Bucky CC

Finished my review for the Edel Array F-2. How did it go? You'll have to read my main post to find out!

Another really cool opportunity. Wish I could do about 5 tests at the same time!

Mostly time spent with the putter. I'm still struggling with speed control a bit but there are zero issues getting the ball rolling on my intended line.

Another solid round from the Array F-2 over 9 holes last night. No three putts and I made two over 20 feet; a 30 footer for birdie and a 20 footer to save double bogey (don't ask).

Am I reading that correct that you finished your entire putting session in 57 seconds? Was that for one attempt at each station or the entire 27 putt session? Either way that's fast!

Possibly, but honestly I don't think they would change much with the Array F-2. I went through a SAM PuttLab fitting with my gamer at Club Champion a while ago. Shockingly they said it was a perfect fit for me and they wouldn't change anything. I tried to match the Array F-2 specs as close to that as possible. I switched back to my gamer last night for another comparison to the Array. I'm working on a few swing changes so my iron game and overall score were nothing to write home about. The putting was a different story. I ended up with 28 putts and gaining +2.4 strokes versus a scratch index. 8 one putts (mostly because I missed A LOT of greens in regulation), no three putts, and a 39 foot bomb to save par on the 17th hole. I really like the F-2, but it's going to have to step up it's game if it wants to knock my Odyssey out of the bag. It was this kind of day. Shanked an 8 iron off the tee (free drop from the cart path!). Hit a wedge on to the lower left side of the green. Made a 39' putt for par.

I mentioned a few pages ago that I couldn't find anything on the Edel website about their face milling technology or reason behind the specific pattern. There is a blurb about sound and feel, but nothing about speed of off-center strikes. I haven't really noticed a difference based on where I strike the ball so I suppose that's a good thing? "Machined to the tightest tolerances for exacting precision, the F-2 features a striking surface forged and machine milled from 1025 carbon steel which is known for its superior sound and softer feel."

Quick update on my plans for the rest of the week. Tonight my son has baseball practice so I have an hour to waste at the nearby golf course. Hoping to get a little range work in and then head to the practice green with my Array F-2. Rounds are scheduled for Thursday and Saturday this week weather permitting. I'll also try for another round of at home indoor testing at some point; though I've noticed my F-2 seems to perform a lot better outdoors on real greens where it really matters.

It's funny how awesome some of the Sand Valley logos are and yet their main one looks like some kind of cheesy open-heart necklace from the mall (do they still have mall jewelry stores?). Can't go wrong with Mammoth Dunes though. They picked a winner there. My favorite logo though is probably from Interlachen Country Club. It's pretty basic, but it reminds me of the few times I was lucky enough to play the course and see the spot where Bobby Jones skipped his niblick over a lily pad on his way to winning the 1930 US Open and the 3rd leg of his grand slam. They even have a small plaque in the fairway for the spot he hit from. During the second round of the 1930 U.S. Open at Interlachen Country Club outside Minneapolis, Bobby Jones attempted to reach the par-5 ninth hole in two. Just as he began his downswing, Jones saw out of the corner of his eye two young girls sprinting into the fairway. Jones flinched, and his ball, badly hit, seemed destined to go only halfway across a lake in front of him. The ball, however, struck a lily pad and bounded forward, free of the water and only 30 yards short of the green. This dose of Jones magic—and the fairly routine birdie that resulted—was consequential. He won that U.S. Open, his fourth, by two strokes over Macdonald Smith.

It's definitely a great looking putter. No complaints in that department. Loft should be the same. Here are the specs of my two putters: Haven't noticed any skidding issues from either putter. To me the face of the Array F-2 makes it feel like it has a deadening effect on the ball compared to the white hot OG insert. I don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing though. If you were playing on a lightning fast green it would be a huge benefit to make sure you don't blow every putt 15' past the hole (not that I've ever done that ).

I like the dual finish look. Having the wings of the F-2 a different color really draws your eyes toward the alignment plate in the center. Makes completely sense since they have so many different alignment options to fit most any golfer. Played in bright, sunny conditions yesterday and it looked great the entire round. I ran outside just now to take a pic under partly sunny skies. There's a small amount of glare but nothing that would be distracting at all.

Great question! Stats last night were in the same ballpark as my gamer putter. I'll have a detailed breakdown in another week or so after some additional testing when I start to write up my final review. One thing I know for certain; the Array F-2 is a beautiful putter.

Played another 18 with the Array F-2 today. Didn't convert any birdie putts on the day but I also only had 1 three putt (from a very tricky location). For the most part it was nice, boring two putt golf.

Going strong on year 2 with the Clicgear 4.0. This is really a high quality push cart.

That's how my Edel fitting went about 10 years ago as well. Technology was a lot less impressive back then though. My fitter used a dry erase marker on the top of a blank putter head to see which alignment worked best for me. Ever since then I've tried to find putters with dot alignments versus lines.

All of the above could be accurate. In my case it's due to the fact that I wasn't able to go through a fitting. Edel did not supply any Wisconsin retailers with the Array fitting kits until after all of the orders had to be placed. We were about 2 months behind the early fitting locations.

A weight change may help with distance control. It's probably asking too much, but it would be awesome if Edel would include one extra set of weights along with a 2nd alignment plate for those of us that like to tinker. Yes you can buy them directly from Edel, but $50 for a pair of weights ($175 for the entire weight set) and an extra $45 for a 2nd alignment plate is a bit steep.

It's been great for this round of testing, but I'm not sure it will really hold up over time or anywhere other than my perfectly smooth garage. It was definitely on the cheaper side of things coming in around $50 for the 6' by 21' roll.

Definitely missing more short with the F-2. Even on the putts that I have been making I've noticed that they are barely rolling. The white hot insert typically has the speed of a foot or two of rollout past the hole. Could just be that I'm not used to the different feel of the F-2 and things will get better with more usage.

Adding in the first Array impressions to my main post and also here to bump the thread. If anyone has any questions please fire away! The Fitting: Before I get into my scoring I want to put a huge disclaimer out there. I was not able to get fit for the Array before it had to be ordered for our testing. Edel rolled out the Array to all corporate owned Golftec’s along with select other fitting studios a few months ago. Unfortunately all of the Golftec’s in Wisconsin are franchise locations and did not receive their fitting kits before my order had to be placed. The Club Champions in Wisconsin also chose not to carry the Array line so I did not have an option to get fit. If you look at my previous history with putters you can see I’m pretty set on fang style mallet putters. I ended up matching the specs of my gamer as best as I could for this test: 35" length, face balanced, dot alignment, standard loft and lie. First Impressions (18 out of 20) Out of the box I was immediately impressed with the Array F-2 putter. Very clean lines, weight felt comfortable, and the headcover seemed to be well constructed rather than a throw-in afterthought. I ended up choosing the F-2 with three dot alignment as it most closely resembles my current Odyssey White Hot OG #7 putter. The styles are very similar, with the Odyssey coming in slightly larger while the Array is 10 grams heavier (563 vs 573 grams for the F-2). I'm not sure what alignment plate would have been picked for me through an actual fitting. While the dots are comfortable to me I wonder how things would have looked with the two line alignment or one of the other 5 options. Technology-wise Edel really focuses on the customization available through the fitting process. Their website mentions things like aim/path bias, face rotation, optimizing weight to control your speed, and stroke type being key to finding the perfect putter. Unfortunately most of those are dependent getting professionally fit for the club. The face has a special milling pattern, but Edel doesn’t seem to explain on their site what exactly the pattern does. I assume it helps with off center hits and is not just a fancy design for visual enjoyment. Overall this is hard for me to grade as most of Edel’s claims about the putter are about the customization available through the fitting, and I was not able to be fit. The putter is unquestionably well made and I have zero reservations about taking it out to the course. It's familiar yet different enough to be distinguishable from the other five million fang style mallets out there. Aesthetics (9 out of 10) I touched on the style a bit already, but if you’ve ever gamed a winged mallet putter you’ll have no problem feeling comfortable with the Array F-2. All of the graphics and paint fill are done extremely well with tight tolerances. You can tell just by looking at it that Edel makes a very high-end putter without being overly flashy about it. No one in my regular foursome noticed I had a new putter until a few holes into our first round. Once it was passed around they all remarked on how clean it looked and comfortable hitting a few practice putts. Feel of the F-2 is hard to explain. It’s a forged and machine milled face made out of 1025 carbon steel. The impact feels more harsh than the white hot insert on my Odyssey, but somehow it also comes off at a slower/softer speed. I found myself having to purposefully swing a bit harder with the F-2 to make sure I didn’t leave putts short. The white hot insert seems to bounce/spring off the face while the F-2 is more of a concentrated swing effort to get it rolling the correct speed. Big plus on the aethetic side is being able to pick up a ball with the back of the putter. It may seem like a small detail but I like that they made sure the wings can pick up the ball even with the alignment plate taking up so much space. The Numbers (7 out of 10) (indoors only so far) In preparation for this test I went to my local home improvement store and purchased a 6’ wide by 21’ long strip of thin carpet. A makeshift stimpmeter showed the mat rolls somewhere in the 10-11 range. I set up a 9 hole course with a putt locations every two feet all the way up to 18’. The Stack putting app helped me randomize the putt length and keep track of the head to head putter battle. After the first 144 shots my gamer is a clear winner over the F-2. As you can see from the table below I have no problem with straight putts less than 10’ but once you get past that mark I start having issues with the Array. I’ve taken the F-2 out on the course a few times and so far my on-course experience has mirrored my indoor testing. I have no doubt the putter has the potential to be great with a proper fitting, but will my off the rack specs show enough on the course to be able to knock the gamer out of my bag? More to come soon!

Played in a scramble today with my gamer. The one thing that I haven't fallen in love yet with the Array is distance control. The milled face doesn't not have the same soft and responsive feel as my White Hot insert, and I just felt much more comfortable on long lag putts using my gamer. Next round is schedule for Thursday but I hope to get a few indoor sessions in before then.

Was able to get 9 holes in tonight before the rain really picked up. Overall I'd say the F-2 performed pretty well. Here are my stats compared to other Arccos 4 handicaps. Ended up with 2 one putts, 6 two putts, and 1 three putt from 48 feet. Best putt of the round came on the last hole where I made a 25' uphill, left to right birdie. Worst putt(s) came from the 6-9' range where I was ice cold. 6-9' was also my worst range over the last 50 rounds. I think I get hung up on trying to play the perfect amount of break and have the putt die at the hole rather than add a little speed to take some break out of the equation.

Unfortunately not in the garage. There is a 1° slope that I could play with a little bit, but it's probably not enough to make a noticeable difference with anything.

Was able to set up my indoor putting studio tonight and give the new Array F-2 a thorough test. I mentioned this in a previous post a few pages back, but I bought a 6'x20' roll of carpet from my local home improvement store. It measures about a 10 or 11 on a makeshift stimpmeter. I set up a 9 hole game with putts starting at two feet going all the way up to 18 feet (even numbers only). I then randomized the distance through the Stack putting app. Here was my first attempt at the course with my new F-2. Pretty solid on shorter putts, but terrible from 10'+. Overall I ran through the course 7 times with each putter for a total of 144 putts hit. The gamer definitely has the advantage this early in the test. I struggled to make a smooth stroke with the Array on any type of distance putt. I have a tee time set for 3:15pm tomorrow to hopefully take things outdoors. Forecast calls for an 80% chance of rain though so we may have to head back to the garage for round 2 of indoor testing.

Since I couldn't go in for a fitting I picked it based on my current White Hot OG #7 putter. I've hit less than 100 putts with the Array, but so far I prefer the Odyssey alignment. I like having the dots closer to the face and not set back like the Array insert.