The length of your putter will have a large effect on how well you’re able to execute a great putting stroke. By adjusting the length of your putter to be properly fit for you, the putter will feel more comfortable in your hands and produce a better roll. The question then is, what are you losing if you’re playing a putter that’s too short or too long for your game? What impact on aim, speed control, and stability does a length change have? We’ve built up a brand new Edel Array B-1 with a BGT Stability Black at Jake’s standard length of 34.5 inches to help us demonstrate.
The biggest effect that length is going to have on your putting stroke is how you are set up to the ball. It’s universally understood that having your eyes directly over the centerline of the golf ball gives you the best opportunity to start that putt on line, and helps to make more putts. However, if you’re playing an incorrect length, you may not be able to properly align your eyes to the golf ball.
Eyes over the ball
A putter fitting is one of the few times in a fitting where it makes sense for a coach to give some tips to the player outside of just making sure that they have the right gear. This is because the tips usually actually have a direct correlation to a gear switch, unlike swing clubs. One of those is putter length and how it affects your ability to properly stand over the ball. In the following video Jake helps to demonstrate what this means and how it can impact the rest of your equipment decisions.
Length is also going to affect your dynamic lie angle during the putting stroke. If you’re going longer you’ll notice that the toe of the putter gets higher and higher in the air, and the putter is going to play more upright. This might push impact to a lower spot on the face and bring impact into the toe more which can cause problems with speed control. If you are playing a putter that’s too short for you, the toe of the putter is going to be down through impact. This will move impact towards the heel causing major problems with your ability to control the start line of that putt.
Thanks to our friends at Edel Golf for sending us their new line of Array Putters and Breakthrough Golf Technology for providing the Stability putter shafts you see used to help demonstrate. Click either logo above for more information on the equipment used or to purchase your own!