Golf Equipment, Golf Fore the Good

Muttering About Putters

11.18.07

Author’s Note:



The views stated in this blog are my own and should not reflect on your personal preference for a putter design. If you are that impressionable and tend to listen to everything everyone says about your golf game and your choice of clubs, you must already have a garage full of cast-off golf equipment and hardly need to bid on the Scotty Cameron putter I have posted on Ebay.



Furthermore, I do not intend for my comments to endorse any one club maker over another or to alienate any particular club manufacturer. Since no big golf conglomerate is currently breaking my door down to capitalize on my blogging achievements as their next route to marketing success, I think I am safe in posting the following comments.



If you want some really good insight into club design, I suggest you consult Golf Digest’s yearly Equipment Hotlist.


I have a thing about how my golf equipment looks. I’ve never liked the look of thick, bulbous irons. It took me years before I even attempted to swing an over-sized driver. They just looked like gourds on a stick to me, and I could only imagine that one would burst apart on contact like a shattered pumpkin on Halloween. It was love at first sight when I set eyes on a bronze wedge; I ogled it as if it was a sculpted, sun-tanned god. Traditional “wood” woods make me nostalgic and teary eyed in the presence of their beauty. I am a sucker for tradition.

I have played golf for a little over thirteen years and have owned just two putters. My first was a very heavy and extremely traditional Ping Anser. I loved it, right down to the lovely ‘ping’ it made as I struck the ball toward the hole. Alas, not all love affairs are made to last and when my putting went south a few years ago I needed a change. I considered experimenting with a mallet or a blade but, sticking with the the devil I knew over the devil I didn’t know, I ended up with another nearly identical Ping, albeit with the “advanced design” of a soft insert. I’d love to say “why mess with success,” but I must remember why it was that I was actually buying a new putter in the first place…

First impressions stick with me. Once I have it in my head that something looks a certain way, you’re hard pressed to convince me otherwise. Yes, I can honestly say I can’t stand comfortably over a golf club of certain design.

Of course it can be argued that form follows function but, MOI aside, I just can’t imagine what the club designers were thinking when they came up with some of the putters on the market today.

Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.






By the Chinese calendar, 2007 was the Year of the Pig. Apparently many women mistook this for the Year of the Pink. My good friend has a pink push cart, a pink cart bag, a pink shafted driver and pink outfits to match. I dare say, they look good on her. I am not sure how she missed the opportunity to purchase the pink Pinfire Eagle putter to complete the ensemble. Personally, I have enough trouble getting the ball to the hole. I don’t think a dainty, pink putter would generate a lot of confidence, but that’s just me.

















Life Ring


The last thing I need is to stand over a three foot putt and have some odd thought pop up. I know a lot of people who love their Odessey White Hot 2 Ball putters. As for me, I see nothing but a life ring when I look down at the SRT. Perhaps that isn’t a bad thought: “save this hole!”



I was just thinking that maybe I could get used to looking at a two-ball design when they came out with the Odessey White Steel Tri-Ball SRT. If anything screams “snowman” at me, it’s that putter. Holing out for an eight is a thought I don’t need to have in my head.



Craz-E like




One look at the Ping G5i Craz-E Putter series and I’m flashing back to when I was six years old and sticking my foot into a strange metal device in the shoe store, being fitted for my next pair of Buster Browns. Definitely not good for my putting; one must live in the present on the golf course. I admit I spent a lot of time reading when I was a child and as a result developed an over active imagination… but there is no argument you can make that will convince me that the Craz-E putters were not created by an out of work shoe salesman for Irish Leprechauns.



Tour Edge V25 look-a-like




While we’re on the subject of little people, I am sure there is a teeny, tiny navy somewhere that could utilize the Tour Edge V25 as an aircraft carrier.











Ray Cook putter




Another putter that takes me back in time is the Ray Cook M1. I once owned a Ford Fairlane named Bessie. Back in those days we really became attached to our cars, seemingly much more so than golfers become attached to their putters. Cars were very user friendly then, in that we’d keep them for a good long time, rather than just trade them in. The Ray Cook advertises a “spectacular blue chrome finish” that is nearly identical to good ole’ Bessie in her prime. Bessie eventually rusted away. I wonder how many golfers hold onto their putters with that kind of devotion.



Tour Edge BackDraft look-a-like




Then there are other putters that just outright scare me. The Taylor Made Rossa, the Tour Edge Backdraft and the Ram Accubar AB1 and AB2 models all look to me to be some sort of IED. You have a metal device integrated with something that looks like a small stick of dynamite or maybe a powerful, explosive Bic lighter. If you’re traveling with your golf clubs you might have a hard time getting those through security.



Guerin Rife look alike putter

One club that might be handy to have in your bag if you’re vacationing abroad would be the Guerin Rife. I can see why it is billed as the “most technologically advanced putter ever made.” It can easily do double duty as an electrical adapter, seeing as it is so similar in design to a C style plug. You’ll be packed and ready for a game if you’re ever invited to go golfing with Retief or Ernie, as I understand that the C plug is widely used in South Africa.







Bobby Grace V Foil GT putter look alike




I really want to look down at my putter and get a true feeling of confidence. Some how a club as full of holes as the Bobby Grace V-Foil GT putter doesn’t do it for me. What sort of MOI do you get from putting with a block of Swiss cheese? I’m guessing it might have an overly soft feel, which might be just what someone is looking for in a putter - just not me.







All this being said I’ll stick with my Ping putter. Which explains why I have posted the Scotty Cameron Futura Phamtom putter on Ebay. It’s a pretty nice looking putter but I’d be too distracted humming the theme song from “The Phantom of the Opera” to sink a putt.

Proceeds from the sale of the Scotty Cameron putter will go towards the legal work necessary to secure non-profit status for Golf Fore the Good. Bid high!




Or find the club of your dreams