Preseason Checkup: Do You Have the Right Putter?

A few golfers focused on practicing their putting, but dozens of others simply waited for the shotgun start during a 2022 golf outing at Idlewild. Local golf pros say players need to pay more attention to putting and having the right putter. File photo by Craig Sterrett.

When golf season finally arrives, many golfers can’t wait to swing away with a new driver or a new set of irons. These days, many players who are serious about their scores go to a pro or a major retailer to get a fitting so they’ll have the proper lengths of clubs and sizes of clubfaces with the ideal loft and lie.

Very few, however, have a golf pro or professional fitter find the putter that’s best for them.

Horseshoe Bay PGA head professional Jamie Christianson said he had an eye-opening conversation with golf-equipment guru Scottie Cameron at a Florida golf show several years ago. At the time, some golfers were “becoming outraged about prices going over $199 to $240” for putters, Christianson recalled.

He walked into Cameron’s booth and made mention of putter prices going up. Cameron talked with him, professional to professional.

“He kind of went into the scientific definition: The metals are better and the balance,” Christianson recounted. “Then he looked at me and said, ‘People will spend $500 on a club they might hit 14 times: the driver. And then they will spend $25 on a club they will hit maybe 45 times and wonder why they shoot 100. That doesn’t make sense.’”

“That was completely eye opening,” Christianson continued. “People will spend a huge amount of money because they want to hit the ball as far as they can, hopefully, and hit it straight, hopefully, and then they’ll spend less on a club they hope to hit 30 to 36 times, but more likely they’ll hit it 40 because you’re going to three-putt some.”

From that point on, Christianson and his colleagues in pro shops and clubhouses where he has worked have done putter fitting for players. Often, golfers have a decent putting stroke, but the putter might not match up correctly with their posture, or the way they swing the putter, or how it rotates through the strike zone, he said.

“Nobody ever got putter fitting – they’d just grab one,” he said.

Christianson said that if he asks someone whether they were fit for their golf clubs, they often say yes. But if he asks them whether they’ve been fit for their putter, the answer is usually no.

“Why? You spent all your money on your irons, your wedges, your driver, your woods, and you didn’t get fit for your putter,” he said. “The putter’s the most important club in your bag.”

Longtime Peninsula State Park Golf Course summertime teaching pro Matt Stottern wrote in the Peninsula Pulse a few years ago that many golfers have putters that are too long for them. If a putter’s too long, the player might not have the free and appropriate shoulder turn. He noted that club makers or repairers can easily shorten a putter shaft and regrip it.

Peninsula Gears Up for Youth Lessons and More

Though there’s still snow on the ground and its official opening day isn’t until April 29, Peninsula State Park Golf Course is already promoting several learning and playing sessions for young people. The course, operated by Peninsula Golf Associates, has several events on its calendar at peninsulagolf.org/outings/calendar.

The Dr. William and Carolyn Bell Junior Golf School offers four-day sessions for ages 8-14 at the Peninsula driving range June 12-15 and July 10-13. The price of $50 per junior per session includes free golf at the six-hole Short Course. 

The First Tee program for ages 8-17 costs $125, which includes passes to the Peninsula Short Course and lessons for life and golf each Thursday, July 5 – Aug. 30, 4:30-6 pm.

The Peninsula Golf Associates (PGA) calendar also lists the Gibraltar Booster Club’s May 21 nine-hole golf scramble; PGA board meetings monthly on the last Tuesday; a June 12 twosome tourney and dinner; the Sister Bay Lions Club’s golf scramble July 16, 12-5 pm; the Oct. 1 Little Eddie Big Cup Tournament; and the Resorters Par 3 Tourney on Aug. 6, preceding the 99th Annual Resorters Match Play Tournament Aug. 7-9.