Berg Ryman goes on a Putter Quest

[cnosil 16,651]

This is like watching TV when I was a kid. Episode cliffhanger and having to wait a week for the next episode. No bingeing shows. My prediction. Berg will wake up, look in the shower where he see’s his faithful Nickent Pipe and announce it was all a dream. (God please let someone be old enough to get that reference.)

Who shot BR?

[cnosil 16,651]

I’m getting hungry.

[Lacassem 10,104]

I just nuked my lunch.....I even did it later than usual.

[Berg Ryman 4,029]

I'm just finishing up the draft to paste in here guys. Warning... it is loooooong. Probably my magnum opus and you know how much I write in review threads.

[russtopherb 6,228]

Of course you're gonna post it while I'm out running errands, LOL! Can't wait to get back home to give it a read.

[juspoole 1,829]

The build up has been crazy.........you better start averaging 28 putts!

[Berg Ryman 4,029]

5 minutes ago, juspoole said:

The build up has been crazy.........you better start averaging 28 putts!

Seriously, this must be what George RR Martin feels like when people ask him when Winds of Winter is coming... at least mine will be out!

[B.Boston 10,326]

Seriously, this must be what George RR Martin feels like when people ask him when Winds of Winter is coming... at least mine will be out!

Dude. I saw you just posted and got so excited and found this.

Not cool man. Not cool!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Getoffmylawn 2,752]

21 hours ago, bens197 said:

Hahaha.  I'm excited to hear about your trip, including the burger

Ha!  The two foods I miss most from home..Tom Wahl's burgers and Nick Tahou's garbage plates.

[Berg Ryman 4,029]

A POST OF DESTINY... A POST OF LEGEND

 

So, before I get started diving in here I want to say something to all of you. I don’t have many friends around me in real life, most moved away after law school back to where they came from or have moved for other job opportunities. The outpouring of support in this thread has really picked up my spirits during this dark time in our history with the pandemic, the political strife, and the crappy winter months of Central New York. Just wanted to let you know that y'all are jam up folks in my book. If there’s ever an MGS get together anywhere and I can make it, I just shake all of your hands and say thanks.

I’m going to take you through this day in the life of Berg as I only I can. Very slowly and building in anticipation until a late release of information at the end. Sadly, I do not have all the slides from the fitting at my disposal, but I do remember some of the pertinent information at hand. By the end of this, hopefully you learn something or at least enjoy yourself.

First, let’s talk about the drive. Yes, the rest of the nation was under a deep freeze yesterday. My favorite descriptor was on Twitter that it was like putting a Hot Pocket in the microwave, warm on the edges, but frozen in the middle. Luckily for me, I was able to beat the weather, save for some flurries that dropped visibility, but clear roads the whole way. Also, NY has moved to cashless tolls, this was my first time on the Thruway since they did it, it was highly efficient.

So, I left my house around 10:15 for the 12:30 appointment. I got to Victor with plenty of time to spare so I took @bens197's advice and hit up Tom Wahl’s for an early lunch before the fitting. What a choice this was. The building it was located in was a quaint old school little strip store front with wooden signs for the locations. The place had a cool drive in vibes, very 50’s-60’s motif. I had myself a basic lunch, cheeseburger with tomato and ketchup, fries and the locally made root beer. Bruh, that root beer was exceptional, a solid cream aftertaste with a rich flavor. The burger was large, the roll fluffy and after eating it I wish I had got two. The fries were fries, nothing wrong with them, solid crinkle cut. In all, a high recommend!

This lunch was choice!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Berg, I’ve read 4 paragraphs, now starting on five and nothing about this has anything to do with a putter fitting or head shapes or stroke identification. Well, I bring up what happened before the fitting to bring forth one of my three learned thing about the fitting process. Make sure you’re comfortable before the fitting. Don’t bring stress into a fitting and make sure you’re on a full stomach. Don’t change anything about your usual day. Luckily a place like Club Champion has snacks and drinks for its customers if you go for the fitting, but some places don’t. So key number one for a good fitting, be comfortable and ready to go.

I pulled up to the store at 12:15, because CC recommended we get there 15 minutes early and I met my fitter, John Kagel. John used to work in the metropolitan area as a club builder and rep for Callaway Golf but even he wasn’t ready for the Pipe. He had never seen anything like it, said it looked like a cannon. He took it away for some static measurements before handing it back to me and this is where I knew I had picked the right guy.

You see, I had a fitting at Club Champion before with a guy who they brought up the road from the local Dick’s Sporting Goods when the store opened. His static measurements showed that I had a putter with a 72 degree lie angle and 2.5 degrees of loft. The testing at that time showed I needed to flatten the lie angle by a degree to 71 and deloft the club to 1 degree. Well, it turns out that dude didn’t know a wristlock from a wristwatch to steal a favorite Gorilla Monsoon phrase. John measured my club at 69 degree lie angle and 3.5 degrees of loft. This brings me to tip number two. Vet your fitter if at all possible. Knowing that John had experience in the field made me very confident in his measurements. If you have a guy you go to consistently, go to that guy. Please note, this is not a slam of big box fitters and employees. I was one of them, but I also knew my limitations in what I could and couldn’t do. If you are going to drop the coin to get fit, get a solid fitting experience from a solid fitter.

Ok, so onto the Pipe and how it performed. In all honesty, it was pretty solid. On the 7 putts I took with SAM puttlab, I made 6 of them from around 10-12 feet. The one thing that John and I both noticed was that they were going with pace, more of a hit than a stroke if you know what I’m talking about. We discussed feel and I told him the firmness of the insert was ok with a softer ball, but since I was transitioning to a firmer ball this season, likely Pro V1X, I didn’t want that hot launch off the face. The good news here is that my stroke on the whole is very consistent. Sam Puttlab scores on timing, tendency, and consistency. I scored in the low 90’s of timing and tendency, but because I was putting with a face balanced putter, my consistency score only went in with a 75.

Oh the face balanced thing, yeah, turns out exactly what I thought I was going in was what I was putter wise. The one surprise was that I wasn’t even a wide blade or blade style, I was a straight up mallet guy, but I needed some toe hang help, like 30-45% based on face rotation. My stroke was very straight back, but closing through the stroke so that toe hang was needed. Also worth noting, I was delivering the putter head 1.8 degrees up through the stroke, so we needed to flatten that lie angle to 68 degrees. The loft was solid at 3.5 so we worked on building around those specs. A length of 34.5 was determined to be the length needed.

Our spec slide

The next part was fitting the putter of my dreams. Luckily, as you can see below we had a wide variety to choose from.

A winner is hidden among these photos.

John asked me if there was anything I was heart set on or if I was totally brand agnostic. I’m a member of My Golf Spy, you know what I said. So we picked multiple shapes from multiple brands with multiple feels. Eight of them in total. Here’s a list of things that didn’t make the final head to head shootout and my thoughts on them.

Ping Tyne Heppler: A good baseline putter, but nothing really spectacular to me in feel or performance. It didn’t inspire the type of joy and excitement other brands did in me. Maybe that’s a me problem, but it is what it is. A solid choice for some, just not for me.

Toulon Las Vegas Slant: Fourth place finisher. That stroke lab feel is still so good, but the face was firmer than the inserts from the other Odyssey’s. The problem was that feel was very clicky on a Pro V1, and going with a firmer ball than that was going to push feel into unpleasant territory for me.

Taylormade FCG Plumber’s Neck: This was the putter we tried in place of the Triple Track Blade. My stroke had an tendency to over rotate the more blade weighted putters, and that was evident in the in the FCG. Also, head light so stroke pace was sped up in my feel.

Evnroll ER5: So the ER5 was the putter of choice for the Evnroll crew. It was ok for me, just fought it a touch since it was a bit below the toe hang suggestion. Solid speed control with the grooves like you would expect, but just a touch of inconsistency in the stroke due to that toe hang. Likely a 5^th place finisher if we were ranking.

LAB Golf: I asked the lab question of John and we tried it. He said it was too face balanced for my stroke and after trying it I agreed. A slight disappointment because it was one of the favorites in my mind going in but the numbers didn’t lie. Felt nice though off the face.

Scotty Cameron Phantom 5.5: 3^rd place finisher of the group. It was the 2019 version, maybe if it was that inverted material version I would have liked it more. As such it was solid, felt nice and gave a nice pop off the face. The problem was compared to what we ended with going head to head, it just didn’t have the same confidence as those shapes with what we had.

Now, you’ve seen 6 brands of putters, some of which you were probably expecting to see, some you probably thought may be one of the last two. Well, the time has come to reveal the putter that finished as runner up… and it was close between these top two. That putter is…

THE BETTINARDI QUEEN B 11

Above all the other putters, easily the best looking and best feeling of the bunch. That Rose Gold is a stunner in person and the classic mid mallet head shape inspired some confidence in me. I used a face balanced mid mallet before, the Taylormade M2 Nubbins, and it felt like home coming back to something similar. The face was butter and it felt great. So why is it the runner up? Well, it comes down to those tiny little variables. The head weight of this putter is 362 grams, it’s light and I felt sometimes, and it was visible to myself and John, that my backstroke path could deviate from the consistency, bringing it slightly wide and having to fight it on the way through. If I was choosing on all the visual cues for a putter, no doubt it would have been sweet lady Betty… but it was not to be.

Now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for, you’ve ready nearly 1750 words to get to the point, the putter that I will be gaming for the upcoming season and hopefully the foreseeable future is…

THE SIK FLO

Sometimes MGS gets it right with their Most Wanted Testing. The SIK Flo rated as the best putter for slight arc strokes in the 2020 mallet test and it was right there for me in this test. Is it as pretty as Bettinardi? No, and no one would ever claim it to be so. However, in person I will tell you the head is sneaky small compared to what you think it is and it has a very industrial look, which I kinda like. The feel is pretty solid, as you would expect from a one-piece milling, and the grooves do help that ball get rolling with decent speed. Now, let’s talk about the descending loft technology (DLT). I didn’t see any quantifiable in the testing for it, but I do think it can help. Also, alignment with the Flo was very easy for me, I was using more of the top line of the putter which has a nice thickness to it to show the face was sitting square. Lastly, and perhaps biggest for me was the weight. You see the lead tape on the Pipe, the Plumbers Neck SIK weighs 410 grams which really smoothed the backstroke out. No bringing it outside, no wiggle, just consistent stroke.

This brings me to my third and final fitting point. Don’t fight the numbers, within reason. Look, if something appears to be a total outlier to you on recommendation, maybe go for a second opinion if possible. I go back to that Stroke Lab fitting, I gave myself completely over to the fitter and trusted him when I knew something was slightly rotten in Denmark. I wish now I knew then what I knew now about my stroke and my gamer and knew that an Anser style blade built upright and delofted was always going to end in a disaster. But with John and these choices, things added up and I felt confident in the two options, hell, even the Cameron would have been a fine choice for me. Don’t go completely number happy, but don’t be blind to them either.

After we went through all the putters, we ordered the SIK at the following specs. Plumbers Neck hosel, 34 inch end of grip measurement, 68 degree lie angle, and 3.5 degrees of loft. Black alignment line on the back flange. I skipped on the customization of paint fill and what not for now, maybe a trip to Golf Garage in the future, but not for now. Also, standard size SIK grip, made by Iomic. I’ve been back and forth with John over the past few hours about the length build, but I wanted to keep it as close to what I was rolling at the store yesterday. It should be here in a few weeks once it goes through the CC build shop. I look forward to sharing the unboxing with you when it gets here and now that I’ve also got a Puttout on the way soon, it’s time to actually practice. Here’s to dropping that Arccos number this season!

Again, from the bottom of my soul and heart, a thank you to all of those who have commented and read this far. I hope I’ve given you what you wanted. As always I’m here for more questions and communication.

The pleasure was mine…

[GolfSpy MPR 10,508]

You mentioned ease of alignment with the Flo: did they do any measuring with your aim with various putters? That remains a topic of interest for me.

Also, and more trivially: the flat section at the back of the Flo is just perfect for welding on a pipe. If you need to, I mean

[00sportsman 2,376]

Great write-up, Berg.  Sounds like you had a fabulous experience and will be supremely confident standing over those putts.  I'm looking for the updates when the new stick comes in and you get a chance to roll it for real.

[Berg Ryman 4,029]

3 minutes ago, GolfSpy MPR said:

You mentioned ease of alignment with the Flo: did they do any measuring with your aim with various putters? That remains a topic of interest for me.

Also, and more trivially: the flat section at the back of the Flo is just perfect for welding on a pipe. If you need to, I mean

I mean... I know some welders.

To answer your other question, when they set up the SAM they have a block that comes out a set distance from the machine that the fitter sets the putter head square to and it takes the measurement at setup. On the Pipe it was open .4 to .8 in a range of 7 putts. We set it on the SIK and that went from neutral to .2 open on the 7 putts. We don't know what the consistency scores were because I had a total pull job on the last putter, but I know from the first 6 the putts were going in with a smoother pace.

So yeah, nothing like with a laser or the like, although if I feel the need I do have a pointer I can set up at home.

[Lacassem 10,104]

26 minutes ago, Berg Ryman said:

A POST OF DESTINY... A POST OF LEGEND

 

So, before I get started diving in here I want to say something to all of you. I don’t have many friends around me in real life, most moved away after law school back to where they came from or have moved for other job opportunities. The outpouring of support in this thread has really picked up my spirits during this dark time in our history with the pandemic, the political strife, and the crappy winter months of Central New York. Just wanted to let you know that y'all are jam up folks in my book. If there’s ever an MGS get together anywhere and I can make it, I just shake all of your hands and say thanks.

I’m going to take you through this day in the life of Berg as I only I can. Very slowly and building in anticipation until a late release of information at the end. Sadly, I do not have all the slides from the fitting at my disposal, but I do remember some of the pertinent information at hand. By the end of this, hopefully you learn something or at least enjoy yourself.

First, let’s talk about the drive. Yes, the rest of the nation was under a deep freeze yesterday. My favorite descriptor was on Twitter that it was like putting a Hot Pocket in the microwave, warm on the edges, but frozen in the middle. Luckily for me, I was able to beat the weather, save for some flurries that dropped visibility, but clear roads the whole way. Also, NY has moved to cashless tolls, this was my first time on the Thruway since they did it, it was highly efficient.

So, I left my house around 10:15 for the 12:30 appointment. I got to Victor with plenty of time to spare so I took @bens197's advice and hit up Tom Wahl’s for an early lunch before the fitting. What a choice this was. The building it was located in was a quaint old school little strip store front with wooden signs for the locations. The place had a cool drive in vibes, very 50’s-60’s motif. I had myself a basic lunch, cheeseburger with tomato and ketchup, fries and the locally made root beer. Bruh, that root beer was exceptional, a solid cream aftertaste with a rich flavor. The burger was large, the roll fluffy and after eating it I wish I had got two. The fries were fries, nothing wrong with them, solid crinkle cut. In all, a high recommend!

This lunch was choice!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Berg, I’ve read 4 paragraphs, now starting on five and nothing about this has anything to do with a putter fitting or head shapes or stroke identification. Well, I bring up what happened before the fitting to bring forth one of my three learned thing about the fitting process. Make sure you’re comfortable before the fitting. Don’t bring stress into a fitting and make sure you’re on a full stomach. Don’t change anything about your usual day. Luckily a place like Club Champion has snacks and drinks for its customers if you go for the fitting, but some places don’t. So key number one for a good fitting, be comfortable and ready to go.

I pulled up to the store at 12:15, because CC recommended we get there 15 minutes early and I met my fitter, John Kagel. John used to work in the metropolitan area as a club builder and rep for Callaway Golf but even he wasn’t ready for the Pipe. He had never seen anything like it, said it looked like a cannon. He took it away for some static measurements before handing it back to me and this is where I knew I had picked the right guy.

You see, I had a fitting at Club Champion before with a guy who they brought up the road from the local Dick’s Sporting Goods when the store opened. His static measurements showed that I had a putter with a 72 degree lie angle and 2.5 degrees of loft. The testing at that time showed I needed to flatten the lie angle by a degree to 71 and deloft the club to 1 degree. Well, it turns out that dude didn’t know a wristlock from a wristwatch to steal a favorite Gorilla Monsoon phrase. John measured my club at 69 degree lie angle and 3.5 degrees of loft. This brings me to tip number two. Vet your fitter if at all possible. Knowing that John had experience in the field made me very confident in his measurements. If you have a guy you go to consistently, go to that guy. Please note, this is not a slam of big box fitters and employees. I was one of them, but I also knew my limitations in what I could and couldn’t do. If you are going to drop the coin to get fit, get a solid fitting experience from a solid fitter.

Ok, so onto the Pipe and how it performed. In all honesty, it was pretty solid. On the 7 putts I took with SAM puttlab, I made 6 of them from around 10-12 feet. The one thing that John and I both noticed was that they were going with pace, more of a hit than a stroke if you know what I’m talking about. We discussed feel and I told him the firmness of the insert was ok with a softer ball, but since I was transitioning to a firmer ball this season, likely Pro V1X, I didn’t want that hot launch off the face. The good news here is that my stroke on the whole is very consistent. Sam Puttlab scores on timing, tendency, and consistency. I scored in the low 90’s of timing and tendency, but because I was putting with a face balanced putter, my consistency score only went in with a 75.

Oh the face balanced thing, yeah, turns out exactly what I thought I was going in was what I was putter wise. The one surprise was that I wasn’t even a wide blade or blade style, I was a straight up mallet guy, but I needed some toe hang help, like 30-45% based on face rotation. My stroke was very straight back, but closing through the stroke so that toe hang was needed. Also worth noting, I was delivering the putter head 1.8 degrees up through the stroke, so we needed to flatten that lie angle to 68 degrees. The loft was solid at 3.5 so we worked on building around those specs. A length of 34.5 was determined to be the length needed.

Our spec slide

The next part was fitting the putter of my dreams. Luckily, as you can see below we had a wide variety to choose from.

A winner is hidden among these photos.

John asked me if there was anything I was heart set on or if I was totally brand agnostic. I’m a member of My Golf Spy, you know what I said. So we picked multiple shapes from multiple brands with multiple feels. Eight of them in total. Here’s a list of things that didn’t make the final head to head shootout and my thoughts on them.

Ping Tyne Heppler: A good baseline putter, but nothing really spectacular to me in feel or performance. It didn’t inspire the type of joy and excitement other brands did in me. Maybe that’s a me problem, but it is what it is. A solid choice for some, just not for me.

Toulon Las Vegas Slant: Fourth place finisher. That stroke lab feel is still so good, but the face was firmer than the inserts from the other Odyssey’s. The problem was that feel was very clicky on a Pro V1, and going with a firmer ball than that was going to push feel into unpleasant territory for me.

Taylormade FCG Plumber’s Neck: This was the putter we tried in place of the Triple Track Blade. My stroke had an tendency to over rotate the more blade weighted putters, and that was evident in the in the FCG. Also, head light so stroke pace was sped up in my feel.

Evnroll ER5: So the ER5 was the putter of choice for the Evnroll crew. It was ok for me, just fought it a touch since it was a bit below the toe hang suggestion. Solid speed control with the grooves like you would expect, but just a touch of inconsistency in the stroke due to that toe hang. Likely a 5^th place finisher if we were ranking.

LAB Golf: I asked the lab question of John and we tried it. He said it was too face balanced for my stroke and after trying it I agreed. A slight disappointment because it was one of the favorites in my mind going in but the numbers didn’t lie. Felt nice though off the face.

Scotty Cameron Phantom 5.5: 3^rd place finisher of the group. It was the 2019 version, maybe if it was that inverted material version I would have liked it more. As such it was solid, felt nice and gave a nice pop off the face. The problem was compared to what we ended with going head to head, it just didn’t have the same confidence as those shapes with what we had.

Now, you’ve seen 6 brands of putters, some of which you were probably expecting to see, some you probably thought may be one of the last two. Well, the time has come to reveal the putter that finished as runner up… and it was close between these top two. That putter is…

THE BETTINARDI QUEEN B 11

Above all the other putters, easily the best looking and best feeling of the bunch. That Rose Gold is a stunner in person and the classic mid mallet head shape inspired some confidence in me. I used a face balanced mid mallet before, the Taylormade M2 Nubbins, and it felt like home coming back to something similar. The face was butter and it felt great. So why is it the runner up? Well, it comes down to those tiny little variables. The head weight of this putter is 362 grams, it’s light and I felt sometimes, and it was visible to myself and John, that my backstroke path could deviate from the consistency, bringing it slightly wide and having to fight it on the way through. If I was choosing on all the visual cues for a putter, no doubt it would have been sweet lady Betty… but it was not to be.

Now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for, you’ve ready nearly 1750 words to get to the point, the putter that I will be gaming for the upcoming season and hopefully the foreseeable future is…

THE SIK FLO

Sometimes MGS gets it right with their Most Wanted Testing. The SIK Flo rated as the best putter for slight arc strokes in the 2020 mallet test and it was right there for me in this test. Is it as pretty as Bettinardi? No, and no one would ever claim it to be so. However, in person I will tell you the head is sneaky small compared to what you think it is and it has a very industrial look, which I kinda like. The feel is pretty solid, as you would expect from a one-piece milling, and the grooves do help that ball get rolling with decent speed. Now, let’s talk about the descending loft technology (DLT). I didn’t see any quantifiable in the testing for it, but I do think it can help. Also, alignment with the Flo was very easy for me, I was using more of the top line of the putter which has a nice thickness to it to show the face was sitting square. Lastly, and perhaps biggest for me was the weight. You see the lead tape on the Pipe, the Plumbers Neck SIK weighs 410 grams which really smoothed the backstroke out. No bringing it outside, no wiggle, just consistent stroke.

This brings me to my third and final fitting point. Don’t fight the numbers, within reason. Look, if something appears to be a total outlier to you on recommendation, maybe go for a second opinion if possible. I go back to that Stroke Lab fitting, I gave myself completely over to the fitter and trusted him when I knew something was slightly rotten in Denmark. I wish now I knew then what I knew now about my stroke and my gamer and knew that an Anser style blade built upright and delofted was always going to end in a disaster. But with John and these choices, things added up and I felt confident in the two options, hell, even the Cameron would have been a fine choice for me. Don’t go completely number happy, but don’t be blind to them either.

After we went through all the putters, we ordered the SIK at the following specs. Plumbers Neck hosel, 34 inch end of grip measurement, 68 degree lie angle, and 3.5 degrees of loft. Black alignment line on the back flange. I skipped on the customization of paint fill and what not for now, maybe a trip to Golf Garage in the future, but not for now. Also, standard size SIK grip, made by Iomic. I’ve been back and forth with John over the past few hours about the length build, but I wanted to keep it as close to what I was rolling at the store yesterday. It should be here in a few weeks once it goes through the CC build shop. I look forward to sharing the unboxing with you when it gets here and now that I’ve also got a Puttout on the way soon, it’s time to actually practice. Here’s to dropping that Arccos number this season!

Again, from the bottom of my soul and heart, a thank you to all of those who have commented and read this far. I hope I’ve given you what you wanted. As always I’m here for more questions and communication.

The pleasure was mine…

We are all here for a reason, love of golf. I am glad this site for I am sure almost al of us adds a little more than just golf but a friendship whether any of us meet in person or not. This thread definitly had the anticipation value as I am sure all of us want to go so a putter fitting (me being 1 of those)! 

that queen B is wonderful from my little putts at PGASS (plastic wrap and all), but you cannot deny what works and base everything on looks.

hell of a write up and glad it what seemed like anyway was a fanstastic day from lunch to fitting and beating that storm out.

[jlukes 13,570]

Great stuff and definitely an interesting looking putter you ended up with.  But if it works better than anything else, you cannot really argue with it.

I hope the results on the course reflect what you saw in your fitting

[B.Boston 10,326]

Excellent post Berg! Looks like you put those putters through a gauntlet and found a worthy upgrade.

I’m already looking forward to the update when you pick her up.

I wish you great success in the course with it!

[juspoole 1,829]

Terrific write up and giving us an in depth look to your decision making and the numbers to back it up.  I look forward to hearing more about your experience and upcoming course records due to so many birdies made with this new putter!

One question:  I added the stability shaft to my putter last year and really love it thus far, was there any thought of trying that while there?

[cnosil 16,651]

Enjoyed reading the summary of your day and it sounds like you had a great fitting. The Flo is a great putter, I liked it during the testing last year and Phillip at headquarters has one in his bag.

[Berg Ryman 4,029]

9 minutes ago, juspoole said:

Terrific write up and giving us an in depth look to your decision making and the numbers to back it up.  I look forward to hearing more about your experience and upcoming course records due to so many birdies made with this new putter!

One question:  I added the stability shaft to my putter last year and really love it thus far, was there any thought of trying that while there?

Ah, shaft upgrades! I knew I was going to forget something in translation. I discussed the possibility of stability and they had it in a putter to try. The decision we came to was more on the balance of the putter and that I was rolling the SIK well without it. Could it have benefitted, maybe, but we didn't want to mess with the balance of the SIK as is.

[cnosil 16,651]

ITo answer your other question, when they set up the SAM they have a block that comes out a set distance from the machine that the fitter sets the putter head square to and it takes the measurement at setup. On the Pipe it was open .4 to .8 in a range of 7 putts. We set it on the SIK and that went from neutral to .2 open on the 7 putts. We don't know what the consistency scores were because I had a total pull job on the last putter, but I know from the first 6 the putts were going in with a smoother pace.

Based on your post and pictures, it looks like the Sam was set to just give the recommendation and summary information. There is a more detailed report that shows all the details on path, loft, tempo, rotation, impact, aim, etc for each putt. As you described, The machine is setup to measure square and then based on you setup it will tell you how well you aim. Sounds like you did pretty well with the Sik putter with only a .2* variation across your putts.

@golfspy_mpr; Edel is the only company I know of that focuses on aim. Based on what I have learned consistent aim is what you should strive for and not perfect aim. I think it is more important to understand face at impact as that is what primarily determines the balls direction. Tiger for example aims right at setup but gets the putter back to the right position at impact.