You’re probably guilty of this equipment mistake. Don’t feel bad – staff here at Australian Golf Digest have done it, too. This is how it usually happens: you’re talking about your putting woes with your golf friends and someone says they have an old putter you can try. You’re desperate, aching from the lingering pain of missed birdie opportunities and wrecked attempts to save par. You’ll try anything. You take the hand-me-down putter.
Angela Aulenti, head professional and club fitter at Sterling Farms Golf Course in Stamford, Connecticut, says if you’re playing with a hand-me-down putter, you’re making a big mistake. She sees it far too often.
“Your putter needs to be the correct length and lie for your stroke,” Aulenti says. “Golfers who have more of a straight-back, straight-through stroke should use a face-balanced putter, and a mid-hang for an arced stroke.”
If you’ve been fitted before and know that you should be in a face-balanced putter, a way to test is to balance the putter shaft on your finger or on the corner of a table. If the face points straight up, it’s face-balanced, if the toe is rotated down slightly or even completely, it has some degree of toe hang.
Like any club in your bag, you should get fit for your putter. Your stroke is specific to you. To get the most out of it, you need a putter that works with that stroke.
“A putter should fit the stroke that you have,” Aulenti says. “It’s the club you hit the most!”
