In this video, putter expert Martin Hopley explains the 7 key things you need to get right when it comes to choosing a new putter. It's the club you'll use the most during a round of golf and as a result, there are an awful lot of things to consider - including the length, head design, shaft and grip among others. If you've not given much thought to the putter you use, watch this video to the end as it will certainly spark some ideas in your mind as to how you could improve your putting.
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00:00When it comes to choosing a new putter for your game, it can be a bit of a minefield.
00:03There's plenty of things to think about, whether it's the head shape, the head style,
00:07the length of the shaft, or the type of the grip, and many other things in between.
00:10So I've come here to the Black Bear Golf Club in Florida and I'm going to give you my top seven
00:13tips, the things that you need to look out for when you're choosing the right putter for your game.
00:21So the first thing you need to decide is what type of head style you would like. There's blade
00:24putters and there's mallet putters. Blade putters, as the name suggests, are long, thin heads. They
00:29tend to be very good for people who like a sort of shallower head, front to back, and these tend
00:34to be pretty forgiving but not so much on the off-center hits. Mallet heads, as the name
00:37suggests, tend to be much deeper. They tend to have a square shape or sometimes a rounded shape
00:42at the back. And what makes these putters different is that the moment of inertia or the twisting
00:46effect of the putter is much reduced. And that's because there's more weight out here in the edges
00:50of the putter and also at the back. And that means if you don't hit the putter in the middle, then
00:54there's less resistance to the face twisting open or closed, which will then send your putter
00:58off-line. So if you want a little bit more forgiveness and you like the look of them,
01:01then the deeper headed mallets is the one to go for. The second step is to get the correct length
01:05of putter for your stroke and also for your posture as well. Putters tend to range from about 33 inches
01:10right up to 35 inches and some of them can be even longer than that. The key thing is really to get
01:14the putter that suits your posture correctly. This is a 35 inch putter and if I was a short person and
01:19it was too long for me, then you can see here that the toe of the putter raises up from the ground.
01:24Conversely, if the putter is too short for me, what I might have is that my eye line might be
01:28outside the line of the ball. You really want to have your eyes over the ball or just inside the
01:33ball and therefore getting the right length of putter for you is the key thing. You want to have
01:38the putter sitting flat on the ground, your eyes over the ball, arms in a nice relaxed position,
01:44and that will be the right length for you. Now the third factor you look for is the type of
01:51hosel that you want because that is going to have an implication on the amount of toe hang that you
01:54have and this is quite important because toe hang is what will enable the face to open and close as
01:59you go through the stroke. If you're somebody that has quite a straight stroke then you want a putter
02:04with very little toe hang and if you have somebody with a very arc stroke you need quite a lot of toe
02:09hang so that the face opens and closes and squares the face in back because that is the most important
02:14thing. This putter here is what they call a high toe hang putter because as you can see the toe
02:19hangs down quite a lot. This one's about 60 or 70 degrees and the reason it does that is because this
02:24is what's called an offset hosel. At the other end is what you call a face balance putter so as you
02:28can see here the face is balanced because it's pointing straight at the sky when I hold it in my
02:32hand and that's because that has a single bent hosel here you can see it's a completely different
02:37style of hosel. Now if you want something in between you still have putters which have a
02:41little bit of toe hang so you can see here this is still another mallet putter which you might see on
02:45a face balance design with a different hosel but by changing the hosel you actually get a
02:49little bit of toe hang so this is going to give you a very slight arc. Generally in the past
02:54you will have had a mallet which was face balanced and you had a blade which had a toe hang but now
02:58you've got every combination that can happen in between. It's all to do with the type of
03:02hosel that you have. You put this type of hosel into a blade putter then you can get a face
03:06balance blade and conversely if you put the offset hosel into a mallet then you can get a toe hanging
03:14mallet so the key thing is to go out and try and see which one suits your game and the best way to
03:19judge that is being able to make a putt and try and make sure your hands are relaxed. If you feel
03:24your hands are having to maneuver the head by trying to open it or trying to close it to keep
03:28the ball on line then you probably haven't got the right hosel. If you can just relax your hands and
03:32make a stroke without without them having any influence on it then you have the right hosel
03:37for your game. Now the fourth thing to think about when you're buying a new putter is what type of
03:40face you want. Now there's two main types you either have an all metal face or you have a face with an
03:45insert but why is this important? It really has to do with the feel of the putter and when people
03:49talk about feel what they really mean is sound. The sound is what is important because it allows
03:53you to judge the pace of the putter. It allows you to judge how far you're heading at how hard
03:57you're hitting because it gives you that sound feedback and that is what gives you the feel. Some
04:00people like all metal putters because they tend to give a good sound feedback they're probably
04:04going to sound and feel a little bit firmer but even within all metal putters you can get some
04:08that feel softer than others and the reason they do that is because of the milling patterns that
04:11they have on the face. This putter in particular has a deeper milling pattern towards the heel and
04:15the toe than it does in the middle. All that does mean is try to equalize the ball speed because
04:19there's more points of contact with the ball in the in the heel and the toe and there's less in
04:23the middle so in turn will affect the feel and also the speed off the head. If you want an insert
04:27head then you can get various putters which have different types of materials in the face of the
04:32putter. Now the reason they do this is partly for feel but also partly for forgiveness because they
04:36can take weight out of the center of the head and put it elsewhere in the putter and then fill
04:41the middle of the face with a material that is lighter than the steel or other material that
04:45they've taken out of the face. So you can see here there's lots of different options there's lots of
04:49different roles that you can get from this putter because it all comes back to feel and sound. So get
04:54the feel and sound that suits the ball you use and the type that you like to hear and the amount of
04:58feedback that you want to get and that is the right face for you. Now the fifth thing you want
05:02to think about when you're trying to pick your putter is what type of alignment lines you like.
05:05Some people like some alignment lines some people like nothing at all. As you can see here in this
05:09blade there's no alignment lines at all and people like that if they just want to make a stroke they
05:13don't want anything complicating their minds when they're doing it. You can also get lines that point
05:16towards the target so if you use a line on your golf ball or you just want some visual reference
05:19for that then these type of putters quite good. You also get alignment lines which can then be
05:24perpendicular to that so here this putter has a silver line which is going this way which might
05:30help you align the face and then the line behind it will point towards the target. You can also get
05:36putters which have circles or they might have an open space which will be the width of the golf ball
05:40which again will give you some sort of visual reference for the path of the ball going forward.
05:45It really is personal preference have a try see which one suits your eye and go without one. The
05:50sixth thing you need to consider is what type of shaft you want in your putter. Now this might not
05:54be a decision much in the past because most putters had a steel shaft like this one but what you're
05:58seeing these days are some composite shafts so these are putters which are mostly graphite with
06:05a steel tip. The point of these shafts is to actually make your stroke a little bit more
06:09consistent. If you don't keep the putter in line what they help with is the rhythm of the putter
06:13because it changes the swing rate of the putter a little bit they might give you a slightly better
06:17feel. They do tend to be more expensive so check them out and see if it works for you. Now my seventh
06:22and final tip for picking the right putter is to choose the right grip. Not only does it affect
06:26the performance but it's also how you feel the club because it is the part of the club that you
06:29touch. Basically there's two types you've got the pistol type grip which tend to be a little bit
06:34thinner here you can see how the the butt of it is a little bit wider and it tapers down a bit so it
06:38would be thicker at the top and narrower at the bottom. These tend to fit well in your hand because
06:43the pistol part of it locks into the the palm of your hand and that can help with stability. Also
06:48on the market you've seen the grips like this which are a little bit thicker and they tend to be the
06:52same width all the way down so if you like to vary the height of your hands on the putter or
06:56even if you want to use it as an arm lock putter where you're putting up against your arm then
07:00these types of grip work very well because you can put your hands in any place. They also come in
07:04various thicknesses as well this is one of the narrow ones but you can get quite thick ones as
07:08well. Now the advantage of having those thicker grips is that thicker the grip the less your hands
07:12are probably able to move so if you've got quite active hands in your putting stroke and you want
07:16to reduce that then you can try using a thicker grip because that will stabilize the hands a
07:22little bit more and help you probably get a bit more consistent as well. You tend to find that the
07:27more forgiving larger headed mallets tend to come with these thicker grips anyway but you can change
07:32these grips around but be careful when you do because some grips are lighter than others and
07:36if you take a light grip off and maybe put a heavier rubber grip on then you will change the
07:40swing weight of putter and the feel of it and that in turn will have an effect on the performance so
07:44if you are going to do it make sure you get it professionally done so you get the right grip for
07:48your game. So there you have it that's my top seven tips for helping you choose your putter.
07:52The putter is a really important club in your bag it's the club you use the most so if you take the
07:56time to get the right putter and get it suited to the right shape you like the right alignment lines
08:00get the right length and the right grip then you will be rewarded with a club that will not only
08:05help you hold a few more putts but also help you lower your scores.