Buying a putter that’s right for you isn’t easy. You need to do your homework to find one that fits both your budget and your game, which means learning the different types of putters and clubheads available and their advantages. But doing your homework is worth it because having a good putter, as I often say in my golf lessons, shaves strokes off your golf handicap.

The key considerations when looking for a putter are price, quality, type, clubhead, and alignment system. Face insert, loft, and hosel are additional considerations. I’ve talked about these considerations in my golf tips, but here’s some additional information about them.

Price/Quality

Prices for putters range from $30 to $250 or more. Usually, the higher the price, the better the quality. While buying quality is nice, you don’t have to overspend to find the right putter. Consider putters from all price ranges before investing, but look for one that feels right to you and fits your budget. That can take time, but if you look hard enough, you just might find a good but inexpensive putter that will work as well as an expensive one.

Type

Putter types include traditional, belly, and long. Most players use a traditional putter, which allows for the best blend of feel and mechanical precision. Traditional putters demand “quiet” wrists, a big hurdle for some. They also affect golfers with bad backs. Hence, the increased use of the belly and the long putters. Nevertheless, they’re easier to master than the belly or long putters, which is why I cover them in my golf lessons.

The belly putter provides a third point of contact - the abdomen— between the putter and the player, the other two being your hands. This putter adds stability and balance to your stroke. The belly putter enables a golfer to control his wrist action and assume a near perfect position for putting, but the club’s longer shaft and generally thicker grip inhibits feel and feed back. Distance control is also a problem.

Long putters provide a stroke with a true pendulum arc, are great for players with bad backs, and completely eliminate wrist action, but they inhibit feel, feed back, and distance control even more than belly putters. Many players consider them the “last refuge” for players with highly active wrists, but you’ll often see them used by pros on the tour who are having trouble with their putting.

Clubhead

Putters come with blade, cavity back, and mallet clubheads. A blade has the clubhead’s weight distributed to the heel or bottom of the putter, leaving a thin top line to view when addressing the ball. It is harder to control than a cavity back or a mallet. A cavity back features a hollow area in the middle of the club- head’s back, creating a larger sweet spot. A mallet is bigger than traditional putter’s clubhead but its shape varies widely. Also check out the face-balanced and the heel-toe-weighted mallets, which promote a straight stroke and minimize mishits.

Alignment System

Aligning the putter to the hole is critical to sinking the putt, as I emphasize in my golf lessons. If the putter isn’t lined up properly, the ball won’t go in regardless of how well it’s hit. Try finding a putter with a visual aid to help you line up the club with the hole, one that you feel comfortable and confident with. There’s no research showing that one alignment system is better than another, so choose one that feels right to you. But make sure you buy a putter that has one.

Additional Considerations

Face inserts are available in a variety of materials including metal, rubber, ceramic, plastic, glass, and wood. They provide more feel and feedback, better define a club’s sweet spot, and increase heel-toe weighting. They are nice but not necessary, which I’ve often mentioned in my golf tips.

Believe it or not, putters come with about 4 degrees of loft, which keeps the ball from bouncing when struck. Most golfers use a putter with standard loft because their hands are vertical to the ball at impact. Loft can be added or taken away depending on where your hands are when you hit the ball.

A putter with an offset shaft or hosel appeals to many recreational golfers. The offset helps them address the ball with their forward eye over the ball and a good line of sight to the hole. More importantly, the offset helps them keep their hands ahead of the ball when putting, increasing accuracy.

Golf instruction aside, a good putter is critical to improving your golf handicap. But choosing a putter is mostly a matter of feel, so look for one that feels comfortable. If you find a putter you think fits your game, try it before purchasing it. Some retailers have small putting greens that allow you to test a putter. Others will let you take the putter home to test. By all means, do so. It’s the only way to really know.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

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How To Break 80 Newsletter

April 26, 2006

“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”
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In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Fixing the Dreaded Shank
2) How to Avoid “Early Turn Syndrome”

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1) Fixing the Dreaded Shank 
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Just mentioning the dreaded “s” word intimates golfers. A shank
occurs when a ball is caught in the angle between the clubface and
the hosel, spinning the ball sideways almost at right angles to your
stance. It results either from a severe in-to-out swing path, with a
closed clubface, or an equally exaggerated out-to-in swing path.

The problem is that at impact the player’s hands–and therefore the
clubhead– are farther away from his body than at address. The
cause: either standing too close to the ball, preventing the hands
from swinging freely past the body, or shifting one’s weight forward
on one’s toes, throwing the hands and clubface too far from the
body.

Here are 5 keys to avoiding the shanks:

Assume good posture and alignment
Settle your weight back on your heels
Relax your grip pressure
Focus on the path of your swing
Swing the club freely through impact

If weight shift is the problem, curling your toes inside your golf
shoes, and maintaining them throughout the swing, cures it. If it
doesn’t, place a golf ball under the front of each foot, pushing your
weight back on your heels. Then hit some balls. Maintaining too
tight a grip also contributes to the shanks. Gripping the club tightly
prevents it from swinging freely past the body through impact.

To improve your swing path, try this drill:

Place a ball about a half-inch outside your ball. Then, try hitting the
inner ball cleanly. Try to sense that your hands are closer to your
body through impact and that you’re going to hit the ball on the
club’s toe. If you hit both balls, your hands and the clubface are
still too close to the ball. Try exaggerating the feeling until the shanks
disappear. This drill really works. Try it.

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2) How to Avoid “Early Turn Syndrome”
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Many players suffer from it. Even players with low golf handicaps.
“Early turn syndrome” occurs when certain parts of your body–either
your hips, shoulders, or both–complete their rotation before your
arms reach your swing’s apex, breaking the linkage between the arms
and body. A good example of this is when your hips turn or “spin out”
way I front of the hands coming through impact.

To cure this syndrome, the right side of your body must control the
amount of turn in your swing. It provides resistance to slow the rotation of your knees, hips, and shoulders, restricting the amount of early turn you’re able to make and allowing you arms and club to move away in “sync” with your body. Your trunk’s big muscles then complete the backswing motion in tandem with your arms.

Here are 5 keys to a good full rotation:

Widen the stance a little
Settle weight on right side
Lift chin up away from body
Stretch out in the takeaway
Brace knees to support coiling

Widening your stance generates stability, while settling your weight
on the right side promotes a good full turn and a powerful coil. Lifting
the chin creates more room to turn the left shoulder underneath,
which also promotes a good coil. Extending the arms in the takeaway
pulls the left shoulder under the chin, while the muscles on the left
side stretch out as the body coils. The knees also support the coiling
of the body in the backswing.

To feel the resistance of a full turn, try this: from address, take your right hand off the club and let it hang in front of you. Now push your club back a short distance, letting your left hand pass under your right. You should feel some resistance on the left side. When you do, put the right hand back on the club and complete the backswing.

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If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros
and creating a more reliable and consistent swing,
check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most
recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

Until next time, Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you
would like to subscribe to this newsletter, send a blank email to
htb80newsletter@aweber.com
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About the Author
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Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book
“How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!” . He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game.

If you’re tired of golf instruction magazines, check out the Golf Channel (TGC) cable station and its popular Web site www.thegolfchannel.com. Available through cable, satellite, and wireless companies, the TGC offers enough instructional material to more than satisfy both the beginner and the scratch player.

The Golf Channel
The Golf Channel is the brainchild of Joseph Gibbs and Arnold Palmer, who co-founded it in 1991. It offers a unique blend of golf information, news, features, and instruction.

The Golf Channel offers TV specials, documentaries, celebrity interviews, movies, video tours, lifestyle segments, and original programming, including Golf Central, a nightly golf news show and What’s in My Bag. They also have a series focusing on golf equipment, accessories, and manufacturers.

It also offers live tour coverage. Its first live televised tournament was the Dubai Dessert Classic in 1991. Back then, it offered limited tournament coverage. Today, it features extensive coverage of the Nationwide, European, Canadian, and Champions tours, as well as the PGA Tour, LPGA tour, PGA of America, and USGA.

In addition, the Golf Channel offers golf instruction and golf tips designed to lower golf handicaps. Academy Live is a weekly call-in show that gives viewers an opportunity to improve their game by consulting with top teaching pros. Playing Lessons from the Pros provides golf lessons and golf tips from professional players on their off-day practice rounds. Golf Channel Academy offers golf instruction designed to help improve every aspect of your game.

The Golf Channel Web Site
More interactive than the cable channel, the TGC Web site offers its own share of golf instruction including In Their Bag, which looks at what clubs the winner of the latest tour event carried during the win. One such look included a review of what Phil Mickelson carried when he won the Master’s a couple of weeks ago.

The Web site also provides online instruction in the form of articles written by teaching pros throughout the country. The articles cover a wide variety of topics, from the set-up and sand game to the mental game and the basics of golf fitness. They even cover swing theory.

But the Web Site’s most unique feature is Game Tracker Pro. An innovative online instruction tool, it provides in-depth game analysis and pinpoints major playing problems. In addition, it provides a USGA Handicap Index based on your state golf association’s regulations, a calendar, and an e-mail center, called My Inbox, where you can send and receive e-mails.

The analysis tool is user-friendly. It’s based on details you provide each time you play a round of golf. First, you select the course you played at. If the site’s databank has information on the course, a score card with all pertinent information, like the course’s rating, slope, and type of tee, appears on screen. If the course is not in the databank, you can provide the information yourself.

Next you input the round’s key details, such as the score on a hole, number of fairways hit, and distance of your drives, onto the scorecard. There’s room for information on the total number of putts you made, any penalty strokes you received and the number of up and downs you completed.

After the information is saved, Game Tracker Pro analyzes your rounds to see where your problems lie, providing you with a sense of which instructional articles you should read and what you need to work on to improve.

Game Tracker Pro basic is free of charge. You just sign up to take advantage of its features. The site also offers a chance to become a premium member for about $30 annually. The benefits of a premium membership include all the tools of TGC Basic, plus access to other instructional content, such as the site’s Video Vault, which contains more than 2500 golf videos.

Conclusion
Improving your game just got a little easier thanks to the Golf Channel’s help. Offering features like Game Tracker Pro, a practical tool to help pinpoint and correct weaknesses, the cable channel and Web site provide enough top notch golf instruction, golf tips, and/or golf lessons to satisfy all levels of play, from beginners to experienced players.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80…And Shoot Like The Pros!”. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that was able to figure out the secrets of shooting in the 70’s on a consistent basis without quitting your day job. Jack has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately.

Today’s marketplace is flooded with training aids. You can find one for nearly every part of the game. And more and more are being introduced every day. While a training aid won’t lower your golf handicap overnight or replace golf tips, it will help improve your golf game if you work with it faithfully.

Below are five training aids golfers often ask about in my golf lessons. Designed to improve your swing or a phase of your swing, these products help correct faults, groove mechanics, and/or ingrain the feel of swing. The key, as always, is finding a training aid that works for you before investing your hard-earned money.

(And incidentally, I am in no way affiliated with these companies nor do I make money from these reviews.)

Amazing Assist Swing Trainer (www.matzie.com)

Available from Gibas & Matzie Golf Products, the Amazing ASSIST training club improves your swing and increases strength. It’s like getting a golf lesson free of charge. Its weighted head and bent shaft teaches the correct hand action. The ASSIST improves muscle memory, extension, and weight transfer as well as tempo and timing.

As the club is swung, the proper release action is exaggerated to eliminate slicing, increase clubhead speed, and produce straight shots. In addition, the training grip places the thumbs and index fingers Vs of your hands in the traditional 11 o’clock and 12 o’clock positions. You can use it at home, on the range, or before your golf lessons.

The Amazing ASSIST is ideal for pre-game or pre-practice warm-ups or for everyday use to improve your swing. The ASSIST is available for men, women, and juniors, and for right-handers and left-handers. An instructional video comes with the product. The cost is $70.

The Elbow Tac-Tic (www.4golftraining.com)

Maintaining one’s left elbow (for right-handers) as straight as comfortably possible determines the width of your swing arc, as I’ve explained in my golf tips. The wider the swing arc, the greater the power. The Elbow Tac-Tic sleeve clicks when the elbow breaks down, providing the instant feedback needed to correct the swing and keep the left elbow extended. The Tac-tic also works on the right arm, clicking when the elbow bends at the proper point in the backswing. Cost: 39.95.

The Speed Stik (www.speedstik.com)

Most golf instruction will tell you that clubhead speed determines the distance a ball is hit. The faster the clubhead speed, the farther the ball goes. Working out with the Speed Stik increases a golfer’s clubhead speed and trains proper balance and on-plane swing. Swing the Speed Stick in a continuous motion back and forth, keeping it about 18 inches off the ground. Start slowly at first, and then build momentum. Check the speed gauge for your MPHs. Every increase of 1 MPH equals three more yards of distance. Repeat a few days a week and chart your distance. Cost: $99.99

The Impact Ball (www.theimpactball.com)

The Impact Ball develops the feel of hitting a ball properly. Available from To-M-Pact Golf, Inc., it’s easy to use and understand. It’s based on the idea that many recreational players have certain swing faults (chicken wing, flying elbows, etc.) or that they try to scoop the ball off the ground when hitting. Sometimes, even the best golf instruction can’t rid a player of certain faults.

The Impact Ball works. It’s placed between the forearms and held there through your swing. The ball is bi-colored, and the only thought to focus on is to getting the ball to change colors as the club moves through the impact area. The product trains golfers to strike the ball solidly with a square clubface, eliminating any attempts to flip or scoop the ball during the shot.

The Impact Ball addresses every phase of the game—chipping, pitching, putting, driving, and bunker play. You can hit balls on the range with the Impact Ball or practice swinging the club with it at home. The cost: $39.95 + shipping and handling.

The Swing Magic Driver (www.swingmagic.com)

Training with Kallassy’s Swing Magic Driver ingrains the proper motion into your swing. Designed to improve timing, tempo, and rhythm, the Swing Magic synchronizes the movement of your arms, hands, and body. A sliding training clip enables you to separate your right hand (for right handers) during the backswing. By separating the right hand on the backswing and reconnecting it on the downswing imprints an on-plane golf swing, essential for consistent ball striking. It prevents you from coming “over the top” as well. Cost: $89.95.

Remember, a training aid is not a panacea, as I often mention in my golf tips. It won’t dramatically improve your game overnight. It won’t make up for good course management. And it won’t take the place of a one-on-one golf lesson. But it will ingrain the fundamentals of a good swing, cut strokes off your scores, and lower your golf handicap, if you practice with it faithfully. Just make sure the training aid is right for you before buying.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80…And Shoot Like The Pros!”. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that was able to figure out the secrets of shooting in the 70’s on a consistent basis without quitting your day job. Jack has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately.