How to1 Pick the Right Putter Putting boils down to getting aim right, tracing the correct path and dialing in the right speed. There’s a feel element to nailing these factors for sure, but when the putter in your hands matches the way your eyes see putts, it all comes together as if by magic. The Best Putting Instruction Book Ever! 1 DAVID EDEL C HAPTE R 1 /// How to Pick the Right Putter BUILT TO LAST Putter builder and designer David Edel drew upon a wide range of skills and experience—both in the workshop and on the lesson tee—to create a fitting system capable of matching any player to a pool of 16 million unique flatsticks, each designed to change players’ The Master Fitter perceptions for the good. DavidPGA teaching professional and club manufacturer, Edel Edel Golf, Liberty Hill, Tex. The creator of the most advanced putter-fitting system in the world has over 16 million ways to build you the perfect putter, and proves to you that when it comes down to solving the mysteries of putting, the arrow—not necessarily the Indian—is getting in the way. HY IS IT THAT some players swayed by its looks, or by the fact that your favorite Tour pro endorsed putt the lights out without giv- it. Either way it was a hasty decision, and not once did you ask about ing their stroke anything but a the head weight or grip options, nor inquire about the loft. I’m also passing thought, while others willing to bet that you didn’t carefully examine the head shape or have to gnash their teeth to sink the hosel design, or whether the putter was face-balanced or toe- the simplest four-footer? It took weighted. These are more than just add-ons, like the sport package me 14 years of researching and option on a new car. Design elements such as these are fundamental building putters to finally come to the way any putter performs and, more important, how it reacts up with a solid answer: good to your senses and stroke. putters putt with the right gear. The industry wants you to believe that redemption lies at the near- I’m sure the putter that’s currently in your bag is a fine flatstick, est pro shop. I’ll prove to you that redemption lies with you, and how but is it absolutely the right one for you, and how would you know if the right combination of putter design elements can help you see the Wit was or it wasn’t? When you went to purchase it you were obviously line in a whole new light—the perfect line from the ball to the hole. 5 Things 1 2 3 4 5 Why putting is an The three components How key design How to enhance your The link between your I’ll Teach enigma—and how to successful putting elements such touch and feel on the putter’s design, your finding the right putter and how you can as hosel and head greens by changing perception of the line You In This can solve it. master them with a shape a!ect your the weight distribution and green reading. Chapter simple putter change. ability to aim. in your putter. The Best Putting Instruction Book Ever! The Best Putting Instruction Book Ever! 2 3 DAVID EDEL C HAPTE R 1 /// How to Pick the Right Putter ALL ABOUT ME Name: David Edel AIM OF THE GAME “Certain head shapes, hosels, Putting success is Where you can determine by your aim, find me: Edel Golf, aim lines, shaft lengths and path and speed. The Liberty Hill, Tex. most important of these Teaching since: 19TK other design variables promote is aim, which you can Where I played: TK master only if you have the right putter. Where I’ve taught: TK di!erent patterns of aim.” Who I’ve built putters for: TK Awards I’ve won: (TK) SK ANY OF the golfers you My best contribution straight. Good for you, but now your path and speed know—even yourself—what to the game: TK don’t match your aim. You’re going to miss right if you For more instruction: makes a putter a good putter don’t change the other parts of the Triad. golf.com/ and the concept of “feel” will The most important thing to know about the Putting bestputtingbook almost certainly be broached, Triad—and to fully grasp the core principle of putting edelgolf.com although nobody can ever and feel—is that it’s dominated by aim. Aim is step seem to define it. Is it how one to becoming a great putter. It’s the reason why soft the grip feels, or the sound you stroke putts a certain way (like in the left-aim bias the putter makes, or its weight example above). Your mind senses where you aim and or loft? What about the shaft, makes the necessary adjustments. head style, aiming lines or the hosel? Never before has A lot of what you’ll read in this book deals with im- a golf termed been used with such frequency without proving your aim, but it won’t mean a thing unless anyoneA knowing really what it means. you have a putter that allows you to. I began making My teacher, Ben Doyle, taught me early in my career putters 14 years ago for Henry Griffitts, and helped that to be successful at anything you had to be able develop their fitting system with fellow professional to define and sustain its core principle. He used the Chris Aoaki. During the process we discovered that the example of a boat: what is it? The core principle of any physical makeup of a putter created aim bias. In other boat, he said, is buoyancy. That’s it. If you can make it words, certain head shapes, hosels, aim lines, shaft float, you’ve made a successful boat. lengths and other design variables promoted different So the million-dollar question: What’s the core prin- patterns of aim—left, straight and right. Thus, we built ciple of feel? My studies show that it’s a combination a system to test and evaluate different combinations of of three factors: aim, path and speed control. Every components to create consistent aim patterns in indi- decision you make on every putt is based on these vidual players. I’ve recently adapted these principles to three factors, and they’re tightly interrelated—if you my own company, Edel Golf, where we have the ability try something different in your aim you’re going to to build 16 million different putters with various com- get something new with your speed and path. That’s ponent combinations to enhance aim and performance. why I call it the Putting Triad. For example, let’s say While it may be hard for you to believe that a few extra you typically aim left of your target (many people do). grams of head weight or a hosel swap are the difference Over the years you’ve learned to compensate for your between a make and a miss, it’s nonetheless true—a left-aim bias by opening the putterface or cutting across fact you’ll come to accept as you learn more about the the ball at impact. Then, you suddenly learn how to aim different components and their effects on the Triad. WATCH & LEARN When you see this THE PUTTING TRIAD icon go to golf.com/ 1. Consists of aim, path and speed control. bestputtingbook for 2. Aim is the dominant member of the Triad, and you a free video lesson with can aim correctly only if the putter in your hands David Edel. features design variables that allows you to. The Best Putting Instruction Book Ever! The Best Putting Instruction Book Ever! 4 5 DAVID EDEL C HAPTE R 1 /// How to Pick the Right Putter AIM IS KING you or inhibit your perspective. Since golfers aren’t fully aware of this fact (evidenced by AIM TEST the fact that 90 percent of the players I test Aiming is a multi-dimensional concept: DESPITE THE GLUT of putting instruction ar- can’t aim straight on a six-foot putt), they make there’s a left/right component and an up/ ticles and training aids that deal with stroke compensations in their strokes—again, alter- down component. I assess a player’s aim by path and acceleration, the direction your putts ing each segment of the Triad in a desperate reflecting a laser beam o! I mirror that I attach to the player’s putterface. This allows me to travel is primarily determined by the putter- attempt to get the ball in the hole. pinpoint both the vertical and horizontal aim face and where it’s pointed. That’s an easy tendencies. Nearly everyone mis-aims in both enough concept to get one’s head around— CUSTOMIZING YOUR PERSPECTIVE dimensions, but they can improve aim by the ball goes where the face goes. But there’s The laser test mentioned above is the first step swapping putter components that confuse more to aim than pointing the face left, right of my fitting process. The test I use is a bit more their eyes for ones the look good to them. or center. Aim is also a vertical concept. Not sophisticated, but the same principle applies only do you have to aim the putter in the right [see panel, right]. Once I know a player’s aim direction laterally, but also up and down.