Putter (golf)
Encyclopedia
Golf club (equipment)
A golf club is used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a clubhead. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety of shots; Hybrids that combine design elements of woods and...
used in the sport of golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
whose design differs from that of irons
Iron (golf)
An iron is a type of club used in the sport of golf to propel the ball towards the hole. They are so-called because historically the clubhead was generally made from iron. Whilst the vast majority of modern irons are still made from iron, it is almost always its stronger and more durable alloy,...
and woods
Wood (golf)
A wood is a type of club used in the sport of golf. Woods are used to hit the ball farther than any other type of golf club....
. They are generally used from very close distances to the cup, generally on the putting green, though certain courses have fringes and roughs which are suitable for putting. While no club in a player's bag is absolutely indispensable or required by strict rules
Rules of golf
The rules of golf are a standard set of regulations and procedures by which the sport of golf should be played. They are jointly written and administered by the R&A the governing body of golf worldwide except in the United States and Mexico, which are the responsibility of the United States Golf...
, the putter comes closest. It is a highly specialized tool for a specific job and virtually no golfer is without one.
Design
PuttingGolf stroke mechanics
Golf stroke mechanics is the means by which golfers make decisions and execute them in the sport of golf...
is the most precise aspect of the game of golf. The putter must be designed to give the golfer every technical advantage including smooth stroke, good glide, sweet impact, and bounce-less topspin ball launch as well as every technique advantage including perfect fit as to shaft angle and length.
Putters usually have a loft of 5° but cannot be more than 10°. The putter is the only club that may have a grip that is not perfectly round; "shield"-like cross-sections with a flat top and curved underside are most common. The putter is also the only club allowed to have a bent shaft; often, clubmakers will attach the shaft to the clubhead on the near edge for visibility, but to increase stability, the shaft is bent near the clubhead mounting so that its lie and the resulting clubhead position places the line of the straight part of the shaft at the sweet spot, where the ball should be for the best putt. This increases accuracy as the golfer can direct their swing through the ball, without feeling like they are slightly behind it.
The design of the putter's clubhead has undergone radical change in the last 20–30 years, as have many club types. The putter was originally a forged iron piece very similar in shape to the irons of the day. Through attempts to lower the center of gravity of the clubhead, it evolved into a shorter, thicker head slightly curved from front to rear (the so-called "hot dog" putter). The introduction of investment casting
Investment casting
Investment casting is an industrial process based on and also called lost-wax casting, one of the oldest known metal-forming techniques. From 5,000 years ago, when beeswax formed the pattern, to today’s high-technology waxes, refractory materials and specialist alloys, the castings allow the...
for club heads allowed drastically different shapes to be made far more easily and cheaply than with forging, resulting in several design improvements. First of all, the majority of mass behind the clubface was placed as low as possible, resulting in an L-shaped side profile with a thin, flat clubface and another thin block along the bottom of the club behind the face. Additionally, peripheral weighting, or the placing of mass as far away from the center of the clubface as possible, increases the moment of inertia
Moment of inertia
In classical mechanics, moment of inertia, also called mass moment of inertia, rotational inertia, polar moment of inertia of mass, or the angular mass, is a measure of an object's resistance to changes to its rotation. It is the inertia of a rotating body with respect to its rotation...
of the clubhead, reducing twisting if the club contacts the ball slightly off-center and thus giving the club a larger "sweet spot" with which to contact the ball. Newer innovations include replacing the metal at the "sweet spot" with a softer polymer compound that will give and rebound at impact, which increases the peak impulse (force per millisecond) imparted to the ball for better distance. Putters are subdivided into mallet, peripheral weighted and blade styles. Power adjustability and practice/play convertibility are features embodied in the latest putter design technology.
Long-Shaft Putters
Though most putters have a 32 in (813 mm) to 35 in (889 mm) shaft (slightly shorter for most ladies and juniors, longer for most men), putters are also made with longer shaft lengths and grips, and are designed to reduce the "degrees of freedom" allowed a player when he putts. Simply, the more joints that can easily bend or twist during the putting motion, the more degrees of freedom a player has when putting, which gives more flexibility and feel but can result in more inconsistent putts. With a normal putter, the player has six degrees of freedom: hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, waist and knees, all of which can be moved just slightly to affect the path of the ball and likely prevent a putt from falling in the cup. Such motions, especially nervous uncontrollable motions, are called "yips", and having a chronic case of the "yips" can ruin a golfer's short game. German professional golfer Bernhard LangerBernhard Langer
Bernhard Langer is a German professional golfer. He is a two-time Masters champion, and was one of the world's leading golfers throughout the 1980s and 90s, being the first official number one ranked player in 1986...
is famous for having such a severe case that he once needed four putts to hole out from within three feet of the cup.
A belly putter is typically about 6 in (152 mm) to 8 in (203 mm) longer than a normal putter and is designed to be "anchored" against the stomach of the player. This design reduces or removes the importance of the hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders. A long putter is even longer and is designed to be anchored from the chest or even the chin and similarly reduces the impact of the hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders. The disadvantages are decreased feel and control over putting power, especially with the long putter. Their use in professional tournaments is hotly contested; Jim Furyk
Jim Furyk
James Michael Furyk is an American professional golfer, 2010 FedEx Cup champion, and 2010 PGA Tour Player of the Year. He has won one major championship, the 2003 U.S. Open. Furyk is known for consistently playing at the top level and for a visibly unconventional, looping golf swing...
and others on the pro tours including Langer and Vijay Singh
Vijay Singh
Vijay Singh, CF , nicknamed "The Big Fijian", is a Fijian professional golfer who was Number 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings for 32 weeks in 2004 and 2005. He has won three major championships and was the leading PGA Tour money winner in 2003, 2004 and 2008...
have used belly putters at some point with a marked improvement of their short game, while players like Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
and officials like former USGA technical director Frank Thomas have condemned it as conferring an unfair advantage on users.