Putter building...

[BigJim13]

If I were to build a putter is there anything I need to do differently than building a regular club? It seems pretty straight forward. Most putter heads appear to be .370 tip as do most putter shafts. Is it as simple as getting a shaft and head and stickiing it together with a grip? Thanks!

[RickinMA]

yes - unless it's a double bend shaft - then you have to make sure stuff lines up properly I can't offer any advice on how to do that though - hopefully someone else can

[eclark53520]

Epoxy it up and stick it in there big jim...just stick it in

[MGP]

I guess I'll jump in here since I've built about 15 putters to mess with these last couple years. Out of those putters I've come up with four "keepers" includng the two I game all the time.

Putters are all about looks and feel so the rules are a little different than other clubs, I think.

Rick was right, alignment is a big thing especially with grips. I have a gripping station that has an alignment bar. It helps getting the club square in the vise and getting the grip straight. I am using Winn oversize paddle grips on most of my putters now so if the grip ain't straight that's bad news.

The other things that I have found to be critical is putter head weight, overall weight of the putter, putter head style and putter length. It helps if you have some idea going in what you like and don't like in a putter. When I started making putters I went to a bunch of golf shops and tried a lot of different putters. I got a good feel for what length, weight and general styles of putters suited me well. That made a good starting point.

In my case I found that I liked and putted best with a mallet style head, about 390 grams (little heavier than a lot of people like but not Heavy Putter heavy) and about 34" overall length. Most blades I found felt too light for me so if I am looking at a blade head I am looking for something at least 340 grams and heavier if possible.

One interesting experiment that has worked out really well for me relates to shafts. I had several TM graphite shaft pulls in my shop from re-shafting my TM hybrids. I decided to try one in a putter since I liked the feel of the UST frequency matched shaft when I tried it. Turned out great and looks really nice too. The feel is hmmm, how to describe it... sensitive but soft. I get good feedback on how I strike the putt but don't get the sharp ringing you get with a steel shaft. Kind of like hitting steel shafted irons with Sensicore inserts. Anyway, I now have three putters with graphite shafts and I like all three of them.

The great thing about putters is the components are generally not too expensive and you can experiment a lot for little $.

[BigJim13]

This is the shaft/head combo I am looking at. Planning on getting some lead tape to, just in case I need to mess with the weight. I don't believe this is a double bend putter so I should be ok, right?

Golfsmith.com: Golfsmith Brassmaster M1 Right Hand Putter Head [CLUBHEAD ONLY] - Golfsmith[CLUBHEAD_ONLY]

and the shaft...

Snake Eyes Golf Shafts: Stepless Steel Putter Shaft