October 15, 2025 • 30 mins
Shane and Marty discuss alternative style putting and the fitting tools available to help golfers find a putter that’s best for their setup and stroke. They dive even deeper into long putters and one of the newest options available in the PLD family, the PLD Oslo L.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how
much the equipment matters. I just love that I can
hit any shot I kind of want. We're gonna be
able to tell some fun stories about what goes on
here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, hey, everybody, welcome back to the Pink proven Grounds Podcast.
I'm Shane Bacon, joined as always by Marty Jerts and Marty.
We're gonna talk today. It's a touchy subject. It's a
part of the game we have to do almost every
time on every hole. So you don't have to driver
on every hole. You don't have to hit an iron
on every hole in theory, but unless you chip in
or hole out, you do have to putt, and putting
(00:34):
can be tough for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Now you think.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Back fifty sixty, seventy years ago, the options weren't necessarily
endless in terms of what you could use on the greens.
That's not the case in twenty twenty five. So I
wanted to get into some alternate style puttings. You're a guy,
I mean you do alternate style correct? How long have
you been?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
What are you? Are?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
You long putter?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
You armlock, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I switched to I've done it all Shane, you know.
But I switched to the long putter right after college.
And it wasn't necessarily because I was having shorty hebe
gebis or whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I just call it Yips' podcast. We can call them's
all right, yips.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah. I didn't have the yips. But I was playing
a lot of golf with Kevin Stadler, you know, in Colorado,
and he just would just sweep him in and it
made it look so easy, and I was like, Okay,
if he can do it, he doesn't care, I'll throw
out my ego and try it to it. I just
it was like super fun. It was super fun to
practice and learn a new skill. But but but now
I did that for I did that for a long time,
(01:34):
played some of my best golf with the long putter,
and then the anchoring thing happened and I was didn't
put good for a few years, and then I was like,
I'll try armlock, and I did that. Now I'm now
I'm at wristlock, miniature version of armlock. So yeah, I
don't I don't mind dabbling in some alternative techniques. Myself personally.
I want to know Shane from you. What have you
tried over the years? You know what I I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I don't tinker a lot in linked I've done counterbalance.
I kind of dabbled in that world for a bit.
I sent a panic email a couple of months ago
to the Ping team about a different style putter after
a not so great run of tournament golf where I
was missing a lot of putts that my thing wasn't
I wasn't missing the shorties. I just wasn't making anything.
(02:16):
It was like nothing from ten twelve feet. Probably a
little bit more mental than everything. I'm sure that's most
of the time where we go when we get into
this space. But I lean heavily, and I've leaned heavily
in the Mallet world myself, and for me, kind of
going answer to Mallet back and forth has always have
been in the South for me. I will say about
(02:37):
my putter room if you will, is I do like
to switch a decent amount just because I do like
a different look. I think that's something that I've noticed
works well with me, even if I've got kind of
my baby that I like the most, seeing something a
little different than going back to it almost brings it
back to life.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
There's some great research on this. Joan Vicker, who's the
sports psychologist here at ASU. She's done a lot of
work with the ASU golf team and P and Lan
and some research there. She did a lot of studies
on the yips, and so she did a study that
indicated you never want to say with the study it
firmly concluded, but it indicated that switching putters would have
(03:19):
a very good, acute effect on your putting performance. We
actually captured a bunch of data, just observational data. With
stack putting, it's kind of gamified way to practice your putting,
and so people are very focused playing eighteen holes, collecting
all this very granular data, and they go in there
and when they switch putters, they're putting performance improved by
(03:40):
like point five strokes gain per round. And that wasn't
like just one eighteen hole simulated round. It was over
the first five rounds they improved by like half a shot,
and then their second round six to ten they improved
by like point six shot strokes gains. So there is
something too, like it's kind of validating when your putter
(04:01):
kind of gets a little cold. I'm a big than
like the data kind of suggest go ahead and have
permission switch.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Are you surprised as a golf fan that, And granted
I'm gonna mention some names here that are like all
time great putters, but you think about Ben Crenshaw, right,
I mean, same putter forever. Obviously we saw that with
Tiger over the years. You kind of see it now
with Jordan Spieth. I know Victor has kind of stuck
with pretty much the same putter throughout his career. It's
(04:31):
wild to me that even those guys who at times
have gone through eras of not putting great, the fact
that they almost always just stick with their gamer says
a lot about the confidence that they have on the
greens that no, it's not the putter, right, it's maybe
me or the stroke by the way I'm thinking about it.
But it's so funny to think about that era of
golfer and then there's obviously plenty of pros out there
(04:52):
that are completely content switching all the time and tearing
them off.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I know it is putting is it's like all the
rule go out on putting. It's like you can't conclude, like, well,
Tiger did this, or Ben did that, or you know,
then you got other guys when we got I got
a picture with Lee Westwood, Okay, and he came in
one time when he was the number one player in
the world, and we got every single putter he's one
with in the Gold Putter vault and he had him
(05:17):
out like this, holding him. He could hardly stand him
all up. And they were all different models. He's one.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It was a story that he he was tinkered around
with one of them in the vault one time and
he was like, oh, I love this putter and went
back to it and I think he won like two
ye later or something.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
He did.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, it was like it.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Reminded him of an old love or an old flame
or something.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah. So Lee, we got Lee Westwood on the other end.
You know, he'll he'll we'll switch on a whim. Migueljmen
is similar. He's he's got so many different models in there.
But but but it's interesting. You'll say, you look at
a Tiger or Ben Crenshaw or even that. I think
we can conclude this about Victor is that you know,
Ben applied a lot of torque. You know, I even
think of Phil Mickelson. That's why he likes our I
(05:58):
two lob wedge over the years is that he rotates
about the shaft axis a lot. And so those guys
love that feeling of like pouring on the torque, like
very high torque during their putting stroke, and they just
love that visceral feedback from the putter.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So when you dive into the different putting styles these days,
obviously have a conventional putter. I mean that's somebody that
has a thirty five inch putter in theory and you
know there maybe they're crosshand, maybe they're traditional putter's pretty
simple looking, you know, maybe it's an answer style or
tying or something like that. Obviously, we talked about armlock.
Armlock is a big, big popular method these days. You've
(06:37):
got kind of counterbalance mid linked. We'll talk a little
bit about the difference there. Then you've got the long
putters and Marty you even mentioned another style, right, I
mean you've got something that that's even a little bit
of a different style of armlock that you're currently using. Yeah,
when you go in, when you go I mean, when
you're going to get fit for a putter behind you
is if people are watching this on YouTube. Are the
(06:58):
offerings all there? I mean, do you guys provide every
offering possible for people to come get fit into and
to get at least a look at everything that's available
these days in terms of putting styles.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, I mean Ping's got a long history. Our founder
Carson used a long putter, you know, they'll be ninety
and some of those putters back in the day that
he saw a lot of the old timers, you know,
the rock O Mediates winning with and Sam Torrence and
all that. You know, Chin anchoring long putter. So it's
it's it's it's right in our DNA of this alternative
style putting. And I think Carson kind of helped to
(07:29):
help bring the broomstick or the long style putter out
there again, you know, being a good engineer, he solved
a problem for his set himself and passed along to
the golf marketplace. So yeah, we do have some great options.
I mean, we're just bringing out the our Oslo putter.
We're bringing out a long putter version of that. And
one of the things with the long putter, Shane from
(07:50):
a fitting standpoint, and my colleague Jim Canos actually worked
on this. He doesn't use the long putter. He doesn't
need to. Just won the Colorado Open with an arm
lid shut out Hard k Let's go shout out to
Hard k Win. And he lost it last year in
a playoff, but got it done this year hold out
in a playoff. And he's an armlock putter, he's always
been arm lock. That guy can absolutely roll the rock.
(08:12):
But he worked on a new fitting algorithm that we
have to fit the long putter cause it's kind of
hard out there. We don't we don't have great fitting tools.
The market doesn't have great fitting tools to fit the
long putter, but the length is crucial. So we did
this really cool study, uh, and we apply to even
to our tour players that are are using using a
(08:33):
long putter. You know, we've had a few guys David
Lingmerth and others using a long putter out there. And
you take your height and then we take a certain
percentage of your elbow to floor. So instead of like
in iron fitting where we do your wrist to floor,
you kind of get in, you kind of get in
your long putter posture, and we take a measurement from
your elbow to floor and then how far you flare
(08:56):
your lead arm out like some people like Bernard to
have it more tucked in closer to the side. Some people,
more like Adam Scott, have it straight or out or
maybe you know Adam Scott style. And then how much
you bend over, how crouched you are, because again some players,
again Bernard stands a little taller, Adam Scott maybe bends
over a little bit more. And we developed a really
(09:19):
cool algorithm that fits the length of your long putter
really well, and so we built that. It's in Pink
co Pilot. All of our fitters have access to it.
If any of you out there listening are interested in
exploring a long putter, you can book a virtual fitting
with us and we'll walk you right through that length fitting.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Do you see when popularities and alternate style putting pops
on tour, you know, a player wins with an armlock putter,
or you know, or I mean anything really, I mean
you think about counterbalance something like that. Do you see
the general public kind of follows suit like I remember
the famous story about Zach Johnson years ago when he
won the Masters, the company almost went out of business
(09:58):
that was producing those putters. I think they have this
huge boom on the back end of his victory. Like,
do you see that tour influence kind of follow along
when somebody has success with a different style or an
alternate method.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, no, definitely. I mean I think that What it does,
I think, Shane, is it gives the every day golf
for a little bit of permission and drop the ego
a little bit to try something huge. Right, It's a
really big deal. I mean, the percentage of tour players
using a long putter now is maybe at an all
time high. We just ran the numbers a couple of
weeks ago. Jim Canals did this hard k and the percentage,
(10:33):
this is a shocking stat to me. I had to
triple check the data. The percentage of PGA Tour players
using a long putter is actually bigger than the percentage
of the Champions Tour players using a long putter. I
didn't think in my lifetime I would ever ever see that,
But the percentage is really high. Again, kind of the
ego attachment of a long putter's gone or any alternative style. Shane,
(10:56):
my eight year old played in Junior World this year
and they have this really big putting contests at Torrey Pines,
and then the amount of junior golfers using a mid
length or claw or cross handed or arm lock, and
all of them playing mallets. You know, the the the
answer style or answer archetype was was a rare defined
(11:17):
on that putting green. So I think you're going to
continue to see just such a broad mix of these
different different styles, whether it's whether it's mid length, arm lock, broomstick.
I mean, you know, the one that hasn't exploded. I
thought it might would be side saddle, but that's still
pretty niche.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, shout out Bryce. I was trying to bring it back,
that's for sure. When he when he turned pro. I
remember a very interesting conversation that he had with our
team back in the Fox days about how that was
the answer to putting when he turned pro and played
in the Sharks shoot out that year. Of course that
did not that did not last, by the way, But Tinker.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yep, exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So can you can you run us through the difference
in counterballance in mid length, because I think that can
get little litle bit confusing for people.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That's a great one because I think right now.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Kind of adding the counterbalance, it was kind of not
a flash in the pan, but people tried it and
then it went away and it's kind of been replaced
with mid length.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So I think Victor is a really great Victor is
a really great example of this where he plays our
mid length putter, but he doesn't have an added fifty
gram weight under the grip. Okay, so that fifty gram weight.
I think if we think about the biomechanics of putting, Shane,
a lot of what we do in fitting the putter
or somebody really matching up and marrying a putter to
their stroke is how much are they going to rotate
(12:38):
the putter about the shaft axis. So that's let's say
you're listening to this, if you had like a GoPro
camera and you're going to attach it looking right down
the shaft, how much is the face going to rotate open?
So that's how we kind of fit to the feel
in resistance and amount of torque somebody puts about the shaft, Well,
the counterbalance is looking at that from the face on
(13:02):
view of the player. Basically, how much are they going
to apply torque to rotate the putter. So let's say
you didn't kind of linearly move your hands at all
translate them towards the target and away from the target.
And maybe you can think of like I. Salioki, He
was like the ultimate example, like he just he just
twisted his hands right at the middle. He would be
(13:24):
an I. Salioki type of putter would be one that's
super sensitive to the moment of inertia or the headweight
of the putter right And if you made the putter
heavier right in the middle, right where his hands are,
it wouldn't really affect him because he wouldn't sense it
the way he's applying the forces and torques to move
the putter. But if somebody moves the putter more linear,
(13:47):
they would be really sensitive to adding weight or a counterbalance.
And I think the golf market kind of experimented with that,
like let me add fifty grams, it'll stabilize it. But
all it really it moves the center of gravity of
the putter closer to your hands, and it just made
the putter overall heavier. And what people realize, which our
research has suggested on this is their speed control wasn't
(14:11):
quite as good, so your lag putting isn't quite as good.
So why mid length has kind of come into play
is it does a little bit of the counterbalancing, right,
You get a little bit of the counterbalancing just from
the natural mass of the shaft and the longer grip
up there. But it doesn't increase the overall weight in
such a way that you lose that ability to apply
(14:34):
the torqueen plane and rotate the putter from a face
on view to control your speed and your pace. So
that's a little bit of the science and the biomechanics
behind it, and why I think the golf marketplace and
a lot of the tour players and the victors out
there have really enjoyed this mid length gives them a
little extra weight. The other reason, and you see this
with folks. I've certainly observed this on a lot of armlock.
(14:56):
And we'll talk about that is victor and some of
these players, they will grip it not as far down
on longer putts and help add a little bit more
power and helps their pace in their speed, which can
be challenging with some of these alternative style techniques.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, you mentioned armlock, I mean I'd like to dive
into it. I mean, as you mentioned something you kind
of leaned into very popular. We've seen different iterations. Now
it almost feels like the old Claude's right, where the
first time was the claw and then we saw the
claw under and then we saw all different types of
the iterations of the claw. Yeah, the pencil claw, you know,
I mean, it's definitely taken a life of its own.
Feels like armlocks much of the same. What type of
(15:35):
player would benefit from an armlock putter?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, so I think, you know, I think what's interesting
about armlock is that it takes out actually one of
the big the biggest power source in putting. So the
biggest power source in putting and chipping is kind of
your inplane risk movement again that is Salioki movement, and
it kind of forces you to power it a little
(15:58):
bit less with the rotation of the putter about the
hands and more with you know, your shoulders moving or
your abdominals or kind of what's powering the stroke. So
it can calm down some of the powering that would
happen through the wrist and move the powering mechanism into
(16:19):
your shoulders and your abdominals your rocking motion, right, and
so it's a it's a great way to kind of
force that to happen or to cheat it, and you can,
you can, you can. Some of the most successful times
I've had with arm locking is I will apply a
massive amount of torque, like in my wrists, my lead
wrist max it out like white knuckle pressure, and then
(16:43):
you can get in there and you just rotate through
your abdominals and and and shoulders to power the stroke.
So it's a way to totally rewire your brain into
powering your stroke through different muscle activation. Now it's the
downside of that. The downside of that is because you're
taking out the most powerful power source and putting, is
(17:07):
that you're long your lag putting, and your long putting
can kind of struggle. And this is where it's pretty interesting.
You know, Coocher's probably been doing it the longest and
probably the best out there on tour, and once he
gets to like twenty five thirty feet Shane, he's not
wrist locking that thing at all, armlocking it at all.
You'll see pictures of him and it totally comes off.
He uses it more like a mid length putter. So
(17:30):
if you want to try armlock, it kind of gives
you the ability to put with two different techniques. Still
set up with it with a lot of shaffling, but
go ahead and let it unlock on your lag putting.
That's a great tip and trick. And I even do
that with wristlock and armlock and best super long lag putt.
You almost have to let it go because you won't
be able to get enough power.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
You mentioned Kucher, and I think this is a question
I think a lot of people that are listening might have.
Is we've mentioned, you know, five six different iteration of
an alternate style putting. We're not pro golfers, you know,
you don't have tour reps. You know, at the putting green,
you don't have all day every day to work on
it with different putters. How do you know or how
(18:11):
do you determine which of these is best for you?
And when do you start to take that step? You know?
Is this a I'm missing a lot of putts, I'm
losing a lot of strokes on the golf course in
terms of the way I'm getting the ball in the hole.
I should try some different things. Is this something people
should just maybe take a look at to see if
there's a method that works better for them, Like, how
do you grasp all of these options and basically kind
(18:33):
of find the answer to what you're looking for on
the greens.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, I mean, I think if you want to do
a wrist lock, arm block or mid length counterbalance option,
I think it's really maybe you're short putting, like like
like the four or maybe you do need a totally
kind of brain rewiring and you are having the hebgb's
or the yips and from very short range. But let's
(18:57):
say that's not necessarily your issue. It's just you need
to make more puts from like that four to twelve feet.
That are those puts that are very important from a
strokes gained putting standpoint, and you have it a hard
time with your face delivery. Face delivery is so important,
like your path and what your stroke looks like. You know,
remember the old Billy Mayfair days with the big over
(19:18):
the top thing, but he putted great because path doesn't matter.
The physics of it is. Path doesn't matter that much
in putting. It's all about the consistency of your face delivery.
So if you're having a hard time with that hitting
your start line, I think I think armlock, wristlock counterbalance
is a really good place to start. The key chane
(19:39):
and from a fitting standpoint, is getting the loft right,
because we've seen that there's a very big spread in
how much loft you need to kind of optimize your
launch conditions in those putters. Like Bubba did armlock for
a while back in the day, but he set up
with his left elbow or for him is right elbow
(20:01):
very close to his sternum, so he kind of rotated
it in a lot and he I think we only
added like one degrade loft to his putter. It's very
similar to his gamer. Or you can have folks like
like a coucher again that lean the shaft a ton
and he's got a ton of loft, so it's very
important we have. Our iping tool is a great tool
(20:22):
for that. Or if you go to a fitting place
that has a you know, a quintic or something else
that can get your dynamic loft or even a blast
sensor something of that nature to really measure your shaffling.
Even nowadays, you can do it on video pretty well.
You know, use a iPhone video on your camera slow
mo mode. If you schedule virtual fitting with us and
(20:43):
you take a slow mo video, we can get a
we can do a really good job of measuring your
shaffling with a video. But those are some of some
some very important keen ideas on maybe who who would
be a good candidate, And then the most important thing
is to look at your loft and your shaffling.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Marty an important question, if it's something I should ask
as kind of a golf person. I mean, over the
last what year year and a half, you're seeing these
torque putters kind of blow up, you know, professionally you're
seeing a lot of players jump into that world and
we've seen them be successful in the golf space. What's
kind of Ping's thought process behind this popularity, if you will,
(21:19):
of torque putters, and do you see that avenue being
kind of ventured down at some point?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, it's a great question. It's a great question, Shane.
I mean, I think you know our stroke type fitting
and methodology and framework is really fitting for how much
torque you want to have in your stroke? Right? So
you know putter torque When you hear that word, what
is the topic? What is the concept? I did a
great I did a very fun podcast with doctor Eric Hendrickson.
(21:45):
We deep dive this entire thing. But really what it
is is how much do you how much for you
do you want that feel of resistance of twisting the
putter about the shaft act, So a putter that has
less torque will you will feel the putter closing less
(22:07):
on the backstroke and therefore or opening less on the backstroke,
and therefore you don't have to apply as much torque
to close it on the forward stroke. Definitely an advantage
to that, especially if you innately as a golfer, will
repeat your putting stroke best with that. So we've launched
I think some folks have seen we've launched our Alley
Blue onset and that putter has onset to it, but
(22:31):
there's still we're still pulling the center of gravity. And
what's important about pulling the center of gravity. That means
even though we have the shaft axis behind the face,
the CG or center gravity of that putter and the
whole system build still lays behind the shaft because that
stabilizes it. Just like a you know kind of a
(22:52):
you know, a water skier being pulled by a boat,
you kind of get this stableization effect. Or a trailer
pulling a trailer versus pushing a trailer. It's more stable
if you're pulling that center of gravity, and that's what
Carston brought to the golf industry. He started with the
one A putter. There was effectively a low torque or
(23:15):
zero torque putter and you could kind of hold it
on your finger and spin it around and spin very fast.
But Carston didn't blow up and put ping on the
map with the one A. He did it with the answer.
And what did the answer have? Sheene? It was the
plumber's neck where you pulled the center gravity that stabilized
the face.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, I mean it's it's uh. I mean, we're always
looking for the answers, and I'd say more than any
place in golf, it seems like putting is the place
we search the most. I mean you think about yes,
alignment tools, alignment lines, now these golf balls. I mean
you you can get your own colorway with the line
of these days in terms of the way we go
(23:53):
about it. You know, you see obviously some people are
dedicated to the line and not. But it's it's such
an interesting world to dive in too, because it's abundant
and it's plentiful, and you look at all the options
these days from everybody, and I mean you can find
something that will make the most sense for you. And
you mentioned the fitting, and you mentioned virtual fitting, you
mentioned iping. Just remind people if they're interested in that
(24:15):
space where they can go to maybe dial in what
makes the most sense for them on the greens.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, definitely. I mean, would just launch a couple new
alternative style putting options with the OSLO. So we have
the OSLO Long there's a great long putter option. So
now we got an option out there. We have the
OSLO Counterbalance, a little heavier counterbalance option that we can
use for fitting different lengths out there. And then if
somebody wants to is interested in those and once to
(24:40):
get fit with them, you can go to ping dot com,
navigate to the fitting portion book of Virtual Fitting and
have a great discussion. If you bring in some specs
of your gamer putter, we can configure. We could look
at the new OSLO options or any of our options
in our Scottsdale Family PLD family right there with a
virtual fitting, or go to our find a Fitter tool
(25:02):
is a great place you can go find one of
our fitters that uses our ipink technology can measure your
shaffling and get you kind of kind of dialed in
for either a counterbalance or a long putter with our
new OsO long chain.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, And I would also say, and I think this
is really important. It's not the most important thing, but
I do think looking down at a putter you like
does help the confidence absolutely. And I've been a PLD
guy for a long time since they first were introduced.
I've been using my answer PLD from the first iteration
over the last couple of months, just kind of going
(25:37):
back to kind of what I set off the top,
going back to my baby, if you will, And it's
definitely my old school baby. But when I've got a
buddy now that lives out here, one of my best
buddies out in Connecticut. He's a member at my club
and he's kind of gotten PLD obsessed, and he might
have four or five now or have different finishes and stuff.
But every time I play with them, I'm just like
floored by how beautiful the putter is. And if you
(25:59):
want to go down that world, if you want to
go down that road, having a pretty putter, having something
you like looking down at, man, it makes a world
of difference in terms of your confidence. Even if you
don't feel the best on the greens.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, No, your putter needs to inspire you, you know,
and and and that's our goal with PLG point is
is you want to look down and be inspired. And
every single one to one thousandth of an inch is
so meticulously milled, and and that's really it. You know,
putting is the unless you're doing heads up putting, which
(26:32):
has its merit that is a form of alternatives.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Talk about it. We've talked about on this podcast.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
So heads up putting is definitely something folks should try,
even even just for practicing. But unless you're doing heads
up putting, Shane, you know, the putting stroke is the only,
uh is the only thing in golf where you see
the putter in your in your field of view the
entire time. Right. I call it the blur effect, and
a putter kind of has to blur something to your
(27:00):
liking as well, you know. So pl D Shane, the
PLD you're using, what site line do you have on
do you have a site line a line on the
top or at.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Line line on line on.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
The on the back? So okay, so I like, what
would you catch that the catch area?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Like, that's there's a line back there. I've got I've
got a dot pl D as well that that I
kind of go back and forth with as well, a
little bit more of a modern pl D. But uh yeah,
I think I'm I think I'm a I don't line
the ball up, but I do like having the line
on the putter because I I, for whatever reason I
for if I do line line, it doesn't match up.
(27:35):
But if I do line kind of clean ball or
just logo ball, I uh, it makes the world the
difference for me.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
We're doing a lot of very fun research on that topic. Uh.
You know, there's a great video out there and Neil
Shipley talking about he's got two p l ds, two answers,
one with the dot and one not and he calls
his dot one the dotty. And we're doing some very
interesting things in that in that space of studying the
eyes where you're looking with your when you're putting, and uh,
(28:04):
it's just it's just a fun area. That's why I
was curious to ask you, Uh, you know which pod
you were you were gaming right now?
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, let me know if you need somebody to come
out and model the technology. I'd love to know if
my eye line was correct or if I'm doing it
the right way. Uh. I do grind in the backyard
a decent amount on the putting, and I will say this,
I think this has been the ball striking this season.
Maybe he's not been up to snuff, but I do
think that the putter has been the consistent factor. I mean,
when you stand over five and eight footers, like you
(28:31):
said to save par, or you know, you got the
five footer on a par five for the birdie and
you feel like he gotta make it. Rolling those with confidence, man,
it changes the entire experience on the golf course.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
That that distance is so crucial. I mean Mark Brody's
book really highlighted that when Luke Donald was the number
one player in the world and his stats everywhere were
kind of average, but he he crushed everybody from like
six to nine feet and really on the tour or
any any golf those putts are so important from a
strokes game scoring standpoint, right, that strokes game putting standpoint
(29:04):
makes such a huge difference. So if you're gonna spend
time practicing your putting, spend it in that zone of
four to twelve feet, because a lot of people bang
in three footers and then they lag and then you
go on the course. So you got that, you got
that eight or twelve footer.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, I mean you kind of going back as we
wrap on some of the best putters in the world,
it seemed like that was always their dominant area. You know,
you mentioned Luke Donald obviously, we mentioned Tiger earlier. I
mean in Tiger's prime, I mean every six seven foot
of the matter was right in the middle with speed.
Speed was so good at that. Yeah, from that ten
to twelve foot range in his prime. And I mean,
you know, it's there's so many players that can have
(29:39):
a lot of confidence. Then on the other side of things,
players that don't have a lot of confidence. That's typically
where they struggle, right, I mean you see the best
players in the world at times kind of struggle inside
of that six foot range when the other ones are
making all those and I mean they're they're round savers,
their round continuers, Yes, they're they're they're confidence builders, like
all of the things we're looking for, because everybody in
(29:59):
the world, it's gonna spray off the tea at times,
you're gonna miss screens. But when you have that confidence
that I can make a putt if I had a
decent bunker shot or a decent chip shot. It does
wonders for your golf game, even if you're not swinging
at the best.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Ye. Well, my advice you on alternative style is don't
be afraid to try it. You know, all the stigma's gone.
Everyone's putting all kinds of different ways. I think it's
a very fun time. It's a very fun time in
this putting space that there's permission to go go do
something a little bit different. If you haven't tried the
long putter, try it out if you have, if you
haven't had tried armlock or counterbalance. It's one of those
(30:35):
things you gotta you gotta experiment with, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Yeah, try them out. See if they make the most
sense for you, and you get comfortable with one. Lean
into it. Marty has done it for a long long time,
and Marty is one of the best golfers that I know.
So don't be scared to try yourself. That's Marty. I'm Shane.
This is the Pink Proving Rounds podcast.
The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how
much the equipment matters. I just love that I can
hit any shot I kind of want. We're gonna be
able to tell some fun stories about what goes on
here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, hey, everybody, welcome back to the Pink proven Grounds Podcast.
I'm Shane Bacon, joined as always by Marty Jerts and Marty.
We're gonna talk today. It's a touchy subject. It's a
part of the game we have to do almost every
time on every hole. So you don't have to driver
on every hole. You don't have to hit an iron
on every hole in theory, but unless you chip in
or hole out, you do have to putt, and putting
(00:34):
can be tough for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Now you think.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Back fifty sixty, seventy years ago, the options weren't necessarily
endless in terms of what you could use on the greens.
That's not the case in twenty twenty five. So I
wanted to get into some alternate style puttings. You're a guy,
I mean you do alternate style correct? How long have
you been?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
What are you? Are?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
You long putter?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
You armlock, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I switched to I've done it all Shane, you know.
But I switched to the long putter right after college.
And it wasn't necessarily because I was having shorty hebe
gebis or whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I just call it Yips' podcast. We can call them's
all right, yips.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah. I didn't have the yips. But I was playing
a lot of golf with Kevin Stadler, you know, in Colorado,
and he just would just sweep him in and it
made it look so easy, and I was like, Okay,
if he can do it, he doesn't care, I'll throw
out my ego and try it to it. I just
it was like super fun. It was super fun to
practice and learn a new skill. But but but now
I did that for I did that for a long time,
(01:34):
played some of my best golf with the long putter,
and then the anchoring thing happened and I was didn't
put good for a few years, and then I was like,
I'll try armlock, and I did that. Now I'm now
I'm at wristlock, miniature version of armlock. So yeah, I
don't I don't mind dabbling in some alternative techniques. Myself personally.
I want to know Shane from you. What have you
tried over the years? You know what I I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I don't tinker a lot in linked I've done counterbalance.
I kind of dabbled in that world for a bit.
I sent a panic email a couple of months ago
to the Ping team about a different style putter after
a not so great run of tournament golf where I
was missing a lot of putts that my thing wasn't
I wasn't missing the shorties. I just wasn't making anything.
(02:16):
It was like nothing from ten twelve feet. Probably a
little bit more mental than everything. I'm sure that's most
of the time where we go when we get into
this space. But I lean heavily, and I've leaned heavily
in the Mallet world myself, and for me, kind of
going answer to Mallet back and forth has always have
been in the South for me. I will say about
(02:37):
my putter room if you will, is I do like
to switch a decent amount just because I do like
a different look. I think that's something that I've noticed
works well with me, even if I've got kind of
my baby that I like the most, seeing something a
little different than going back to it almost brings it
back to life.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
There's some great research on this. Joan Vicker, who's the
sports psychologist here at ASU. She's done a lot of
work with the ASU golf team and P and Lan
and some research there. She did a lot of studies
on the yips, and so she did a study that
indicated you never want to say with the study it
firmly concluded, but it indicated that switching putters would have
(03:19):
a very good, acute effect on your putting performance. We
actually captured a bunch of data, just observational data. With
stack putting, it's kind of gamified way to practice your putting,
and so people are very focused playing eighteen holes, collecting
all this very granular data, and they go in there
and when they switch putters, they're putting performance improved by
(03:40):
like point five strokes gain per round. And that wasn't
like just one eighteen hole simulated round. It was over
the first five rounds they improved by like half a shot,
and then their second round six to ten they improved
by like point six shot strokes gains. So there is
something too, like it's kind of validating when your putter
(04:01):
kind of gets a little cold. I'm a big than
like the data kind of suggest go ahead and have
permission switch.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Are you surprised as a golf fan that, And granted
I'm gonna mention some names here that are like all
time great putters, but you think about Ben Crenshaw, right,
I mean, same putter forever. Obviously we saw that with
Tiger over the years. You kind of see it now
with Jordan Spieth. I know Victor has kind of stuck
with pretty much the same putter throughout his career. It's
(04:31):
wild to me that even those guys who at times
have gone through eras of not putting great, the fact
that they almost always just stick with their gamer says
a lot about the confidence that they have on the
greens that no, it's not the putter, right, it's maybe
me or the stroke by the way I'm thinking about it.
But it's so funny to think about that era of
golfer and then there's obviously plenty of pros out there
(04:52):
that are completely content switching all the time and tearing
them off.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I know it is putting is it's like all the
rule go out on putting. It's like you can't conclude, like, well,
Tiger did this, or Ben did that, or you know,
then you got other guys when we got I got
a picture with Lee Westwood, Okay, and he came in
one time when he was the number one player in
the world, and we got every single putter he's one
with in the Gold Putter vault and he had him
(05:17):
out like this, holding him. He could hardly stand him
all up. And they were all different models. He's one.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It was a story that he he was tinkered around
with one of them in the vault one time and
he was like, oh, I love this putter and went
back to it and I think he won like two
ye later or something.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
He did.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, it was like it.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Reminded him of an old love or an old flame
or something.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah. So Lee, we got Lee Westwood on the other end.
You know, he'll he'll we'll switch on a whim. Migueljmen
is similar. He's he's got so many different models in there.
But but but it's interesting. You'll say, you look at
a Tiger or Ben Crenshaw or even that. I think
we can conclude this about Victor is that you know,
Ben applied a lot of torque. You know, I even
think of Phil Mickelson. That's why he likes our I
(05:58):
two lob wedge over the years is that he rotates
about the shaft axis a lot. And so those guys
love that feeling of like pouring on the torque, like
very high torque during their putting stroke, and they just
love that visceral feedback from the putter.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So when you dive into the different putting styles these days,
obviously have a conventional putter. I mean that's somebody that
has a thirty five inch putter in theory and you
know there maybe they're crosshand, maybe they're traditional putter's pretty
simple looking, you know, maybe it's an answer style or
tying or something like that. Obviously, we talked about armlock.
Armlock is a big, big popular method these days. You've
(06:37):
got kind of counterbalance mid linked. We'll talk a little
bit about the difference there. Then you've got the long
putters and Marty you even mentioned another style, right, I
mean you've got something that that's even a little bit
of a different style of armlock that you're currently using. Yeah,
when you go in, when you go I mean, when
you're going to get fit for a putter behind you
is if people are watching this on YouTube. Are the
(06:58):
offerings all there? I mean, do you guys provide every
offering possible for people to come get fit into and
to get at least a look at everything that's available
these days in terms of putting styles.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, I mean Ping's got a long history. Our founder
Carson used a long putter, you know, they'll be ninety
and some of those putters back in the day that
he saw a lot of the old timers, you know,
the rock O Mediates winning with and Sam Torrence and
all that. You know, Chin anchoring long putter. So it's
it's it's it's right in our DNA of this alternative
style putting. And I think Carson kind of helped to
(07:29):
help bring the broomstick or the long style putter out
there again, you know, being a good engineer, he solved
a problem for his set himself and passed along to
the golf marketplace. So yeah, we do have some great options.
I mean, we're just bringing out the our Oslo putter.
We're bringing out a long putter version of that. And
one of the things with the long putter, Shane from
(07:50):
a fitting standpoint, and my colleague Jim Canos actually worked
on this. He doesn't use the long putter. He doesn't
need to. Just won the Colorado Open with an arm
lid shut out Hard k Let's go shout out to
Hard k Win. And he lost it last year in
a playoff, but got it done this year hold out
in a playoff. And he's an armlock putter, he's always
been arm lock. That guy can absolutely roll the rock.
(08:12):
But he worked on a new fitting algorithm that we
have to fit the long putter cause it's kind of
hard out there. We don't we don't have great fitting tools.
The market doesn't have great fitting tools to fit the
long putter, but the length is crucial. So we did
this really cool study, uh, and we apply to even
to our tour players that are are using using a
(08:33):
long putter. You know, we've had a few guys David
Lingmerth and others using a long putter out there. And
you take your height and then we take a certain
percentage of your elbow to floor. So instead of like
in iron fitting where we do your wrist to floor,
you kind of get in, you kind of get in
your long putter posture, and we take a measurement from
your elbow to floor and then how far you flare
(08:56):
your lead arm out like some people like Bernard to
have it more tucked in closer to the side. Some people,
more like Adam Scott, have it straight or out or
maybe you know Adam Scott style. And then how much
you bend over, how crouched you are, because again some players,
again Bernard stands a little taller, Adam Scott maybe bends
over a little bit more. And we developed a really
(09:19):
cool algorithm that fits the length of your long putter
really well, and so we built that. It's in Pink
co Pilot. All of our fitters have access to it.
If any of you out there listening are interested in
exploring a long putter, you can book a virtual fitting
with us and we'll walk you right through that length fitting.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Do you see when popularities and alternate style putting pops
on tour, you know, a player wins with an armlock putter,
or you know, or I mean anything really, I mean
you think about counterbalance something like that. Do you see
the general public kind of follows suit like I remember
the famous story about Zach Johnson years ago when he
won the Masters, the company almost went out of business
(09:58):
that was producing those putters. I think they have this
huge boom on the back end of his victory. Like,
do you see that tour influence kind of follow along
when somebody has success with a different style or an
alternate method.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, no, definitely. I mean I think that What it does,
I think, Shane, is it gives the every day golf
for a little bit of permission and drop the ego
a little bit to try something huge. Right, It's a
really big deal. I mean, the percentage of tour players
using a long putter now is maybe at an all
time high. We just ran the numbers a couple of
weeks ago. Jim Canals did this hard k and the percentage,
(10:33):
this is a shocking stat to me. I had to
triple check the data. The percentage of PGA Tour players
using a long putter is actually bigger than the percentage
of the Champions Tour players using a long putter. I
didn't think in my lifetime I would ever ever see that,
But the percentage is really high. Again, kind of the
ego attachment of a long putter's gone or any alternative style. Shane,
(10:56):
my eight year old played in Junior World this year
and they have this really big putting contests at Torrey Pines,
and then the amount of junior golfers using a mid
length or claw or cross handed or arm lock, and
all of them playing mallets. You know, the the the
answer style or answer archetype was was a rare defined
(11:17):
on that putting green. So I think you're going to
continue to see just such a broad mix of these
different different styles, whether it's whether it's mid length, arm lock, broomstick.
I mean, you know, the one that hasn't exploded. I
thought it might would be side saddle, but that's still
pretty niche.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, shout out Bryce. I was trying to bring it back,
that's for sure. When he when he turned pro. I
remember a very interesting conversation that he had with our
team back in the Fox days about how that was
the answer to putting when he turned pro and played
in the Sharks shoot out that year. Of course that
did not that did not last, by the way, But Tinker.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yep, exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So can you can you run us through the difference
in counterballance in mid length, because I think that can
get little litle bit confusing for people.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That's a great one because I think right now.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Kind of adding the counterbalance, it was kind of not
a flash in the pan, but people tried it and
then it went away and it's kind of been replaced
with mid length.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
So I think Victor is a really great Victor is
a really great example of this where he plays our
mid length putter, but he doesn't have an added fifty
gram weight under the grip. Okay, so that fifty gram weight.
I think if we think about the biomechanics of putting, Shane,
a lot of what we do in fitting the putter
or somebody really matching up and marrying a putter to
their stroke is how much are they going to rotate
(12:38):
the putter about the shaft axis. So that's let's say
you're listening to this, if you had like a GoPro
camera and you're going to attach it looking right down
the shaft, how much is the face going to rotate open?
So that's how we kind of fit to the feel
in resistance and amount of torque somebody puts about the shaft, Well,
the counterbalance is looking at that from the face on
(13:02):
view of the player. Basically, how much are they going
to apply torque to rotate the putter. So let's say
you didn't kind of linearly move your hands at all
translate them towards the target and away from the target.
And maybe you can think of like I. Salioki, He
was like the ultimate example, like he just he just
twisted his hands right at the middle. He would be
(13:24):
an I. Salioki type of putter would be one that's
super sensitive to the moment of inertia or the headweight
of the putter right And if you made the putter
heavier right in the middle, right where his hands are,
it wouldn't really affect him because he wouldn't sense it
the way he's applying the forces and torques to move
the putter. But if somebody moves the putter more linear,
(13:47):
they would be really sensitive to adding weight or a counterbalance.
And I think the golf market kind of experimented with that,
like let me add fifty grams, it'll stabilize it. But
all it really it moves the center of gravity of
the putter closer to your hands, and it just made
the putter overall heavier. And what people realize, which our
research has suggested on this is their speed control wasn't
(14:11):
quite as good, so your lag putting isn't quite as good.
So why mid length has kind of come into play
is it does a little bit of the counterbalancing, right,
You get a little bit of the counterbalancing just from
the natural mass of the shaft and the longer grip
up there. But it doesn't increase the overall weight in
such a way that you lose that ability to apply
(14:34):
the torqueen plane and rotate the putter from a face
on view to control your speed and your pace. So
that's a little bit of the science and the biomechanics
behind it, and why I think the golf marketplace and
a lot of the tour players and the victors out
there have really enjoyed this mid length gives them a
little extra weight. The other reason, and you see this
with folks. I've certainly observed this on a lot of armlock.
(14:56):
And we'll talk about that is victor and some of
these players, they will grip it not as far down
on longer putts and help add a little bit more
power and helps their pace in their speed, which can
be challenging with some of these alternative style techniques.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, you mentioned armlock, I mean I'd like to dive
into it. I mean, as you mentioned something you kind
of leaned into very popular. We've seen different iterations. Now
it almost feels like the old Claude's right, where the
first time was the claw and then we saw the
claw under and then we saw all different types of
the iterations of the claw. Yeah, the pencil claw, you know,
I mean, it's definitely taken a life of its own.
Feels like armlocks much of the same. What type of
(15:35):
player would benefit from an armlock putter?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, so I think, you know, I think what's interesting
about armlock is that it takes out actually one of
the big the biggest power source in putting. So the
biggest power source in putting and chipping is kind of
your inplane risk movement again that is Salioki movement, and
it kind of forces you to power it a little
(15:58):
bit less with the rotation of the putter about the
hands and more with you know, your shoulders moving or
your abdominals or kind of what's powering the stroke. So
it can calm down some of the powering that would
happen through the wrist and move the powering mechanism into
(16:19):
your shoulders and your abdominals your rocking motion, right, and
so it's a it's a great way to kind of
force that to happen or to cheat it, and you can,
you can, you can. Some of the most successful times
I've had with arm locking is I will apply a
massive amount of torque, like in my wrists, my lead
wrist max it out like white knuckle pressure, and then
(16:43):
you can get in there and you just rotate through
your abdominals and and and shoulders to power the stroke.
So it's a way to totally rewire your brain into
powering your stroke through different muscle activation. Now it's the
downside of that. The downside of that is because you're
taking out the most powerful power source and putting, is
(17:07):
that you're long your lag putting, and your long putting
can kind of struggle. And this is where it's pretty interesting.
You know, Coocher's probably been doing it the longest and
probably the best out there on tour, and once he
gets to like twenty five thirty feet Shane, he's not
wrist locking that thing at all, armlocking it at all.
You'll see pictures of him and it totally comes off.
He uses it more like a mid length putter. So
(17:30):
if you want to try armlock, it kind of gives
you the ability to put with two different techniques. Still
set up with it with a lot of shaffling, but
go ahead and let it unlock on your lag putting.
That's a great tip and trick. And I even do
that with wristlock and armlock and best super long lag putt.
You almost have to let it go because you won't
be able to get enough power.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
You mentioned Kucher, and I think this is a question
I think a lot of people that are listening might have.
Is we've mentioned, you know, five six different iteration of
an alternate style putting. We're not pro golfers, you know,
you don't have tour reps. You know, at the putting green,
you don't have all day every day to work on
it with different putters. How do you know or how
(18:11):
do you determine which of these is best for you?
And when do you start to take that step? You know?
Is this a I'm missing a lot of putts, I'm
losing a lot of strokes on the golf course in
terms of the way I'm getting the ball in the hole.
I should try some different things. Is this something people
should just maybe take a look at to see if
there's a method that works better for them, Like, how
do you grasp all of these options and basically kind
(18:33):
of find the answer to what you're looking for on
the greens.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, I mean, I think if you want to do
a wrist lock, arm block or mid length counterbalance option,
I think it's really maybe you're short putting, like like
like the four or maybe you do need a totally
kind of brain rewiring and you are having the hebgb's
or the yips and from very short range. But let's
(18:57):
say that's not necessarily your issue. It's just you need
to make more puts from like that four to twelve feet.
That are those puts that are very important from a
strokes gained putting standpoint, and you have it a hard
time with your face delivery. Face delivery is so important,
like your path and what your stroke looks like. You know,
remember the old Billy Mayfair days with the big over
(19:18):
the top thing, but he putted great because path doesn't matter.
The physics of it is. Path doesn't matter that much
in putting. It's all about the consistency of your face delivery.
So if you're having a hard time with that hitting
your start line, I think I think armlock, wristlock counterbalance
is a really good place to start. The key chane
(19:39):
and from a fitting standpoint, is getting the loft right,
because we've seen that there's a very big spread in
how much loft you need to kind of optimize your
launch conditions in those putters. Like Bubba did armlock for
a while back in the day, but he set up
with his left elbow or for him is right elbow
(20:01):
very close to his sternum, so he kind of rotated
it in a lot and he I think we only
added like one degrade loft to his putter. It's very
similar to his gamer. Or you can have folks like
like a coucher again that lean the shaft a ton
and he's got a ton of loft, so it's very
important we have. Our iping tool is a great tool
(20:22):
for that. Or if you go to a fitting place
that has a you know, a quintic or something else
that can get your dynamic loft or even a blast
sensor something of that nature to really measure your shaffling.
Even nowadays, you can do it on video pretty well.
You know, use a iPhone video on your camera slow
mo mode. If you schedule virtual fitting with us and
(20:43):
you take a slow mo video, we can get a
we can do a really good job of measuring your
shaffling with a video. But those are some of some
some very important keen ideas on maybe who who would
be a good candidate, And then the most important thing
is to look at your loft and your shaffling.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Marty an important question, if it's something I should ask
as kind of a golf person. I mean, over the
last what year year and a half, you're seeing these
torque putters kind of blow up, you know, professionally you're
seeing a lot of players jump into that world and
we've seen them be successful in the golf space. What's
kind of Ping's thought process behind this popularity, if you will,
(21:19):
of torque putters, and do you see that avenue being
kind of ventured down at some point?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, it's a great question. It's a great question, Shane.
I mean, I think you know our stroke type fitting
and methodology and framework is really fitting for how much
torque you want to have in your stroke? Right? So
you know putter torque When you hear that word, what
is the topic? What is the concept? I did a
great I did a very fun podcast with doctor Eric Hendrickson.
(21:45):
We deep dive this entire thing. But really what it
is is how much do you how much for you
do you want that feel of resistance of twisting the
putter about the shaft act, So a putter that has
less torque will you will feel the putter closing less
(22:07):
on the backstroke and therefore or opening less on the backstroke,
and therefore you don't have to apply as much torque
to close it on the forward stroke. Definitely an advantage
to that, especially if you innately as a golfer, will
repeat your putting stroke best with that. So we've launched
I think some folks have seen we've launched our Alley
Blue onset and that putter has onset to it, but
(22:31):
there's still we're still pulling the center of gravity. And
what's important about pulling the center of gravity. That means
even though we have the shaft axis behind the face,
the CG or center gravity of that putter and the
whole system build still lays behind the shaft because that
stabilizes it. Just like a you know kind of a
(22:52):
you know, a water skier being pulled by a boat,
you kind of get this stableization effect. Or a trailer
pulling a trailer versus pushing a trailer. It's more stable
if you're pulling that center of gravity, and that's what
Carston brought to the golf industry. He started with the
one A putter. There was effectively a low torque or
(23:15):
zero torque putter and you could kind of hold it
on your finger and spin it around and spin very fast.
But Carston didn't blow up and put ping on the
map with the one A. He did it with the answer.
And what did the answer have? Sheene? It was the
plumber's neck where you pulled the center gravity that stabilized
the face.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, I mean it's it's uh. I mean, we're always
looking for the answers, and I'd say more than any
place in golf, it seems like putting is the place
we search the most. I mean you think about yes,
alignment tools, alignment lines, now these golf balls. I mean
you you can get your own colorway with the line
of these days in terms of the way we go
(23:53):
about it. You know, you see obviously some people are
dedicated to the line and not. But it's it's such
an interesting world to dive in too, because it's abundant
and it's plentiful, and you look at all the options
these days from everybody, and I mean you can find
something that will make the most sense for you. And
you mentioned the fitting, and you mentioned virtual fitting, you
mentioned iping. Just remind people if they're interested in that
(24:15):
space where they can go to maybe dial in what
makes the most sense for them on the greens.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yeah, definitely. I mean, would just launch a couple new
alternative style putting options with the OSLO. So we have
the OSLO Long there's a great long putter option. So
now we got an option out there. We have the
OSLO Counterbalance, a little heavier counterbalance option that we can
use for fitting different lengths out there. And then if
somebody wants to is interested in those and once to
(24:40):
get fit with them, you can go to ping dot com,
navigate to the fitting portion book of Virtual Fitting and
have a great discussion. If you bring in some specs
of your gamer putter, we can configure. We could look
at the new OSLO options or any of our options
in our Scottsdale Family PLD family right there with a
virtual fitting, or go to our find a Fitter tool
(25:02):
is a great place you can go find one of
our fitters that uses our ipink technology can measure your
shaffling and get you kind of kind of dialed in
for either a counterbalance or a long putter with our
new OsO long chain.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, And I would also say, and I think this
is really important. It's not the most important thing, but
I do think looking down at a putter you like
does help the confidence absolutely. And I've been a PLD
guy for a long time since they first were introduced.
I've been using my answer PLD from the first iteration
over the last couple of months, just kind of going
(25:37):
back to kind of what I set off the top,
going back to my baby, if you will, And it's
definitely my old school baby. But when I've got a
buddy now that lives out here, one of my best
buddies out in Connecticut. He's a member at my club
and he's kind of gotten PLD obsessed, and he might
have four or five now or have different finishes and stuff.
But every time I play with them, I'm just like
floored by how beautiful the putter is. And if you
(25:59):
want to go down that world, if you want to
go down that road, having a pretty putter, having something
you like looking down at, man, it makes a world
of difference in terms of your confidence. Even if you
don't feel the best on the greens.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, No, your putter needs to inspire you, you know,
and and and that's our goal with PLG point is
is you want to look down and be inspired. And
every single one to one thousandth of an inch is
so meticulously milled, and and that's really it. You know,
putting is the unless you're doing heads up putting, which
(26:32):
has its merit that is a form of alternatives.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Talk about it. We've talked about on this podcast.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
So heads up putting is definitely something folks should try,
even even just for practicing. But unless you're doing heads
up putting, Shane, you know, the putting stroke is the only,
uh is the only thing in golf where you see
the putter in your in your field of view the
entire time. Right. I call it the blur effect, and
a putter kind of has to blur something to your
(27:00):
liking as well, you know. So pl D Shane, the
PLD you're using, what site line do you have on
do you have a site line a line on the
top or at.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Line line on line on.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
The on the back? So okay, so I like, what
would you catch that the catch area?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Like, that's there's a line back there. I've got I've
got a dot pl D as well that that I
kind of go back and forth with as well, a
little bit more of a modern pl D. But uh yeah,
I think I'm I think I'm a I don't line
the ball up, but I do like having the line
on the putter because I I, for whatever reason I
for if I do line line, it doesn't match up.
(27:35):
But if I do line kind of clean ball or
just logo ball, I uh, it makes the world the
difference for me.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
We're doing a lot of very fun research on that topic. Uh.
You know, there's a great video out there and Neil
Shipley talking about he's got two p l ds, two answers,
one with the dot and one not and he calls
his dot one the dotty. And we're doing some very
interesting things in that in that space of studying the
eyes where you're looking with your when you're putting, and uh,
(28:04):
it's just it's just a fun area. That's why I
was curious to ask you, Uh, you know which pod
you were you were gaming right now?
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, let me know if you need somebody to come
out and model the technology. I'd love to know if
my eye line was correct or if I'm doing it
the right way. Uh. I do grind in the backyard
a decent amount on the putting, and I will say this,
I think this has been the ball striking this season.
Maybe he's not been up to snuff, but I do
think that the putter has been the consistent factor. I mean,
when you stand over five and eight footers, like you
(28:31):
said to save par, or you know, you got the
five footer on a par five for the birdie and
you feel like he gotta make it. Rolling those with confidence, man,
it changes the entire experience on the golf course.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
That that distance is so crucial. I mean Mark Brody's
book really highlighted that when Luke Donald was the number
one player in the world and his stats everywhere were
kind of average, but he he crushed everybody from like
six to nine feet and really on the tour or
any any golf those putts are so important from a
strokes game scoring standpoint, right, that strokes game putting standpoint
(29:04):
makes such a huge difference. So if you're gonna spend
time practicing your putting, spend it in that zone of
four to twelve feet, because a lot of people bang
in three footers and then they lag and then you
go on the course. So you got that, you got
that eight or twelve footer.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, I mean you kind of going back as we
wrap on some of the best putters in the world,
it seemed like that was always their dominant area. You know,
you mentioned Luke Donald obviously, we mentioned Tiger earlier. I
mean in Tiger's prime, I mean every six seven foot
of the matter was right in the middle with speed.
Speed was so good at that. Yeah, from that ten
to twelve foot range in his prime. And I mean,
you know, it's there's so many players that can have
(29:39):
a lot of confidence. Then on the other side of things,
players that don't have a lot of confidence. That's typically
where they struggle, right, I mean you see the best
players in the world at times kind of struggle inside
of that six foot range when the other ones are
making all those and I mean they're they're round savers,
their round continuers, Yes, they're they're they're confidence builders, like
all of the things we're looking for, because everybody in
(29:59):
the world, it's gonna spray off the tea at times,
you're gonna miss screens. But when you have that confidence
that I can make a putt if I had a
decent bunker shot or a decent chip shot. It does
wonders for your golf game, even if you're not swinging
at the best.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Ye. Well, my advice you on alternative style is don't
be afraid to try it. You know, all the stigma's gone.
Everyone's putting all kinds of different ways. I think it's
a very fun time. It's a very fun time in
this putting space that there's permission to go go do
something a little bit different. If you haven't tried the
long putter, try it out if you have, if you
haven't had tried armlock or counterbalance. It's one of those
(30:35):
things you gotta you gotta experiment with, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Yeah, try them out. See if they make the most
sense for you, and you get comfortable with one. Lean
into it. Marty has done it for a long long time,
and Marty is one of the best golfers that I know.
So don't be scared to try yourself. That's Marty. I'm Shane.
This is the Pink Proving Rounds podcast.
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