Adjustable PING Sigma 2 Tyne Putter

[Cruskater]

So my better half braved the cold New England weather while I was sick with the flu last week to go out and get the new PING Sigma 2 Tyne Adjustable Putter. She is coming from an Odyssey O-Works #7 Tank (same as I use) with a mid-slim superstroke grip and rolls the ball pretty well with it but finds it a tad too long for her stance. She was fitted to a slightly shorter putter but went with a used 35" for economic reasons. Adjustable putter sounds good, right?

The adjustment on the putter is super easy as you do not have to remove the end. Simply insert the (driver) wrench and move one way to increase or another way to decrease length. I thought perhaps the wrench would loosen or tighten a mechanism and you would have to manually adjust the height similar to a driver. 

After 5 putts with the grip in a lower position we noticed the shaft almost feels like it is waggling or moving inside the grip. It did not do this prior to adjusting. After talking to the guy at our local golf shop he said another customer came in with a similar issue and based upon the only previous attempt at an adjustable putter, this is bound to happen as you cannot lock or tighten the grip into place once adjusted. 

The putter face and head are quite nice. It is well balanced with a touch more weight on the "fangs" of the putter than the Odyssey tank. It is also a different feel without the counter weights at the top. 

Supposedly the new face technology is supposed to provide pure roll with less skidding or bouncing even on off-center hits. The new "soft face" with a firmer insert behind it gives a pretty good "feel" for a mallet putter at least to me. 

We performed a test on a level portion of indoor astroturf green. We hit 10 balls as close to center of the face as possible from 4', 8', 12' and did likewise off the toe and heel. All together, we each putted 90 balls with the PING and 180 with the Odyssey O-Works #7. It was tedious and while not scientific, did lead us to some conclusions! 

PING Sigma 2 Tyne					Odyssey O-Works
Center Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent		Center Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent
4	9	10	90		4	10	10	100
8	7	10	70		8	8	10	80
12	6	10	60		12	7	10	70
Toe Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent		Toe Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent
4	8	10	80		4	7	10	70
8	6	10	60		8	6	10	60
12	4	10	40		12	4	10	40
Heel Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent		Heel Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent
4	7	10	70		4	6	10	60
8	5	10	50		8	4	10	40
12	3	10	30		12	3	10	30
			61.11111111					61.11111111
Player 2
PING Sigma 2 Tyne					Odyssey O-Works
Center Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent		Center Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent
4	10	10	100		4	10	10	100
8	8	10	80		8	7	10	70
12	7	10	70		12	7	10	70
Toe Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent		Toe Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent
4	8	10	80		4	8	10	80
8	7	10	70		8	6	10	60
12	5	10	50		12	5	10	50
Heel Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent		Heel Hits	Putts Made	Putts Attempted	Percent
4	7	10	70		4	6	10	60
8	4	10	40		8	5	10	50
12	4	10	40		12	4	10	40
			66.66666667					64.44444444

For what it is worth, we both putted a tad better on off-center hits with the PING but I putted slightly better with the Odyssey on center-ish hits. Overall I made the exact same percent of putts with both. My better half who is a better putter than I am was a bit better with the PING but I'm not sure if it is statistically significant. 

I do believe the face technology on the PING is worthwhile and is as advertised, but I just don't know if it is that big of an improvement over other types of recent putter face technology (like the micro-hinges on Odyssey). Due to the waggling of the grip, she decided to move on from the PING and go back to the Odyssey for now. Just not for us. I think getting fitted and practicing different putting drills are more likely to improve one's putting than the new PING putter. That being said, it's cool! 

[ChetlovesMer]

Hold on a tick. Did I read that right? After the putter was "adjusted" the grip ends up being loose? 

How can that be a good thing?

[Joey G]

4 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Hold on a tick. Did I read that right? After the putter was "adjusted" the grip ends up being loose? 

How can that be a good thing?

I got the Sigma 2 Fetch from my wife for Christmas with the same grip/adjustment system...mine is definitely not loose feeling once adjusted.