Switching Putters! need opinions, suggestions. need to be fitted. Help!

First, welcome, and please join the Scratch Golfers group.

I doubt very much that you live within even three to four hours of me, so I hope that this advice can come off as unbiased, or rather, biased after much research. Let me explain...

Good putters all have several commonalities. It's not grip, stance, or even stroke type. Good putters read greens well (see AimPoint for help there), good putters hit the ball the proper distance , and good putters start the ball on-line .

The first part, again, AimPoint or whatever you do is fine... the physical, metal putter can't help you with that.

The physical, metal putter can help you with distance control and starting the ball on-line. I'm an instructor with Golf Evolution and we spent months investigating ways to help people putt better. It led us to AimPoint and it led us to Edel Putters , too.

Did you know that 80% of golfers - including PGA Tour golfers - can't aim inside the hole from six feet away with their current putters? There's a thread on " aim bias " but the end result is this: if you can't aim your putter, your stroke will have to compensate for that, and you're layering compensations on top of compensations. With a putter you can aim, the compensations aren't necessary.

Our eyes all perceive shapes differently, and the Edel fitting system is unique in that it allows you, through a fitting, to create a putter that you line up perfectly. It does this with a vast array - something like 300 million combinations - of putter loft, head shape, lines/dots, hosels, offset, length, lie, etc.

Everyone perceives shapes differently. A putter you aim way left someone else might see as really closed and thus open it up and aim it to the right. Or vice versa. The trick is finding the putter geometry that works the way you see things. And the nice thing is, barring an accident or something that severely messes with your vision, you'll always see the shapes the same way, so your putter will always line up for you.

If you have a putter that always lines up, and you start to pull putts, you can focus on your stroke mechanics and not worry about whether or not you can even AIM the putter properly!

And that's just aim. One of the parts I like most about Edel fittings is the speed fitting part. Most putter heads are about 340 grams, but my putter is 370 grams with a 60 gram backweight! Most putter heads are too light, and a lot of people need a little back weight as well. Not as much as the "Heavy Putter" folks (and again, they're not fit at all, they're just putting a lot of weight in the head AND grip ends), but heavier than the average putter these days.

You'll basically be asked to putt to a string 15 feet away, and you'll be surprised at how poorly you will be able to control that with a poorly weighted putter. Again, this is unique to each person - Dave also got a 370 gram head but NO backweighting.

For faster or slower greens, Edel can make a "Variable Weight" putter that lets you get closer to your baseline feel. When you go to a slower green, you put lighter weights in to help you swing the putter head a little faster with the same "feel." If you visit a really fast green, you put the heavier ones in to keep roughly the same "feel." The "distance control" portion of the fitting is important and almost as eye-opening as the alignment portion.

Here's what I'd do if I were you. Find an Edel fitter and take your current putter(s). You may find that an Anser style is a horrible fit for you, and the fitter will be able to fit you into a putter that fits you perfectly. If you can  aim your Anser putter properly, he'll be able to test your speed control and if it's poor, could show you how your speed control can be improved by fitting the weight properly.

Most Edel fittings are free if you buy an Edel putter - they're not cheap, but since you have Camerons and Methods they're also not much more expensive at all. And you'll have your Edel putter for life because it'll be the putter that's 100% fit for you.

That's my recommendation. As I said, I'm biased, because I've done the research and that's what led me to Edel putters. But I'm not biased in that I'm not going to make a penny from Edel or you or anyone in recommending this to you. I just really like what the Edel system does and can't recommend it highly enough.

You might want a putter you aim where you think you're aiming. Odds are you don't - see the " aim bias " thread.

If it's truly a matter of heel and toe weight, technically it can be too much toe weight or too little toe weight. It depends on the type of stroke you've got. Some like to feel toe weight so that they can rotate it. Others will respond to toe weight by letting it drag and keeping the face open.