AndrewG
New member
The DART arrived yesterday, and I've just come back from a practice session at my club on very dry, half grass/half sand greens. So I thought I take a few minutes to offer my opinions on the putter, for what they're worth (probably not a lot!)...
My first thoughts on taking the nice mag-close headcover off was "Its not as large as I thought it would be". The head is reasonably compact, about the same as the Sabretooth I had last year, maybe slightly smaller. The alignment aid, the DART, looks great, and does indeed make it very easy to set up on line - TBH, I can't see how you couldn't set it up on line.
Overall though, its an odd sensation standing over it, but I expected that, and I'll stick with it, so that I become accustomed to it.
So, on to the important part, the roll. I tried first on my long stretch of putting matt I got with my Boomerang putting aid - its a 20ft length of 8" wide mat, equivalent to a green of about 10 or 11 on the stimp I believe. It took a few attempts to set up the club correctly - I was initially setting up so that the white insert was invisible, but that is effectively closing the face, and putting my hands even further forward than the backstryke shaft forces you to be. Once I'd relaxed, and let the putter sit naturally, I realised that the best rolls were when my eye picked up a sliver of the insert next to the ball. Its a good indicator, and should help me find a consistent setup on the course. The large head promotes a smooth takeaway and swing, which suits my SBST stroke.
On those rolls I set up correctly, and swung at a good pace, all I can say is "Wow"... The feel of setting the ball off with a proper solid roll is palpable. I used the ball marking to see if the ball was rolling true with no sidespin, and it was consistent, every time.
So - on to the putting green, it was tricky to test, as I mentioned, the greens were pretty poor, but the 4-6 footers were dropping with alarming regularity (this is the reason for the putter, I'm 3 putting at least 4 times a round, often more, and its killing my game). I think the only way I can describe it is that you're so confident with the alignment, that you'll confidently stroke the putt smoothly and firmly, as you just know it'll set off on line, and stay there! In then end I did a circuit of the putting green (6 holes, with spacing of 15-25ft) with 2 balls, and after a couple of tries, I did every ball in no more than 2 putts. This is the reason I bought it, and on first inspection, I'm pretty happy with the results. It took a few attempts because of both the poor greens bobbling the ball around all over the place, and the difference in speed that the ball was coming off the face, compared to my last putter. I will have to redial my putting weights, coming from a mid mallet solid head to a full mallet insert head.
I should be playing on Saturday, so I'll try and update the post on the weekend with some putting stats and performance on the proper greens... Can't wait.
My first thoughts on taking the nice mag-close headcover off was "Its not as large as I thought it would be". The head is reasonably compact, about the same as the Sabretooth I had last year, maybe slightly smaller. The alignment aid, the DART, looks great, and does indeed make it very easy to set up on line - TBH, I can't see how you couldn't set it up on line.
Overall though, its an odd sensation standing over it, but I expected that, and I'll stick with it, so that I become accustomed to it.
So, on to the important part, the roll. I tried first on my long stretch of putting matt I got with my Boomerang putting aid - its a 20ft length of 8" wide mat, equivalent to a green of about 10 or 11 on the stimp I believe. It took a few attempts to set up the club correctly - I was initially setting up so that the white insert was invisible, but that is effectively closing the face, and putting my hands even further forward than the backstryke shaft forces you to be. Once I'd relaxed, and let the putter sit naturally, I realised that the best rolls were when my eye picked up a sliver of the insert next to the ball. Its a good indicator, and should help me find a consistent setup on the course. The large head promotes a smooth takeaway and swing, which suits my SBST stroke.
On those rolls I set up correctly, and swung at a good pace, all I can say is "Wow"... The feel of setting the ball off with a proper solid roll is palpable. I used the ball marking to see if the ball was rolling true with no sidespin, and it was consistent, every time.
So - on to the putting green, it was tricky to test, as I mentioned, the greens were pretty poor, but the 4-6 footers were dropping with alarming regularity (this is the reason for the putter, I'm 3 putting at least 4 times a round, often more, and its killing my game). I think the only way I can describe it is that you're so confident with the alignment, that you'll confidently stroke the putt smoothly and firmly, as you just know it'll set off on line, and stay there! In then end I did a circuit of the putting green (6 holes, with spacing of 15-25ft) with 2 balls, and after a couple of tries, I did every ball in no more than 2 putts. This is the reason I bought it, and on first inspection, I'm pretty happy with the results. It took a few attempts because of both the poor greens bobbling the ball around all over the place, and the difference in speed that the ball was coming off the face, compared to my last putter. I will have to redial my putting weights, coming from a mid mallet solid head to a full mallet insert head.
I should be playing on Saturday, so I'll try and update the post on the weekend with some putting stats and performance on the proper greens... Can't wait.
