I am probably already in trouble for calling this a fitting review as my friends at Titleist say that the process by which they fit you for a Scotty Cameron putter is apparently called a 'Cameron Trial and Education' session.
I suppose in some ways it is, but what it is called is less important than what it does and I will take you through the process that you will experience when you go for your education.
Turning up at the Titleist Scottish National Fitting Centre at Craigielaw and seeing every putter under the Scotty sun waiting for you makes you want to reach for them all, but the first thing is to get the shaft length right and this is done by setting up with putters of 33, 34 and 35 inches and the Scotty educator, in this case Graeme, will check your eye position.
The ideal position is and inch or two inside the ball and the length of the shaft will determine where your eyes will be. Too long and they will be too far inside and too short and they will be on or beyond the ball.
I like this approach as I have always felt it is better to have your eyes just inside the ball rather than right over it and either the 34 or 35 inch shafts were OK for me. Probably 34.5 inches is perfect, but cutting down the shaft will affect the swing weight Scotty has designed it for because the shorter shafts come with heavier weights in the heads.
I was happier going down a little on a 35 inch shaft rather than gripping a 34 at the end so then we moved on to what Scotty calls Toe Flow.
This is also more commonly known as toe hang and ranges from Minimum, AKA face balanced, to maximum where the toe hangs down.
This was established manually by Graeme standing behind me as I attempted 20 foot flat putts to see which one I was most accurate with.
It is a little bit of trial and error but it does become quite apparent which style suits your stroke as you not only hit more of them straighter, but you also notice if your hands are having to hold the face of a toe heavy putter open through impact to keep it online if you have less of an arc on your stroke.
I say less of an arc rather than straight stroke as every putting stroke has to have an arc of some sort as it is a form of rotational movement. A lot of this is determined by the type of hosel and where it enters the head rather than the head style.
The idea is to get to a point where the face stays straighter for longer through impact, ideally for at least 3 ball lengths and for me that meant a Minimum Toe Flow putter.
This took me into the Futura range of heads which come in various sizes and weights and the deciding factor now is personal preference.
From there I spent some time on the putting green trying putts of various lengths to see which one I liked the best. In this instance it was the 6M as the mid sized head and middle of the range weight gave the best combination of feel and sound for me.
So in a lot of ways it is a Scotty Cameron Trial and Education as the process narrows down the wide range of models to a shortlist from which you make a personal choice and it worked well, even though it was sad to see a few shapes I liked being ruled out because of Toe Flow.
Even with fittings that use launch monitors to measure what happens at impact, the personal feel of the club is usually the final factor when making a decision, because ultimately you have to feel comfortable with what you have in your hands to be successful.
If you would like to find your nearest putter education centre just visit the Titleist website or speak to your local Titleist pro shop.
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