Do Putter Shafts Make A Difference?
Joel Tadman tests different types of putter shafts under the watchful eye of short-game specialist Andy Gorman to see what difference it can have on the performance. Using the Foresight Sports GCQuad launch monitor, Joel and Andy are able to see the subtle nuances in how the putter performs on centered hits as well as heel and toe strikes and by using similar style heads, can understand the impact the shaft has.
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00:00How much difference does the putter shaft actually make?
00:03We see it with longer clubs like drivers and even irons.
00:06The shaft has a really big impact on the performance
00:08and as a result, they're a big focus
00:11when it comes to the fitting process.
00:12But is the putter shaft a neglected area of the bag?
00:15That's something I really want to find out.
00:17I've come here to Wishaw Golf Club to see Andy Gorman.
00:20He is a putting specialist and we are going to try
00:22a number of different shaft constructions out
00:25in his indoor studio to see what differences in performance,
00:29the different constructions and materials
00:31that are available within the putter market
00:33have on the performance.
00:34It should be a really interesting test
00:36and I've got to say, Andy has got his work cut out
00:38because I would consider putting
00:39to be the strongest area of my game.
00:41So let's go inside, meet Andy.
00:43He's going to talk us through the differences
00:44in the putter shafts that are available
00:46and hopefully give us an idea
00:47about what we can expect from this test.
00:50Right, Andy, there'll be a lot of golfers out there
00:51who think, rightly or wrongly, that the shaft of a putter
00:55is simply the means of connecting the grip to the putter.
00:58Presumably, there's a bit more to it than that.
01:00Just talk us through some of the options that people have
01:02and the differences in performance they might offer.
01:05Yeah, very much a case of manufacturers.
01:09For me, I've maybe overlooked the shaft
01:12that's going, the connection between the grip and the head.
01:15But I don't think that's necessarily their fault.
01:18You know, we've now got the technology
01:20that allows us to be able to test everything
01:22so much more significantly that, you know,
01:25we can make shafts out of different materials
01:28and change the performance of the way the club
01:31works in a client's hand.
01:33And, you know, we can dial it all in.
01:35And you mentioned performance.
01:36What specific things would a change in shaft,
01:39what areas of performance would that affect?
01:42I think the most important thing
01:43is the stability of the strike.
01:44And, you know, whether or not we're making a living
01:48at playing or whether we're a weekend warrior
01:51going out and playing for fun,
01:54the sweet spot strike is really important.
01:56So if we're missing the sweet spot,
01:58then that's going to cause twist around the shaft.
02:00And, you know, that toe strikes will open the club face,
02:04heel strikes will close the club face.
02:06And then, of course, it'll transfer energy
02:08into the golf ball at a different rate.
02:09So we struggle to get the ball
02:11to the hole on distance putts.
02:13And so as you can see, we've got three different types
02:15of putter shaft here in front of us,
02:16a traditional steel shaft, a multi-material shaft,
02:19and an all-graphite shaft,
02:20which we're going to test against each other.
02:22How are we going to go about doing that?
02:23We're going to be using GC Quad and their putting data.
02:27And the beauty about that is we're going to test the putt
02:29at over 35 feet.
02:31So, you know, we're going to put you to the test,
02:34see how good you are at consistent ball striking
02:37and the club head delivery as well in terms of speed,
02:40because that's going to affect how well you get there.
02:42And of course, we're going to be testing the shaft
02:44and how stable they are when you hit the sweet spot
02:47and also miss the sweet spot.
02:49Sounds good. Let's do it.
02:54Let's do it.
03:04Right, okay, so we've finished our testing.
03:06I've hit a lot of putts, Andy.
03:07I'm quite tired.
03:0827 putts with three different shafts.
03:11And as you can see, we've got three different shafts,
03:14but very similar heads.
03:15So they're all Anser style heads,
03:16which couldn't get exactly the same head,
03:17but they're relatively similar.
03:19And what are we looking at?
03:20We've got the data here in front of us,
03:21starting with the Wilson,
03:23which was the kind of traditional stepped steel shaft.
03:27What are we looking at in terms of data
03:28and how did it perform?
03:29The critical data is your ability as a human test
03:34to replicate club head speed.
03:36And then the smash factor,
03:37which is the relative difference
03:40between the club head speed and the ball speed,
03:42because that's going to ultimately translate
03:45to the distance that you hit the putt.
03:46And then how stable the putter was
03:49when we hit the golf ball at the heel and the toe.
03:52So we started off each of them,
03:54first three, center strikes,
03:56next three, toe strikes,
03:58and the following three were heel strikes.
04:01And that's what we're basing our data on.
04:03So with the steel shaft,
04:05we've got, again, very stable club head numbers.
04:08I think you're comfortable with that weight of putter,
04:11which is a length of club, obviously.
04:13And then your smash factor at the sweet spot
04:16was very consistent.
04:17So you found the sweet spot,
04:18albeit your club head speed were maybe slightly out,
04:21but very slightly within two or 3%,
04:23so not a big number.
04:25Toe strikes tended to start a little bit to the right.
04:29And again, the transfer of energy,
04:31which means you had to put more club head speed in
04:34as you did in a couple of them.
04:36To compensate that, well, of course,
04:38you knew you were going to hit them at the sweet spot.
04:40So let's assume that you didn't know that.
04:43That would then translate into a lesser speed
04:45going into the ball.
04:46So this is where your distance putts, 40, 50 feet,
04:50are going to come up significantly shorter when you do that.
04:53Heel strikes are going to have the same effect,
04:55although we do seem to have seen a much bigger drop-off
04:59on the heel strikes than the toe.
05:01Yeah, heel strikes were a lot worse.
05:02Noticed even how the toe was missing quite far to the right.
05:06And I just felt like this shaft
05:07had a bit more give to it at impact,
05:09especially on the longer part we're testing here today.
05:12It just felt a little bit softer.
05:13Yeah, so what's actually happening
05:15is we've got toe strikes
05:16that are going to cause the putter to open up,
05:18heel strikes that will cause it to close,
05:21but also we've got the lag factors
05:23that go on with the shafts as well.
05:24So, you know, when the shaft is flexing and not as stable,
05:30then ultimately it could be in load
05:33and it could be in release.
05:34So again, that's going to affect launch.
05:37More inconsistency depending on.
05:38Much more inconsistency, yeah.
05:40And that will have an effect on the efficiency as well.
05:42Yeah, cool.
05:43So let's move on to the next putter,
05:44which was the all-graphite shaft.
05:46I've got the KBS, the new GPS putter shaft.
05:49Tell us through some of the numbers we've got here.
05:51Again, I think the weight works perfectly for you.
05:53It's 120 grammes, a very similar weight
05:56to the steel shafts that we're more familiar with.
06:00Ultimately, your consistency of strike and speed was there
06:05and we can see that the launch dynamics,
06:08the efficiency and the smash factor
06:10was much more consistent.
06:12I was interested in the first putt you hit out the toe
06:15and the first putt you hit out the heel,
06:18you hold both of those putts,
06:20which means that the stability that the shaft is offering
06:23is much greater and the energy
06:25that's getting into the golf ball
06:26is sufficient to be able to get the ball to the hole.
06:29Yeah, something I've noticed comfortably
06:31was with that shaft, my dispersion was tighter,
06:34there was less variance in the distances
06:36between all those putts.
06:38I just said, hold a lot more with that shaft
06:39than I did the steel shaft
06:41and the feel was very different, felt very solid.
06:45There wasn't much kicking at all in the shaft,
06:48felt just very consistent, not rigid,
06:50but just felt like I was in control
06:53of what I was doing with the putt with that one.
06:54And you felt the connection between the hands
06:56and the club head was much more in control,
06:58you could feel the relationship between them.
07:01Yeah, less energy, I think, off the face with that one.
07:03Yeah, definitely, and we see the smash factors were up
07:06and the deviation was really tight tolerance,
07:09so very, very good on that.
07:12The left to right tolerance was really tight,
07:15it was very close to the hole,
07:17but the distance, and this is where the big one
07:19really kicks in, is the difference
07:20between the long and the short,
07:23that's where we get much more stability
07:25on the distance.
07:26That's going to help reduce three putts, right?
07:27Three putt avoidance is what this is really all about,
07:30yes, the most.
07:31I think this is the leading contender so far,
07:33would you say?
07:34And then we moved on to the multi-material shaft,
07:36which we know is a growing trend in putters,
07:39we see a lot of brands offering
07:40this graphite steel combination,
07:43talk us through how that one performed
07:44versus the other two.
07:46With the Cleveland, what we noticed
07:48in the multi-compound shaft was that
07:50it was much more difficult for you
07:52to get the club head speed up,
07:53to get the ball to the total distance,
07:55and I feel that that's because it's a lighter shaft,
07:58and that translated into your feel
08:01as you were swinging the putter,
08:02you didn't get that club head speed,
08:04you're typically down 0.2, 0.3 mile an hour
08:07on all of the putts,
08:09and you really were struggling
08:10to get the golf ball to the hole,
08:12we can still see the evidence over the shoulder.
08:15But the smash factor was interesting for me,
08:17which is out of the sweet spot strikes,
08:19it came out much quicker.
08:21So we know there's some tech in the head
08:23that's allowing us to do that,
08:24but ultimately then, when we get into the toe
08:27and the heel strikes,
08:28smash factor dropped off dramatically,
08:31and that's why the golf balls
08:32were struggling to get to the hole.
08:34Yeah, and that's concerning for me,
08:35I tend to hit my putt slightly out of the toe
08:37and see such a big drop off
08:38with this particular putter
08:40is quite concerning, should we say.
08:42Yeah, I mean, you were the one hitting it,
08:44in terms of feel, overall,
08:46that's the feedback that we've got to take into account,
08:49and when we are looking at fitting putter shafts,
08:52it's the feel element,
08:54is the club launching with more energy or less energy,
08:58or is it just feeling a little bit light,
09:00and all of these things have to be taken into account,
09:02not just the overall values on the screen,
09:06how does it feel in our hands as well?
09:09Yeah, and some people might like a lighter overall feel,
09:10or one that feels quite head-heavy,
09:12but for me, it just felt a little bit unwieldy,
09:14like I wasn't in complete control
09:16of how far I was swinging it,
09:17and the speed I was delivering,
09:19and obviously we've seen that with the numbers.
09:20We have, and again, with the heel strikes in particular,
09:23the ball really struggled to get to the hole,
09:25and it finished a long way left,
09:27so there's clearly some errors that are taking place
09:31that have been magnified by that particular club.
09:33Some really interesting findings here, I think,
09:34especially on a long-range putt,
09:36is this applicable to all lengths of putt,
09:38or especially those crucial short putts
09:40that everyone's trying to hold?
09:41Yeah, the short putts as well are going to be,
09:44again, when we miss-strike the putter,
09:46and the ball with the putter,
09:48that heel and toe strike that can effectively
09:51open and close, so opening a toe strike,
09:53closing a heel strike,
09:55we tend to hold the putter light,
09:57we're not swinging the putter very quickly,
09:59just one or two mile an hour on these really short putts,
10:01and subsequently on the back of that,
10:03then we're not transferring energy into the ball,
10:05so if it's struck at the sweet spot,
10:07it'll go straight, it'll stay stable,
10:09but we've seen very much with this particular shaft
10:13that the putter is very stable when you miss-strike it.
10:16We shouldn't be missing the sweet spots
10:18on these short putts, but we do.
10:20The recreational golfer doesn't practice as much,
10:22but we do see tour players also miss-striking the putts,
10:25and again, we shouldn't do that.
10:28Definitely a contender for more stability in that putt.
10:30Yeah, so there you have it.
10:31It looks like the answer to holding more putts
10:33and getting closer from long distances
10:35is to have as much stability
10:36in the lower part of the shaft,
10:38and we seem to be getting that,
10:39or I seem to be getting that,
10:40from the new KBS GPS shaft.
10:44So certainly some food for thought there
10:45when it comes to the level of impact
10:47the putter shaft can have on the overall performance.
10:50I was really surprised at the level of influence
10:53it had on off-center strikes,
10:55the ability or the inability for the putter head
10:58to twist with certain constructions.
10:59Certainly the all-graphite shaft, this KBS GPS shaft,
11:04came out on top in terms of minimizing that deflection.
11:07Yes, the construction of the head
11:08and the different head types and sizes
11:10will have an impact on the amount of stability
11:12that you get off-center,
11:13but certainly the shaft can have
11:15a pretty tangible impact on performance,
11:18especially from those long-range putts.
11:19So when you're trying to minimize three putts,
11:21lag the ball close from long distance,
11:24switching to a more stable, consistent shaft
11:27like an all-graphite shaft here
11:29is something to definitely consider.
11:30Yes, it might come with a bit of an upcharge,
11:32but there seems to be some performance gains
11:34to be had, obviously, putting.
11:35You're trying to gain those marginal gains,
11:37those one, two percents that can have a real big impact
11:40on your score in a long period of time.
11:42So hopefully this video has given you
11:43some really good insights into the different types of shafts
11:46that are available with the putter
11:47and the differences in the performance that they offer,
11:50as well as feel and things like that.
11:52It's hopefully given you a really good steer
11:54in terms of the characteristics
11:55of these different putter shafts
11:57that are available on the market.
11:58But that's all from me from Wishaw Golf Club.
12:01I'll see you next time.