UPDATED 2/28/04, 10:00 PM

Putter Fitting

The most important club in the golf bag is the putter. It is used more times in a round of golf than any other club and requires the skill of how well you read a green, control speed and distance and produce pure roll.

The chef brings his own culinary knives to work. The billiards champion carries his cue in a case. A putter that fits is like a Stradivarius violin and the sound is beautiful when the ball drops in the hole. All right. That's a bit much but that's how players feel about a putter that fits. It's love at first putt.

The key is good optics. You must be able to align the putter to the target. A laser is placed on a holder the size of a regulation hole. A mirror is placed on the face of your putter. As you aim your putter at the laser from 8 feet away, the light from the laser will reflect on the mirror and shoot the beam to a board behind the laser. Several thousand golfers have been checked in the past twenty years and 98% are not within the cup at 8 feet away.

The next step is like backtracking to solve a mystery. If a player is aimed 2 feet left of the hole at 8 feet away and pushes every putt, what is causing the aim to the left?

The putter fitting system, Fit2Aim®, uses the Chris Aoki Fitting Method to make the determination. Every hosel, shaft and head is interchangeable so one part of the putter at a time can be isolated. Because of this feature, the student's original putter can now be closely duplicated and the laser check will show a similar result.

1. Keeping all of the specifications the same, only the hosel design is changed first. A different design can improve or disorient aim.
2. Once the correct hosel is chosen, the amount of offset is tested. Each hosel design has 5 amounts of offset and each one will aim differently.
3. There are also 3 lie angles. The angles have been set accurately by Fit2Aim™ and they do not require any rudimentary bending by the fitter. The lie angle is fundamental to a good grip position and release.
4. The placement of sight lines on the putter improves aim. Four combinations are tested and each one will result in a different aim.
5. After the correct hosel and sight line are determined, the shape of the putter head is tested. There are 4 head shapes. The eyes will align either the straighter border of a blade or rectangle, or the rounded edges of a small or full mallet.
6. Length is very important in helping good posture and eye position at address. Lengths are changed in inch increments and the results are tested with the laser.

To get optimum benefit and performance, the fitter is aware of the changes that the teacher wants in your putting stroke. With each isolated change in the putter, the fit is also checked dynamically.

The newly designed fitted putter can now be compared to the student's old putter and the differences will solve the mystery. The fitter will also note the changes in the putting stroke.

The fitter will order the putter to the specifications in the fitting session. The putter is built by Fit2Aim® and sent to the fitter. The putting changes noted during the fitting will be reviewed at the time of the follow-up when the student meets with the fitter and is introduced to the new, custom-made putter

There are two series of head designs. The Z - A Series has a gold-colored finish with a brass face. It is available for right and left-handed golfers. The Signature Series is right-handed only and is an original design by David Edel made exclusively for Fit2Aim®.

The Fit2Aim® putter can also be spined SST Pured™ and is highly recommended for the avid and low-handicap player. The strongest and straightest load and unload of the putter shaft is determined by placing the shaft on a computerized machine with sensors. This process eliminates extraneous oscillating torque during the putting stroke.