Dear Goeff,

I am continuing my journey on putting and recently added the new putter from Taylor Made to my bag. I feel it's minimal loft of 2.5 degrees is really helping the ball to skid less after impact more than the insert in the face itself. I have played my first round with it yesterday and was a few times short but online with the target intended line I had chosen.

I was wondering about the following;

Altough I have read that you don't think that a player should be changing weights on his putter to adapt to different green speed when it comes to changing the swingweight of a putter and that the player can decide on his own, what would you recommend ?

This putter comes stock with (2) two 6 grams cartridges (12 grams total), the maximum total weight of cartridges that can be installed on this putter is two 14 grams (28 grams total).

1. I believe that adding weight to the putter would increase the Moment of Inertia ?

2. I am wondering about this, when it comes to deciding to change the swingweight is it simply a matter of personal preference ?

There is a possibility to put the putter to these different weights;
-16 grams total,
-20 grams total,
-the heaviest 28 grams total.

I have at some point been putting with an extremely heavy putter which was a Ping C67 G2 center shafted that according to my friend a Master Club Maker from Canada had an extremely heavy swingweight. If my memory is right it had a G2 swingweight (coincidence) when he weighted the putter with his device to do so. Altough I don't want to have an extremely heavy putter I would like my Taylor Made putter to be a little more heavy.

Any thoughts about how the process a making the decision on selecting which cartridges to choose from for this putter to change it's swingweight ?

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts about this.

Best regards,

Martin Buswell
Canada.

I have the same putter and was wondering the exact same thing.

I also wondering if a lighter vs heavier swing weigt is better for a peddulum vs handsy stroke. Which is better for which.

Hopefully this bump will get this post some attention.

Sorry about not responding earlier!

The "weight" (mass under gravity) of a putter matters in a number of different ways: swingweight, overall weight, inertia, momentum in swing, momentum transfer to ball, and vibrational transmission. Let me just sketch out the main directions of difference:

1. Swingweight: heavier head = more awareness of putter head on end of shaft
2. Overall Weight: heavier head helps arms and hands stay hanging neutral
3. Momentum in Swing: heavier head will tend more to stay in same swing direction
4. Inertia: heavier head takes more to start back and to stop and change direction
5. Momentum Transfer: heavier head imparts more momentum to ball for same stroke speed
6. Vibrational Transmission: heavier head absorbs more impact vibrations and damps feel in hands

With these effects in mind, you want the putter weight to fit well with your body, the greens you usually play on, and your stroke. here are the main directions for these factors:

1. Body: heavier, meatier arms and hands generally need a heavier putter
2. Greens: conventional wisdom holds that faster greens call for lighter putters, but I disagree
3. Stroke: quick-tempo strokes are better suited to lighter putters and vice versa

So let's get specific. Take me, for example. I'm 6'1" tall, weigh 160 pounds, have 34" sleeve lengths, play on greens typically around 10 on the Stimpmeter, and have a slow tempo. I'm not especially meaty, play sort of fast greens, and have a slow stroke. So my indicators are: light-to-middle weight for body, middle weight for greens, heavy for stroke tempo. That tells me that light weight is pretty much out and my choice is between middle weight and heavy weight. As it turns out, I tend to pick putters with head weights around 350 to 375 grams -- to the heavy side of the conventional range. (See this Flatstick Forum post for details.)

The main "bad thing" you want to avoid in favoring a heavier putter head is Inertia at the start and at the directional change at the top of the backstroke. No matter how slow and relaxed your stroke, with the tendency to mitigate this inertia issue at the start and transition, a too-heavy putter will cause problems at the takeaway and at the transition. The delicate judgment or assessment that should be of most interest is how much mass can you add to the putter head before the takeaway feels less fluid and more "hitchy" than you like -- where is your personal cross-over point. So long as you keep adding weight without making the takeaway skippy or jerky in any degree, then the weight is probably all to the good: more feel of the putter head, more staying in the established stroke path, more send to the ball, a slower stroke and a less-long stroke on fast greens, and a better overall fit with your body.

The general direction is towards heavier = better, so you want to build up from the lightest commbination in your putter to the point where adding further weight is causing problems. Adding further weight will not cause problems on fast greens except in the rarest cases -- some OTHER factor will suggest you stop adding weight before that problem surfaces.

If you put the onus totally in the feel of your hands to sort this out, what you are looking for is a stroke that does not require anything other than smoothness in the takeaway. This is the key point in the stroke where the putter is most resistant to your effort, so you want to get a resistance level (mass inertia) that you can handle without skippiness. Bigger boned, more massive armed golfers can handle a more massive and more resistant putter.

In response to the question about pendulum vs. handsy stroke style, a pendulum style is a "dead hands" style so heavier is genreally better. On the other hand, a handsy style requires more precise information in the hands about the changing situation of the putter head and the putter face during the stroke, so swingweight is a bigger factor for a handsy style than it is for a pendulum style. Even then, the general trend should be towards slightly heavier putter head than normal, as heavier is more swingweight feel, at least up to a point.



"Go tell my captain this 9-pound hammer is a bit too small." -- John Henry

I hope this helps.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced putting instruction -- you're either in the PuttingZone, or not.