Are you giving your putter the correct loft and lie it deserves?

While you might not pay the world record price of almost $155,000 for a backup putter of Tiger Woods, a putter is still one of the most valuable clubs in your bag.
The unfortunate part is that even when most golfers are willing to shell out a large amount for a good putter, they don’t consider the effect that a proper fitting will have on their putting, especially in terms of consistency.

Like irons, everybody is different when determining the right loft and lie measurements for their putter. Having the wrong measurements can have a profound effect.

Loft and lie affect your putter shots.

First, let’s look at loft. Loft affects the launch and spin of your ball. If your putter’s loft is too high, you can be launching your putts too high. This causes backspin and affects the speed of your putt. If your putter has too little loft, it could be pressing your ball down into the turf, causing a whole other set of problems.

For lie, the proper angle for a golfer is when the putter’s toe and heel sit evenly at impact. This gives your ball the best chance to hit near the center of gravity. A poor lie angle at impact will cause the ball to strike nearer to the toe or heel, depending on which is off the ground. For right-handers, if your toe is up, you will be prone to hit shots to the left. If the heel is up, you will be more inclined to hit your shots to the right. Either way, the result is an inconsistent putt, which gets exacerbated the longer the putt is.

The proper loft and lie require the proper angle machine.

It is important to have the proper tools to measure and bend a putter to get the correct loft and lie. However, proper body posture is also critical — both for alignment when aiming the putter at the address and producing a ball that rolls on a controlled path. You never want to modify your posture to fit the putter.

Thus, to properly fit putters, the club fitter should measure the golfer’s own putter’s angles to determine what the golfer is currently experiencing and then use a Putter Angle Machine to adjust the putter to the ideal loft and lie machine.

If you compare the loft/lie angles of a particular putter measured in a machine other than a TourGAUGE™ Putter Machine, there may be a difference. That is because some machines do not adjust for offset, progressive offset, non-offset, or face progression hosel positions and therefore give inaccurate and inconsistent readings. With a TourGAUGE™ Putter Machine, you will always get an accurate measurement. And most likely, shave some strokes off your score.