My Edel Putter Fitting

[tristanhilton85]

Since Erik posted on the forum sometime back about Edel putters and the way you are fit for them, I have wanted to go get one. The thing is they aren't cheap. They aren't much more than an off-the-rack Scotty but still, not cheap and on top of that the closest place to be fit was 2 1/2 hours away so not exactly close either.

Anyways, thoughts of getting one had been in my head for a while and when the "Seemore v. Edel" thread popped up it kind of renewed my interest in them, especially since I currently use a Seemore putter. In that thread, Clambake talked a little about his fitting and after PMing back and forth with him a bit on the subject, I was convinced it was a good idea for me so I managed to set aside the necessary funds and convince the wife that it was a good idea and made my appointment with Sheri at the San Diego Golf Institute to get a fitting.

My fitting was yesterday and I must say that I was very impressed. To start, Sheri rolled out the fitting cart to the practice green and set up a black screen with a white disk the size of a hole in front of it. Starting with my putter (which had a mirror attached to the face) I aimed a golf ball at the "hole" which was shooting a laser at the ball. Sheri would remove the ball and see where the laser was being returned to on the screen. We discovered that with my putter I was a left aimer. However I had the toe WAY up off the ground which she showed me in some video and pictures that she took. After changing my setup a little so that the toe was more down I went from a left aimer to a right aimer. From there we tried 4 of the 6 different head shapes (she only tried one mallet with me and left out one of the blades) and played around with different hosel styles until I started to get the ball closer to the hole. I should note that through this entire time I wasn't looking at the screen to see where I was aiming as she said doing so would make me try to get it right. We narrowed it down to two different head shapes (the last two in the picture) and she said from there it was really my choice as I had aimed them both equally well. I went with the slightly thicker one as the other looked two thin to me. From there she used a stencil to draw different combinations of dots and lines on the top and in the cavity of the putter to fine tune the aim. We settled on two lines on the top. Throughout the process, she also changed the face of the putter to change the loft. She said with my current putter, I wasn't getting the ball rolling quick enough (she showed me this on video) and on the screen my aim was too high. We also messed around with the length of the putter and ended up going with something shorter than I had (I already was down to a 33").

After the aiming process was done we worked on getting the weight correct and she had me putt to a string about 15 feet away with the goal of trying to stop it on the string. I couldn't do it with any combination; heavy, light, weight in the butt, shaft, or head. I struggled getting the balls to stop on the line. However, she noticed that all of my balls were at least stopping in the same place with the heavier combinations, just well beyond the line and and decided to have me putt to holes instead. She mixed up the lengths of the putts and after changing weights a few times we found one that put me at the hole nearly every time (and I made quite a few as well).

So the putter I ended up with is the second one from the right in the picture above with two lines on top... It will have 2° of loft and is 32" long. The head weight it 370g with no weight added to the shaft or butt of the club. I also opted to have the Pixl insert on my putter. Sheri had me put with hers for a few minutes to make sure that I liked the feel of it, which I did. I'm going to have the dancing "EDEL" stamped on one side with "TH85" on the other. I chose black and red for the paint fill and TH will be in one of those colors with "85" in the other. However, I couldn't decide which one for each so I told Sheri to choose and surprise me, so I'll know when the putter gets here. I chose the red headcover, however she said that one may be out of stock so if they don't have it, I'll end up with the black.

I was very impressed with Sheri and the entire fitting process. She worked very hard to find the right combination for me even though I made things somewhat difficult (she said that I was kind of backwards with my aim in that what normally makes people aim more right had me aiming more left and vice versa). If you are in the market for a new putter or constantly switch putters I'd recommend doing this process. If you are anywhere in SoCal, go down to see Sheri at SDGI as I can say without a doubt that she'll do an excellent job for you.

I know that this is kind of a long post, but it was a very in depth process and I wanted to try to convey the amount of work that is put into finding the right putter. I'll update this thread later with pictures of my actual putter when it arrives, but if you have any questions for me about the fitting or whatever, let me know.

[David in FL]

Thanks for the review.  Be sure to let us know how the real world results are once you get it and have some time to use it.

Gotta admit, I continue to be intrigued.  I love my Scotty, but if something else will put the ball in the hole with greater consistency, that's what this silly game is all about.

Looks like there's a fitter local to me here in Orlando too.  uh oh......

[tristanhilton85]

Originally Posted by David in FL

Thanks for the review.  Be sure to let us know how the real world results are once you get it and have some time to use it.

Gotta admit, I continue to be intrigued.  I love my Scotty, but if something else will put the ball in the hole with greater consistency, that's what this silly game is all about.

Looks like there's a fitter local to me here in Orlando too.  uh oh......

At the very least go it and do the fitting. If your club fits you, they'll tell you that and send you on your way.

[hacker101]

Great review Tristan, you have me thinking about it now.

Will be very interested in what you follow up with.

Thanks for the time on writting this up.

[tristanhilton85]

Originally Posted by hacker101

Great review Tristan, you have me thinking about it now.

Will be very interested in what you follow up with.

Thanks for the time on writting this up.

I think it should be here in time for our outing so you'll be able to see it then.

[mchepp]

Nice review. Thanks for posting.

[David in FL]

Originally Posted by tristanhilton85

At the very least go it and do the fitting. If your club fits you, they'll tell you that and send you on your way.

Do they adjust/vary toe hang too?  Is that part of varying the weighting?

[tristanhilton85]

Originally Posted by David in FL

Do they adjust/vary toe hang too?  Is that part of varying the weighting?

Yeah, they can alter the toe hang with the hosel... some cause the putter to be more face balanced while others have more toe hang.

[cipher]

Nice review!  How would you describe the feeling and sound off the face?  If the test ones do not have that face pixel milling, maybe you can let us know when it comes?

[iacas]

Originally Posted by tristanhilton85

At the very least go it and do the fitting. If your club fits you, they'll tell you that and send you on your way.

I've done that. Once. Nobody else has aimed their putter well enough. And once you show them where they aim their putter, you don't have to sell them on building one they can aim - they're eager to.

And for the gal I did that to once, I did tell her to add 35 g of lead tape or so to the bottom of her putter and put a counter-weight in, because though she could aim it, she couldn't control her distances very well with the lighter version.

[Golfingdad]

Great read, Tristan!  Very excited for you ... and to see your new putter if it gets in in time!

I know from your review, as well as Clambake's and a lot of other talk on here that they are very thorough ... about how long did the whole process take?

[hacker101]

Originally Posted by tristanhilton85

I think it should be here in time for our outing so you'll be able to see it then.

That will be great, was looking at putters the other day and none of them was really to my liking at this point, other then the Ping.

So I will hold off and see what you get and how you like it.

Thanks again.

[mvmac]

Welcome to the club Tristan

[carrx]

I actually called SDGI last week to talk about an Edel fitting session.  I didn't speak with Sheri, but her business partner.  He was patient, thoughtful and took all of my questions in stride.  I live in north Orange County, so it's not exactly convenient to get down there for a fitting, but I will strongly consider it, just by virtue of the fact that he was so warm and professional.

Thanks for the review, please post pics of your final product!  I putt pretty well with my putter now, but I admit I love the idea of applying science to the game whenever possible.

[tristanhilton85]

Originally Posted by carrx

I actually called SDGI last week to talk about an Edel fitting session.  I didn't speak with Sheri, but her business partner.  He was patient, thoughtful and took all of my questions in stride.  I live in north Orange County, so it's not exactly convenient to get down there for a fitting, but I will strongly consider it, just by virtue of the fact that he was so warm and professional.

Thanks for the review, please post pics of your final product!  I putt pretty well with my putter now, but I admit I love the idea of applying science to the game whenever possible.

Yeah, they were awesome over there. I know that Clambake dealt with both Sheri and Jack and he had nothing but great things to stay about both of them.

I really do recommend SDGI, but if it is too far for you and you still want an Edel go to Golf Academy/LA in Long Beach. They have an Edel fitter there.

[Stretch]

Nice write up and sure that's going to be a sweet putter!

Can I ask one quick question about head weight? What's the basic relationship between that and distance -- i.e. if you're consistently short, say, would they add or remove weight?

[Clambake]

I'd like to echo Tristan's perspectives and experiences.    I wrote up my experience in the "Seemore vs. Edel" thread so I won't go into the details here, but my Edel fitting was both eye-opening and educational.

I've had my new Edel for a few weeks and have only been able to get 3 rounds in with it, and while it is too early to be able to show statistically meaningful results I can absolutely so that it has made a significant difference in my putting.     Two of those rounds were on courses with notoriously difficult greens; on one of them I've only broken 80 once before there, but I shot a 79 on a somewhat poor ball striking day - I made up for it on the greens.

My distance control is much better, and I've only had a couple 3 putts in those rounds when I used to have a couple per round.   And of those two 3 putts one was just a total brain fade on my part and the other was one of those times where a 2 putt was simply impossible - putting from 45 feet downhill to a pin location that was impossible to stop coming from above, leaving a 12 footer return (that I lipped out).      Another area I've seen a big improvement is sinking those pesky 5-10 footers; here's where the improved aiming probably comes into play.    I used to miss way too many of those straight-nothing-to-it putts from this make-able distance, and I find myself nailing a lot more them, saving par and the occasional birdie.     Again, it is too early to be able to show that the Edel has reduced my putts per round by a specific number, but qualitatively I can absolutely see an improvement.

As Tristan indicated, I was impressed with both the fitters at SDGI and in my fitting I had both Jack and Sherri working with me.     And although I would certainly give them a high recommendation, I have no doubt that other Edel fitters will be equally as competent and easy to deal with.

[iacas]

Can I ask one quick question about head weight? What's the basic relationship between that and distance -- i.e. if you're consistently short, say, would they add or remove weight?

Stretch, what we typically find is that distance control is simply poor with improper weighting. We are simply trying to get someone to hit the ball the same distance – for example, to stop the ball on the string. People with improperly weighted putters cannot do it, regardless of how far away the string is. People with properly weighted putters can stop the ball on a string quite well. If I saw a golfer stopping the ball consistently 6 inches short of the string but all of the balls were 6 inches short of the string I would consider that a properly weighted putter; they would simply need to hit the ball a little bit harder. But you really never see that: a properly weighted putter lets the golfer know very quickly whether the ball be a little short or a little long when they make a stroke. Generally on slower greens you want a lighter putter and on faster greens a heavier putter.