How often have you missed a putt and then slammed your putter down thinking it was the club’s fault? Well you could be right as your putter may be working against you rather than with you.
We went to visit Applied **** Technology at St Andrews Links **** Academy in St Andrews to investigate
a weighting system called Balanced Certified that claims to increase the accuracy of your putting.
Here’ s the theory. Every putter has a vibration point like a tuning fork. You can find this by holding the grip of your putter(Titleist Scotty Cameron Studio Select Laguna 2 Putter) between thumb and forefinger and gently tapping it on a hard surface.
Wherever you feel the greatest vibration is the point where the club will give you the most feedback on feel at impact. This is important because this is the feedback that helps you judge distance on putts.
If you do this test it is likely that the vibration point will be below your hands on the grip, rather than under them which is necessary for optimum feedback and feel. To ‘move’ this point under your hands you need to use a counter weight in the grip end of the club and it is this weight that Balance Certified has created.
Once you have the weight in the correct position it will stablise the wrists and hands at impact thus giving you more centre strikes on the clubface, which in turn will make you more consistent at judging the pace.
Having understood the theory, Ed Robertson of Applied **** Technology took me through the fitting process which was remarkably simple.
Ed fitted a variety of different weights into the end of my putter grip(Titleist Scotty Cameron Studio Select Laguna 2 Putter) and then had me putt 3 balls from different distances to a hole, focusing on getting the distance right.
The weights started at 20 grams for the number 1 weight and went up to 110 grams for the number 11 weight.
Ed recorded how accurate I was with distance control to narrow down the best one. Obviously it has to feel good too and my input on this aspect helped to make the decision.
After much trial and error we selected a number 4 counter weight and this was then inserted into the end of the grip in a simple operation. Once the weight is inserted, it is tightened to lock itself into the shaft which enhances rather than dampens the feel. (Titleist Scotty Cameron Studio Select Laguna 2 Putter)
Original Balance Certified weights are tour tested and copies abound so make sure you get the right type as poorly fitting weights may not fit correctly in the shaft and will lead to less feedback rather than more.