Sacks Parente Putters - 2023 Forum Review

[cnosil]

During my round a couple of days ago, the plastic covering over the "stickers" on the bottom of the putter started to peel away I pulled it off.   Did a little more inspection today and noticed one of the other coverings was coming loose so I pulled it off as well.  After the pictures, I inspected the third and it was firmly attached, but it was easily removed with little effort.  

I don't know if these coverings are supposed to be permanent or just protective coatings like over a TV screen.   I don't consider this a negative but wanted to do a complete report.  

In this photo you can see the one coming off (left), the one that was already off (Center) and the right which I later removed.

 

 

[rkj427]

Chris, @cnosil, I would also think that they may be a "protective film" covering what carbon fiber looking emblems or ornaments, and they may be considered an "added detail" to ensure that the putter any user receives looks the best it possibly can for as long as it can.

Possibly depending upon the shape of the sole of the various models, some may have them, and some may not.

[cnosil]

1 hour ago, rkj427 said:

Chris, @cnosil, I would also think that they may be a "protective film" covering what carbon fiber looking emblems or ornaments, and they may be considered an "added detail" to ensure that the putter any user receives looks the best it possibly can for as long as it can.

Possibly depending upon the shape of the sole of the various models, some may have them, and some may not.

Quite possible.  I took a little effort to get the last one off.    

[cnosil]

Weather was nice today so I went out to play a quick nine.   

As you can see above, today's 9 was with the MC3 putter.    Putted pretty well,   didn't make a lot of putts but my strokes gained showed that I lost less than 1 stroke to a PGA professional.  

 

[MuniGolfer]

9 hours ago, cnosil said:

During my round a couple of days ago, the plastic covering over the "stickers" on the bottom of the putter started to peel away I pulled it off.   Did a little more inspection today and noticed one of the other coverings was coming loose so I pulled it off as well.  After the pictures, I inspected the third and it was firmly attached, but it was easily removed with little effort.  

I don't know if these coverings are supposed to be permanent or just protective coatings like over a TV screen.   I don't consider this a negative but wanted to do a complete report.  

In this photo you can see the one coming off (left), the one that was already off (Center) and the right which I later removed.

 

 

I am honestly tempted on mine to see if the carbon fiber is real or just a sticker. Could you tell when that came off?

[cnosil]

7 minutes ago, MuniGolfer said:

I am honestly tempted on mine to see if the carbon fiber is real or just a sticker. Could you tell when that came off?

It is just a sticker.   @billpierce has the same putter and his doesn't have the stickers at all. 

[MuniGolfer]

1 hour ago, cnosil said:

It is just a sticker.   @billpierce has the same putter and his doesn't have the stickers at all. 

That makes sense. Thanks for confirming. 

[Josh Parker]

11 hours ago, cnosil said:

Weather was nice today so I went out to play a quick nine.   

As you can see above, today's 9 was with the MC3 putter.    Putted pretty well,   didn't make a lot of putts but my strokes gained showed that I lost less than 1 stroke to a PGA professional.  

 

I really like the shape of the MC3

[cnosil]

Today was the first time I got to play 18 with the Sacks Parente putter;   I chose the MC3.   The results below show that I did struggle quite a bit.   The greens on the course I played were much faster and more undulating than the course I had been playing on previously.  For example hole 7 was an 85 foot putt that had to go over a ridge and then ran downhill to the hole.   I didn't make the ridge and the ball rolled back and my second putt was 40 feet.   Third putt went over the hill and 10 feet past the hole.  

As I looked at back at the round, the putts tended to be long especially when I was going downhill.   Need to do a little more evaluation of start line since I was pretty much burning the edges on most every putt inside of 20 feet.  Need to determine if that is start line or aim.    The other thing to note is that the ball does tend to roll out farther than my other putters;  I am more consistent in getting the ball past the hole;  which may not be a good thing.  Ideally you want to center your dispersion short and long of the hole and not have all of them go past the hole since it results in second putts that extend beyond the 4 foot range.  

 

[revkev]

Data gathering today. These are 8 footers. My prior 50/50 distance was 6.5 feet. Thats been consistently true for me since I started tracking it.

8 feet is the tour 50/50 distance. My fitter, Aki, told me that I have a good enough stroke that I should be able to better that since I play most of my rounds at the same club and country clubs have good greens. 
 

I was 12/20 today… 

Edited December 28, 2023 by revkev

[Josh Parker]

9 minutes ago, revkev said:

Data gathering today. These are 8 footers. My prior 50/50 distance was 6.5 feet. Thats been consistently true for me since I started tracking it.

8 feet is the your 50/50 distance. My fitter, Ali, told me that I have a good enough stroke that I should be able to better that since I play most of my rounds at the same club and country clubs have good greens. 
 

I was 12/20 today… 

What are you finding your miss is? 

[revkev]

2 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

What are you finding your miss is? 

Great question, thanks.  It’s tempting to say my miss is an imperfection in the green.   

 

Actually there is a big change to my misses. They were consistently left, short left on long putts, long or short left on short ones. Now on the short ones it’s either way but I almost always hit the hole. I think it’s poor aim or read. 
 

I find this putter to be incredibly true, thus far. I’m comparing it to an Evenroll - that is a great putter. But this blade fits me far better than the hatchback that I had, prior. 
 

I also think there’s something to the low balance point. The putter absolutely inspires confidence. I’m playing on old school Bermuda on Thursday. That will be interesting. Let’s see how it goes, there aren’t many of those greens left. 

[Josh Parker]

18 minutes ago, revkev said:

Great question, thanks.  It’s tempting to say my miss is an imperfection in the green.   

 

Actually there is a big change to my misses. They were consistently left, short left on long putts, long or short left on short ones. Now on the short ones it’s either way but I almost always hit the hole. I think it’s poor aim or read. 
 

I find this putter to be incredibly true, thus far. I’m comparing it to an Evenroll - that is a great putter. But this blade fits me far better than the hatchback that I had, prior. 
 

I also think there’s something to the low balance point. The putter absolutely inspires confidence. I’m playing on old school Bermuda on Thursday. That will be interesting. Let’s see how it goes, there aren’t many of those greens left. 

It's a question I always really look at with a putter. Switching to a lab this past year or so and it rolls true. It's breaking the habit of sight line and trusting the putt.

It's good to hear that it sounds about the same. Pick a line and hit the putt. Second guess and it's a miss. 

 

[cnosil]

Another day on vacation so another 9 holes of golf.  The DRAC was in the bag today and did okay.  I struggled with my irons and ended up with some longish putts;  can't be me so I'll blame it on the constant sound of F22s flying around the course.  As I usually do, the strokes gained below are compared to a PGA pro.   

[cnosil]

Last round of the year; got 18 in with the DRAC.  Could have been better from a make standpoint, but distance control is pretty good with these putters. 

[JohnSmalls]

On 12/24/2023 at 5:25 PM, cnosil said:

Need to determine if that is start line or aim. 

This may be a dumb question, but it's for you @cnosil and for the rest of the testers:  what is your go to method to determine if your start line is off or inconsistent?

[cnosil]

42 minutes ago, JohnSmalls said:

This may be a dumb question, but it's for you @cnosil and for the rest of the testers:  what is your go to method to determine if your start line is off or inconsistent?

From a practice perspective, my go to way is gate drills.  I setup a gate with tees or objects and take strokes of different lengths and see if I can roll the ball between the gates.    If you miss,  you have to start doing some skill assessment and figure out if your body movements are off or if you aren't aiming the putter where you think you are.  The one thing I have found with the Sacks Parente is that I can often feel if I have left the face open or rotated it a little too much.   On an actual practice green,  I'll find the zero break line (straight putt) for a hole and try to make the putt.    to work on aim,  I set up something line perpendicular to the target line and practice setting up to the putt and making sure my face is square to that perpendicular line.  

During a round, It incorporates into my routine.  I pick a spot in front of the ball to roll the ball over and after the strike I assess if I rolled the ball over that spot/blade of grass.  I also assess the balls roll to see if it is rolling on the path I wanted it too.   It also comes down to mental focus,  how focused are you on your routine and setup: figure out the line, aim the putter, and make a stroke that sends the ball along the line your putter is aimed.  

[MuniGolfer]

Got another winter round in. Just like a week or so ago, the greens are bumpy and slow. However, the resounding theme I am noticing with the Sacks Parente is easy speed control. I generally struggle with slow greens, much more than fast, and lately speed has been a struggle period. Next round, if I get one in the review period, I want to take some pictures of my dispersion because every miss today was hole high. It all came down to the winter greens and bumps throwing things off line or miss reads. Some highlights were a 61 ft putt that finished right on the lip, a 16 foot par save, and a 50+ ft putt that finished exactly hole high, but 5 ft left after some strange bumps putting me on the wrong side of a ridge. I felt like I putted the best I have in a while, even if the stats don’t show it.
Right now, this putter has a really good shot to stay in the bag, at least into the summer. I want to try and still get some hard launch, roll, and delivery numbers just to see if they back up what I am experiencing. Hopefully during the review period.

[MuniGolfer]

On 12/31/2023 at 5:55 PM, JohnSmalls said:

This may be a dumb question, but it's for you @cnosil and for the rest of the testers:  what is your go to method to determine if your start line is off or inconsistent?

My process is pretty much the exact same as @cnosil. Granted, line seems to be less my problem. I struggle with speed, and I agree with what @cnosilsaid above, the ultra low balance point seems to help with that. I feel very confident with this putter.

Edited January 2 by MuniGolfer

[JohnSmalls]

On 12/31/2023 at 9:08 PM, cnosil said:

From a practice perspective, my go to way is gate drills.  I setup a gate with tees or objects and take strokes of different lengths and see if I can roll the ball between the gates.    If you miss,  you have to start doing some skill assessment and figure out if your body movements are off or if you aren't aiming the putter where you think you are.  The one thing I have found with the Sacks Parente is that I can often feel if I have left the face open or rotated it a little too much.   On an actual practice green,  I'll find the zero break line (straight putt) for a hole and try to make the putt.    to work on aim,  I set up something line perpendicular to the target line and practice setting up to the putt and making sure my face is square to that perpendicular line.  

During a round, It incorporates into my routine.  I pick a spot in front of the ball to roll the ball over and after the strike I assess if I rolled the ball over that spot/blade of grass.  I also assess the balls roll to see if it is rolling on the path I wanted it too.   It also comes down to mental focus,  how focused are you on your routine and setup: figure out the line, aim the putter, and make a stroke that sends the ball along the line your putter is aimed.  

Thank you!  I wish I would have asked this years ago!

[billpierce]

Yes, no stickers on my putter!

 

Sorry for delay - I was sick during the holidays - just getting back at it after being down for a week or so!

I started a write up that I hope to post in the next day or so.  Interesting that I was performing worse on 10 footers vs 15 footers

Edited January 5 by billpierce

[billpierce]

I too have started the gates drill based upon feedback and learning from this group!

Thanks ALL

[revkev]

On 12/31/2023 at 7:55 PM, JohnSmalls said:

This may be a dumb question, but it's for you @cnosil and for the rest of the testers:  what is your go to method to determine if your start line is off or inconsistent?

Not a dump question at all. I spot putt so it’s easy to determine if the ball has rolled through a point 6 inches in front of my ball or not. 
 

I find it very easy to roll the ball where I’m aiming at the proper speed with my putter. I was 24/40 from 8 feet today. Did have the first one left short out of 80 recorded putts though. I’m 47 for 80 this far. I’m also yet to 3 putt on the course and my greens are really tough, lots of multi tier attempts 

On 12/31/2023 at 7:55 PM, JohnSmalls said:

This may be a dumb question, but it's for you @cnosil and for the rest of the testers:  what is your go to method to determine if your start line is off or inconsistent?

 

[billpierce]

Update to my Update....

 

Sorry for the delayed results, I managed to get sick over the holidays and was not capable of writing and thinking coherently.  (Yes, it is worse when I am sick AND double yes, I usually write when I am healthy)

So managed to get some warm weather putting analysis in for the early part of holiday break (week before Christmas) and I took advantage again of tolerable weather.  No Charlie Brown this is not Florida! The cold and warm had the course and greens in tough shape but that it to be expected.

I decided to start off my testing with a bit of random chipping from various points around the green and attacking the flag from both above and below the hole.  I leveraged 5-10 ft off fringe on various parts of the rough or apron. My focus was to get the ball within 5 feet where possible and then putt in without three putting. My results were mixed but positive!  The funny part is the very firm ground actually helped my bounce and the chipping, but the rough greens had a negative impact....

Old putter I actually was well short from some of the 10-13 foot or so putts:

 

New SP Putter I was short as well but MUCH closer:

 

Truth be told, statistically, the results were very close from these random series of chip and putts with the only major difference being I put the Sachs Parente putts a bit closer to flag.

As you can see, my dogs Mactavish and Maise joined me out on the course - thanks to the lovely owner at Bucksport who allows them. We all need good partners out there on the course -- and these two have learned bad things happen when you interfere with your buddies putts. 

Moving on to the Star Drill ... again but with a twist!

 

I 'raised' the test difficulty a bit here.  Previously all my putts were between 3 and 10 feet.  I decided for this drill to do two things:

1. Add the gates at the start of the putt for the lag putt / drill.

2. Make the distances between 10 and 20 feet.

I also used a free app to track the putts so that I could focus on putting speed, pace, line and control.  I downloaded Spider Putt and just went to the drills section and started entering my data.  Some interesting results:

What is f

Some thoughts:

1. The gates drill improved my accuracy for the lag putting and longer distances

2. Not surprising my last round of putting was more accurate than my initial 45 balls by a large margin!

3. I was closer again with Sachs Parente putter as a whole, but by a very small margin (we are talking inches for the series I felt I was warmed up on)

4. Oddly, the shorter distances for the lag putting I did slightly worse on as a whole (across 150 putts).

5. These greens were VERY slow and registered icicles on the stimpmeter. Is that a reading?

6. I feel the Ultra Low Balance Point DOES help me with speed control.  I feel the Perimeter weighting and center shaft DOES help me square the face naturally.

7. What is going on in my mind as I become more familiar with this Sachs Parente Putter? First, I love the feel and even the sound. Hard to say this is a permanent keeper but from a looks and feel, I really like it and wish I was testing during summer conditions and real round based tests. Second, the data shows I have stopped my normal 'right' miss - and this is HUGE.  I think that has to do with smoother transition during the stroke and the more square face (but that is speculation).

8. The sporadic data and drop in accuracy for the 10 to 20 foot range -- surely stems from the longer putting distances; ok ok, reality tells me it is probably the guy behind the putter.  To be fair, my dogs were heckling me.

 

More to follow, but hopefully this helps you as you evaluate your own putting drills, fitting process, styles, and over-all design choices.  I welcome your questions/ feedback and recommendations for further drills. Thanks for the last set of tips on refinements (like the Gates) I think it really helped.  Thank you for reading and being a part of this awesome community!

 

Edited January 5 by billpierce
Images failed resubmitted

[cnosil]

Probably my last round before final reviews are posted.   The MC 3 stripe putter definitely wanted to make sure it made a good final impression before the review.  The below SG putting numbers are against a PGA pro.    

[revkev]

I love how my teammates have the data.

 

I have a 24 year old church member who says the following after a putt from the fringe on 7 - “I’m guessing your giving that putter a positive review, your speed has been perfect all day.” And then after an up and down on 8 and a lip out for birdie from 25 feet on nine, “you putted great today.”

 

I love this putter - it’s staying next to my 7 wood and 9 wood as fixtures in my bag.

[billpierce]

Looking at that data — 37 foot and 2 putt!  To me that’s exactly what the benefit is all ng rith less dispersion to avoid those three putts!!  My tracking software considers anything within a foot made. It actually helped me rethink what putting success is!

 

no 3 putts for me and I get 2-3 stokes gained just by stopping my own nonsense. 

[cnosil]

My final review of the Sacks Parente MC 3 Stripe and DRAC has been posted.     And if anyone has follow up questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

I enjoyed using these putters and thanks to Sacks Parente and the MGS Forum for allowing me to test and report on my experience.

https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/61616-sacks-parente-putters-2023-forum-review/?do=findComment&comment=976435

Edited January 12 by cnosil

[JohnSmalls]

52 minutes ago, cnosil said:

My final review of the Sacks Parente MC 3 Stripe and DRAC has been posted.     And if anyone has follow up questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

I enjoyed using these putters and thanks to Sacks Parente and the MGS Forum for allowing me to test and report on my experience.

https://forum.mygolfspy.com/topic/61616-sacks-parente-putters-2023-forum-review/?do=findComment&comment=976435

Top notch review @cnosil!  Loved seeing the numbers backing up your findings.  Will be great to see what makes the cut for your bag

[GolfSpy_BEN]

Excellent test and review @cnosil. It was a pleasure following along and reading your findings. Well done, Chris!