Being Fit for an Edel Putter

[amished]

Got fit yesterday, and boy what a process!

I went to Totally Driven in Edina, MN and met with Andy Thompson for a one hour fitting.  First we took my putter (classic Ping Anser, 34" silver single line putter, no milling or insert, 67* lie angle with 3* of loft), hooked it up and hit some practice balls while connected to the SAM Puttlab to get an idea of my tendencies as a putter.  Turned out, my stroke was extremely consistent in the tests, my alignment and aim was just extremely inconsistent.  I also ended up closing the face quite a bit through the impact area which happens to be directly related to my main putting flaw, I'm a horrible right-aimer.

After the initial part with my own putter, we set up the Edel screen with laser and I made sure not to look up at the screen due to the advice here.  There were some that I thought were close but according to Andy there was nothing consistently within 4 inches of the cup with a traditional blade style putter and any combination of lines.  So we went to the opposite end of the spectrum, and tried out a mallet putter with some of the similar multi-line configurations that I assume had gotten me the closest to aiming correctly.  Turns out I'm a rare-breed and the mallet putter with a dot and 2 lines on top with 3 lines on the back got me aiming center right of the cup to right edge over multiple attempts.

He then brought me back over to the SAM puttlab to ensure that this putter was right for me and had me hit to a hole ~15 feet away.  I was still aiming just slightly right, and my compensations were still there so he worked with my stroke as well to get me more in line with what I should be doing.  He also gave me a tip for when I address the ball, which ended up making my aim "fantastic" that eliminated all of my right bias and was right down the middle even at 15 feet.  When I was able to get rid of my closing face compensation, I drained six 15 foot putts in a row and all of them just barely tipped into the cup so my distance control was down pat.

Overall a great experience, extremely glad that I did it and am looking forward to the day that my new baby arrives.  Hopefully I can keep in my head the better stroke that I developed with his tips and not revert back in the meantime.  I might just putt with my wedge until it arrives to make sure I don't get too out of line....  End of the day, from what I remember of the specs was a Torque balanced mallet (E-1), 34" long, 70* lie angle and no weights in the grip.  I kept it in the Chrome/Silver finish for shaft and head as that's what I tested with and because of the recommendations here.  I did get the paint filled in Black and White to represent my Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas  ) Raiders, and HPY stamped on it to both remember to be happy that I'm golfing at all, and to make sure the ball isn't too good for it's home...

I'll post pictures when I get it, but I'm super excited!

[amished]

It's arrived!  I'm a little too excited to take too many pictures so I'll only leave you with one.  

However, in preliminary testing, I've been able to hit a target 1/2" wide from 5-6 feet 9 times out of the first 10, so that's very promising!

[David in FL]

Beautiful.  Congratulations!  

 

[Shindig]

It looks amazing @amished.  Nice putter, a Game Golf, and a great user icon too. 

[amished]

9 hours ago, Shindig said:

It looks amazing @amished.  Nice putter, a Game Golf, and a great user icon too. 

Thank you!  As soon as he sees a golf club he gets excited as I've historically hit practice whiffle balls with my spare wedges in the back yard that he goes and fetches for me.  He was even more excited about this club as I think he could sense my excitement.  Unfortunately for him, he didn't get to fetch from this club, but I got him a little playtime anyways.

[NCGolfer]

Went through a fitting with @iacas a few weeks ago and received my putter a few days back.  Haven't played a round with it yet but our member-member is this weekend so it will get a good workout.  Really happy with how it turned out. 

[RFKFREAK]

I'm planning on getting fit for an Edel putter tomorrow!

(Was supposed to be this morning but I left my putter at home. )

[iacas]

1 hour ago, RFKFREAK said:

I'm planning on getting fit for an Edel putter tomorrow!

(Was supposed to be this morning but I left my putter at home. )

Post and share your thoughts after it happens.

[RFKFREAK]

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

Post and share your thoughts after it happens.

Will do!

[RFKFREAK]

The Edel putter fitting that wasn't.

So, I originally contacted the fitter about a month ago to set this up and he told me that they were waiting on a piece to be delivered which had broken and they'd contact me next week.   Next week came and went and no phone call so I called the following week and was told that the rep hadn't contacted them but that they'd find out.  I called a few days later and was notified that piece had come in.  I couldn't do the fitting last weekend because I moved to a new apartment and have class Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday so those days were unavailable.  I tried scheduling the fitting for this past Tuesday evening but the fitter was unavailable and this upcoming weekend doesn't work because the fitter is getting married,  So, the only solution was to schedule the fitting for Wednesday morning.  

So, I get there Wednesday morning and he asks me where my putter was.  I don't keep my clubs in my car and I probably should have known to bring my putter but I was rushing out of my apartment to make it to the fitting and it slipped my mind so he suggested either trying to do the fitting without my putter or scheduling for another day.  I had taken yesterday off work to move the last of my stuff and decided that I could spare an hour to do the fitting then.

So, yesterday I showed up for the fitting with my putter and he has me warm up and then has me stroke five putts to a string 15 feet away.  I go long on most of them and then he indicates that he has enough information to move onto the laser portion.  It was slightly windy and it caused the black backdrop to fall so he sets it up again and grabs the laser and it's not working.  So, then takes out the battery and blows on it and says, "probably not a good thing for the battery to be dead before you ever use the laser."  So, I ask him if this was the first fitting they've done and he says that he had done it on himself before implies that yes, I'm the first customer they've fit.  I follow that up and ask when they got the materials for the fitting and he replies that they got it in the beginning of the year.  He then suggests going to the pro shop and seeing if they have a back up battery which we do.  He searches for a little bit and asks if it'd be ok if I'd wait five minutes while he ran to the hardware store to buy another battery.  I agree but at this point my enthusiasm for the process has begun to severely wane.  So, I wait and wait and I look at my watch and decide that if I've waited 15 minutes that I'm going to take it as a sign and just leave and also because I have things I still have to do that day and this is dragging on longer than I would have liked.  The 15th minute happens and I tell the employee at the pro shop that I'm leaving and to tell the fitter I'd reschedule to which I'm told the fitter has just driven up.  So, I meet the fitter in the parking and he apologies that it took so long but that they had to test the battery in the store to find the correct one and i just say that I have to go, that I'd reschedule, and wish him the best of luck with his nuptials.

At this point, if I were to get an Edel putter, I'm not sure I'd want to do the fitting with them because I feel some of these delays could and should have been avoided.  I'm also thinking that it may be better for me overall to dedicate the resources I allocated for the putter towards the purchase of new irons.  

Thoughts?

[klineka]

@RFKFREAK Sorry to hear about your negative experience. My thought is that if you want to do the Edel fitting, depending on where you are in New York, schedule a fitting with @iacas in Erie, PA and I guarantee you will have a much better experience than what you had.

[iacas]

17 minutes ago, RFKFREAK said:

At this point, if I were to get an Edel putter, I'm not sure I'd want to do the fitting with them because I feel some of these delays could and should have been avoided.  I'm also thinking that it may be better for me overall to dedicate the resources I allocated for the putter towards the purchase of new irons.

Who was the fitter? PM me if you'd like.

I can't speak to whether you should get irons or a putter (the putter you will have for a lifetime, but if your irons are really poor, I could easily see going that route too).

I'd avoid going to that fitter, for sure.

1 minute ago, klineka said:

@RFKFREAK Sorry to hear about your negative experience. My thought is that if you want to do the Edel fitting, depending on where you are in New York, schedule a fitting with @iacas in Erie, PA and I guarantee you will have a much better experience than what you had.

Pretty long drive, I'm pretty sure. It's 2.5 hours to Rochester alone.

[RFKFREAK]

9 minutes ago, klineka said:

@RFKFREAK Sorry to hear about your negative experience. My thought is that if you want to do the Edel fitting, depending on where you are in New York, schedule a fitting with @iacas in Erie, PA and I guarantee you will have a much better experience than what you had.

 

Yeah, unfortunately Erie is a 5-6 hour drive from Albany where I live.

9 minutes ago, iacas said:

Who was the fitter? PM me if you'd like.

I can't speak to whether you should get irons or a putter (the putter you will have for a lifetime, but if your irons are really poor, I could easily see going that route too).

I'd avoid going to that fitter, for sure.

I'll PM you.  My irons are a box set I bought in 2006 so I think an upgrade is probably worth it.

Edited September 1, 2017 by RFKFREAK

[kpaulhus]

@RFKFREAK Sorry to hear the fitting didn't go as planned. Erik and I had a time getting everything right for my fitting but ultimately I knew I was going to get the best and the last putter I'll ever need....(That's what I told my wife lol). It took us a bit to get the laser to work right, but I didn't care if it took 30 mins or 3 hours but I had a flexible day. I agree I wouldn't use that fitter. I have a Golf Galaxy 2 hours away that does the fittings, but I flew to Buffalo for a work trip and was able to get over to Golf Evolution and get fitted by Erik because I knew I would be in good hands. 

[iacas]

8 minutes ago, kpaulhus said:

@RFKFREAK Sorry to hear the fitting didn't go as planned. Erik and I had a time getting everything right for my fitting but ultimately I knew I was going to get the best and the last putter I'll ever need....(That's what I told my wife lol). It took us a bit to get the laser to work right, but I didn't care if it took 30 mins or 3 hours but I had a flexible day. I agree I wouldn't use that fitter. I have a Golf Galaxy 2 hours away that does the fittings, but I flew to Buffalo for a work trip and was able to get over to Golf Evolution and get fitted by Erik because I knew I would be in good hands. 

I blame @david_wedzik. He had misplaced the laser and batteries.

[billchao]

I finally got fit for an Edel putter, so I'll share my experience here. I went to see Scott Chisholm at Baltusrol. Very knowledgeable guy at a prestigious club, not that I got a look at the course or anything because their performance center is literally 100' from the front gate. I could have saw my fill of the course one week in August 2016, but I digress.

The fitting was done indoors. Scott explained to me that he doesn't quite do the Edel fitting by the book, but he goes through some instructional stuff as needed and does a dynamic fitting as well with the aid of a SAM PuttLab. Made sense to me, you don't want to get a putter you can aim statically but then stroke like crap anyway.

We started with the aim test on a big indoor putting green. Not surprisingly, I aimed my putter well right. We did it from 6' and I bounced the laser almost off the edge of the backdrop. We also did a loft test that I failed miserably. He had me hit putts off of basically a velvet putting strip to see how I rolled the ball at the start. I didn't. It skipped quite a bit because my putter has too much loft. He then measured my wrist to floor and set up the first putter. He was confident we were going to solve the aim quickly because my putter is a giant mallet I aim too far right, and he put together a 33" putter with a classic Anser-style head with a plumber's neck and no markings. We went back to the putting board thing and I rolled it perfect on the first try; he told me he built it with 1° of loft, whereas my current putter has 4°. Loft set and step one complete.

We then did the aim test again and the results were... less than stellar. Still aimed to the right. At this point (this is about 10 minutes into the fitting, he had some issues with the laser) he said we were at a crossroad. He said there's a good chance I'm going to aim everything he can build to the right because of some setup issues. We could spend the next hour trying to find some crazy combination that I'll aim perfectly, or we can address these issues. I decided to tackle the setup issues.

We went back to my old putter and back to the laser test. He had me address the ball, then he moved me around a bit. My head was tilted to the right and I stood too far away from the ball. A couple of simple adjustments and wouldn't you know it, I got the laser over the "cup" with my current putter. We repeated it with the Edel he built and got the same results. Aim corrected and step two complete.

We took a little time here to work on that setup and did some drills. He said he wouldn't be doing his job right if he just fitted for aim and didn't make sure I nail the setup part down. It's actually a simple change because it's a static change. We went on the SAM PuttLab next to make sure everything worked dynamically, focusing on making sure I nail the setup properly. I made five putts on their putting platform to a hole about 10 or 12' away and I made four of them. SAM numbers averaged 0.2° open at address, with a range from -0.94° to +1.3°, but he admitted I kind of rushed through the exercise and didn't seem like I took enough time to get set properly before hitting each putt. He was right. I don't know why, but when he told me to take five putts, I just took five putts fairly quickly. Still, the results were there. The one I missed, BTW, was pushed with a 0.93° face at impact, just enough to miss right of the hole and it wasn't even the same stroke I aimed too far right on. Face at impact on those five shots were all within 1° of square.

He set up a camera to capture the ball's roll off the face and we did the exercise with both the Edel and my current putter, then he showed me the results. I didn't need to see them to be able to tell what we already saw on the other putting strip; the platform I was working on has a plywood base and you can hear the distinct thud from the ball landing with my current putter. Scott said he likes to see the ball roll one revolution within the camera frame he set up and with the Edel I managed a little over 3/4 with a very small amount of the ball being airborne right off the face. With my current putter, the line on the ball started vertical and left the frame vertical. Because it never rolled. Well, not quite. It actually started to backspin a hair and then rolled when it landed and ended up straight again. Loft fitting was confirmed in an awesome way I plan on replicating in the future.

I spent a lot more time just hitting putts, making sure I was nailing the setup. Probably most of the fitting, actually. Scott wanted to test one more thing, so he drew a line on it and I hit a couple of putts. Then we tried a mallet with the line and it still didn't feel right. He said interestingly enough, with a line on my putter, I start to take the club outside the target line and slightly closed on the backswing, then I'm forced to swing through while trying to hold the face open at impact. I told him it definitely felt weird and at one point I did feel myself taking the clubhead to the outside. We went back to the Anser-style head with no markings and everything was right as rain again.

I just want to point out that I was draining most of these putts. I know it's a 0% slope, but to hit that line time after time and have the ball fall in the hole was an amazing feeling. Plus they have this cool ball return thing that would toss the ball back at you when you make it. We joked that I'm going to go out on the course and listen for all my putts to finish with a mechanical whirr sound. I just kept hitting putt after putt because it felt so good to keep making them.

You'll notice I didn't mention anything about the weight. That's because we didn't need to adjust it. The capture speed on my putts were perfect from the first stroke with the Edel putter. I had a number of putts that looked like they should lip out die into the cup. Only hit one short the entire time and it was by a ball. I've always had a good acceleration profile with the putter and it worked fine with the one Scott built. I did ask about counterweights and he said it wasn't necessary for my stroke. He said tends to fit linear accelerators with counterweights and that because I'm a radial accelerator, a counterweight would have me missing putts short.

This was pretty much the end of the fitting. I was fit into the most ordinary of putters ever. Absolutely zero markings on the umpqua head. Scott did mention he wanted a little bit of toe balance on my putter because my miss still tends to be with the face slightly open and I hit a little bit of a push. I'm probably going to get the Pixl insert. As far as the head color, I'm going to go with the silver I was fit with. I've had a black putter for a while and I can't say I'd miss it. Grip will be the standard round grip, which he recommended anyway over an oversized grip like a Super Stroke. We talked a bit about customization options which I still have to decide on. I also have to keep working on the setup. Once I finalize everything, I will order my putter.

[billchao]

Putter came in today. Shout-out to @isukgolf because I stole his pictures to use in Paint, which was crucial in deciding on the design.

[colin007]

25 minutes ago, billchao said:

Putter came in today. Shout-out to @isukgolf because I stole his pictures to use in Paint, which was crucial in deciding on the design.

Awesome bro!! I think mines is the same head, with the pixl insert.