David E. Klutho
Each week our equipment editors answer your questions about anything related to clubs, balls and golf gear. Here’s this week’s submission:
Question: I recently read about a pro that used a really short putter. Why would he do that and is it something I should look into?
Answer: Yes, Philippe Gariepy used a 23-inch putter at the PGA Championship of Canada, saying it was easier to see the read. He’s far from the first to go short, however, for various reasons.
With the standard length putter being 35 inches, Robert Garrigus used a 29.5-inch Scotty Cameron Kombi putter at the 2008 St. Jude Classic, and that brought questions, such as why would a man who is 5-feet-11 use such a short club on the greens?
“When I get over it, everything is out and extended,” said Garrigus. “I’d been tucking my left elbow in to my side so my shoulders rock more. [The putter] is face-balanced. That thing rolls good. It’s kind of nice to have something I can trust.”
Over the years several tour players have trusted short putters. The European Tour’s David Howell used a 32-inch putter in 2006 when he was briefly in the top 10 of the World Ranking. “I decided I needed a shorter putter, a wider stance, and that should keep the putter on a lot straighter line,” said Howell at the time. “It’s worked nicely, even if I do look a bit strange.
If Howell’s 32-inch putter looked strange, then the 25-inch model Ken Green used to wield qualified as positively bizarre. Still, there was a method to the madness. Most players using short putters tend to have one thing in common with players who use long putters: both types want to get their eyes directly over the ball.
Not all players using a wee wand, however, do so for technical reasons. Lee Janzen won both his U.S. Opens wielding a 32-inch Ping Pal and Ian Woosnam won the 1991 Masters using a 30-inch Tad More flat stick. Woosnam, of course, had reason to use a shorter club, standing just 5-4 1/2.
These are more to the extremes, however. Still, there is research that upwards of 80 percent of golfers are using too long a putter. That number, which is based on a straightforward measurement of the height of your hands at address and the distance you stand away from the ball, may suggest that the standard of 35 inches puts the hands in a less than relaxed position for many average golfers, perhaps inhibiting a free-flowing stroke.
Long time top-rated teacher Todd Sones has long advocated for this and his putter fitting methodology has been adopted by several companies over the years. Indeed, some putter fitting charts estimate that unless you’re six feet tall, you’ll need a putter shorter than 35 inches. Given that the average height of an American man is 5-9 and for an American woman it’s 5-3, that’s a high percentage of golfers who should be using shorter putters.
Why? When looking at length, you’re trying to get the player in a neutral setup, with the eyes over or slightly inside the ball. This allows the golfer to release the putter freely and see the line easier. So, are we saying you should just go out and cut down your current putter to less than 35 inches? No way. For starters that’s going to mess with the weighting. What you should be doing is going for a putter fitting, which at the very least will tell you that your current putter is likely the wrong shaft length. But even with a cutdown shaft, you’ll likely need to make a few other adjustments like lie angle and headweight (shorter shafts require heavier heads if you’re going to have the same feel or swing weight).
Whether it’s 34 or 23 inches.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
