Putter Fitting at Club Champion

[cbpicker]

I recently received my Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 putter after a fitting at Club Champion and wanted to share and see how it compares to others putter fittings. 

I’m a single digit handicap but my Arccos shows I was giving up 3.3 strokes a round compared to my 5 hdc goal strokes gained.  I bought the All Sport putting mat and Putt Out mirror and gate and found my path was consistently out to in.  After spending quite a bit trying different setups and grips styles ( sent from pencil grip back to conventional) I decided it was time to get fit to see if the putter type was the issue. 

I went to Club Champion as they have a large assortment of putter brands and styles and the technology to evaluate my issues. 

Once I signed up they had me fill out a pre-fit questionnaire online to help them understand my game and goals.  I set up the appointment online with the fitter I choose from reading reviews which was about 2 week wait in March.

When I arrived they had me use my putter on the SAM PuttLab.  On this day I had a slight arc and an open face.  Conner gave me a couple of putters at a time to try  and just asked me how they felt.  If I didn’t like them he put them aside.  If I liked them he kept them close.  We did this with maybe a dozen putters trying blades and mallets.  I quickly knew mallets were going to stay.  We then tried different toe hang and face balanced putters in several brands.  I also intermixed my putter into the mix.  We were able to quickly narrow it down to 2.  They weren’t amazing better than my gamer but they were consistently slightly better.  I ended up choosing the Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 with slight toe hang with narrow grip and 35 inch shaft.  The shaft is longer than I need and I was choking up but since I was putting well decided to leave everything as is.  Club Champion will adjust the shaft and grip later if I desire which I probably will.

It took about a month to get the club.  The first time I used it I was consistently short and no more accurate than my old gamer.  I went back to the mirror and gate and made some set up adjustments and started to see some improvement.  I’ve now had it for 2 months and have gone improved my putting strokes gained by just over 3 strokes in the past 15 rounds from my previous 15 rounds.  So either the putter or the combination of putter and practice are finally making a dent.  My putts within 10 feet have made the biggest improvement.  

I paid $125 for the fitting.  I didn’t have to buy the putter through them, there was no pressure of any kind.  I could have bought it cheaper through my golf club but thought being able to bring it back for adjustments from the person that fit me was worth the extra coin.  

Hope this helps if some one is looking at a similar decision and hope we all can shave another stroke off the handicap.

[Ground Hog]

My putting has been suffering too, and have been thinking about going to a putting lab.  I appreciate your review of the process at Club 
Champion.  We have a store in my town that I will check out.

I acquired a Scotty Cameron mallet two years ago.  At first I performed well with it, but lately it has let me down.  It is shorter than putters I have used in the past.  I thought it might let my arms extend more at address.  My miss is to the right.  I have used plumber's neck, double bend and center shafted putters in the past.  Always had the right miss.  My latest gamer is a blade (significantly toe down) that has the toe up slightly at address.  I have used left hand low for many years.  During this period of poor putting, I even went back to conventional at times.

Golf is a mystery at times.