FEEL:
Up to a certain point, the heaviness of the putterhead tends to help "feel" in the sense of impact physics of vibration and perhaps even "swingweight" -- at least with standard shafts and lengths and hoseling in the hands of a normal-size adult golfer. I'm pretty sure the vibrational response of a putter, given a standard shaft and hoseling and length, is fairly dependent upon the relative masses of ball and putterhead over the typical range of putterhead speeds at impact in putting. The three relevant points of focus for putterhead weight are: 1) taking the putter back from address, 2) the inertial properties of the putter in the stroke, and 3) the inertial and vibrational properties of the putter at impact with the ball. Thinking of putterhead weight in these three senses helps sort out the different meanings of the weight.
Taking the putter back, a heavier head tends to calm the nerves of the hands and arms. A light putter head is too easy to move, and responds to the fast fine-motor muscles of the hands. This effect somewhat depends upon the golfer and his technique and usual level of calmness or smoothness in putting motions. I teach pushing the putter back solely with the lead shoulder moving down, with dead hands, to avoid hand action sending the putter beyond the line going back, so putter weight is not all that important to me on this point. But if the putter is too heavy, this also increases the (bad) tendency to use the hands and arms to hoist the putter back at the start of the stroke. The swingweight or relative heaviness of the putterhead end versus the grip end of the putter modulates these inertial forces of moving the putter back as they affect the golfer's sense of touch inside his grip. A light swingweight (grip and putterhead ends not too different) gives mild touch feedback inside the hands. A bigger relative difference (e.g., heavier putterhead and standard grip weight) makes the "waggle" action inside the hands more pronounced.
Golfers like Raymond Floyd are very careful about their shafting and swingweight in order to tune their putters to a specific "feel" in the hands. Similarly, Alan Strand at
Dandy Putters changes the head weight when he changes the putter length, to preserve the same "swingweight" characteristics that he believes are best. Personally, I prefer the "feel" of "nothing changing" inside the hands, so there is more attention to how the body moves the putter and less to how the putter is moving in the hands.
The inertial properties of the putter during the stroke mostly relate to whether the putter makes a smooth transition at the top of the backstroke, whether the putter stays on a smooth, even stroke path, whether the putter face stays square or at least flares open and closed in a consistent manner, and whether the putter stays low and is resistant to subtle lifting or even more subtle guiding or face twists. Aside from issues of face balance versus other sorts of balancing (which relate mostly to face flare), the heavier the putter head (up to a point), the better. Heavy is slow, and slow is consistent and accurate. People often mistakenly beleive that heavy means the putter free-falls from the top of the backstroke "faster" than a lighter putter, but this is a common misconception. All objects, regardless of mass or weight, fall in gravity at the same rate. And heavier helps keep the hands as low as they start, to avoid lifting with the elbows, as this alters the loft presentation and changes the impact point of the putter (which needs to be sweetspot of putter thru sweetspot of ball). Lifting adversely affects line and distance. But again, it depends on whether the golfer has trained himself to use dead hands. The current crop of big-headed MOI putters are designed to help keep the stroke path stable with added back weight, so the putter swings on line more smoothly. These include the Scotty cameron Futura with the "Horseshoe" back weight:
and the Bobby Grace V Foil MOI putters:
the Never Compromise Voodoo:
and the Nike Oz mallet:
.
There are lots of these big-head back-weighted MOI putters around today. See
Chart: Big-headed putter specs - PGATOUR.COM.
In terms of impact, heavier putterheads transfer more momentum to the ball and rebound less (because relatively more massive than the ball in comparison to lighter putters). I think the vibrational response of a heavier putter (compared to a lighter putter of the same length, shafting, and hoseling) is at a lower frequency and may have a lower sound (but that depends somewhat on metal, insert, and shape of the head).
For the same stroke with the same putter head speed at impact on the same green, a heavy putter sends the ball farther than a light putter. Thus, heavier putters are often preferred for slower greens, and lighter putters preferred for faster greens.
Some pros, in an effort to keep all ten-foot putts the same stroke length even on different green speeds, will change putterhead weights to try to make the "send" properties of the normal ten-foot stroke length conform to the different greens. Some putter manufacturers make putters with adjustable weights for this purpose, and some putter manufacturers sell models with different head weights depending on the golfer's normal courses' green speeds. The
Ping Specify putter allows the golfer to configure a putter with a light, moderate or heavy putterhead weight. The
Chameleon Putter comes with changeable weights that attach behind the face. The
Railgun putter is sold in 4 different head weights depending upon the typical green speed the golfer plays.
The ball is 1.62 ounces in weight, which is 45 grams. A "heavy" putterhead on a conventional putter would be around 360 grams, nearly an 8 to 1 ratio of putterhead mass to ball mass. A "light" putterhead would be closer to 320 grams, around a 7 to 1 ratio.
According to Ping, in describing its new JAS series putters with heavier heads, "JAS [is] a high-tech design that adds considerable weight to the putter head and dramatically increases the speed, force and stability of the stroke at impact. " See
Chuck Stogel, Ping adds to vast putter lineup, Golfweb.com, 30 Oct 2002.
Nicklaus Cyanamet belly putter model 32 comes with an attachable medallion that adds 15 grams if desired to "smooth out" the stroke.
Nicklaus Belly Putter 32. Steve Abel, who makes fly fishing reels, also makes a putter with an adjustable weight, called the
Precision Putter.
The great website Swingweight.com has an article about how to alter putter head weight with lead tape and drilling or grinding and filing the head. See
Lead Tape Putters.
Hal Hannon, the inventor of the Plop putter, designed a Golfolgy putter on the idea that moving the weight more into the hands instead of the head made the putter better suited to a smooth stroke, and felt this idea made putters more in line with the heavy hickory-shafted, light heads of putters from the Bobby jones and Bobby Locke era. See
Sports Business - April '97 - better putting through physics (Hal Hannon, inventor of the Plop putter, designs Golfology putter with weight high in shaft in the hands, similar to old hickory shaft putters of Jones-Locke era).
In terms of the putter face flaring open and closed, the designer of hydroplanes has designed a putter with an extra weight plug near the heel to help close the face in the thru-stroke. See
Detroit native D'Eath uses boat-like design for putter (Tour Edge Equator), 19 Feb 2003. Some reviewers found this tendency closed the face too much. See
Travel Golf: Tour Edge Equator Putter.
Tour Edge Equator putter with 100 gram plug in heel:
I like the "clean" approach of
Von's Putters, where the putters are made heavy as a matter of principle.
So you can see that there is a great variety of approaches to putter weighting.
Here are some putters with putterhead weights given in grams:
Standard / Conventional Putters
Ace #1 Putter 323 g
Bionik 201 (Rossa Monza KO) 320 g
Daiwa OnOff Putter OP1 heel-toe blade 330 g
Daiwa OnOff Putter OM1 mallet 350 g
Daiwa OnOff Putter OL1 heel-shafted L-shape blade 320 g
Farrar Golf Black Glider 333 g or 345 g
Fortune T1 (Futura KO) 350 g
Gallagher Golf Direct 3-ball Turbo 378 g
Gallagher Golf Direct V Turbo II 333 g
Golf Clubs for Less Model 692 blade 330 g
GolfWorks Xtreme Moment 340 g
Inazone T+ (Nike Oz Mallet KO) 325 g
Integra Taxalium 330 g
Magregor M Series 340 g
Magregor Bobby Grace MOI V Foil M5K 352 g
Magregor Bobby Grace MOI V Foil M6.4K 352 g
Maltby CSS703 344 g
Never Compromise Voodoo 337 g
Nickent Hush Putter ISSO1 - ISSO4, ISSO6 345 g
Nickent Hush Putter ISSO5 350g
Nickent Hush Putter ISSO7 355 g
Ping G2i Craz-E 348 g
Railgun fast green weight 300 g
Railgun normal green weight 305 g
Railgun slow green weight 310 g
Railgun very slow green 315 g
Redbird Sports 320 - 340 g
Rossa Monza 345 g
Rossa Sport Series 340 - 350 g
Scotty Cameron Heavy Flange Bullseye 350 g
Snake Eyes MCS putters 330 g
Sake Eyes Strike Line 335 g
Thomas AT-60s standard mallet 345 g
Thomas AT-60 heavy mallet 395 g
Tom Wishon Golf Smooth putters 335 g
Wilson Deep Red 335 g
Von's Standard 398 putter 375 g
Von's Zero Cavity 337 g
Von's Zero Cavity 370 g
Von's 801 mallet 370 g
Von's Signature Edition 375 g
Yes! Golf Emma 355 g
[Roughly, 320-375 grams]
Belly Putters
Cleveland Gut Check belly 365 g
Farrar Golf Black Glider belly 370 to 390+ g
Golf Clubs for Less Model 786 belly mallet 400 g
Golf Clubs for Less Model CSS 701 conventional / belly 350 g
Golf Clubs for Less Silverado belly 363 g
GolfWorks Xtreme Moment belly 360 g
Magregor Bobby Grace MOI V Foil M7.5K belly 406 g
Maltby CSS701 belly 350 g
Ranger Golf belly 420 g
Rossa Monza belly 375 g
Scotty Cameron Mid Sur belly 375 g
Thomas AT-60 belly 395 g
Tom Wishon Golf Smooth belly 380 g
Wilson Deep Red belly 375 g
Von's 801 mallet belly 390 g
Yes! Golf Emma belly 390g
[Roughly, 360-400 grams]
Long Putters
DM Accusite long 414 g
Golf Clubs for Less Model CSS 702 long 500 g Golf Clubs for Less Spalding Cash-In long 500 g
Golf Clubs for Less Model TK2Y-8 long 402 g Magregor Bobby Grace MOI V Foil M14K long 515 g
Maltby CSS702 long 500 g
Maltby CSS704 long 400 g
Rossa Monza long 440 g
Thomas AT-60U long 405 g
Tom Wishon Golf long 450 g
Yes! Golf Emma long 460 g
[Roughly, 400-500 grams]
DISADVANTAGES:
The main disadvantage in using a heavier putter is that your tempo is too fast for the "send" the putter gives the ball on the typical greens you play. For amateur golfers, a heavier putter helps slow the tempo down, but if the tempo doesn't slow to work with the putter mass, the ball gets gassed too far. Psychologically, pros playing slick greens are generally afraid of too much putterhead weight, but this is really mostly a psychological effect only. A "heavy" putter by today's standards (350 grams and up), when used with an appropriately slow and measured tempo, will not send the ball scooting off the slick greens. Nor will it "force" a very short stroke. I cannot imagine a green too slick for a 350-gram putter so that a good-tempo stroke cannot keep the ball distance short enough. It is really about the slowness of the body motion, and not the putter mass, that controls distance on slick greens.
This is borne out by the fact that belly putters and long putters have heads with much greater weight. long putter heads are typically around 30% heavier than conventional putter heads. And this doesn't seem to cause any problems to those pros swearing by thye belly putters and long putters out there. In these cases, the added weight is there for swingweight purposes, but does not really adversely affect tempo or stroke length. Indeed, some pros take a long putter with the heavier head and cut it down to conventional length, to get the benefit of the more stable inertial properties of the putter head during the stroke.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.
Over 600,000 visits and growing strong ...
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I believe the trend is and will continue to be towards putter head weights heavier than usual in the past, up to a point. That point will probably settle pretty much in the head-to-ball ratio of about 8-t0-1 for green conditions today, at least in conventional putters.
