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
00:11when 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 Wishaw Golf Club to see Andy Gorman.
00:20He is a putting specialist and we are 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
00:31that are available within the putter market
00:33have 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
00:39to be the strongest area of my game.
00:41So let's go inside, meet Andy.
00:43He's going to talk us through the differences
00:44in the putter shafts 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.
00:58Presumably, 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, I've maybe overlooked the shaft
01:12that's going, the connection between the grip and the head.
01:15But I don't think that's necessarily their fault.
01:18We've now got the technology that allows us
01:21to be able to test everything so much more significantly
01:24that we can make shafts out of different materials
01:28and change the performance of the way the club
01:31works in a client's hand, and we can dial it all in.
01:35And you mentioned performance.
01:36What specific things would a change in shaft,
01:39what areas of performance would that affect?
01:42I think the most important thing
01:43is the stability of the strike.
01:44And whether or not we're making a living at playing
01:49or whether we're a weekend warrior
01:51going 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 toe strikes will open the club face,
02:04heel strikes will close the club face.
02:06And then, of course, it'll transfer energy
02:08into the golf ball at a different rate.
02:09So we struggle to get the ball
02:11to the hole on distance putts.
02:13And so, as you can see, we've got three different types
02:15of putter shaft here in front of us,
02:16a traditional steel shaft, a multi-material shaft,
02:19and an all-graphite shaft,
02:20which 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
02:25and their putting data.
02:27And the beauty about that is we're going to test the putt
02:29at over 35 feet.
02:31So, you know, we're going to point 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.
02:49Let's do it.
02:51I think.
03:04Right. Okay.
03:05So we've finished our testing.
03:06I've had a lot of puts and I'm quite tired.
03:0827 puts with three different shafts.
03:11And as you can see, we've got three different shafts
03:14but very similar heads.
03:14So they're all Anser style heads.
03:16We couldn't get exactly the same head,
03:17but they're relatively similar.
03:19And what are we looking at?
03:20the data here in front of us, starting with the Wilson, which was the traditional stepped steel
03:26shaft. What are we looking at in terms of the data and how did it perform?
03:29The critical data is your ability, as a human test, to replicate clubhead speed,
03:36and then the smash factor, which is the relative difference between the clubhead speed and the
03:41ball speed, because that's going to ultimately translate to the distance that you hit the putt,
03:46and then how stable the putter was when we hit the golf ball at the heel and the toe.
03:51So we started off each of them, first three centre strikes, next three toe strikes,
03:57and the following three were heel strikes, and that's what we're basing our data on.
04:03So with the steel shaft, we've got, again, very stable clubhead numbers.
04:08I think you're comfortable with that weight of putter, which is a length of club, obviously,
04:13and then your smash factor at the sweet spot was very consistent, so you found the sweet spot,
04:18albeit your clubhead speed was maybe slightly out, but very slightly, within two or three percent,
04:23so not a big number. Toe strikes tended to start a little bit to the right, and again,
04:30the transfer of energy, which means you had to put more clubhead speed in, as you did in a couple of
04:35them, to compensate that. Well, of course, you knew you were going to hit them at the sweet spot,
04:40so let's assume that you didn't know that. That would then translate into a lesser speed going
04:45into the ball, so this is where your distance putts, 40, 50 feet, are going to come up significantly
04:51shorter when you do that. Heel strikes are going to have the same effect, although we do seem to have
04:56seen a much bigger drop-off on the heel strikes than the toe. Yeah, heel strikes were a lot worse.
05:02Noticed even how the toe was missing quite far to the right, and I just felt like this shaft had a
05:07bit more give to it at impact, especially on the longer part we're testing here today. It just
05:12felt a little bit softer. Yeah, so what's actually happening is we've got toe strikes that are going
05:17to cause the putter to open up, heel strikes that will cause it to close, but also we've got the lag
05:22factors that go on with the shafts as well, so when the shaft is flexing and not as stable,
05:30then ultimately it could be in load and it could be in release, so again, that's going to affect
05:36launch. More inconsistency. Much more inconsistency, yeah, and that'll have an effect on
05:41the efficiency as well. Yeah, cool, so let's move on to the next putter, which was the all-graphite
05:46shaft. We've got the KBS, the new GPS putter shaft. Talk us through some of the numbers we've
05:51got here. Again, I think the weight works perfectly for you. It's 120 grams, so very similar weight to
05:56the steel shafts that we're more familiar with. Ultimately, your consistency of strike and speed
06:04was there and we can see that the launch dynamics, the efficiency and the smash factor was much more
06:11consistent. I was interested in the first putt you hit out the toe and the first putt you hit out the
06:16heel, you hold both of those putts, which means that the stability that the shaft is offering
06:23is much greater and the energy that's getting into the golf ball is sufficient to be able to get the
06:28ball to the hole. Yeah, something I noticed comfortably with that shaft, my dispersion
06:33was tighter, there was less variance in the distances between all those putts. I just said,
06:38hold a lot more with that shaft than I did the steel shaft and the feel was very different,
06:43felt very solid, there wasn't much kicking at all in the shaft, felt just very consistent,
06:49very, not rigid, but just felt like I was in control of what I was doing with the putter with
06:54that one. And you felt the connection between the hands and the clubhead was much more in control,
06:58you could feel the relationship between them. Yeah, less energy, I think, off the face with
07:03that one. Yeah, definitely, and we see the smash factors were up and the deviation was
07:08really tight tolerance, so very, very good on that. And the left to right tolerance was really
07:15tight, it was very close to the hole, but the distance, and this is where the big one really
07:19kicks in, is the difference between the long and the short, that's where we're going, much more
07:24stability on the distance. That's going to help reduce three putts, right? Three putt avoidance
07:28is what this is really all about, yes. I think this is the leading contender so far, would you
07:33say? And then we moved on to the multi-material shaft, which we know is a growing trend in putters,
07:38we see a lot of brands offering kind of this graphite steel combination. Talk us through how
07:44that one performed versus the other two. With the Cleveland, what we noticed, and the multi-compound
07:49shaft, was that it was much more difficult for you to get the clubhead speed up, to get the ball
07:54at the total distance, and I feel that that's because it's a lighter shaft, and that translated
07:59into your feel as you were swinging the putter, you didn't get that clubhead speed, you're typically
08:04down, you know, 0.2, 0.3 mile an hour on all of the putts, you know, really was struggling to get the
08:10golf ball to the hole, we can still see the evidence over the shoulder, you know. So, but the smash
08:15factor was interesting for me, which 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, but ultimately then,
08:25when we get into the toe and the heel strikes, smash factor dropped automatically, and that's
08:31why the golf balls are struggling to get the ball, get to the hole. Yeah, and that's concerning for
08:35me, I tend to hit my putt slightly out the toe, and see such a big drop off with this particular
08:39putter is quite concerning, shall we say. Yeah, I mean, you were the one hitting it, you know,
08:44in terms of feel, you know, overall, you know, that's the feedback that we've got to take into
08:49account, and when we are looking at fitting putter shafts, it's the feel element, is the club
08:55launching, you know, with more energy or less energy, or is it just feeling a little bit light,
09:00and all of these things have to be taken into account, not just, you know, the overall, you
09:05know, sort of values on the screen, how does it feel in our hands as well? Yeah, and some people
09:09might like a lighter overall feel, or one that feels quite head heavy, but for me, it just felt
09:13a little bit unwieldy, like I wasn't in complete control of how far I was swinging it, and the
09:18speed I was delivering, and obviously, we've seen that with the numbers. We have, and again,
09:21with the heel strikes in particular, the ball really struggled to get to the hole, and it
09:26finished a long way left, so there's clearly some, you know, errors that are taking place that have
09:31been magnified by that particular club. Some really interesting findings here, I think, especially on
09:35a long-range putt, I mean, is this applicable to all lengths of putt, or especially those crucial
09:39short putts that everyone's trying to hold? Yeah, the short putts as well are going to be, again,
09:44when we miss-strike the putter, and the ball with the putter, that heel and toe strike that can
09:50effectively open and close, so opening a toe strike, closing a heel strike, you know, we tend
09:56to hold the putter light, we're not swinging the putter very quickly, just one or two mile an hour
10:00on these really short putts, and subsequently on the back of that, then we're not transferring
10:04energy into the ball, so if it's struck at the sweet spot, it'll go straight, it'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. We 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
10:24putts, and, you know, again, we shouldn't do that. Definitely a contender for more stability in that.
10:30Yeah, so there you have it, it looks like the answer to holding more putts and getting closer
10:34from long distances to have as much stability in the lower part of the shaft, and we seem to be
10:39getting that, or I seem to be getting that from the new, the KBS GPS shaft. So certainly some food
10:45for thought there when it comes to the level of impact the putter shaft can have on the overall
10:49performance. I was really surprised at the level of influence it had on off-center strikes, the
10:55ability or the inability for the putter head to twist with certain constructions. Certainly the
11:00all-graphite shaft, this KBS GPS shaft came out on top in terms of minimizing that deflection. Yes,
11:07the 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, but certainly the shaft can have a pretty tangible
11:16impact on performance, especially from those long-range putts. So when you're trying to
11:20minimize three putts, lag the ball close from long distance, switching to a more stable,
11:25consistent shaft like an all-graphite shaft here is something to definitely consider. Yes,
11:30it might come with a bit of an upcharge, but there seems to be some performance gains to be had,
11:34obviously putting, you're trying to gain those marginal gains, those one, two percents that can
11:39have a real big impact on your score in a long period of time. So hopefully this video has given
11:43you some really good insights into the different types of shafts that are available with the putter
11:47and the differences in the performance that they offer, as well as feel and things like that. It's
11:52hopefully given you a really good steer in terms of the characteristics of these different putter
11:56shafts that are available on the market. But that's all for me from Wishaw Golf Club.
12:00I'll see you next time.