Rekimoto
man in love with a putter
MY PHONE AND INTERNET FITTING
I have had two really good talks with my SPi instructor Chris Carfangia now and he has done some analysis of the V1 videos I uploaded to him. We have decided on a putter and he is calling in the order today. Here are some thoughts on the process so far:
First, if you haven’t read or just want a reminder of my putting background you can check that out in
my initial post. (Click HERE)
FIRST CALL
My first talk with Chris was great. I immediately felt comfortable with him and it was really easy to talk with him about my game. We discussed my golfing background, current state of my game, and SeeMore putters in general. I mentioned to him that if I actually spent as much time practicing my putting as I did on the rest of my game, I think that I would probably be a pretty darn good putter. I found his response to this pretty interesting…
“Well on of the reasons I love the SeeMore putters and their Rifle Scope Technology system, is that you don’t have to practice as much.” Now Chris, as he explained, was in no way advocating that players don’t need to practice putting when they have a SeeMore. They absolutely do. It’s just that with the SeeMore’s RST setup, a lot of the practicing is just built into how you have to use the putter. Every time you make a stroke and hide the dot, you are practicing, and it doesn’t take very long to get used to doing it. Chris feels that this takes a major part of putting out of the equation. You absolutely need to practice to get your feel, distance control, green reading in good form, but a good deal of your stroke and alignment problems can really be helped, simply by using the putter and hiding the dot.
We then talked a bit about my current putter, a 33” Boccieri H1-M. A center shafted mallet style putter, that I find myself struggling a bit with on longer putts (distance control) and mid-range putts (Pushing out right). At this point Chris talked to me a bit about the ‘Myth of face balanced putters’…which is probably best explained by just showing you this video
Myth of Face-Balanced Putters
I tested this out on my Boccieri. At impact, with the appropriate shaft lean, my face balanced mallet is very open to the target. My putter wants to push the ball out right, and it seems like a lot of the time I let it do just that. Chris explained to me that SeeMore putters are perfectly face-balanced at impact and that I should notice a big difference with the ease at which the putter head wants to come through the impact zone, square to the target.
At this point, Chris had already seen the videos that I uploaded to him using my phone and the V1 app.
For the most part he really like my stroke (woo-hoo) but knew there was definitely some changes we could make to improve things. Based on what he saw, he decided that he wanted to “get me off the mallet train” and back with a blade style putter. He factored in the fact that I like to see my iron shots move a little bit left to right (draw) and wanted to continue that feeling of rolling my hands over, or closing the face through impact with my putter.
Using a large mallet for the past few months had me mostly eyeing the SeeMore mallets and mid-mallets when I was selected for this testing, but I told Chris that I am committing 100% to his teaching and his ideas and philosophy make a lot of sense to me. So a blade it is! But which one…
Before moving on, it might be best if you check out the analyzed video of Chris checking out my putting stroke for the first time. I think this whole V1 system is pretty cool, and Chris has said to me that ANY time I have a question about my stroke I should send him a video. He also said that offer was good FOREVER and that I couldn’t send him too many videos even if I tried. I really do have a personal putting coach for the life of this putter and let me tell you, that feels pretty great.
Ok, so here’s the video. Quality isn’t the best (phone camera) and I shot it in my hallway but even with that it’s a great system that I am going to use a TON of going forward.
Analyzed V1 video
So for the record, I know that putt breaks toward the kitchen sink and I was playing it 1 measuring cup outside the fridge ALL THE WAY.
Overall and so far anyway, my checklist of changes looks something like this:
1. Grip out of the palm and more into the fingers (Jman has some really great pictures of this in his fitting post)
2. Move the ball back in my stance
3. keep the putter head low in the follow through
4. make sure to finish the arc on the way through
In the video you might have heard Chris mention the m1 and m2 as good options for me and this is what we were thinking of at first but after talking to Chris again this morning we ended up going in a slightly different direction.
THE PUTTER CHOICE
There is an order in at SeeMore for a beautiful new Gunmetal mFGP CS. 34.5” – 70*lie – Golf Pride Standard grip.
Sweet Beans! Chris said he looked over my videos a few more times and in the end really felt this would be the best putter for. He has seen a lot of people, with similar strokes to mine, have a lot of success with this putter. He even said that even though SeeMore keeps sending him new putters ( he has 45 at his club, 45!) he keeps going back to his FGP that he got over 7 years ago.
So there you have it…the putter is ordered and I cannot wait to get to work with it! As soon as the putter arrives Chris wants me to upload some videos to see if we need to make any changes and then its all systems go after that!
PS: I bet it’s going to look awesome in the 2012 THP putter cover I just ordered.
I have had two really good talks with my SPi instructor Chris Carfangia now and he has done some analysis of the V1 videos I uploaded to him. We have decided on a putter and he is calling in the order today. Here are some thoughts on the process so far:
First, if you haven’t read or just want a reminder of my putting background you can check that out in
my initial post. (Click HERE)
FIRST CALL
My first talk with Chris was great. I immediately felt comfortable with him and it was really easy to talk with him about my game. We discussed my golfing background, current state of my game, and SeeMore putters in general. I mentioned to him that if I actually spent as much time practicing my putting as I did on the rest of my game, I think that I would probably be a pretty darn good putter. I found his response to this pretty interesting…
“Well on of the reasons I love the SeeMore putters and their Rifle Scope Technology system, is that you don’t have to practice as much.” Now Chris, as he explained, was in no way advocating that players don’t need to practice putting when they have a SeeMore. They absolutely do. It’s just that with the SeeMore’s RST setup, a lot of the practicing is just built into how you have to use the putter. Every time you make a stroke and hide the dot, you are practicing, and it doesn’t take very long to get used to doing it. Chris feels that this takes a major part of putting out of the equation. You absolutely need to practice to get your feel, distance control, green reading in good form, but a good deal of your stroke and alignment problems can really be helped, simply by using the putter and hiding the dot.
We then talked a bit about my current putter, a 33” Boccieri H1-M. A center shafted mallet style putter, that I find myself struggling a bit with on longer putts (distance control) and mid-range putts (Pushing out right). At this point Chris talked to me a bit about the ‘Myth of face balanced putters’…which is probably best explained by just showing you this video
Myth of Face-Balanced Putters
Spoiler
I tested this out on my Boccieri. At impact, with the appropriate shaft lean, my face balanced mallet is very open to the target. My putter wants to push the ball out right, and it seems like a lot of the time I let it do just that. Chris explained to me that SeeMore putters are perfectly face-balanced at impact and that I should notice a big difference with the ease at which the putter head wants to come through the impact zone, square to the target.
At this point, Chris had already seen the videos that I uploaded to him using my phone and the V1 app.
For the most part he really like my stroke (woo-hoo) but knew there was definitely some changes we could make to improve things. Based on what he saw, he decided that he wanted to “get me off the mallet train” and back with a blade style putter. He factored in the fact that I like to see my iron shots move a little bit left to right (draw) and wanted to continue that feeling of rolling my hands over, or closing the face through impact with my putter.
Using a large mallet for the past few months had me mostly eyeing the SeeMore mallets and mid-mallets when I was selected for this testing, but I told Chris that I am committing 100% to his teaching and his ideas and philosophy make a lot of sense to me. So a blade it is! But which one…
Before moving on, it might be best if you check out the analyzed video of Chris checking out my putting stroke for the first time. I think this whole V1 system is pretty cool, and Chris has said to me that ANY time I have a question about my stroke I should send him a video. He also said that offer was good FOREVER and that I couldn’t send him too many videos even if I tried. I really do have a personal putting coach for the life of this putter and let me tell you, that feels pretty great.
Ok, so here’s the video. Quality isn’t the best (phone camera) and I shot it in my hallway but even with that it’s a great system that I am going to use a TON of going forward.
Analyzed V1 video
Spoiler
So for the record, I know that putt breaks toward the kitchen sink and I was playing it 1 measuring cup outside the fridge ALL THE WAY.
Overall and so far anyway, my checklist of changes looks something like this:
1. Grip out of the palm and more into the fingers (Jman has some really great pictures of this in his fitting post)
2. Move the ball back in my stance
3. keep the putter head low in the follow through
4. make sure to finish the arc on the way through
In the video you might have heard Chris mention the m1 and m2 as good options for me and this is what we were thinking of at first but after talking to Chris again this morning we ended up going in a slightly different direction.
THE PUTTER CHOICE
There is an order in at SeeMore for a beautiful new Gunmetal mFGP CS. 34.5” – 70*lie – Golf Pride Standard grip.
Sweet Beans! Chris said he looked over my videos a few more times and in the end really felt this would be the best putter for. He has seen a lot of people, with similar strokes to mine, have a lot of success with this putter. He even said that even though SeeMore keeps sending him new putters ( he has 45 at his club, 45!) he keeps going back to his FGP that he got over 7 years ago.
So there you have it…the putter is ordered and I cannot wait to get to work with it! As soon as the putter arrives Chris wants me to upload some videos to see if we need to make any changes and then its all systems go after that!
PS: I bet it’s going to look awesome in the 2012 THP putter cover I just ordered.
