ACalling

Another Update! Last week we had an anomaly in CT with 50 degree weather in December. It seems like my fellow tester and fellow New Englander @billpierce also took advantage of some strange (relatively) warm weather and hit the course. I am lucky to live within a few minutes drive to some courses and hopped out on my local executive this day since I wanted to play 18 but didn't have the most amount of time. This is a putter review anyways so getting on as many greens as possible was the key. I started out on the practice green for some drills and warm up before beginning my round. My biggest putting issue before this test and getting the fitting done was lag putting on longer (25+ft) putts. Too often I would have a 5+ footer remaining and that was adding strokes. Since I have been in my basement mostly for practice it was a hard thing to improve on until this day. I did a couple rounds at distances around 30 feet and 40 feet across the flattest part of the green I could find. The middle picture below is from 30 feet out, the furthest away was my first putt, but as you can see the rest were put well within tap-in range. From 40 feet the dispersion was of course larger, but 4 out of 7 at a makeable distance and the others just outside of a good lag distance. Out on the course though things went very well. Speed was great all day. Only had one second putt that was outside of 3 feet and ended up making that one. Zero 3-putts on the whole round and ended up with a total of 31 putts for the 18 holes. For reference this season I was averaging around 35-36 putts per round, with some lower to 31/32 or up at 37 or 38 depending on difficulty of course and my familiarity. But this round felt different where I was not faced with those 4 and 5 footers nearly as much. I enjoyed playing the short course as well since after not playing outside for a few weeks my irons still felt okay but my driver and 3 wood swings felt like garbage. Even in those rounds you can still end up having some fun, like this: Brutal. But then it can all come down to a par putt on #18 and... What a game...that one will get me back out again. Hoping for some warm weather again soon as I have been enjoying the process and the club a lot lately.

Update! Playing around with this putter so far has been a great experience for me. I have been able to use it for a few rounds on course, including 18 holes the day after it arrived. At first, the loss of a sight line took some adjustment, but that is also because my main focus was on speed. Something that was discussed during my fitting was how to use the technology in their putters to help me with longer putts and lagging to more makeable distances. Specifically, this is of course their Ultra Low Balance Point, as well as the forward weighted tungsten in the putter head. The ULBP is something that you can feel right away, from the very first stroke. I have felt some pretty heavy putter heads before, but this is a bit different thanks to the carbon fiber shaft and the extra-light grip. What it creates is an easy pendulum swing feel that allows you to deliver the club head square to your line each time. The Tungsten in the head is all towards the front, on either side of the face. What Aki told me during the fitting is that these pieces of dense metal on either side of the aluminum club head, which is much lighter, increases the size of the sweet spot. To test this I held the putter in my hand, face up and took a golf ball and would bounce it off the face, and from end to end it would give me that same, soft feel on the face, and would bounce off it to the same height. These reasons in particular are what is helping me with speed control the most, knowing that delivering the truest, most centered strike is not the most important thing allows me to focus more on speed and tempo, and the stability of the club allows me to keep the club on the right line. These photos are from that first day, had a few balls at 20 paces from the pin, the other two were just for distance reference. The second image is where they all ended up. It is a small sample size, but I think a good indication of how it helped me. More recently I have just been at my putting mat every day rolling beauties like these:

Unboxing: I had my fitting a couple weeks back, and this package arrived to NC where I was going to be spending the week and was very glad that it did arrive on time since I was about to get on to the course 5 times over those 7 days. As you can see in the video above, the packaging itself is very well done. The putter, headcover and the ball marker all very secured in the box and wrapped individually. It definitely gives the feeling of a premium product. So I ended up with "THE DRAC", their Series 02 fanged mallet putter (think Odyssey #7) style. I ended up with this design as a result of the fitting with Aki, it was between this and their other mallet, the 54 single stripe. We ended up choosing this because of two reasons, this has double the weight of tungsten in the front, 100g compared to 50g, and the Drac only has a sight dot and no sight line, instead using the face and the body of the mallet to help with alignment. Part of the instruction I was given during the fitting was to allow myself to putt "more athletically" and this is the tool to accomplish that. Using more feel and less aids, plus the stability from the added weight will give me the confidence I need to swing on line. Holding the putter after taking it out of the box at home I was immediately impressed. At least for me when getting something new there is always that anticipation, especially when its something of high value, the combination of excitement and nerves that builds in the days you wait for its arrival. The best that brands and products can do is to address those feelings right away, and so, taking the Drac out and putting it in my hands I had that anticipation fade away as that question was answered... "Oh yeah, this thing's nice" To wrap things up on just the packaging and the product upon receiving it: Bos ix very nice, everything arrived timely and no signs of damage from transit, seeing the logos and branding throughout adds a nice touch The materials used on the ball marker and the headcover are great, the headcover especially, the leather feels great to touch, the design of it looks cool and the red velvety interior just adds to the dracula theme of the club The material of the putter head and the paint on it is really striking, looks awesome. Holding it from the head you really notice how light the rest of it is, and holding from the grip you really feel all the weight down low. The carbon-fiber shaft is a first for me, but looks and feels great The grip is also really nice to the touch, soft and tacky and fits my hands really well. I will post again soon about my experience playing last week, and looks like I will have some warm enough days to go and get some practice time and drills in this week. Without spoiling too much too early....I like it!

The Fitting: I had my fitting done on Monday. Same as the rest of the group it was done virtually over Zoom, and held as a 1:1 session with Aki, their CTO and fitter. This was my first ever putter fitting, and have only been properly fitted for irons a couple of times so it was hard for me to have expectations going into it. I know the key to fittings is to remain open minded, and to trust that your fitter will get you into what is right for your game. I had looked through their models a few times to get familiar with their offerings and filled out a short Q&A and after that waited until I was on the call to figure the rest out. Over the almost 90 minute call, I probably spent less than 10 minutes hitting putts on my putting mat. Aki watched me from head on, as well as down the line and 5 putts from each angle. He liked the mechanics of my putting stroke and told me there wouldn’t need to be any changes there. So we spent the rest of it talking in detail about a couple general topics. We covered: my mentality in putting, their ULBP and other technology, and finally, their putter heads and model selection. Because he liked my stroke as it was, I was told I had good tempo, neutral acceleration, moderate arc, and good alignment, the issues we discussed were more mentality based. These questions ranged from broad (Are you more of a mechanical or feel based?) to quite specific (Why do you leave your right index finger straight along the grip?). I felt this part of the conversation was extraordinary. Aki truly wants to get to know you, and your game and make sure he has the full scope and not just some data point about how in-to-out your swing might be. The fact that this is included for free with any purchase goes above and beyond. We then spent the next bits of the conversation talking about their technology, the Ultra Low Balance Point, and the different metals used in each putter head and why. We also then took a look at a short list of what putters he felt would be a good match for me, and eventually selected the winner. This part was also fascinating to me, but I will be going further into details about this after I have had first hand experience with my new club. Overall, I thought that the experience was wonderful. Fittings to me are always fun because, unlike a lesson, you are learning more about your game how it currently is and understanding it. Having a professional set of eyes to watch you, give you pointers on what he sees and even just in talking out the answers to his questions I came out of the experience feeling very confident about the next time I will line up a putt on a course. The unboxing video and reveal of my putter will be coming soon!

Very excited to be a part of this testing process. No doubt that Sacks Parente has some great looking equipment, cant wait to see how it looks in-hand and even more importantly, how it can roll that rock! Hope to be very involved during the whole testing process, so questions and feedback is encouraged!

Intro: Hello everyone, very excited to be here and to have been selected for the testing group for Sacks Parente putters. About Me: My name is Austin, 29, currently located in Central Connecticut. I have been playing golf since I was a kid, but have truly become a better, more consistent player over the last 3 years. This year, I have probably played the most rounds of golf in a single season (not including 2020). I also have improved my handicap to the lowest in my life at a 6, but at the time of writing I am currently playing at an 8. I like to play at a lot of different courses, and enjoy bouncing around, as many of the courses around me provide different challenges. I tend to prefer courses with some space, as distance off the tee has always been an advantage for me.I have improved a lot on my approach from 120 and in, since I tend to have those distances into most greens. I then tend to struggle on the tighter courses that put a premium on accuracy, leaving me with longer approaches into greens, and therefore generally longer putts. Putting has always been a weaker side of my game, and even more so when I play courses with very quick greens with a lot of slope I tend to struggle more as I don't play those types of courses every day. As I have been improving though, I have had some good rounds, but also will have some days where I just, “don't have it”. The Test: First and foremost, I think the most important thing for my test and probably for anyone reading this review will be on course performance. I would like to get out to as many courses and play as many real rounds as possible. I live within a few minutes of some courses, and one that at least says open all year round which will be great to get putting green access when I dont have the time to get a full round of golf in. This will be huge on weekdays as the sun is only setting quicker now up here. I have a putting mat at home where I will be spending a lot of time, getting better feels for the new putter as well as some data around how they compare to my current equipment. I also hope to come up with some fun ideas to compare my current putter to the new Sacks Parente, as well as some videos that will show off what I like most about the SP tech. The Competition: Competitor #1 Mizuno-Bettinardi A02 circa 2007 Found this putter for a steal price earlier this year, had a family friend touch it up and give it the custom paint job you see here. This has been in my bag since I got it, really like the mallet shape, has the big alignment sight aid down the middle, and is a 100% aluminum milled block so I really like the soft feel, and feedback it gives you Competitor #2 Cleveland Frontline 8.0 This putter has helped a lot when I get speed issues, as the blade shape and weight tend to help me not hammer putts past the hole too much This putter also uses Tungsten weighting on the face, similar to Sacks Parente, so should give a good comparison to the technology at a much lower price point. The Star of the Show: The reason why we’re all here. The Sacks Parente putter. I am a bit of an equipment nerd, so this company has made it on my radar at least, I have seen a few of the models online before, but never in person, and never have hit one. I will be going through their virtual fitting process, so I am not sure exactly which model I will land on yet, but as I have done my research I think it will end up being one of the mallets. The Drac, for example, excites me as it is an aluminum milled mallet putter, with tungsten weights, a good combination of my two putters. The big tech point they make on their site is this "Ultra Low Balance" where the shaft and grip are as light as possible, and the tungsten in the putter head are low and forward which, to borrow from their website, has "patented physics create THE ONLY mallet putters in golf that naturally improve your stroke and tighten your putt dispersion. All Sacks Parente putting instruments have weight forward designs to deliver the right MOI and unmatched stability, to naturally optimize your stroke and give you the best ball roll in golf." A big claim, one I am looking forward to putting to the test In another video, from the Club Champion website, had one of their fitters talking about how these putters create more of a "pendulum" style swing, which I will hope to see if thats something that the technology inside creates, or more of a learning curve and a different swing style. To stay in my bag I want this new putter to give me confidence in speed on long putts, and alignment on short ones. If it can beat out my current equipment in those categories it should improve my scores and earn its spot. I look forward to updating you more as the process gets going. I should have some updates on the fitting process soon, and can detail what sort of things they ask, and how you can end up with a putter that you’ve not even seen in person before. After that I will probably post as much video as I can of unboxings, putting and posting pictures. If they can roll as nicely as they look in the pictures, this is going to be a fun process! First Impressions (19 out of 20) I have already touched a bit on my first impressions within my Unboxing post, but the experience from the packaging and initial impressions went as well as I could have imagined, and would say better than my expectations. Having never seen, let alone hit a Sacks Parente putter before, knowing the price of the build I was receiving, and putting myself into a customer’s perspective I can see where there would be some room for anxiousness but it was all relieved during the unboxing experience. The build of the club feels solid and looks clean. You can feel the weight distribution immediately, the grip feels premium, the outside headcover leather is soft and the inside is plush. The paint on the putter head is perfect, the red is super bright for the red dot alignment aid on top, and the bottom it just adds to the cool factor with the red fangs. The milling lines are just in the sweet spot of prominent enough to help as an alignment aid, yet subtle enough to not be a distraction. The box it arrived in, and the little additions like the ball marker and the certificate of authenticity card add to the premium feel of the club. After taking the time to get everything out of the box and get used to the feel of the weight at home, I knew that it was a well-built tool. The best compliment I can give it was that doing all of this just makes you want to head straight to the course and get some putts rolling. It does lose the single point due to the fit of the headcover not being perfect, it’s been a couple months now and it has not stretched out enough yet to the point where I would like it to be. Aesthetics (9 out of 10) The looks of the club overall meet a high standard. The fang shape (number seven) look to it is a familiar one and I would assume that would be true for any golfer. At address the black color stands out well against the green of the grass, and the red dot is very bright on top. The size of the face itself is perfect for me, not too big or too small. The black shaft and grip help the overall look of the club come together nicely. The red triangles of paint on the underside of the tines are a great detail added to the overall aesthetic and adds to the Dracula theme nicely. This is echoed on the headcover, with more of the red fang imagery on there. The dark theme does give it an “understated cool” look which I personally really like. The feel of the club is great, from the very first putt I hit you could tell that all the technology jargon that they throw at you is legit. It makes a nice, almost high-pitched “ping” sound with each putt as opposed to more of a “knocking” sound I would describe that most putters have. The sweet spot genuinely feels like the entire width of the face. I am pretty particular with the feeling I like on a putter face, and this is just right for me. Some putters, usually ones with face inserts feel a little too jumpy for me, like when I hit the putt I just can’t keep it from going too fast, too far. And others might not have enough of that, where if you mishit the ball comes out dead and offline. My one-point deduction in this category would be due to the badging, which is just a bit overdone in my opinion. The club head alone has 4 logos, either the name fully spelled out or the SPG logo, the shaft has the logo as well as the “Veni Vedi Vici” slogan and the grip has a big bold Sacks Parente down the front and the SP logo at the bottom. The headcover has 2 SPG’s as well as the written Sacks Parente and another “Veni Vedi Vici”. I give all this a little grace, considering that because all of the components are proprietary this would add more logos than say, a random Odyssey putter with a metal shaft and a Super Stroke grip. But since this company does not have the brand recognition as some of its competitors, I wish it gave more space to letting the look of the club itself shine a bit more. The Numbers: 10 out of 10 This is the section where results of accuracy/distance control/stability of stroke/forgiveness are placed, and I am giving the club a perfect score here, as it had met all of these requirements to my highest standards. Although, I would give myself a 2 out of 10 in my ability to document, and capture deep levels of statistics. I know that this forum loves its numbers, but it’s just not me!! And to a point, not how I would make a decision on whether or not to buy a club. The most important statistic I could give you is this: With the Drac, I had fewer putts per round than my old putter. Saving strokes is the name of the game! But I can break it down a bit further: · Accuracy- This club is very easy to set a start line and start the putt rolling down it. I would drill this on my putting mat, using the lines as a guide, starting at 4 feet and making my way back, how long can I roll putts on top of a single stripe. · Distance Control-You can see from my update posts that I was able to do some drilling on practice greens, specifically focusing on lag-putting from 20ft+. The key number I was looking for from this drill was that the average lag distance would be 10% or under of the original distance, and for that it was perfect. This probably is the biggest contributor to my strokes lowering, having makeable lag putts every time. · Stability of Stroke-This is another great feature of the Drac, and I would give a lot of credit to SPG for designing the club as it is. With all the weight so low, and also so forward towards the face, I feel as if I always can keep the club square. One of the things from the fitting that stuck with me was to lose my thoughts of going for the perfect straight-back-straight-through type of stroke. On longer putts its just natural to have an arc to your swing, and thanks to SPG I have achieved that. · Forgiveness-As I mentioned already, the sweet spot of this putter is just to hit it on the face. Seriously, just hit it anywhere and it’ll go right where you want it to with the same amount of speed. A simple way to test was to just to bounce a ball off the face going from heel to toe and watching it come up to the same height every time. · Playability- I messed around with this a little bit, but I just don’t use a putter when anywhere past the fringe. The weight of the clubhead is enough to get your ball up a hill through some fairway if you do prefer that option. All in all, this club hit my standards of start line, and lag distance from my drills on mat and on course. Compared to my old putter it performed better or equally in every head-to-head test. On-Course (20 out of 20) Okay, now this is where the juice is for me. I LOVED this club on-course right from the jump. I mean, my very first putt was a 10-footer for birdie, how does it get any better than that? It seems like a long time ago now because I got the most amount of play on course back in November, with a couple warm days in December as well. The biggest adjustment hurdle for me with this putter was that although the feeling of the weight is more exaggerated towards the bottom, that the putter itself isn’t necessarily heavy. In the beginning it felt like you were using a hammer-throw hammer as a putter, so a lot of my putts were short. After that it was all smooth sailing. It felt like I left 3-putts behind. I enjoyed adding pressure for myself by doing Head-to-Head competitions with my old putter, seeing if I can go a full round with no 3-putts etc. I like the putter, and I wanted it to be good, and that in and of itself is a type of pressure built in. Overall, it helped improve my putting simply by lowering scores, out of all the rounds I played I didn’t have a single one where I had more putts than my year-long average. The Good, The Bad, The In-Between: (20 out of 20) I have nothing major enough here to dock it any points, but just a good place for some general thoughts: · Good: I really like the matte black finish and the head shape is easy to look at · In-Between: Because the grips are part of the design of the weight distribution, there are limited options and I am unsure what to do when I would need a replacement. · Good: The fitting process being included. There is so much that I learned during that time, about the club itself, about my putting stroke, and mental tips for putting approach. Can’t put a dollar value on that. · In-Between: The tungsten weights on the toe and heel do not match the paint color of the rest of the club. Doesn’t bother me but I can see it being something that others might bump on. · Good: I like that they included a little shelf in between the two fangs. My last putter couldn’t scoop and it’s great to have that ability. Play it or Trade it? (20 out of 20) I’m keeping this thing going for 2024. As Austin Powers might put it, This sort of thing is my bag, baby. It checks all the boxes for me. It has the numbers to back it up as the better performing club, it has the looks and feel where I feel comfortable and confident with each stroke. If you are like me, and struggle with too many 3 putts when facing longer putts on the green then this could be the club for you. A large sweet spot combined with a stable stroke means I am getting the ball closer to the hole more often. I can’t wait for next season to begin! Conclusion: The quote that has stuck with me from the very beginning was said during my virtual fitting with Aki, he said, “You don’t come to us unless you have a problem that needs fixing”. That was when the light bulb went off for me. At the time, I had been a few weeks deep into checking my local golf stores and even Facebook Marketplace trying to snag some cool Scotty at a decent price when I got selected to do this testing. It provided me with an interesting thought experiment, “who would ever spend their money on something like this instead of a (Fill in the blank of well-known brand here)” And today, I can say with confidence that I feel like my issues have been better addressed and I am more confident in my putting than I would be had I had bought something else just for the brand name. I want to thank MyGolfSpy and Sacks Parente for this amazing opportunity, and for everyone that has followed this thread and read my review. I would love to answer more questions and share more stories as this may be the end of the review, but to me it’s just the beginning… Overall (98 out of 100)

I play a good amount on weekdays after work and getting 9 holes in. I use a Garmin S60 Watch for yardages but it also keeps my score and stats, and I was taught to always save every round to get the most accurate handicap, no leaving out a bad round to not hurt it. But I was just recently made aware that there are some out there that think having a bunch of 9-hole rounds can be frowned upon for accurate HCP results. What do you all think? Should it only be 18 holes being used to calculate Handicaps?

Got out for 18 yesterday and had a fantastic round. Shot a 77, which is tied for my lowest ever, and a +5 to par which is also a tie for my best ever. It was actually at the same course, the very last time I played 18 there. My games been in a good spot lately and I kind of have been avoiding this track again since last time because I didnt want to lose that memory of my last great round there. Mentally I was prepared to have an average day, but of course still wanting to go as low as possible. I'd say best part of the day was fighting through a bogey-bogey-double stretch on 6,7 & 8, my least favorite holes on the course, to get to #9 a par 3 and having a great up and down par after a not so great tee shot. Really turned the mental game around for me. Not so long ago good round only lasted until my first bad hole and I struggled to bounce back from that. Handicap now down to a flat 8.0, lowest its ever been. Unlike the last time I was in the single digits I feel like this time its sustainable! Gotta get out there again soon and launch em!

It was a rainy morning on Friday and just stayed overcast all day, called the course and they said it was completely empty. Place is less than 5 minutes away, a nice little executive Par 60 course. got in 18 holes walking in just over 2 hours and shot a +3 63. Honestly just does not get any better than that.

Absolutely this. Had this in one of my rounds last week, Downhill 20yd chip to an elevated green. Stuff nightmares are made of

Havent posted on this thread in a while, and its completely unrelated to those couple weeks where I was way out of form... But recent have been playing well again. Last Thursday was my last time out, played a 9 hole game with some buddies and shot a +5 41 on a tough course that I do not play often. Started off tough with a double on the first hole after hitting a pitching wedge 40 yards too long on my approach, I think a combo of a flier lie plus landing on a slope away from the green kicking it way down a hill. Bounced back with a birdie on the Par 5 second though. Played real solid the rest of the way through with a couple tough lip-out par putts but thats just how it goes sometimes.

Hey Spies, Checking in here after some time with the Ultimate grip. Have to say that I am really enjoying it so far! This is my second of the 3 Garsen grips that I am testing. For more on my Official Quad Tour review, please check it out here. I have placed the Ultimate on my Mizuno / Bettinardi A02 Mallet putter. I like the overall size of this grip a lot, its big without being too big. And the softness of the feel is great in your hands. There is a flat top-line as a part of the design, and it is meant to help with the versatility that this grip is being marketed with. In my experience so far I have not really felt the distinction between the round and flat parts of the grip with the club in my hand. Not nearly as much as the Quad Tour at least. There was some additional challenge in grading this grip vs the last one as I had to adjust to a new putter head as well. Planning on continuing with this one for a little while longer before moving on to the MAX grip.

Congrats to the winners!

Cut at +2 Highest round 81

Cut +4 Highest 88