RUNNER Golf Putters! 2024 Forum Review

[Bobbers]

The first of my final two rounds before I do my overall review.

Sunday, a round that allowed me to imagine what golf might have been like for Noah...

Two inches of downpour Saturday evening, Sunday dawned clear but, as usual for this time of year, in the 40's and breezy.

Greens were slow as in molasses in January.  Which required a longer takeaway while putting.

Harder to do with my Runner as it already favors a longer backstroke.  Had to concentrate, really concentrate not to start trying to "whack" the ball on the green.

Long story short, another round of 16 putts on the front and 16 on the back.  No three putts...yay!  But a lot of work to get  around the greens nonetheless.

To summarize  the putting round, "consistent but there's still something..."

[Bobbers]

Ok, final round with the Runner before my overall report.

Yesterday, the opposite of Sunday.  Sunny, temps in the upper 50's to low 60's.  Still a bit breezy but only 10-15 mph instead of the 20+ mph on Sunday.  Different course with greens possessing a LOT more slope and contour than Sunday.

Sort of stuck in a rut (not complaining, mind you, just trying to characterize the overall performance/impressions of this putter).

Yup, you guessed it, 17 putts on the front and 16 putts on the back for 33 total.  Greens were slow, pretty typical for this time of year in southeastern Wisconsin, which once again required a lot more concentration to achieve any degree of success.

Ok, time to summarize, see you on the first page of the thread in a bit.  Thanks to those of you who've followed our testing and review, I know I appreciate knowing the work that goes into this is of value to the membership.

[HikingMike]

21 hours ago, bama no 1 said:

You testers are gonna make be buy one of these things with all the great putting going on.

Yeah no kidding. That's basically what I was thinking looking at their putting. 

Testers - 

I've been hearing that the alignment aid, which is 3d, is very prominent and might be helping. Do you know if any of you have had putting alignment issues in the past, and how much do you think this is helping your putting? This may be impossible to know without having some kind of fancy putting analysis. But what's your best impression there?

[Bobbers]

27 minutes ago, HikingMike said:

Yeah no kidding. That's basically what I was thinking looking at their putting. 

Testers - 

I've been hearing that the alignment aid, which is 3d, is very prominent and might be helping. Do you know if any of you have had putting alignment issues in the past, and how much do you think this is helping your putting? This may be impossible to know without having some kind of fancy putting analysis. But what's your best impression there?

I've actually had a fitting for an Edel EAS putter, the generation prior to this years modular offering.

What I found was that, and I'll try to be as clear as possible here, was that moving the alignment "line" from the front/topline of the putter to more "back" or away from the absolute face, straightened out my alignment pretty significantly.

I apologize for not being able to describe the vision elements/processing that was rectified by moving the alignment line, all I know it that it worked.

Fast forward to the Runner alignment aid.  It's 3D, it sits "up" on the frontline of the putter and, for me at least, it worked well.  Might be the three dimensional versus the two dimensional aspect of a paint fill line, again I have no idea.  But my historical miss wasn't an issue with the Runner. 

Hope that helps rather than adds to any confusion.

[Northern Monkey]

I managed to get to the golf club today and tried out the different weight positions on the Runner. The claim from Runner is that the weights can help adjust for misses to either side depending on where you position them 

In order to test this I hit 5 balls from 6 feet. I chose this distance and it wasn’t too close to the hole but far enough, hopefully, to give an indication of the line of the ball. I aimed at the centre of the hole each time and tried to maintain a straight through stroke. 
First I tried the weights with how I have them set up at the moment, which is the pro setting, with both weights right in the middle

Missed one out of the 5 which I didn’t think was too bad. 
Next I tried the weights at the extreme ends which is a larger sweet spot

This time I sank all 5 and found it very good like this so will be using this setting from now on for myself

I then tried for those with a tendency for left misses due to their stroke, with the weights both at the heel end. The idea being that the weights will counteract the miss and put the ball back on line

 

 

Next was with the weights both at the toe, for misses to the right

Sure enough the weights seem to do what they’re supposed to and when set up for left misses the ball was going right and vice versa. 

It certainly seems that the weights do what they claim 

 

Edited May 7 by Northern Monkey

[Northern Monkey]

2 hours ago, HikingMike said:

Yeah no kidding. That's basically what I was thinking looking at their putting. 

Testers - 

I've been hearing that the alignment aid, which is 3d, is very prominent and might be helping. Do you know if any of you have had putting alignment issues in the past, and how much do you think this is helping your putting? This may be impossible to know without having some kind of fancy putting analysis. But what's your best impression there?

I’ve found the 3D alignment to be a big help, especially with shorter putts as it makes it much easier to line up your putt. I previously had a tendency to miss left, I don’t know for definite if this was an alignment or a stroke issue, but with the Runner this seems to have gone. I have been using the weights in the central position so that would suggest it wasn’t a stroke issue

[HikingMike]

42 minutes ago, Northern Monkey said:

I managed to get to the golf club today and tried out the different weight positions on the Runner. The claim from Runner is that the weights can help adjust for misses to either side depending on where you position them 

In order to test this I hit 5 balls from 6 feet. I chose this distance and it wasn’t too close to the hole but far enough, hopefully, to give an indication of the line of the ball. I aimed at the centre of the hole each time and tried to maintain a straight through stroke. 
First I tried the weights with how I have them set up at the moment, which is the pro setting, with both weights right in the middle

Missed one out of the 5 which I didn’t think was too bad. 
Next I tried the weights at the extreme ends which is a larger sweet spot

This time I sank all 5 and found it very good like this so will be using this setting from now on for myself

I then tried for those with a tendency for left misses due to their stroke, with the weights both at the heel end. The idea being that the weights will counteract the miss and put the ball back on line

 

Next was with the weights both at the toe, for misses 

to the right

Sure enough the weights seem to do what they’re supposed to and when set up for left misses the ball was going right and vice versa. 
It certainly seems that the weights do what they claim 

 

Great videos! You're really turning your putter over there after you hit it. 

I think you were robbed on the one miss with the center weights position It actually looked like it started left of the others but then jumped right closer to the hole.

[Northern Monkey]

21 minutes ago, HikingMike said:

Great videos! You're really turning your putter over there after you hit it. 

I think you were robbed on the one miss with the center weights position It actually looked like it started left of the others but then jumped right closer to the hole.

Thanks, it was close with the missed one

I try to keep the face square and my line straight through impact but I’m aware that I can tend to turn it over after that.
It may look worse than it actually is as well as I didn’t have the camera directly behind me on a straight line to the hole. It was slightly off to the right which may have created a little visual distortion. 
 

[HikingMike]

22 minutes ago, Northern Monkey said:

Thanks, it was close with the missed one

I try to keep the face square and my line straight through impact but I’m aware that I can tend to turn it over after that.
It may look worse than it actually is as well as I didn’t have the camera directly behind me on a straight line to the hole. It was slightly off to the right which may have created a little visual distortion. 
 

Yes, I wonder what mine would look like. I’ll have to try it sometime. And everybody is different. That’s what makes it interesting. 

[Northern Monkey]

It is a bit weird seeing your putting stroke like that as I never thought I turned over as much as I did after impact. 
I bought a tripod holder for my phone when I was selected for the test as thought it would come in handy. It was only £9, which is about $11.50, and has a remote shutter activation too

Edited May 7 by Northern Monkey

[Shapotomous]

2 hours ago, Northern Monkey said:

It is a bit weird seeing your putting stroke like that as I never thought I turned over as much as I did after impact. 
I bought a tripod holder for my phone when I was selected for the test as thought it would come in handy. It was only £9, which is about $11.50, and has a remote shutter activation too

I was selected to test a putter a few years ago.  Videoing for the test really was a great tool to make a few setup and stroke adjustments i wouldnt have done otherwise.  My putting definitely improved and it was a combination of the putter and adjustments i made along with the extra practice the test data collection caused.

Edited May 8 by Shapotomous

[SDunne]

3 hours ago, Northern Monkey said:

I managed to get to the golf club today and tried out the different weight positions on the Runner. The claim from Runner is that the weights can help adjust for misses to either side depending on where you position them 

In order to test this I hit 5 balls from 6 feet. I chose this distance and it wasn’t too close to the hole but far enough, hopefully, to give an indication of the line of the ball. I aimed at the centre of the hole each time and tried to maintain a straight through stroke. 
First I tried the weights with how I have them set up at the moment, which is the pro setting, with both weights right in the middle

Missed one out of the 5 which I didn’t think was too bad. 
Next I tried the weights at the extreme ends which is a larger sweet spot

This time I sank all 5 and found it very good like this so will be using this setting from now on for myself

I then tried for those with a tendency for left misses due to their stroke, with the weights both at the heel end. The idea being that the weights will counteract the miss and put the ball back on line

 

 

Next was with the weights both at the toe, for misses to the right

Sure enough the weights seem to do what they’re supposed to and when set up for left misses the ball was going right and vice versa. 

It certainly seems that the weights do what they claim 

 

Love this - great insight behind it all. As mentioned I quite liked having mine at the ends and practiced a bit with them fully in and have gone for a half way set-up for now. Seems to be working. I've got time at a Puttview session tonight so looking forward to doing some videoing there as definitely find that it gives a good insight to how the putter is for us.

[SDunne]

6 hours ago, HikingMike said:

Yeah no kidding. That's basically what I was thinking looking at their putting. 

Testers - 

I've been hearing that the alignment aid, which is 3d, is very prominent and might be helping. Do you know if any of you have had putting alignment issues in the past, and how much do you think this is helping your putting? This may be impossible to know without having some kind of fancy putting analysis. But what's your best impression there?

I loved reading about what the Edel fitting process went through especially on their alignment and aim. It's certainly an interesting one as haven't gone through something like that and can see how much it could help. I've taken a few photos comparing old putter vs Runner which gives some insight I think as to why I've been a big fan of the alignment aid:

For me, being able to have the aid stick up a bit more makes it easier to line the two parts up and be confident behind the ball and looking down. 

It also shows how big the putter is which I've now got used to but sitting it next to my 2 ball definitely helped show how big the face and whole body are compared.

[Rob Person]

7 hours ago, Northern Monkey said:

I managed to get to the golf club today and tried out the different weight positions on the Runner. The claim from Runner is that the weights can help adjust for misses to either side depending on where you position them 

In order to test this I hit 5 balls from 6 feet. I chose this distance and it wasn’t too close to the hole but far enough, hopefully, to give an indication of the line of the ball. I aimed at the centre of the hole each time and tried to maintain a straight through stroke. 
First I tried the weights with how I have them set up at the moment, which is the pro setting, with both weights right in the middle

Missed one out of the 5 which I didn’t think was too bad. 
Next I tried the weights at the extreme ends which is a larger sweet spot

This time I sank all 5 and found it very good like this so will be using this setting from now on for myself

I then tried for those with a tendency for left misses due to their stroke, with the weights both at the heel end. The idea being that the weights will counteract the miss and put the ball back on line

 

 

Next was with the weights both at the toe, for misses to the right

Sure enough the weights seem to do what they’re supposed to and when set up for left misses the ball was going right and vice versa. 

It certainly seems that the weights do what they claim 

 

Great job on exercising the weights in different locations!

2 hours ago, SDunne said:

I loved reading about what the Edel fitting process went through especially on their alignment and aim. It's certainly an interesting one as haven't gone through something like that and can see how much it could help. I've taken a few photos comparing old putter vs Runner which gives some insight I think as to why I've been a big fan of the alignment aid:

For me, being able to have the aid stick up a bit more makes it easier to line the two parts up and be confident behind the ball and looking down. 

It also shows how big the putter is which I've now got used to but sitting it next to my 2 ball definitely helped show how big the face and whole body are compared.

It reminds me of rhe back of a spaceship from a movie I watched awhile ago.

[Northern Monkey]

4 hours ago, Rob Person said:

It reminds me of rhe back of a spaceship from a movie I watched awhile ago.

You’re not the first to say that. I’ve had the same comparison from a few people now

[Rob Person]

7 hours ago, SDunne said:

For me, being able to have the aid stick up a bit more makes it easier to line the two parts up and be confident behind the ball and looking down. 

It also shows how big the putter is which I've now got used to but sitting it next to my 2 ball definitely helped show how big the face and whole body are compared.

I too agree that the raised alignment would help identify and align it better. Most lines are recessed or painted on.

For the testers: have you had any issues in the bag because of the oversized head? Do you feel intimidated by the size of the putter head when using it?

[Northern Monkey]

4 hours ago, Rob Person said:

I too agree that the raised alignment would help identify and align it better. Most lines are recessed or painted on.

For the testers: have you had any issues in the bag because of the oversized head? Do you feel intimidated by the size of the putter head when using it?

It hasn’t caused any issues in the bag for me. It fits quite nicely in the putter slot on my Ghost bag. 
I’d say the opposite actually when using it. Due to the size of the head I find I worry less about hitting the sweet spot and it’s quite reassuring 

[bama no 1]

16 hours ago, SDunne said:

I loved reading about what the Edel fitting process went through especially on their alignment and aim. It's certainly an interesting one as haven't gone through something like that and can see how much it could help. I've taken a few photos comparing old putter vs Runner which gives some insight I think as to why I've been a big fan of the alignment aid:

For me, being able to have the aid stick up a bit more makes it easier to line the two parts up and be confident behind the ball and looking down. 

It also shows how big the putter is which I've now got used to but sitting it next to my 2 ball definitely helped show how big the face and whole body are compared.

Would you mind taking a ruler and setting it along side the putter head so we can get a good idea of just how big the head is.

thanks in advance.

[Northern Monkey]

1 hour ago, bama no 1 said:

Would you mind taking a ruler and setting it along side the putter head so we can get a good idea of just how big the head is.

thanks in advance.

How’s that?

[GolfSpy_APH]

Finally took some more time to fiddle around with the weights. After the fitting I wanted to work on strike location so I pulled lab out and got started with that. Then moved to the RUNNER. WOW did it ever feel incredibly light. 

I had stickers on the face to see strike location and with the LAB things were center, but misses strayed out the toe. 

With the RUNNER it was more out the toe and the light weight was something that I liked, but now had been second guessing due to the patterns I was seeing. 

So swapped in the heavy weights and bingo, things started to get a bit better. 

Now it is time to take it to the course and see how that goes. I played with the LAB last round and it was solid, so maybe there is a battle, but I am really torn. Both are great putters and I just don't know what to do so time to see how performance goes and makes the difference and end decision. 

[Northern Monkey]

19 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Finally took some more time to fiddle around with the weights. After the fitting I wanted to work on strike location so I pulled lab out and got started with that. Then moved to the RUNNER. WOW did it ever feel incredibly light. 

I had stickers on the face to see strike location and with the LAB things were center, but misses strayed out the toe. 

With the RUNNER it was more out the toe and the light weight was something that I liked, but now had been second guessing due to the patterns I was seeing. 

So swapped in the heavy weights and bingo, things started to get a bit better. 

Now it is time to take it to the course and see how that goes. I played with the LAB last round and it was solid, so maybe there is a battle, but I am really torn. Both are great putters and I just don't know what to do so time to see how performance goes and makes the difference and end decision. 

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Personally I prefer the heavy weights and think they help keep the head straight on line

[SDunne]

13 hours ago, Rob Person said:

I too agree that the raised alignment would help identify and align it better. Most lines are recessed or painted on.

For the testers: have you had any issues in the bag because of the oversized head? Do you feel intimidated by the size of the putter head when using it?

No issues for me on size as I have a putter tube on my Callaway bag and don't find that it impacts anything else. I haven't tried any other putter covers but that's also because I like the look of the one RUNNER gave us as is a lovely leather one. As for lining up, I'd echo @Northern Monkey - if anything I'd say it gives me more confidence than anything else. One of the reasons I've preferred mallet putters is that it gave me confidence to get the ball where I needed it.

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Finally took some more time to fiddle around with the weights. After the fitting I wanted to work on strike location so I pulled lab out and got started with that. Then moved to the RUNNER. WOW did it ever feel incredibly light. 

I had stickers on the face to see strike location and with the LAB things were center, but misses strayed out the toe. 

With the RUNNER it was more out the toe and the light weight was something that I liked, but now had been second guessing due to the patterns I was seeing. 

So swapped in the heavy weights and bingo, things started to get a bit better. 

Now it is time to take it to the course and see how that goes. I played with the LAB last round and it was solid, so maybe there is a battle, but I am really torn. Both are great putters and I just don't know what to do so time to see how performance goes and makes the difference and end decision. 

While I don't think I should speak for Simon and the RUNNER team but anytime you're going to get someone battling as to whether a LAB or a RUNNER is better for them, I reckon they'd take that as a new brand in the market.

[bama no 1]

3 hours ago, Northern Monkey said:

How’s that?

Thanks a bunch, i measured the face of my odyssey oworks 7 (3 1/2in) so quite a bit of difference.

[Northern Monkey]

14 minutes ago, bama no 1 said:

Thanks a bunch, i measured the face of my odyssey oworks 7 (3 1/2in) so quite a bit of difference.

Yeh it is

[SDunne]

Took the putter to a local Puttview setup as the weather has been awful in Sydney and isn't meant to stop raining until Tuesday so my weekend round is definitely in jeopardy (not to mention trying to play on Mothers Day is viewed as a no-no in our house!).

For those that haven't used one before, they beam a light from above with the track your ball should need to follow to drop in to the hole. You can then set up the putts as you would like to see them - left to right, right to left, downhill, uphill etc. It's great to see how you fare when the reading of the putt is taken out of it. I wanted to do this to get a better feel for how consistent the putter is, how easy to distance control and get a better gauge of accuracy. 

I found this really useful to get more insight into my own game as well as the putter. You can see when a fairly straight putt even at 7ft, this is easy. The accuracy from the putter is great.

 

 

With a bit more of a distance needed and some more slope, my pace was

n't always spot on. 

As you can hopefully see though, accuracy is good, I could work on my stroke a bit and especially need to work on left to right putts but the fact I feel I can back myself much more from distance is great. 

For those interested I also did a bit more on my insta page and had the putts set up as below. I did some ladder drills and compass work after as well to hone my own putting a bit when storage on the phone seemed to become an issue! Also worth noting I was there for an hour and hit a ridiculous amount of putts and no issues still with face or any part of the putter.

 

[Northern Monkey]

1 hour ago, SDunne said:

Took the putter to a local Puttview setup as the weather has been awful in Sydney and isn't meant to stop raining until Tuesday so my weekend round is definitely in jeopardy (not to mention trying to play on Mothers Day is viewed as a no-no in our house!).

For those that haven't used one before, they beam a light from above with the track your ball should need to follow to drop in to the hole. You can then set up the putts as you would like to see them - left to right, right to left, downhill, uphill etc. It's great to see how you fare when the reading of the putt is taken out of it. I wanted to do this to get a better feel for how consistent the putter is, how easy to distance control and get a better gauge of accuracy. 

I found this really useful to get more insight into my own game as well as the putter. You can see when a fairly straight putt even at 7ft, this is easy. The accuracy from the putter is great.

 

 

With a bit more of a distance needed and some more slope, my pace was

n't always spot on. 

As you can hopefully see though, accuracy is good, I could work on my stroke a bit and especially need to work on left to right putts but the fact I feel I can back myself much more from distance is great. 

For those interested I also did a bit more on my insta page and had the putts set up as below. I did some ladder drills and compass work after as well to hone my own putting a bit when storage on the phone seemed to become an issue! Also worth noting I was there for an hour and hit a ridiculous amount of putts and no issues still with face or any part of the putter.

 

That’s really interesting to see and backs up what we have been saying. The Runner sends the ball exactly where you aim and is very consistent. 
Great insight Sean

[HikingMike]

9 hours ago, SDunne said:

Took the putter to a local Puttview setup as the weather has been awful in Sydney and isn't meant to stop raining until Tuesday so my weekend round is definitely in jeopardy (not to mention trying to play on Mothers Day is viewed as a no-no in our house!).

For those that haven't used one before, they beam a light from above with the track your ball should need to follow to drop in to the hole. You can then set up the putts as you would like to see them - left to right, right to left, downhill, uphill etc. It's great to see how you fare when the reading of the putt is taken out of it. I wanted to do this to get a better feel for how consistent the putter is, how easy to distance control and get a better gauge of accuracy. 

I found this really useful to get more insight into my own game as well as the putter. You can see when a fairly straight putt even at 7ft, this is easy. The accuracy from the putter is great.

 

 

With a bit more of a distance needed and some more slope, my pace was

n't always spot on. 

As you can hopefully see though, accuracy is good, I could work on my stroke a bit and especially need to work on left to right putts but the fact I feel I can back myself much more from distance is great. 

For those interested I also did a bit more on my insta page and had the putts set up as below. I did some ladder drills and compass work after as well to hone my own putting a bit when storage on the phone seemed to become an issue! Also worth noting I was there for an hour and hit a ridiculous amount of putts and no issues still with face or any part of the putter.

 

That's really cool. Great videos!

Man, I think I might lose my feel for the break and speed indoors. Being indoors might really throw me off. Can you "see" the break like you would on a green on a course? I guess you rely heavily on the path light, but then speed is tough. 

[SDunne]

4 hours ago, HikingMike said:

That's really cool. Great videos!

Man, I think I might lose my feel for the break and speed indoors. Being indoors might really throw me off. Can you "see" the break like you would on a green on a course? I guess you rely heavily on the path light, but then speed is tough. 

It's actually quite odd as they need it dark to do the lights so you don't really see the break. However I find it fun as you'll be able to feel it in your feet so good practice for building that skill too!!

[Northern Monkey]

Played 18 today and had another good round. My short game was good, which helped the Runner perform once again. 

27 putts for the round with 1 putts on 9 of the holes. No 3 putts for the round and sank everything within 12 feet

The Runner is making such a difference to my game and improving my scores no end

[SDunne]

8 hours ago, Northern Monkey said:

Played 18 today and had another good round. My short game was good, which helped the Runner perform once again. 

27 putts for the round with 1 putts on 9 of the holes. No 3 putts for the round and sank everything within 12 feet

The Runner is making such a difference to my game and improving my scores no end

Great to see @Northern Monkey - looks like a top round. 27 putts is a very good stat and looks like the short game going well to give you a fair few short putts to slot as well.