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, 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. I'm going to give you my top seven tips,
00:14the 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
01:08about 33 inches right up to 35 inches and some of them can be even longer than that. The key thing
01:13is really to get the putter that suits your posture correctly. This is a 35 inch putter and
01:18if I was a short person and it was too long for me, then you can see here that the toe of the
01:22putter raises up from the ground. Conversely, if the putter is too short for me, what I might have
01:27is that my eye line might be outside the line of the ball. You really want to have your eyes over
01:32the ball or just inside the ball and therefore getting the right length of putter for you
01:36is the key thing. You want to have the putter sitting flat on the ground, your eyes over the
01:42ball, arms in a nice relaxed position and that will be the right length for you.
01:48Now the third factor you look for is the type of hosel that you want because that is going to have
01:52an implication on the amount of toe hang that you have. And this is quite important because toe hang
01:57is what will enable the face to open and close as you go through the stroke.
02:01If you're somebody that has quite a straight stroke, then you want a putter with very little
02:05toe hang and if you have somebody with a very arched stroke, you need quite a lot of toe hang
02:09so that the face opens and closes and squares the face at impact because that is the most
02:14important thing. This putter here is what they call a high toe hang putter because as you can see
02:18the toe hangs down quite a lot. It's about 60 or 70 degrees and the reason it does that is because
02:24this is what's called an offset hosel. At the other end is what you call a face balance putter
02:28so as you can see here the face is balanced because it's pointing straight at the sky when
02:31I hold it in my hand and that's because that has a single bent hosel here. You can see it's
02:36completely different style of hosel. Now if you want something in between you still have putters
02:40which have a little bit of toe hang so you can see here this is still another mallet putter which you
02:44might see on a face balance design with a different hosel but by changing the hosel you actually get
02:49a little 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
03:06balanced blade and conversely if you put the offset hosel into a mallet then you can get a toe
03:14hanging mallet. So the key thing is to go out and try and see which one suits your game and the best
03:19way to judge that is being able to make a putt and try and make sure your hands are relaxed. If
03:24you feel that your hands are having to maneuver the head by trying to open it or trying to close
03:27it to keep the ball on line then you probably haven't got the right hosel. If you can just
03:31relax your hands and make a stroke without them having any influence on it then you have the right
03:36hosel for your game. Now the fourth thing to think about when you're buying a new putter is what type
03:40of face you want. Now there's two main types you either have an all metal face or you have a face
03:44with an insert but why is this important? It really has to do with the feel of the putter and when
03:49people are talking about feel what they really mean is sound. The sound is what is important
03:52because it allows you to judge the pace of the putter. It allows you to judge how far you're heading
03:56and how hard you're hitting because it gives you that sound feedback and that is what gives you the feel.
04:00Some people 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 head
04:28then 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 the 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 to think
05:02about when you're trying to pick your putter is what type of alignment lines you like. Some people
05:06like some alignment lines some people like nothing at all. As you can see here in this blade there's
05:10no alignment lines at all and people like that if they just want to make a stroke they don't want
05:13anything complicating their minds when they're doing it. You can also get lines that point towards
05:16the target so if you use a line on your golf ball or you just want some visual reference for that
05:20then 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
05:35putters which have circles or they might have an open space which will be the width of the golf
05:40ball which 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
05:58what you're seeing these days are some composite shafts so these are putters which are mostly
06:04graphite with a steel tip. Point of these shafts is to actually make your stroke a little bit more
06:09consistent. They don't keep the putter on line what they help with is the rhythm of the putter because
06:13it changes the swing rate of the putter a little bit they might give you a slightly better feel.
06:18They 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 this affect
06:26the performance but it's also how you feel the club because it is the part of the club that you touch.
06:30Basically there's two types you've got the pistol type grip which tend to be a little bit thinner
06:34you can see how the the butt of it is a little bit wider and it tapers down a bit so it would be
06:39thicker at the top and narrower at the bottom. These tend to fit well in your hand because the
06:43pistol part of it locks into the the palm of your hand and that can help with stability. Also on the
06:48market you've seen the grips like this which are a little bit thicker and they tend to be the same
06:52width all the way down so if you like to vary the height of your hands on the putter or even if you
06:56want to use it as an arm lock putter where you're putting up against your arm then these types of
07:01grips work very well because you can put your hands in any place. They also come in various
07:05thicknesses as well this is one of the narrow ones but you can get quite thick ones as well.
07:08Now the advantage of having those thicker grips is that the 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
07:27the more forgiving larger headed mallets tend to come with these thicker grips anyway but you can
07:32change these grips around but be careful when you do because some grips are lighter than others and
07:35if 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 effect on the performance so if
07:44you are going to do it make sure you get it professionally done so you get the right grip
07:48for your 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
08:05not only help you hold a few more putts but also help you lower your scores.