At the Golf Lab, we stay on top of the latest trends in golf equipment. When good ideas come out and appear to gain acceptance, either on the PGA Tour or among Golf Lab customers, we bring them to your attention. Most of us are a bit bored by putting. It's kind of like going to the dentist, you know you've got to do it, but you'ld rather go hit drivers.

If you're planning on bringing your index down a couple of strokes this year, the easiest way to do it is to make one extra putt from fifteen feet and knock your fifty footers stone dead. We've got some ideas that will help you do that.

The Heavy Putter is the amateur's friend. It is made for a player who doesn't have a great consistent stroke. The two pounds of putter smooth out your stroke if you're a typical amateur golfer. Since I've been recommending the Heavy Putter, it's the only club that has caused players to stop me at the Muni, point to the Heavy Putter in their bag with a big smile on their face and say "Thanks for the tip, it makes me feel like I can sink a putt".

Contrary to what you might think, most players report distance control on long putts is the main benefit.

If you watch the Golf Channel, you will see the Heavy Putter heavily advertised this season. The company thinks that they will gain much more acceptance with infomercial advertising. They have "reengineered" the design, combining a cast body with milled finishing cutting costs from their totally milled version. It's available for $199 (plus shipping and handling) online. We have the complete line of Heavy Putters at the Golf Lab, both the "new" version and the original "classic" that is totally milled. We think that you'll find it's worth the extra $50 to get one of the originals. Rather than take a chance, drop by the Golf Lab, pick up a Heavy Putter and take it over to the Palo Alto Muni for a try out on the putting green. We'll even rent you one for a week so you can be sure before you buy.

Our results have been outstanding in measuring performance differences between putters. Most of the time, we can improve the putter path and overall consistency by substituting a Heavy Putter or by modifying your current putter with Balance-Certified counterweights. You can now measure and compare the performance of two putters.

If you go to the trouble of cutting your putter down, you might as well add Balance-Certified counterweights under the grip. The PGA Tour is beginning to adopt counter weighting putters in large numbers. At the Golf Lab, we've been advocates for five years so seeing that the idea is beginning to take hold gives us the hollow satisfaction of saying "I told you so." As usual, you never know what weight is going to feel just right. That's where your custom golf shop can help. We have all of the Balance- Certified weights. We can install them for you to try and we can measure the results on our SAM putting analysis system. How else would you know which weight works best in addition to which weight feels best? We think you'll find that the one that works the best feels the best.

Another tweak that's gaining popularity is to replace your putter shaft with the new UST Frequency- Filtered putter shaft invented by Jeff Lindner from Balance-Certified. Since the early days of B-C, Jeff has been trying to improve the feel of putters by moving the vibration up the shaft to your right (feel) hand. That was the original premise behind the Balance-Certified weights. The new shaft attempts to distinguish a solid putt by making the sweet spot feel different. The idea is that the shaft helps the player train himself to hit the center of the blade. We've tested the shafts with different heads. With some heads, the response is extraordinary. We put one in an old Mickey Finn model and it sounded like a tuning fork. Other heads are not as dramatic. If you want to see for yourself, stop by the shop and we'll give you one to take to the practice green.

Finally, don't underestimate the importance of your grip. We've laid in a stock of most of the crazy ones, including the new Wishbone and Maccro. Our favorites are the genuine leather grips that are made in Australia. As far as we're concerned, there's nothing like the feel of leather on your putter.

So, we've commissioned a set of one of our favorites, the Goolie, bored to accommodate players with upright and flat stances. Combine a custom Goolie head with a Frequency Filtered shaft, counterweights and a leather grip and you might never miss another putt.

By the way, we can also order Heavy Putters with custom lie angles. There is no longer an excuse to play with a putter that doesn't fit.

So, if you're looking for a simple way to try out a heavier putter, pick up a belly model that you like with a nice heavy head. Cut it down, rebalance it, add a comfortable grip and you’re good to go.

Complete putter fittings are $75 (appointment required) and include adjusting the loft and lie of your current putter to fit your stance. Balance Certified counter weights are $50 installed. The UST Frequency Filtered putter shaft is $90 installed.

Best regards,

Leith Anderson and Bob Huff
The Golf Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
Just one minute off of 101 at Embarcadero in Palo Alto.