RUNNER Golf Putters! 2024 Forum Review

[RTH1]

6 hours ago, cnosil said:

I was asking for your personal opinion on whether you think the putter influences the stroke.  I want to understand your perspective prior to testing and not what you learn from the testing.  Do you think the putter has an influence on your stroke?  Based on what  I originally quoted you seemed to imply that it is you and not the putter.  Either is fine, I can point to people in the putting world that support both approaches.     Are you more of a:

• the configuration of the putter influences the players performance?
• the putter doesn't matter and it all comes down to the skill of the player and body mechanics?

honestly, a combination of both, skill of a repeatable stroke, but a putter that fits that stroke, correct length, weight, comfortable grip, Imo, allows you to develop feel, distance control. So as the evolution of equipment marches forward its worth trying to see if its helpful or not. Kind of like the adjustable drivers and sliding weights to dial in your ball flight, if your an inconsistent ball striker probably not going to help much, or the putter grips that are designed to help eliminate excessive hand and wrist movement. That being said, we aren't robots, and mechanics change day to day, as do the feels you register, I think if we have done our due diligence getting equipment that fits our game then it's up to the skill of the player to perform.

 

 

[SDunne]

12 hours ago, Headhammer said:

To be honest when I first saw the Runner I thought it was kinda ugly, but next to the LAB it looks like a damn Victoria's Secret Model!! The one thing MGS has taught me is that sometimes the ugliest putters turn out to be the best putters!

It's one of those odd ones isn't it - the interesting thing is that with putters there is so much personal preference on what you like to see as well. I must admit, I'd happily putt with a horrible looking mess if it cut strokes off my game but it's going to be what works for people. I'm slowly dying inside seeing the pics while I still wait for mine to arrive Down Under...

[Northern Monkey]

Just now, SDunne said:

It's one of those odd ones isn't it - the interesting thing is that with putters there is so much personal preference on what you like to see as well. I must admit, I'd happily putt with a horrible looking mess if it cut strokes off my game but it's going to be what works for people. I'm slowly dying inside seeing the pics while I still wait for mine to arrive Down Under...

Let’s hope it gets to you soon Sean  

[SDunne]

8 hours ago, cnosil said:

I was asking for your personal opinion on whether you think the putter influences the stroke.  I want to understand your perspective prior to testing and not what you learn from the testing.  Do you think the putter has an influence on your stroke?  Based on what  I originally quoted you seemed to imply that it is you and not the putter.  Either is fine, I can point to people in the putting world that support both approaches.     Are you more of a:

• the configuration of the putter influences the players performance?
• the putter doesn't matter and it all comes down to the skill of the player and body mechanics?

For me you raise an interesting point. I started out playing a blade putter when I first took up golf as it was a hand-me-down set. I switched to a mallet about 10 years ago as I liked the weight and confidence this gave me. I think we're all aware that the two styles suit different putting arcs - that's why it plays a large part of the online questions a lot of club manufacturers have for this nowadays. 

If I played a round with my mate's blade would I need to change my putting style - maybe. Could I do that well in 1 round, no. If I had to play with a blade again over several rounds, I expect I would slowly adapt my stroke to be better for a blade. Would I end up a better putter overall at the end? - I don't know. I've played a ton of hand-eye sports over the years from tennis, squash, badminton to hockey, hurling and baseball. If you change what you hit a ball with (i.e. new racket, stick, bat) your action changes to accommodate it. Eventually you find what you'll be most comfortable with. Simon asked me a lot about what I liked about my putter currently, what I didn't like and took how to emulate what I liked but with a few to the weighting system being able to help me. 

I believe there is a holy grail/soulmate putter out there for all of us that will make us better putters. That is my stroke with it will be best fitting or more natural and repeatable and it's going to help me. I'm hoping that the RUNNER putter will give me the chance to play with what that looks like a bit more whereas with a standard putter, you will find a way to change your style to get the most from the tool. We will see how this all looks. For now, I'm excited and geeking out on the possibilities. Now, if FedEx will hurry up I can stop talking in hypotheticals...

[Northern Monkey]

Managed to get a 9 hole round in this afternoon with the Runner. Before that I used it on the practice green in a direct comparison to my Odyssey 2 ball Ten. I hit 6 balls from 25 feet to try and judge the consistency with lag putts. 
The Odyssey wasn’t bad, but did have a couple of outliers. 

The Runner was very consistent. 

 

I also hit 6 balls from 6 feet with each. I sank 4 of these with the Odyssey and 5 with the Runner. 

Out on the course I managed to video a few of my putts

   

 

 

All in all the Runner performed well again and I’m definitely seeing better figures with it so far. These are the stats for the round

 

[Northern Monkey]

Managed to get another 18 holes in with the Runner yesterday. Another decent set of results 

ShotScope has the option to directly compare 2 clubs so I’m interested to see how the Runner will perform against my Odyssey 2 ball Ten come the end of the test

[Rob Person]

While the stats show improved results,  how are you feeling about your improvements with this putter? Is there any consistency in missed distances?

[Northern Monkey]

@Rob Person I’ve found so far that it seems much easier to judge distance with the Runner and it is pretty consistent. Most of the misses have been down to me with my aim. The Runner sends the ball wherever I aim and seems very true. 
Moving forward I intend to have a session on the practice green where I deliberately hit the ball of the heel and toe to see how this affects the line and distance. 
So far I’m very happy with the putter and it does inspire confidence. As it’s still early days I’m interested to see if this continues or if it is just down to the excitement of having a new toy

[bama no 1]

4 hours ago, Northern Monkey said:

@Rob Person I’ve found so far that it seems much easier to judge distance with the Runner and it is pretty consistent. Most of the misses have been down to me with my aim. The Runner sends the ball wherever I aim and seems very true. 
Moving forward I intend to have a session on the practice green where I deliberately hit the ball of the heel and toe to see how this affects the line and distance. 
So far I’m very happy with the putter and it does inspire confidence. As it’s still early days I’m interested to see if this continues or if it is just down to the excitement of having a new toy

i would be interested to know if you are checking the green stimp reading for  everyday?

Also, how will you be limiting the putter to toe&heel strikes?   Will you be incorporating some sort of blocking device on the putter?

[Northern Monkey]

38 minutes ago, bama no 1 said:

i would be interested to know if you are checking the green stimp reading for  everyday?

Also, how will you be limiting the putter to toe&heel strikes?   Will you be incorporating some sort of blocking device on the putter?

I’m not checking the stimp reading as don’t have the facilities to do that. 
The head in the putter is quite large and as such it is quite easy to ensure that I strike the ball with the heel or the toe. Due to the sound difference as well it is noticeable when you hit it off the toe or heel

Edited April 10 by Northern Monkey

[Northern Monkey]

So I managed another 18 with the Runner today and once again it performed great

The highlight was a 30 foot putt on a steep downhill with a strong right to left break. Sank it for birdie

[SDunne]

4 hours ago, Northern Monkey said:

So I managed another 18 with the Runner today and once again it performed great

The highlight was a 30 foot putt on a steep downhill with a strong right to left break. Sank it for birdie

Love it! Putter has arrived so look out for an update to my post later today with unboxing and initial thoughts - SPOILER - it's stunning... 

[Northern Monkey]

Looking forward to seeing it and how it performs for you

[sirchunksalot]

@Northern Monkey, thanks for the videos! I was curious how the Runner sounded and it gave me a good Idea. Honestly, I was expecting it to be a bit clickier than what I heard in the video and it doesn't seem like it is offensive sounding as I was thinking it might be. 

[Northern Monkey]

8 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

@Northern Monkey, thanks for the videos! I was curious how the Runner sounded and it gave me a good Idea. Honestly, I was expecting it to be a bit clickier than what I heard in the video and it doesn't seem like it is offensive sounding as I was thinking it might be. 

@sirchunksalot I’m still getting used to the sound as it is very different to the Odyssey I used previously but I don’t find it offensive. I’m going to do some testing with heel and toe strikes and you can definitely hear the difference so will video them too

Edited April 10 by Northern Monkey

[SDunne]

Hi all - unboxing and first impressions now up in the main post - loving the look of the putter and how it feels. Certainly very different from my current putter and looking to explore this a lot over the next few weeks.

We've had rubbish weather in NSW where I am and my carpet is good to get some feel for it but definitely hoping that the local courses dry out a bit to get me out onto some grass to test this properly over the weekend. 

 

[Northern Monkey]

 Nice unboxing post Sean, liked the video

Glad it’s finally got to you and hope the weather improves so you can get out on the course with it. 
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get out with mine today as it’s my wedding anniversary and the boss thought the day would be better spent together rather than on the course testing the Runner. She obviously has no perception as to how important these tests are but I didn’t want to die this young so grudgingly acquiesced

Thankfully tomorrow is another day and I’ll be back on the course

Edited April 11 by Northern Monkey

[SDunne]

18 minutes ago, Northern Monkey said:

 Nice unboxing post Sean, liked the video

Glad it’s finally got to you and hope the weather improves so you can get out on the course with it. 
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get out with mine today as it’s my wedding anniversary and the boss thought the day would be better spent together rather than on the course testing the Runner. She obviously has no perception as to how important these tests are but I didn’t want to die this young so grudgingly acquiesced

Thankfully tomorrow is another day and I’ll be back on the course

Very sensible decision! As much as I love golf, I can only play while I'm alive so happy wife, happy life and all that!

[sirchunksalot]

36 minutes ago, Northern Monkey said:

 Nice unboxing post Sean, liked the video

Glad it’s finally got to you and hope the weather improves so you can get out on the course with it. 
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get out with mine today as it’s my wedding anniversary and the boss thought the day would be better spent together rather than on the course testing the Runner. She obviously has no perception as to how important these tests are but I didn’t want to die this young so grudgingly acquiesced

Thankfully tomorrow is another day and I’ll be back on the course

Happy anniversary, you are a smart man. 

[Northern Monkey]

20 minutes ago, SDunne said:

Very sensible decision! As much as I love golf, I can only play while I'm alive so happy wife, happy life and all that!

Very true!

2 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

Happy anniversary, you are a smart man. 

Thanks. Not so sure about the smart bit, more like  Sean’s comment of realising I can only play whilst still being able to breathe

[sirchunksalot]

13 minutes ago, Northern Monkey said:

Thanks. Not so sure about the smart bit, more like  Sean’s comment of realising I can only play whilst still being able to breathe

You're showing an aptitude in biology, that's smart! No breathing, no golf. 

[arodrig29]

3 hours ago, Northern Monkey said:

 Nice unboxing post Sean, liked the video

Glad it’s finally got to you and hope the weather improves so you can get out on the course with it. 
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get out with mine today as it’s my wedding anniversary and the boss thought the day would be better spent together rather than on the course testing the Runner. She obviously has no perception as to how important these tests are but I didn’t want to die this young so grudgingly acquiesced

Thankfully tomorrow is another day and I’ll be back on the course

Happy anniversary my friend! 

[Northern Monkey]

6 hours ago, arodrig29 said:

Happy anniversary my friend! 

Thank you

[Bobbers]

On 4/10/2024 at 6:28 AM, Northern Monkey said:

@Rob Person I’ve found so far that it seems much easier to judge distance with the Runner and it is pretty consistent. Most of the misses have been down to me with my aim. The Runner sends the ball wherever I aim and seems very true. 
Moving forward I intend to have a session on the practice green where I deliberately hit the ball of the heel and toe to see how this affects the line and distance. 
So far I’m very happy with the putter and it does inspire confidence. As it’s still early days I’m interested to see if this continues or if it is just down to the excitement of having a new toy

I tried the "hit it off the toe" and "hit it off the heel" and found that distance suffered in the range of 15-20% compared to more centered strikes but the line of the putt didn't vary much if at all.

[Bobbers]

Happy anniversary, enjoy the day.

[Bobbers]

I've got a round scheduled for Sunday morning.  It's a busy time so I'm not sure if videos will be made but I'll have 18 holes worth of putting to report on.

Should be about 45 degrees (Fahrenheit) at tee time but no snow or rain in the forecast.  Yay, spring may finally have arrived.

[Northern Monkey]

Enjoy your round Bob. 
I managed to get out for 18 today but for some reason my X5 has split it into 3 rounds so don’t have any stats

Ive contacted Shot Scope so hopefully they’ll be able to merge all 3 into one. 
I didn’t feel like I had a great round, very windy, but hopefully once I have the stats I’ll have a better idea

[Rob Person]

39 minutes ago, Northern Monkey said:

Enjoy your round Bob. 
I managed to get out for 18 today but for some reason my X5 has split it into 3 rounds so don’t have any stats

Ive contacted Shot Scope so hopefully they’ll be able to merge all 3 into one. 
I didn’t feel like I had a great round, very windy, but hopefully once I have the stats I’ll have a better idea

Happy anniversary.  

[Northern Monkey]

8 hours ago, Rob Person said:

Happy anniversary.  

Thanks

[GolfSpy_APH]

Meant to share this a little while back. The putter is on the big side... and I like it!