get the ball rolling at all.

I have never even tried a SBST putting stroke so I would have to defer to Andy when he says everybody opens the putter up to some degree on the way back. That said the SBST player would appear to be trying to hold the putter on the target line as long as possible. Maybe the fact that even an SBST player will open the face up a little is testiment to the arc or gate stroke being a bit more natural. In fact although I have never thought about it because I don't have an SBST stroke the player that uses one is probably trying to exert more control over the stroke than I try to exert. As I said earlier the ball does not roll well for me at all if I try too hard to aim or control the stroke.

I have had the good fortune to try different putters with my stroke and Andy's comments about everybody opening up some on the way back makes me wonder if the best thing to do try putters of a known but different weight with your stroke and see what happens.

[ensuppono]

The more I putt the more its clear that a 1/2 toe hang (assuming thats what the kia ma is) is whats best for me. My cleveland classic 4 is also money and its a 1/2 toe hang too and just 5 grams less than the kia ma. 340 grams to 345 grams. Guess I just need to learn the differences now and what does what. Ready to watch that video!

[WaydayFep]

Sounds like you have made progress Bridges!!

My putters are the same way, sometimes referred to as 4:30 putters.

I did not have a putting stroke when I came back to the game after so many years away. One day when I was not even looking for it, there it was and I had my old putting stroke back. In fact I was so lost that I did not remember that I cannot control the putter stroke like some guys can and I even experimented with that pop putter stroke that Johnny Miller talks about. He was talking about it during the Ryder Cup and was saying that he used it during his career and “Boom Baby” uses it. In that case the guys that use it seem to not even allow the putter to finish. Looking at it in slow mo they seem to kinda’ stop the putter just after contact. I tried it or at least I think I tried it but could not make it work worth a darn. Not really a surprise since that sort of stroke is about as far away from mine as it gets.

Ain't it neat that we are going to get to see a video from somebody that actually knows what he is talking about?