This is going to be a little long, but I have been searching and testing for a while. I started playing golf 3 years ago. While I have worked my way into the 90's and low 100's most rounds, my putting has been pretty abysmal. Over that 3 year period, I have had 7 putters. I have tinkered with face balanced, toe hang, armlock and even a GP Putter (Broomstick for face on putting). Last year I tried a Big 7 Stroke Lab Armlock, and while I liked it from inside 10 feet, I was terrible with it outside 10'. Zero Distance control. Anything longer than 20 was even worse because any speed I put on it would just pop the ball up and get it bouncing, which is never a good result. So I gave up that armlock and went and bought a Ping Fetch from 2021. The black one. I like the putter and the trick that it can pick the ball out of the cup. But I didn't like the grip. It was too small. So I changed it out for a Flat Cat solution large grip. That seemed to help somewhat with starting the ball on my intended line, but I still missed most putts at 5-6 feet.. Like almost all of them.
This year I started tracking my shots more, including my putts, and I found I was averaging about 39-40 putts a round with my worst at 42. Six weeks ago I had a round at 94, but i had 7 three putts. Without that bad of a putting performance, I might have broken 90. So as a tinkerer looking for a solution, I decided to try another armlock. I remember my distance control with the Big 7 was bad, but hell, it's bad with all putters. Anyway, remembering how I used to pop the ball up with the Big 7, I did some research and ended up buying a Cobra Agera armlock at 41 inches. The reason I chose this putter was the SIK face. The Big 7 was a flat 7 degrees everywhere, while the Cobra with SIK Face had 4 different lofts designed to keep you consistent no matter how you hit the ball on that face.. That putter came in 3 weeks ago. And while I liked the roll off the face (even though the sound is a bit ticky), it didn't sit right. I could not see my line. The stated lie angle was 72 degrees, and when I set up over the ball, It was just way too out in front of me. If I pulled it in closer, the heel would be way off the ground. I took it to a local pro shop and had the lie measured and it was 71.5 degrees. I worked with the fitter to bend it more upright until I had it where I was comfortably over the club head in my stance (76.5 degrees upright). And that was a night and day difference. I have exactly 1 round under my belt with it and I was on target and close. I had ONE three putt where I blew it by the hole about 10 feet on a downslope, but everything else was either in, or an easy tap in two putt. My round had 33 putts, and really could have been better as I burned the lip a couple times and a couple inches short a couple times. Looking at my stats on my roughly 40 other rounds this year, I never had less than 37 putts.
I don't know if this last round was an anomaly, or whether the armlock-SIK face-Upright lie is my sweet spot, but I am hoping it wasn't just dumb luck as I am playing a tournament this weekend.