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Astral Putters Review

Meeting up with @BC.Astral in an hour and a half to do the mallet fitting.

If technology cooperates I’m going to try and record the whole thing and post it in its entirety instead of just clips.
 
Had a decent round today. Struggled a little on the front but had a much better back nine.

As for putter performance, I was really pleased. It took me a few holes to get the speed down but by whole 4 I was rolling the ball really well. One three putt on the round with a total of 33. Made a 23 foot putt for birdie and was one rotation short of another long birdie putt dropping. I’ve got another round Sunday. I will play around with the settings again tomorrow to see if there is any more improvement to be made. If not, I’ll go back to this current white A2 setting.

I use shot scope. I’m a 20 HC. I had just under one stroke gained putting compared to a 15 HC.
 
One more thing. There is something to say about knowing the putter is fit for your stroke. It adds some confidence to the putting game. No swing thoughts. Just putt the ball and trust the putter.
 
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Met up with @BC.Astral at his club this afternoon to do a 2nd fitting. This time for the mallet head. I did record the entire fitting so hopefully that has come out and I can get edited and uploaded to YouTube in the next few days.

One of the cool things about Astral is it is more than just a putter it’s a platform. You can change form factor, face or general setup in a few minutes. Want a softer or firmer feel a few screws and you can change out the face to get a different look or feel.

So far I haven’t changed anything about the blade putter so far. In today’s fitting we had the steel face in the mallet head and I think that face going into the blade this weekend. Steel is the lightest face material and because of that the insert is milled differently than the copper or brass. To get the weight the same the face and the edges are a bit thicker. Spoiler alert I really liked the feel of the steel face. One difference I noticed between the copper is the steel was when you got away from the center of the face. With the copper the sound difference on a miss hit is pretty dramatic. With the steel the sound was more consistent. You still know that you got away from the sweet spot but it’s a less dramatic change and I think the speed when you get back off center is a little more consistent than the copper. On the sweet spot the copper does feel amazing it also doesn’t hide the fact you miss hit the putt when you get away from the sweet spot.

To the mallet. Compared to the blade the larger footprint of the mallet changes the CG and how fast the face wants to rotate. Moving mass away from the face the head wants to rotate slower.

The component nature of astral design Blake took the blade head off and put the mallet head on. We started in the same setting as the blade. Red B2. This setting is similar to a plumber’s neck. It took a set of 5 balls to adjust to the different visuals of the bigger head. My aim was off. I was hitting the ball exactly where I was aiming. Unfortunately I was aimed directly at the left side of the putting gate.

Moving on we took some of the offset out and things straightened up.

We tried a setting with onset and it worked significantly better with the mallet head than the blade. Hitting it through the gate about a putter length away worked quite well.

Another setup was closer towards a zero torque feel and the short version was it wasn’t good. All of my putts with it hit the side of the gate.

After coming up with a couple of setting options to try I still had some time before I needed to get home to play chauffeur to my 8 year old. So we had a putting contest. I didn’t record the contest. The practice green at the club has a 9 hole putting course setup. We played it twice and I used each setup for 1 round. The first round I had the slight offset setup and won the contest. The 2nd round I had the on set setup and while it works well for shorter putts it was a bit of a disaster on lag putting. The farther into the round the worse my 1st putts became. It turned into a cycle of over correction both ways. The lesson here is you need a putter setup that works on both long lag putts and still make the high percentage short putts you need to make.

So I have the blade and mallet heads for testing. The settings are similar. The blade has more offset and toe hang. The mallet has a little less.
 
The mid mallet is calling my name.

I have zero need for a new putter and I am quite content with my current putter, but given there are about 5 others on my radar why not add this to the list?
 
golfs_happy said:
The mid mallet is calling my name.

I have zero need for a new putter and I am quite content with my current putter, but given there are about 5 others on my radar why not add this to the list?
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Astral really should be on a lot of people’s short list for putters. Being able to really get your setup dialed in to you and your needs is powerful.
 
leftybob said:
Astral really should be on a lot of people’s short list for putters. Being able to really get your setup dialed in to you and your needs is powerful.
Click to expand...
Honestly just the fact they have lefty options is a plus.
 
golfs_happy said:
Honestly just the fact they have lefty options is a plus.
Click to expand...
The lefty curse is seeing an amazing looking putter and then seeing it is right hand only. That’s one of the brilliant things about their design is the difference between the right and left hand versions is where the hole for the neck is milled. The heads are otherwise symmetrical.
 
I love the individual attention you guys are getting for fittings. Outstanding.
 
Second round with the Astral mid-mallet in the bag. I had big improvements in speed control compared to the first outing. I did not make any long putts but I’m getting the feel for this brass insert. Left most putts in the 2 foot range with a few around 3 feet.

I had a little trouble reading some of the greens today. Hit my line for the most part. But no plain bad putts. Getting a little more confident with this putter.

Going to run through the rest of the settings tonight and tomorrow to see how they impact results.
 
I mentioned Astral to my wife this afternoon after another bad putting round. She said, “I don’t know why you’re telling me. You know I’m just an enabler.” 😂

So…. 🧐
 
cringjr said:
Second round with the Astral mid-mallet in the bag. I had big improvements in speed control compared to the first outing. I did not make any long putts but I’m getting the feel for this brass insert. Left most putts in the 2 foot range with a few around 3 feet.

I had a little trouble reading some of the greens today. Hit my line for the most part. But no plain bad putts. Getting a little more confident with this putter.

Going to run through the rest of the settings tonight and tomorrow to see how they impact results.
Click to expand...
Lag putts are always the last thing to come when I switch putters. Sounds like you're trending in the right direction.

Does it seem like it gets the ball rolling well? Or do you notice any skidding?
 
gkeller813 said:
Lag putts are always the last thing to come when I switch putters. Sounds like you're trending in the right direction.

Does it seem like it gets the ball rolling well? Or do you notice any skidding?
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It comes off the putter really well no skipping that I can see. It gets rolling end over end really quick.
 
Tinkered around with more settings tonight. Went from face balanced to crazy toe hang to toe up and anything in between. I noticed the set up of the neck and hosel has a big part of how you align and stand over the ball. I also found myself trying to compensate my putting stroke based on the look of the putter. After several different settings I went back to the white neck and A2 instead of B2 ( the setting I played today). A little less offset in A2. I’m gonna try this one for a little bit. Once the putting gate gets here, I will go through the fitting again.

Being able to try all these settings out for a putter is an interesting process.
 
cringjr said:
I noticed the set up of the neck and hosel has a big part of how you align and stand over the ball. I also found myself trying to compensate my putting stroke based on the look of the putter.
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During the mallet fitting the hosel changing the optics was something I noticed a lot more than with the blade. I had a series of balls that hit the left post and Blake was watching from behind and said I hit all of them exactly where I was lined up.
 
I did it. Contact Us message sent through the Astral site with some questions to get this ball rolling!

Thats How We Roll Yolo GIF by Pudgy Penguins
 
Went to the putting green with MY base Astral setup. Zero offset white hosel down. It is a revelation. Much easier to see the line even when addressing the club. Putts are leaving and staying on intended line and I made 25 to 40% more long putts, even with focusing on just the initial line and a smooth stroke. The balance and feel is great, and the extra weight helps me get to the hole without the need for a ton of extra effort on the backswing. Therefore, I can stay balanced and long putts are even more consistent. I used the copper insert and will start to compare the steel and bronze in next sessions. The copper has a good feel and relatively quiet sound on contact, which I like. Everything about this putter, and particularly the setup I am at now, just feels right and performs. Any suggestions or additional input @BC.Astral and @Jman ? I might even be joining the internet golfers who are awesome putters @JB
 
gkeller813 said:
Lag putts are always the last thing to come when I switch putters. Sounds like you're trending in the right direction.

Does it seem like it gets the ball rolling well? Or do you notice any skidding?
Click to expand...
No skidding whatsoever tonight and that included putts up to 70' or so. No hopping or jumping either. Putting green is in good shape, but still smooth the entire way.
 
Spent some time working on my stroke on the putting mat tonight. Really enjoying the feel of the brass insert. It has a nice, higher pitched sound when hitting the center of the face.

I still have it set on white A2. I am seeing good results. With this setting and the 72 degree lie angle I set up much better over the ball.

The putting gate should be delivered tomorrow. I’m going to go back through the self fitting once it gets here.
 
gkeller813 said:
Lag putts are always the last thing to come when I switch putters. Sounds like you're trending in the right direction.

Does it seem like it gets the ball rolling well? Or do you notice any skidding?
Click to expand...

 
Of the two shaft options which might be closest to an All-In?
 
cmon man said:
Went to the putting green with MY base Astral setup. Zero offset white hosel down. It is a revelation. Much easier to see the line even when addressing the club. Putts are leaving and staying on intended line and I made 25 to 40% more long putts, even with focusing on just the initial line and a smooth stroke. The balance and feel is great, and the extra weight helps me get to the hole without the need for a ton of extra effort on the backswing. Therefore, I can stay balanced and long putts are even more consistent. I used the copper insert and will start to compare the steel and bronze in next sessions. The copper has a good feel and relatively quiet sound on contact, which I like. Everything about this putter, and particularly the setup I am at now, just feels right and performs. Any suggestions or additional input @BC.Astral and @Jman ? I might even be joining the internet golfers who are awesome putters @JB
Click to expand...
Nothing we haven’t discussed. Goal is to get you putting unconscious - I.e. no double think standing over the ball, walk up read the line and putt. It sounds like we are well on the way toward that goal!!!
 
PiratePenguin said:
Of the two shaft options which might be closest to an All-In?
Click to expand...
The One Step is for sure going to be the closest to the All-In. With that said our stock shaft - KBS CT Tour - is really good. A lot went into optimizing the feel of these clubs so I was huge stickler on making sure we picked a stock shaft that gave it justice. The step up from CT Tour to the One Step is incremental in my opinion. Having spent a lot of time with both, for the money, the CT Tour would be my choice. I play the One Step, and yes I can feel the difference, but it’s not hugely noticeable.
 
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