kwantfm
17th September 2006, 06:56 PM
Went out today for the first time in over a month to play 8 holes. I got a chance to hit a LOT of putts with my new XG#9. This is the putter that Phil Mickelson has been using for the past year or so. Heel shafted mallet in the tradition of the original TPA XVIII from Wilson that Faldo used to win his '89 and '90 Masters (I think), the Scotty Del Mar 3.5 and the more recent Scotty Jat Prototype. I personally think this is a great style of putter head and definitely suits people with a gate/Stan Utley type of putting stroke.
For many years I've been trying to build a the Pelz pure in line stroke with little success. I've had incredible trouble with both distance and direction control and I can't believe it took me so long to return to the style of putting that I used when I first started playing, which was back in the mid eighties. Back then I emulated Norman's stroke du jour and Crenshaw's. Crenshaw's stroke hasn't changed since then but Norman's surely has. Going back to this long, flowing putting style with a significant arc to the stroke had me revert to a heel shafted putter.
Today's putting with the XG#9 (34") was surprisingly good.
Appearance
The putter head is largely than you expect from what you would gather from photos on the internet. Thankfully it is not TOO large! Many people have written posts on other forums about how the alignment aid is not aligned with the centre of the insert. This is true. But it is aligned to the percussion point of the putter head. I tested this with a pen and found that the impact point that caused the least amount of twisting was at the alignment mark. The putter is the easiest to align of this style of head that I have seen. It is amazingly easy to line up in fact and gave me an enormous amount of confidence.
Feel
The White Hot XG insert is surprisingly dead feeling. This was a shock on the first putt. I had tried this putter out at Golf Mart (can't remember which balls were on the putting surface) and didn't note anything strange feeling. On the course the very subdued feel was definitely a characteristic. This took some getting used to but did not prevent me from lagging a high percentage of my long putts to just behind the hole whilst holing more than my fair share of longer putts.
Performance
Amazingly, this putter performed exceptionally well on both lag putts as well as short putts. The ease of alignment makes me feel like short putts are a gimme.
Conclusion
In the bag... Ping G5 Tess is relegated to first alternate.
For many years I've been trying to build a the Pelz pure in line stroke with little success. I've had incredible trouble with both distance and direction control and I can't believe it took me so long to return to the style of putting that I used when I first started playing, which was back in the mid eighties. Back then I emulated Norman's stroke du jour and Crenshaw's. Crenshaw's stroke hasn't changed since then but Norman's surely has. Going back to this long, flowing putting style with a significant arc to the stroke had me revert to a heel shafted putter.
Today's putting with the XG#9 (34") was surprisingly good.
Appearance
The putter head is largely than you expect from what you would gather from photos on the internet. Thankfully it is not TOO large! Many people have written posts on other forums about how the alignment aid is not aligned with the centre of the insert. This is true. But it is aligned to the percussion point of the putter head. I tested this with a pen and found that the impact point that caused the least amount of twisting was at the alignment mark. The putter is the easiest to align of this style of head that I have seen. It is amazingly easy to line up in fact and gave me an enormous amount of confidence.
Feel
The White Hot XG insert is surprisingly dead feeling. This was a shock on the first putt. I had tried this putter out at Golf Mart (can't remember which balls were on the putting surface) and didn't note anything strange feeling. On the course the very subdued feel was definitely a characteristic. This took some getting used to but did not prevent me from lagging a high percentage of my long putts to just behind the hole whilst holing more than my fair share of longer putts.
Performance
Amazingly, this putter performed exceptionally well on both lag putts as well as short putts. The ease of alignment makes me feel like short putts are a gimme.
Conclusion
In the bag... Ping G5 Tess is relegated to first alternate.