Joel Tadman tests different types of putter shafts under the watchful eye of short-game specialist Andy Gorman to see what difference it can have on the performance. Using the Foresight Sports GCQuad launch monitor, Joel and Andy are able to see the subtle nuances in how the putter performs on centered hits as well as heel and toe strikes and by using similar style heads, can understand the impact the shaft has.
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00:00How much difference does the putter shaft actually make?
00:03We see it with longer clubs like drivers and even irons.
00:06The shaft has a really big impact on the performance
00:08and as a result, they're a big focus
00:10when it comes to the fitting process.
00:12But is the putter shaft a neglected area of the bag?
00:15That's something I really want to find out.
00:17I've come here to Wishall Golf Club to see Andy Gorman.
00:20He is a putting specialist and we're going to try
00:22a number of different shaft constructions out
00:25in his indoor studio to see what differences in performance,
00:29the different constructions and materials that are available
00:32within the putter market have on the performance.
00:34It should be a really interesting test.
00:36And I've got to say, Andy has got his work cut out
00:38because I would consider putting to be
00:40the strongest area of my game.
00:41So let's go inside, meet Andy.
00:42He's going to talk us through the differences
00:44in the putter shaft that are available
00:46and hopefully give us an idea
00:47about what we can expect from this test.
00:50Right, Andy, there'll be a lot of golfers out there
00:51who think, rightly or wrongly, that the shaft of a putter
00:55is simply the means of connecting the grip to the putter head.
00:58But presumably there's a bit more to it than that.
01:00Just talk us through some of the options that people have
01:02and the differences in performance they might offer.
01:05Yeah, very much a case of manufacturers.
01:09For me, maybe overlooked the shaft that's going,
01:12the connection between the grip and the head.
01:15But I don't think that's necessarily their fault.
01:18You know, we've now got the technology that allows us
01:21to be able to test everything so much more significantly
01:24that, you know, we can make shafts out of different materials
01:28and change the performance of the way the club works
01:32in a client's hand.
01:33And, you know, we can dial it all in.
01:35And you mentioned performance.
01:36What specific things would a change in shaft?
01:39How, what areas of performance would that affect?
01:42I think the most important thing is the stability of the strike.
01:44And, you know, whether or not we're making a living at playing
01:49or whether we're a weekend warrior going out and playing for fun,
01:54the sweet spot strike is really important.
01:56So if we're missing the sweet spot,
01:58then that's going to cause twist around the shaft.
02:00And, you know, that toe strikes will open the club face,
02:04heel strikes will close the club face.
02:06And then of course, it will transfer energy
02:08into the golf ball at a different rate.
02:09So we struggled to get the ball to the hole on distance putts.
02:13And so, as you can see,
02:14we've got three different types of putter shaft here in front of us,
02:16a traditional steel shaft, a multi-material shaft,
02:19and an all graphite shaft, which we're going to test against each other.
02:22How are we going to go about doing that?
02:23We're going to be using GC Quad and their putting data.
02:27And the beauty about it is we're going to test the putt at over 35 feet.
02:31So, you know, we're going to put you to the test,
02:34see how good you are at consistent ball striking
02:37and the club head delivery as well in terms of speed,
02:40because that's going to affect how well you get there.
02:42And of course, we're going to be testing the shaft
02:44and how stable they are when you hit the sweet spot
02:47and also miss the sweet spot.
02:48Sounds good. Let's do it.
03:04Right.
03:04OK, so we've finished our testing.
03:05I've got a lot of putts, Andy, quite tired.
03:0727 putts with three different shafts.
03:10And you can see we've got three different shafts,
03:13but very similar heads.
03:14So they're all answer style heads,
03:16which couldn't get exactly the same head,
03:17but they're relatively similar.
03:19And what are we looking at?
03:20We see what the data here in front of us,
03:21starting with the Wilson,
03:23which was the kind of traditional stepped steel shaft.
03:26What are we looking at in terms of the data
03:28and how did it perform?
03:29The critical data is your ability as a human test
03:33to replicate club head speed.
03:35And then the smash factor, which is the relative difference
03:39between the club head speed and the ball speed,
03:42because that's going to ultimately translate to the distance
03:45that you hit the putt.
03:46And then how stable the putter was
03:49when we hit the golf ball at the heel and the toe.
03:51So we started off each of them.
03:54First three center strikes, next three toe strikes
03:58and the following three were heel strikes.
04:00Yeah.
04:01And that's that's what we're basing our data on in here.
04:04So with the steel shaft, we've got, again,
04:06very stable club head numbers.
04:08I think you're comfortable with that weight of putter,
04:11which is a length of club, obviously.
04:13And then your smash factor at the sweet spot was very consistent.
04:17So you found the sweet spot, albeit your club head speed
04:19were maybe slightly out, but very slightly within two or 3%.
04:23So not a big number.
04:25Toe strikes tended to start a little bit to the right.
04:29And again, the transfer of energy,
04:31which means you had to put more club head speed in,
04:34as you did in a couple of them to compensate that.
04:37Well, of course, you knew you were going to hit them
04:39out the sweet spot.
04:40So let's assume that you didn't know that that would then translate
04:44into a lesser speed going into the ball.
04:46So this is where your distance putts, 40, 50 feet,
04:50are going to come up significantly shorter when you do that.
04:53Heel strikes are going to have the same effect,
04:55although we do seem to have seen a much
04:58bigger drop off on the heel strikes than the toe.
05:00Yeah.
05:01Heel strikes were a lot worse.
05:02I noticed even how the toe was missing quite far to the right.
05:06And it just felt like this shaft had a bit more give to it,
05:09especially on the longer part we're testing here today.
05:12It just felt a little bit softer.
05:13Yeah. So what's actually happening is we've got toe strikes
05:16that are going to cause the putter to open up.
05:18Heel strikes that will cause it to close.
05:20But also we've got the lag factors that go on with the shafts as well.
05:24So, you know, when the shaft is flexing and not as stable,
05:30then ultimately it could be in load and it could be in release.
05:34So again, that's going to affect launch, you know, more inconsistency.
05:38Much more inconsistency.
05:39Yeah.
05:39And that will have an effect on the efficiency as well.
05:42Yeah, cool.
05:43So let's move on to the next putter, which was the all graphite shaft.
05:46We've got the KBS, the new GPS putter shaft.
05:49Tell us through some of the numbers we've got here.
05:51Again, I think the weight works perfectly for you.
05:53It's 120 grams, a very similar weight to the steel shafts
05:57that we're more familiar with.
06:00Ultimately, your consistency of strike and speed was there.
06:05And we can see that the launch dynamics,
06:08the efficiency and the smash factor was much more consistent.
06:12What was interesting in the first putt you hit out the toe
06:15and the first putt you hit out the heel, you hold both of those putts,
06:20which means that the stability that the shaft is offering
06:23is much greater and the energy that's getting into the golf ball
06:26is sufficient to be able to get the ball to the hole.
06:29Yeah, something I noticed comfortably with that shaft.
06:33My dispersion was tighter.
06:34There was less variance in the distances between all those parts.
06:37I just said hold a lot more with that shaft than I did the steel shaft.
06:41And the feel was very different, felt very solid.
06:45There wasn't much kicking at all in the shaft.
06:47Felt just very consistent, very not rigid,
06:50but just felt like I was in control of what I was doing with the putter with that one.
06:54And you felt the connection between the hands
06:56and the club head was much more in control.
06:58You could feel the relationship between them.
07:01Yeah, less energy, I think, off the face with that one.
07:03Yeah, definitely.
07:04And we see the smash factors were up and, you know,
07:07the deviation was a really tight tolerance.
07:09So very, very good on that.
07:12And it's the left to right tolerance was really tight.
07:15It's very close to the hole, but the distance,
07:17and this is where the big one really kicks in,
07:19is the difference between the long and the short.
07:22That's where we go. Much more stability on the distance.
07:25That's going to help reduce three-putts, right?
07:27Three-putt avoidance is what this is really all about.
07:29I think this is the leading contender so far, would you say?
07:33Absolutely.
07:34And then we moved on to the multi-material shaft,
07:36which we know is a growing trend in putters.
07:38We see a lot of brands offering kind of this graphite steel combination.
07:42Yeah. Talk us through how that one performed versus the other two.
07:45Right. With the Cleveland, what we noticed and the multi-compound shaft
07:49was that it was much more difficult for you to get the clubhead speed up
07:53to get the ball to the total distance.
07:55And I feel that that's because it's a lighter shaft
07:57and that that translated into your feel as you were swinging the putter.
08:02You didn't get that clubhead speed.
08:04You're typically down, you know, 0.2, 0.3 mile an hour on all of the putts.
08:08You know, he really was struggling to get the golf ball to the hole.
08:11We can still see the evidence over the shoulder, you know.
08:14So, but the smash factor was interesting for me,
08:17which is out the sweet spot strikes, it came up much quicker.
08:21So we know there's some tech in the head that's allowing us to do that.
08:24But ultimately then, when we get into the toe and the heel strikes,
08:28the smash factor dropped off dramatically.
08:31And that's why the golf balls are struggling to get the ball, get to the hole.
08:34Yeah. And that's concerning for me.
08:35I tend to hit my putt slightly out of the toe and see such a big drop off
08:38with this particular putter is quite concerning, shall we say.
08:42Yeah. I mean, you were the one hitting it, you know, in terms of feel, you know, overall,
08:46you know, that's the feedback that we've got to take into account.
08:49And when we are looking at fitting putter shafts, it's the feel elements.
08:54Is the club launching, you know, with more energy or less energy?
08:58Or is it just feeling a little bit light and all of these things have to be taken into account,
09:02not just, you know, the overall, you know, sort of values on the screen.
09:06How does it feel in our hands as well?
09:08Yeah. And some people might like a lighter overall feel or one that feels quite head heavy.
09:12But for me, it just felt a little bit unwieldy.
09:14Like I wasn't in complete control of how far I was swinging it and the speed I was delivering.
09:19And obviously we've seen that with the numbers.
09:20We have. And again, with the heel strikes in particular, the ball really struggled
09:24to get the ball to get to the hole and it finished a long way left.
09:27So there's clearly some, you know, errors that are taking place that have been magnified
09:31by that particular club.
09:33Some really interesting findings here, I think, especially on a long range putt.
09:36I mean, is this applicable to all lengths of putt or especially those crucial short putts
09:40that everyone's trying to hold?
09:41Yeah, the short putts as well are going to be, again, when we miss strike the putter
09:46and the ball with the putter, that heel and toe strike that can effectively open and close.
09:52So opening a toe strike, closing a heel strike.
09:55You know, we tend to hold the putter light.
09:57We're not swinging the putter very quickly, just one or two mile an hour on these really short putts.
10:01And subsequently on the back of that, then we're not transferring energy into the ball.
10:05So if it's struck at the sweet spot, it'll go straight.
10:08It'll stay stable.
10:09But we've seen very much, you know, with this particular shaft that the putter is very stable
10:15when you miss strike it.
10:16We shouldn't be missing the sweet spots on these short putts, but we do.
10:20The recreational golfer doesn't practice as much, but we do see tour players also miss striking the putts.
10:25And, you know, again, we shouldn't do that.
10:27Definitely a contender for more stability in that putter.
10:30Yeah, so there you have it.
10:31It looks like the answer to holding more putts and getting closer from long distances to have as much
10:35stability in the lower end, lower part of the shaft.
10:38And we seem to be getting that or I seem to be getting that from the new, the KBS GPS shaft.
10:44So certainly some food for thought there when it comes to the level of impact the putter shaft can
10:48have on the overall performance.
10:49I was really surprised at the level of influence it had on off-center strikes, the ability or the
10:56inability for the putter head to twist with certain constructions.
10:59Certainly the all-graphite shaft, this KBS GPS shaft came out on top in terms of minimizing that
11:06deflection.
11:06Yes, the construction of the head and the different head types and sizes will have an impact on the
11:11amount of stability that you get off-center.
11:13But certainly the shaft can have a pretty tangible impact on performance, especially from those
11:18long-range putts.
11:19So when you're trying to minimize three putts, lag the ball close from long distance,
11:23switching to a more stable, consistent shaft like an all-graphite shaft here is something
11:29to definitely consider.
11:30Yes, it might come with a bit of an upcharge, but there seems to be some performance gains to
11:34be had obviously putting.
11:35You're trying to gain those marginal gains, those one, two percents that can have a real
11:39big impact on your score in a long period of time.
11:42So hopefully this video has given you some really good insights into the different types
11:45of shafts that are available with the putter and the differences in the performance that they offer,
11:50as well as feel and things like that.
11:52It's hopefully given you a really good steer in terms of the characteristics of these different
11:56putter shafts that are available on the market.
11:58But that's all from me from Wishall Golf Club.
12:00I'll see you next time.