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Astral Putters Review

Boosted said:
I had my virtual fitting with Blake last weekend and then caught a really bad cold and was not able to do any testing until yesterday. At the end of the fitting, I told Blake that the putter felt amazing and I didn't think we would need to make any more changes. He replied with "You never know. The putter could feel right in the moment and not feel right the next time out" and sure enough, he was right. I'll get into that more in a bit but first, I want to share the fitting experience with you.

Our Virtual Fitting was setup with Microsoft Teams. Fortunately, I use Teams at work so it went without any glitches. We started the fitting with Blake sharing why he decided to create his own line of adjustable putters and what he felt was necessary in terms of adjustability to be able to dial in his putters to just about any golfer. The amount of adjustability in his line of putters is amazing. Sure you could make loft and lie adjustments to standard putters by bending the hosel but that's about as far as you can go and only a limited amount of times because eventually the hosel would weaken and break.

The Astral putters can be adjusted for loft, lie and offset plus you have the ability to adjust the balance of the face by adding or taking out toe hang. If that's not enough, these putters can be adjusted an unlimited amount of times.

Blake also explained how to change the face balance or toe hang and offset or no offset to match my putting stroke. After testing several different setups, we started to fine tune the putter for best and consistent results. What I ended up with was a face balanced putter with zero offset. I've gone through my fair share of putters over the years and the only putter I ever had that didn't have offset was the old Bullseye putter from the 70's. I absolutely love the look of zero offset and at the time of the fitting, I was certain that would be the setup I stay with.

Fast forward to this weekend.... I was able to play a round using the Astral Blade putter with the setup we ended up with during the fitting. I got to the course early and hit the putting green. The greens were faster than normal and it took a bit for me to get comfortable with the putter. As mentioned by the others, the first thing I noticed was the putter feels heavy and distance control was a challenge for me early on. Once I was warmed up, we hit the course to start the round. First couple of holes I blew my putts long and by the 3rd, I had settled down and started getting the distance right. That's when I started pushing my putts right and when I tried to correct the push, it would end up in a pull. I thought about what Blake said about offset and toe hang and decided to make 1 small adjustment at the turn. For the back nine, I added some offset which also added a little bit of toe hang to the putter. I immediately saw an improvement and started draining putts. Gone was the push and over-compensated pull misses and the only putts that missed were mis-reads.

After the round, I went back to the putting green to do some testing. I put the zero offset, face balance setup back on the putter and was pushing putts again. Went back to the offset, slight toe hang and started draining putts again. I plan on calling Blake this week to pick his brain on a couple of things but for now, I am very happy with the putter and can't wait to get back out again.

Here's a few short clips of how each insert sounds.





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Slight sound difference. Shockingly, the steel SEEMED the loudest in the videos!
 
Muchmore said:
Thank you for this! Was hard to totally understand the settings being mentioned. Not anymore!
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When I get home this evening I’ll post pictures of the hosel in the club head. That might make it easier to see
 
amarkabove said:
I’m curious what type of stroke this is ideal for.
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It could be just about anyone and whatever their type of stroke may be. It could even be one of us and we will never know unless we try. With 60 different positions and the systematic way or going through the process, there is great opportunity to learn something about how you putt. Maybe @BC.Astral can provide further illumination. Personally that setting and some similar are those I intend to try after getting through the different inserts.
Baron1 said:
If I were to buy the full kit at home, how do I determine which is best for me? Do I need specific additional equipment? Is it just based on feel and personal feedback on what you think is best for you?
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You would have an initial online discussion with Astral and they would then make suggestions as to what might work, and maybe modify the fitting trials. Then you will have another fitting session (online for most as well) where the process is explained and where you can putt with Blake watching. Astral provide a putting "gate" that is pretty diagnostic to determine if you are pushing or pulling with each setting. There is or can be a bit of tinkering because even when we get to a great setting we wonder if something is a touch better right? So you try and then decide what fits your stroke and eye. Blake is available for consultation at all points of the process.
 
Muchmore said:
Slight sound difference. Shockingly, the steel SEEMED the loudest in the videos!
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That's the conclusion I came to as well.
 
cmon man said:
Blake is available for consultation at all points of the process.
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The personal touch is great. Wonder as they scale up if they can continue doing that for everyone
 
Muchmore said:
I think this pic of the mid mallet proves that this is absolutely the one I would go with. What a spectacular shape!
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I really like the look. It’s a very confidence inspiring putter.
 
Presenting… “Derek”

(10 points if you can think of why I would name it Derek.)


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34”
74* lie
KBS no step shaft
Winn Excel NTP grip
Copper face
Mid-mallet

In bright light it is quite blue, in shadow more navy/teal. Pretty cool.
 
PiratePenguin said:
Presenting… “Derek”

(10 points if you can think of why I would name it Derek.)


View attachment 9364712View attachment 9364713View attachment 9364714View attachment 9364715View attachment 9364716View attachment 9364717View attachment 9364718View attachment 9364719

34”
74* lie
KBS no step shaft
Winn Excel NTP grip
Copper face
Mid-mallet

In bright light it is quite blue, in shadow more navy/teal. Pretty cool.
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Nice looking putter! I admit I don't get the reference to Derek
 
Derek for Derek Zoolander. Because it is made from... blue steel :p


Ben Stiller Magnum GIF
 
Boosted said:
That's the conclusion I came to as well.
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I am on to the sound test next. I have tried only the copper and bronze to-date. The copper is really quiet and the bronze sounded similar to my old steel face putter. I have not noticed a real difference in audio cues for different ball types thus far.
 
Baron1 said:
The personal touch is great. Wonder as they scale up if they can continue doing that for everyone
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In my first fitting Blake did tell me they are working on a guide for self fitting to help people get dialed in and be able to refit themselves when they change things in their putting stroke. I had an ongoing wrist injury that caused me to at least temporarily has stopped me from putting cross handed. So if I go change back to cross handed it will change the way the face rotates during my putting stroke and might require some changes to my current settings.
 
leftybob said:
In my first fitting Blake did tell me they are working on a guide for self fitting to help people get dialed in and be able to refit themselves when they change things in their putting stroke. I had an ongoing wrist injury that caused me to at least temporarily has stopped me from putting cross handed. So if I go change back to cross handed it will change the way the face rotates during my putting stroke and might require some changes to my current settings.
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Hope your wrist is ok now. That's actually a great point for Astral... being able to change/adapt without having to purchase a new club
 
PiratePenguin said:
Derek for Derek Zoolander. Because it is made from... blue steel :p


Ben Stiller Magnum GIF
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I was going to say the same but because it's "really really ridiculously good looking"
 
Fun color putters are fun.
 
Baron1 said:
Hope your wrist is ok now. That's actually a great point for Astral... being able to change/adapt without having to purchase a new club
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The wrist is better now. I’ll try cross handed putting in a couple of weeks. Mechanics the putter is dialed so I don’t feel a huge need to change back. With past putters the cross handed grip slowed my face rotation and helped me start on shorter putts on my intended line. Longer putts I grip normally to get more flow in the stroke. There is potentially situation where having a little more toe hang might increase the flow on longer putts and offsetting that extra rotation on shorter putts with the cross handed grip.

One of the things with the fitting process and hitting balls through the gates is you will probably find a couple of settings that work on the short putts. You need to take those settings and see how they work on long lag putts. After my mallet fitting @BC.Astral and I had a putting contest on the putting course the club had on the practice green. We did 2 rounds 1 with each of the 2 best settings from the fitting. I won the 1st round. Lost the second round because my lag putting managed to get worse as the round went on. Part of the fitting process is finding the setting that works for all the parts of your putting.
 
@Muchmore hope this helps. This is some of the “A” positions. The “B” positions fall in between A.

A1

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A2

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A4

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A6

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A8

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A10

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I've been doing a lot of testing at home on the simulator and now I am looking forward to going to the course and do some comparative testing on the practice greens.
 
Received my 31" shaft (easy...putter shaft) and reconfigured everything for more testing and on course tomorrow. I like the shorter putter but reserve judgement as to optimal length. This shaft has a Sure Shot grip and I already miss the Winn NTP grip. The Winn is a size that fits my style better and is firmer to the touch. I went to the Blue hosel and it is not as appealing to the eye so I may change back to the red quickly. I do like the steel insert and it also feels good with good feedback. Audio cues are subdues which I prefer. At this point I think I am deciding between steel and copper on the insert. I will capture some vids on the insert sound for a second opinion, and add photos in my next post.
 
PiratePenguin said:
I later got an email from Blake with a detailed list of starting point and some nearby settings to try:
  • Putter was sent to you Red A1 (smallest hosel, red painted side up, sitting at 12 o’clock)
  • Try all 3 A1 settings
    • Start with Red A1, progress to White A1 (medium hosel, white painted side up, sitting at 12 o’clock), then to Blue A1 (largest hosel, blue painted side up, sitting at 12 o'clock)
  • Then experiment with offset to see how it affects performance
    • Move to Red B1 (smallest hosel, red painted side down, first click forward of the face)
    • Then try White B10 (medium hosel, white painted side down, first click back of the face)
  • If you find a setting you really like the looks of, try all 3 hosels in that setting to identify which performs best.
    • For example, if you like White B10, then explore Red B10 and Blue B10
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I followed the above instructions to test all the closest settings that might work for me based on the email.

Red A1 looked great but I kept pushing putts a bit
White A1 also looked great and seemed to take away the right miss almost immediately
Blue A1 was ok, but didn't feel quite as accurate as White A1 did

Adding some offset by flipping them and going 1 click of offset back was ok, but I just really don't like looking at much offset and I was having more misses with any of the hosels in B1, so I went back to White A1 (zero offset, lots of toe hang) and immediately felt like I was hitting my line again and finding the cup on my practice mat.

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So I'm going to leave it in White A1 for now and use that for some more practice the rest of this week and my round on Saturday. It's a course I am familiar with and have plenty of stats from with my old putter, and they keep the greens in nice shape so it should be a good indicator of how I feel rolling it on an actual course vs the 14 foot mat in my garage. We've all had the experience of liking a putter on the mat at the store only to stand over it on a course and dislike it / find it really doesn't fit you, I'm sure.

Rotating through all of those 6 settings took maybe 30 minutes - time for the changes and hitting putts. Swapping the hosel around is quite easy, especially after the first one. A couple of minutes tops, mostly from trying to be careful about the tiny screws, but the tool is magnetized so they stay on well - didn't drop one at all.
 
Did some indoor putting on my putting mat last night. Bouncing between the A3/B3 setting on the red hosel. Just looking for some consistency. Need to get out to the practice green and off the mat.

The more I put with this the more I like it. Ive said it before but I really like the brass insert and the weight of the putter is perfect. I really look forward to getting on the green and rolling puts with this putter.
 
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