Few confessions before I get started:
1. This is my first post
2. I am one of the three founders of Carbon Putters
3. If I am promoting, I apologize - totally get it if this gets taken down.
4. Always respected the forums. There has been some nice things said about us - some not so nice things. Some of the fair, some of them I can't say are a reality. Does not happen much on this forum though.
5. Yes, manufacturers look at what golf equipment degenerates like you are saying about our brands. It can be painful and rewarding but I feel like staying on the sidelines and just observing may have been the right play in the past, but feel like I want to be available if anyone has questions or anything about the happenings at Carbon.
Alright, on to the fun stuff.
Last week, spent some time in Scottsdale with a 3-time tour winner who is looking at some new putter options and wanted to share the experience. Can't really say who it is, because quite honestly I am ignorant of what obligations he has to his manufacturer and I don't want to put him in a tough spot.
We went to TPC Scottsdale and if you have ever had the chance to play it, you might have noticed there is a back range and two putting surfaces, what I did not know is that there are different grasses on those two surfaces so the tour players can practice on both as the year transitions and they change surfaces. Pretty slick, both were really pure.
In prep, we put together 6 putters at his spec to test out, he plays them quite log so I brought out some more head shapes we have been working on but did not have time to lengthen the shafts or make any alterations to accommodate it. We had head weights ranging from 330 grams to 375 - honestly it was a bit of a shot in the dark because I did not have a ton of information on his current putter to try and replicate - we did a pretty good job finding a match to his current, but we cut it a half an inch too short - and that was a bit devastating because he holds it right at the top of the grip so it was a bit awkward for him to adjust.
He had only seen a few heads that we sent a couple of years back, they were all far to heavy for him to take seriously but it was good to get that feedback and honesty.
What I thought would be about 45 minutes turned into about 2 hours of putting. going through a bunch of heads and talking through what he liked and did not like. Along the way educating him how we do things slightly differently but we are passionate that it makes a big difference, especially to someone who is such an elite player. I honestly feel like at the start, it was a gratuitous meeting that he felt somewhat obligated to do, but when he started rolling them he was genuinely interested. Just when I thought we were about to wrap up, I showed him the Ringo Wide - a really heavy version of it that I did not think he would like because we just got done talking about how his ideal head weight was in the 330 - 345 range, plus this one was at normal playing length. But he liked the look, started rolling it and that's the one he asked us to go back to the shop with and make some iterations. 345. The main difference is the thickness of the top line but there are some subtle differences in the depth of milling in particular areas to dial in the weight exactly to those specs. Attached are the pictures of the final product. Wish us luck, this is our first chance at the big show.
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