SPi Fitting Recap Time!!
So, yesterday was the big day that I had been looking forward to for awhile. My fitting was setup for 3PM at Lakewood Country Club in Dallas with Pat O’Brien. I was lucky enough to have niteowl03 (Aaron) accompany me on this journey and help to capture some of the moments via photo & video.
We arrived around 2:45 and found Pat out on the practice green working with another client. It was neat to stand back and just watch him interact with the golfer and get an idea for what he is looking for and working on with providing instruction. He acknowledged us when walked towards the green and then at 3PM sharp he walked over and we got started.
Getting Started:
The first roughly 10 minutes or so was Pat getting to know me. He wanted to know how I was as a golfer in general and what my goals were. After that, we dove straight into me as a putter. Pat wanted to know why I’m rolling what I roll now (M5X counterbalanced), what my misses were, putts per round, etc. I shared with him my experience since converting from standard to counterbalanced and how I felt that it helped me regarding a repeatable stroke and being easier to maintain a rhythmic putting stroke especially on the putts inside 8 feet.
Pat was quick to admit that he doesn’t have a bunch of thoughts and/or experience with counterbalanced putters. He is more of a traditional instructor that really focuses on posture/setup regardless of actual putter being used. He had me roll around 5-6 puttswith my current M5X to just get a feel for my setup/posture/stroke. My setup is slightly open at address but with me placing the ball in the middle of my stance with the putter behind it, this causes me to slightly cup my wrists which adds loft to the putter and this will cause me to swipe across the ball which is why my common miss is to the left…..more on this later. He then proceeded to show me how I had a shaft lean that was pointing to the right shoulder which adds loft and causes those pulls to the left.
Feedback:
I guess my attempts at following the SPi methodology has paid off as Pat immediately said that my actual grip is perfect and he wouldn’t change a thing there. He also indicated that for someone that sits down at a desk all day, my posture was fantastic and not showing any slouch as he expected. He handed me his 35” mFGP and asked me to roll a few putts. I was doing the same as mentioned above with the ball in the middle of stance and putter behind it resulting in a pull. To correct this, we worked on the “approach” to the ball. In doing this the goal is to walk in and leave my left foot perpendicular to your line until the putter touches the ground and then place the putter in the middle of my body while focused on keeping the shaft vertical.
Here is a pic of the walk in look:
Proper setup:
When we made these adjustments, it removed the tension in my left forearm that was created from cupping the wrists. From this point, I was in a comfortable position everything was free to happen which ultimately is just allowing a turn of the shoulders/chest to create the stroke. Pat was quick to say not “rocking” the shoulders as that is more of a tilt then a simple turn. At this point, I was dropping 15 footers like it was nothing and everything just felt natural and not forced whatsoever.
Fitting:
After we worked through the stroke, Pat went inside and brought out like 6 different heads (FGP, PTM, Si, and X series) and a few shafts at different lengths to get me dialed in along with a sightline mirror. We spent a few minutes over the mirror ensuring correct posture and then seeing where eyes were on the mirror for proper setup over ball. We went back and forth between 34.5 and 35 until coming to the conclusion that the 35 just left a little too much extended past my left palm and agreed that 34.5 was just spot on.
With the length dialed in, the head shape was really my decision based on preference of shape, insert, and finish. I rolled the PTM2 and the head shape just looked to “squished” and “abbreviated”. I immediately eliminated the Si3 due to not caring for the head shape or insert. This really left me with the classic tried and true FGP shape. I bounced back and forth between the PTM1 and the X2. After spending around 30 minutes trying both heads at varying lengths, the results showed that the X2 performed better for me in all aspects.
My putter specs:
SeeMore X2
34.5”
68* lie
Grip TBD
Overall:
I thoroughly enjoyed the process and Pat taking the time to meet with me and sharing his expertise. I will be making the transition from a counterbalanced putter to a standard putter and am really looking forward to implementing the changes recommended from Pat along with the solid SPi fundamental base that I already have according to Pat.
Random photos from the experience:
So, yesterday was the big day that I had been looking forward to for awhile. My fitting was setup for 3PM at Lakewood Country Club in Dallas with Pat O’Brien. I was lucky enough to have niteowl03 (Aaron) accompany me on this journey and help to capture some of the moments via photo & video.
We arrived around 2:45 and found Pat out on the practice green working with another client. It was neat to stand back and just watch him interact with the golfer and get an idea for what he is looking for and working on with providing instruction. He acknowledged us when walked towards the green and then at 3PM sharp he walked over and we got started.
Getting Started:
The first roughly 10 minutes or so was Pat getting to know me. He wanted to know how I was as a golfer in general and what my goals were. After that, we dove straight into me as a putter. Pat wanted to know why I’m rolling what I roll now (M5X counterbalanced), what my misses were, putts per round, etc. I shared with him my experience since converting from standard to counterbalanced and how I felt that it helped me regarding a repeatable stroke and being easier to maintain a rhythmic putting stroke especially on the putts inside 8 feet.
Pat was quick to admit that he doesn’t have a bunch of thoughts and/or experience with counterbalanced putters. He is more of a traditional instructor that really focuses on posture/setup regardless of actual putter being used. He had me roll around 5-6 puttswith my current M5X to just get a feel for my setup/posture/stroke. My setup is slightly open at address but with me placing the ball in the middle of my stance with the putter behind it, this causes me to slightly cup my wrists which adds loft to the putter and this will cause me to swipe across the ball which is why my common miss is to the left…..more on this later. He then proceeded to show me how I had a shaft lean that was pointing to the right shoulder which adds loft and causes those pulls to the left.
Feedback:
I guess my attempts at following the SPi methodology has paid off as Pat immediately said that my actual grip is perfect and he wouldn’t change a thing there. He also indicated that for someone that sits down at a desk all day, my posture was fantastic and not showing any slouch as he expected. He handed me his 35” mFGP and asked me to roll a few putts. I was doing the same as mentioned above with the ball in the middle of stance and putter behind it resulting in a pull. To correct this, we worked on the “approach” to the ball. In doing this the goal is to walk in and leave my left foot perpendicular to your line until the putter touches the ground and then place the putter in the middle of my body while focused on keeping the shaft vertical.
Here is a pic of the walk in look:
Proper setup:
When we made these adjustments, it removed the tension in my left forearm that was created from cupping the wrists. From this point, I was in a comfortable position everything was free to happen which ultimately is just allowing a turn of the shoulders/chest to create the stroke. Pat was quick to say not “rocking” the shoulders as that is more of a tilt then a simple turn. At this point, I was dropping 15 footers like it was nothing and everything just felt natural and not forced whatsoever.
Fitting:
After we worked through the stroke, Pat went inside and brought out like 6 different heads (FGP, PTM, Si, and X series) and a few shafts at different lengths to get me dialed in along with a sightline mirror. We spent a few minutes over the mirror ensuring correct posture and then seeing where eyes were on the mirror for proper setup over ball. We went back and forth between 34.5 and 35 until coming to the conclusion that the 35 just left a little too much extended past my left palm and agreed that 34.5 was just spot on.
With the length dialed in, the head shape was really my decision based on preference of shape, insert, and finish. I rolled the PTM2 and the head shape just looked to “squished” and “abbreviated”. I immediately eliminated the Si3 due to not caring for the head shape or insert. This really left me with the classic tried and true FGP shape. I bounced back and forth between the PTM1 and the X2. After spending around 30 minutes trying both heads at varying lengths, the results showed that the X2 performed better for me in all aspects.
My putter specs:
SeeMore X2
34.5”
68* lie
Grip TBD
Overall:
I thoroughly enjoyed the process and Pat taking the time to meet with me and sharing his expertise. I will be making the transition from a counterbalanced putter to a standard putter and am really looking forward to implementing the changes recommended from Pat along with the solid SPi fundamental base that I already have according to Pat.
Random photos from the experience:
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