Jim N

Probably in the $300-400 range. Think I spent about $260-270 on the last one I bought. One thing that is a little weird is I don't think a fitting would work at all for me, because any time I switch putters my setup and technique ends up totally changing. I seem to mold myself somewhat to the putter, taking a more upright to crouched stance, adjusting the loft of the putter face by changing the shaft tilt, etc. It usually takes a few weeks for this to happen. Sometimes I think anytime I switch it's the result of me finding something that works to correct some flaw in my putting technique, which over time creates new flaws. Indian, not the arrow.

On golf tips/swing training, Alex Elliott seems to work better for me than the others I've watched, who are mentioned starting with Mark Crossfield on the first page and go on from there. On the club testing front, James Robinson is pretty good and entertaining, and I like Gabe from Let's Play Through. He's a "mere mortal" kind of low to mid-handicap guy whose drives tend to top out around 250-260 at most, so a little lower swing speed, which is where I am. It matters a lot on club performance. The Second Swing guys do great reviews, but the swing speeds of their testers I can only dream about.

Bushnell V6 shift rangefinder (thank you, Costco, for the excellent price on this), and the free version of the Golf Pad app. I haven't gotten into tracking individual club usage on the app, but may in the future. Someone already posted screenshots of the Golf Pad app in use, and the data it provides at the end of a round, on page 1 of this thread. The yardages to front/middle/back tend to be pretty close to what the Bushnell tells me, but on doglegs it gives "as the bird flies" yardages, which isn't too useful when the inner half of the dogleg is OB with trees and buildings stopping you from trying to cut the corner.

Stand bag, also from Costco. I walk using a pushcart, and it's big enough to carry all the stuff I need, but won't fall over in the parking lot or garage when I'm not on the course. There is one executive course near a friend's house where you almost have to carry that I play once in a blue moon, too, and I'm too lazy to swap everything around if I'm going to visit him and play.

Mine's in

Victoria Park golf course in Carson, CA. You can't tell the fairways from ground under repair, as they are basically just hard-packed dirt and rocks. It was built on top of an old landfill, and they neglected to put any kind of sealer under anything but the greens, so all the grass gets killed by methane and other toxic stuff leaching to the surface. These guys arrive at the course at about the 7:30 mark: To be fair, the driving range is fine, as are the putting green and short game area. It's probably the only course in the greater Los Angeles area where you can easily walk on to play any day of the week.

Short shot over bunker into narrow green that slopes away from you into water, and an overhanging tree can limit how high you can loft your pitch depending on how far behind the bunker you are. There's a par 3 on a course I play occasionally where from the tee there is water short and to the right, bunker to the left, so the better miss is left, and you're then faced with that nasty look if you steer too far away from the water hazard. I've put at least one or two second shots into the drink there, whereupon you have to try to execute the same shot again. Stuff of nightmares.

Odyssey White Hot Versa Seven SL. What's kind of weird about me is that when I switch putters it seems like my putting style changes almost completely. With this one all of a sudden I have an upright stance and very much a pendulum stroke. Before that I was using a Kirkland with a lot of forward lean to the shaft and almost arm locked, kind of medium bend at the waist, and before that a ping anser with an extreme bend at the waist and sort of a rock the baby motion with my shoulders and arms. I'm getting more consistent distance and roll now, which means that I'm giving myself short misses a lot of the time, but I've also been missing more putts in the 4-6 foot range than before, which is in practice kind of negating the leaving it close advantage on longer putts.

I much prefer walking with a push cart, both to get exercise and because I find I have better rhythm that way. I can't really carry my bags for a round anymore as it wears me out too much and screws up my back. I hate having to grab a few clubs to deal with shots that have gone seriously astray, as invariably once I get to my ball I've found that I still don't have the right option. There are a couple of courses I play occasionally where I'll generally take a cart, simply because they are set up with a gap of a half mile or so between one green and the next tee box in at least one spot on the course. FYI, I'm an extremely active 65 year old, and would like to keep it that way.

Odyssey Versa 7 putter. That's the batwing one. Got it at the PGA superstore on $25 off sale, and got an additional $20 off coupon from one of the guys there. I've been a blade guy for decades, so we'll see how this works for me.

I think they were $159 online, $149 in store, but I honestly don't remember for sure. I've been playing v1 for around a year and a half. Agree with the post saying they are a tad head heavy, but they do spin up nicely and perform well overall. My main criticism of them is that the grips are a little thin by my standards. Pretty good wedges at an incredible price.

Bump and run, most likely with an 8i, after taking into account how much of a slope up there was and if there were landing spots I'd like to avoid because of bumps, bad ground, etc.

Until they either start getting holey, or more often when they get crusty or stiff. My hands don't sweat much, so I probably go through maybe 3-4 pairs a year playing once a week on average. I've been using Kirkland ones because 1) I'm cheap and 2) found they outperform the ones you find on the bargain racks at golf shops, and last longer

I put three cursive "j" (my initial" around the equator more or less aligned with the alignment stripe. One of them is usually visible no matter how the ball lies, so I can determine it's mine without moving it.

I'm a weirdo. It's my 9 iron. I'm so likely to pull it left that I tend to avoid it like the plague. Even if it's the obvious choice based on distance I usually flinch and try to either hit a full swing PW or 3/4 swing 8 instead. Yeah, I know, it's all in my head, and I recently hit one of the best shots of my life with it, but still. FWIW, I tend to use my 60 degree out of green side bunkers but almost never anywhere else, but that's still once or twice a round for me.

Extremely high handicap here, but yeah, I can feel a difference, and the closer the shot is to the hole the more pronounced it is. Of course, the variations in performance between balls are minuscule compared to the variations in results because of my swing inconsistencies, but there are definitely balls I prefer to putt, pitch or hit with a short iron. Most of that is more consistent distance control for me.

I like a simple line, mostly to make absolutely sure I've centered the ball on the face, but secondarily to make sure my putter face is aligned with a target spot a foot or two in front of the ball. I've even ground a faint line in an old Anser I used to use for this purpose. I don't like using an alignment stripe on the ball itself because then I end up focused too much on the mechanics of lining up the ball instead of focusing on making the putt itself. I get too fidgety if I'm doing the ball alignment thing.

Rope, wrapped in a spiral to make a thicker, heavier three foot or so length. It's reasonably heavy and flexible, so it works pretty well when swung to work on sequencing and to develop more speed.

Hate to say it, but priority mail is often slower than regular first class mail, and not just because of the postage due issues you encountered. That's been true for years. Add in when you're shipping odd shaped or large packages that postage isn't figured out just on the basis of weight, and it's not surprising that there are cost errors encountered. When it comes to packages it pays to use Fedex. Company I work for ships AV equipment around the country in large cases and boxes, and using the USPS would never be considered unless for some reason you want the delivery to be delayed. Even though you get amazon and other etail packages delivered by the post office, they only handle the last mile for the most part.

I have a putter with adjustable weights. Tried all the combinations and decided it worked best with the original setup. For me, changing the weights would mean having to practice a lot with the putter before playing to figure out how pacing and distance are affected, for days or a week or more, rather than simply using the practice green prior to a round and adjusting my touch. FWIW, I'm a fairly good putter in general who has almost always used blade style putters. I'm not comfortable using a putter that feels as heavy as most mallets, which might account for opting to adjust touch rather than equipment.

I have a CaddyTek 3-wheel Golf Cart with Swivel Front Wheel that you can order from Costco. Like it much better than the Clicgear 3 wheel model I was using previously, mainly because the Clicgear had a fixed front wheel, but also because the Clicgear was too low-slung, and the CaddyTek also has more features to it at about half the price. The only real drawback I see is that on a hilly course it tends to decide to move down slope on its own unless you fix the brake, which isn't super convenient to do. I've never used a 4-wheel, so no comment there, but having front wheel(s) that swivel is a big advantage.

Lol, not again! Worst thing for me is to try to diagnose what went wrong, which can quickly get me on track to snap hook or otherwise mishit for the remainder of the round. I'm better off if I just try to slow my swing down or quiet my movement. For me the big push-slice comes from trying too hard to load up and getting blocked, and if I try too hard to correct it I end up going over the top and snap hooking left from that.

I had a very similar dilemma when I started up again last spring after a 25-30 year hiatus. I was playing a set of original Armour 845s (3-PW), and picked up a set of Taylormade 4-PW Speedblades from a friend of a friend that are around 8 years old for under $300. The new clubs have stronger lofts, but are much more forgiving on off-center hits, longer and hold greens as well or better than the old ones. FYI, I'm 63, but still fairly strong and flexible due to doing a ton of yoga for the past 20+ years. When I hit the Armours just right the results feel more satisfying, but that doesn't happen all that often at my skill level. FWIW, both sets are steel shaft regulars, and the Taylormades are a little heavier swing weight. Having said all that, the difference isn't as extreme as when I changed out my first generation metalwood driver for a couple of years old Calloway epic flash. That added 50+ yards to my drives and keeps more of them in the fairway.

Experiment to find what works for you. I tend to have a fairly long stroke, maybe a little longer forward than back, with very steady hands. I only try to "pop" the ball if the putt is heading to the next county over, as I don't feel like I have enough touch to pull off a pop-type of approach on anything under maybe 30 feet. Another piece of advice I've heard: to some degree it's easier to be consistent if your putting stroke mimics your full swing tendencies. If you have a short backstroke with an iron, maybe do the same thing with a putter, and vice versa.

I walk unless the course says you can't. I switched from a carry bag to putting my bag on a cart this year, but that's mostly so I can shove a few beers in my bag and not suffer. I'm 63, but my main exercise is hiking, and I do around 40 miles of that a week outside of golf. As a result most gold courses qualify as an easy walk in the park, punctuated by brief moments of joy and frustration.