Putters gone wild!

At the 2004 Fall PGA Expo in Vegas, there were more new putters on display than any other type of equipment. And these weren’t your grandfather’s (or Phil Mickelson’s) heel-shafted blades, either.

Seriously, it looked like someone had dropped a bunch of putters on an island several million years ago and allowed evolution to run its course. Imagine a platypus as a putter. Bizarre.

I’ve noticed recently that Tom Lehman has switched back to an STX Synch 3 Belly Putter, identical to the one I reviewed a couple of years ago. Since then, he’s three top-tens and one top-20. Conversely, Vijay went back to a standard-length putter, and he still keeps wining.

The lesson here, I guess, is that putters are more art than science. Whether it’s got strongs across it’s face (the Strong Putter), a hole to pick up the ball with out of the cup (Gaim), or more aiming devices than an F-15, makes no difference at all to you, as long as it feels right and sinks more of those 4-foot testers than it misses.