(Premier Login aceputt) Forum Owner Posted Nov 19, 2008 9:02 AM
Dear MKing,
With all due respect to ANY equipment technology, the future of putting is learning HOW to putt. Equipment technology or design features merely "tweak" the physics of the putter, but the golfer may or may not want, desire, or need this "help" from the designer.
The whole idea of the putter designer making something happen in the stroke "FOR" the witless golfer who doesn't have sense enough to do it himself has a long and disgraceful (not "distinguished") pedigree in golf culture. A few design features tend to neutralize putter physics, but the majority seek to substitute the designer's halfbaked notion of "preferred" technique or performance dynamic for the golfer.
Some equipment technology is simply better performance while being almost entirely technique-neutral -- metal putter heads versus wooden, for example, and steel shafts versus wooden. Most equipment technology, however, directly alters technique: goose-neck hoseling, broom-stick and belly putters, heel-toe weighting a la Karsten Solheim, sidesaddle putters, radiused-face "teardrop" putters, 6-degree loft that is to be delofted at setup and in stroke, etc. Quite a bit is just still-born goofiness (most alignment and aiming schemes fall into this category).
The whole areas of putter weighting is a tangled mass of amateurism, from the heavy-putter approach to the ill-conceived physics notions of Scotty Cameron's so-called "toe-flow". Adding weight inside the shaft is one of these areas where confusion and marketing claims are currently bumping into one another in the dark.
Anyone who thinks placing weight inside the putter shaft is something brand new is historically ignorant. People have been putting weight inside putter shafts for a long, long time. People who speak about the "release" of the putter head in a putting stroke usually don't know either a) WHAT THEY MEAN physically or movement-wise by the term "release" (it's standard vague, empty golf jargon like "touch and feel"), or b) WHETHER this is desirable for putting generally or any given golfer individually.
I doubt that anyone has suggested the mechanism of physics by which weight down inside the shaft supposedly promotes a putter head "release", even if they knew what a "release" is like and how it relates to golfer-responsible body action (e.g., tightness / firmness of grip, whether shoulder stays coordinated with putter head motion or forearms "roll" in some ill-defined manner, etc.). Just speaking from a back-of-the-envelope understanding of the physics changes that result from locating weight / mass down inside the shaft (certainly no further than the hosel): the main effect (aside from adding to total overall mass and weight) is to move the center of mass of the putter and hence the total putting system of golfer plus putter closer in to the golfer than before and also higher up in the system than before. This physics alteration has nothing whatsoever to do with any "release" action of the putter in and of itself. The only way this MIGHT increase a releasing of the putter head (defined as a "closing thru impact of the toe") is IF the golfer has a underlying squirreliness in his stroke movement pattern that is being exacerbated.
First, address the question of whether a "release" is a good thing or a bad thing in general (incidentally defining what the term means). (And for this, please trust a TEACHER of putting more than a tool maker -- as putter makers are hardly ever knowledgable in HOW TO USE THE TOOL. They fake this part, almost all of them, and the vast majority simply hunt perpetually for new gimmicks to market.) THEN, make a decision about equipment design features with physics making things happen "FOR" you.
Personally, if I found a putter designer messing with my stroke to shape it according to his ideas not mine, I'd probably strangle the life out of him simply by a modest increase of grip pressure, especially in the left thumb and fingers.
I would urge everyone in golf to stop the adolescent, dilettante behavior of trying to "buy a stroke" and instead sort out how to read putts, aim putters, make straight strokes, and control distance. The benefit of this approach is approximately ten or more times more powerful and immediate than chasing fads in putter equipment.
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