Should I cut the putter length down?

[Johnny Par]

Going to regrip my Scotty Cameron RedX2 putter tonight. While the grips off, thinking about cutting it down from 35". Lately, I've felt more comfortable with the shorter putter (Been choking down on the club). Thinking about cutting it own by an inch or so. I don't even knowif the 35" is a standard fit for me, I stand 6 feet tall.

Will this change anything? like weighting? etc...Excuse the ignorance, i don't know much about putters.

Thanks.

 

[sandwedge]

I recently cut my Scotty down from a 35" to a 34". I am 5'11". At first it felt like it was too short but I still grip down a lot and I could probably even cut it down another 1/2 inch. It probably depends a lot on your putter style and how far you bend to putt.

 

[RickinMA]

putters are all about confidence, comfort and feel

I can't choke down on mine becaue the end will get caught on my shirt - i'm cutting it down so I can lean further over the ball

perhaps go down 1/2" if you like it a bit shorter, then install the grip with air and try it out - if still too long, remove the grip and take off the other 1/2"

I've been fooling around with various size clevis pins for backweighting too - while you have the grip off - give it a shot -the pins are like $2 at a hardware store I have one that weighs about 30 grams, one that's about 70 grams and one somewhere in the middle

let us know how you make out

 

[Johnny Par]

ok, thanks guys.
I think for now, I will cut down 1/2 inch and see how if feels.

Like sandwedge, even with the putter at 35", I choke down to the bottom of the grip.

Rick, what do you mean by "install the grip with air"?

 

[ualtim]

1/2 inch should not require a weight change. Scotty adds about 10 grams to the head for every inch the shaft is shortened from 35" down to 33". You can send the putter to Scotty to increase the weight or do it yourself a lot cheaper with the Red X series.

 

[RickinMA]

Rick, what do you mean by "install the grip with air"?

Lyle makes it look easy - see the videos attached at the bottom of this thread
http://www.shottalk.com/forum/equipment-talk/10056-gripping-w-o-tape-nor-solvent.html

with air, you can install, remove, reinstall, remove, reinstall, etc without cutting the grip off

much cheaper to experiment

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

When I cut my old one down from 35" to 33 1/4", I found adding weight under the grip and not to the head to be best for me to counter balance it. It never quite felt the same until I did so. Although it was by no means unusable and used it without the extra weight for a couple years.

It will feel lighter, but this may or may not be a bad thing. Height is pretty irrelevant. I am 6' 1" and now have a 33" putter that I grip almost to the metal. Just a matter of how you putt, and I prefer my eyes to be closer to the ball and the line.

edit 1 - BTW, you are going to lower the swingweight by about 3 points with a 1/2" I believe. So you are talking about roughly 6 grams of weight if you want to make it up. Although again, this is a putter so controlling and feeling the club head may not be as important as just overall weight. When I cut mine down by about 1 3/4" I ended up adding about 36 grams under the grip instead of just the 21 I changed it by. Just liked the heavier feel. and because I was adding so much under the grip made more sense as well to keep my putter from looking like a baseball of lead tape, which was roughly 3 feet of tape. I also figure that is where the weight came off, so it made sense. If you want it towards the head you could use tungsten powder down the shaft, or sugar if you want to be a froot loop like the guy on Big Break, but blame him if your shaft rusts out from the sugar. 6 grams may not be as bad on the head, but you are talking about an SC putter, which I associate people buying these in part because of the looks, so do you want Lead tape on the head? Just a thought before regripping the putter. If you add a lot it will make the grip fatter, which I actually liked. Made it all on the top hand of the grip

 

[Johnny Par]

When I cut my old one down from 35" to 33 1/4", I found adding weight under the grip and not to the head to be best for me to counter balance it. It never quite felt the same until I did so. Although it was by no means unusable and used it without the extra weight for a couple years.

It will feel lighter, but this may or may not be a bad thing. Height is pretty irrelevant. I am 6' 1" and now have a 33" putter that I grip almost to the metal. Just a matter of how you putt, and I prefer my eyes to be closer to the ball and the line.

edit 1 - BTW, you are going to lower the swingweight by about 3 points with a 1/2" I believe. So you are talking about roughly 6 grams of weight if you want to make it up. Although again, this is a putter so controlling and feeling the club head may not be as important as just overall weight. When I cut mine down by about 1 3/4" I ended up adding about 36 grams under the grip instead of just the 21 I changed it by. Just liked the heavier feel. and because I was adding so much under the grip made more sense as well to keep my putter from looking like a baseball of lead tape, which was roughly 3 feet of tape. I also figure that is where the weight came off, so it made sense. If you want it towards the head you could use tungsten powder down the shaft, or sugar if you want to be a froot loop like the guy on Big Break, but blame him if your shaft rusts out from the sugar. 6 grams may not be as bad on the head, but you are talking about an SC putter, which I associate people buying these in part because of the looks, so do you want Lead tape on the head? Just a thought before regripping the putter. If you add a lot it will make the grip fatter, which I actually liked. Made it all on the top hand of the grip

Thanks Jayhawk. This just might work since the reason I am regripping is because I wanted to build up the grip to midsize.

So instead of build up tape, I can use maybe a couple layers of lead tape totaling 12 grams if I chop off 1 inch on the shaft?

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

Thanks Jayhawk. This just might work since the reason I am regripping is because I wanted to build up the grip to midsize.

So instead of build up tape, I can use maybe a couple layers of lead tape totaling 12 grams if I chop off 1 inch on the shaft?

When I did mine I did 3 x 1 foot layers of lead tape coiled down the shaft from the top, which made it even a little fatter than a midsized grip, which I had tried as well. May just be a matter of trial an error. Again, when I coiled it from the top it basically made the top hand part a little fatter, and the bottom the same size, which I liked. If you want it the same you all the way down you could do the rest with 2-3 layers of tape on the bottom, or maybe just run it down the shaft and then build it up with grip tape. Depending on the lead tape you use, 1 layer is about as thick as 2-3 of grip tape.

Just point of reference, I believe 3 wraps of grip tape will turn a standard grip into a Midsized, which is what Mizuno did on my irons as they did not offer Midsized grips. I figured if they did not feel the same I would regrip them, but they did match my midsized grips on my other clubs. Good Luck!!! I went through about 3-4 grips of trial and error till I got the feel I wanted, but it was pretty cheap compared to the price of a new putter.

 

[Johnny Par]

Thanks Jayhawk. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[LyleG]

My putter is 32 inches.

Cut it down, add tungston powder to the shaft till you like it, ram a cork all the way down the shaft, add a 50-100g backweight and enjoy the best putting of your life.

 

[ezra76]

I cut mine down to 34.25". It took a little getting use to but 28putts today and no 3's yesterday. :laugh:

I added a 50g backweight (came with the putter but I'd removed it last year). It now actually has 100g's of backweight. I also added around 10g's of lead tape under the removable sole weight that's in it.

Edit- I just weighed it, 580g's.

What's a putter supposed to weigh Lyle?

 

[MGP]

What's a putter supposed to weigh Lyle?

If you can still lift it, it's not too heavy.

I switched to a much heavier putter this year and my putting is the best it's been in years. It weighs about 560 grams.

 

[LyleG]

Putters can weigh damn near anything now a days.

Most heads are 340-360g, 90-100 for the shaft, 50 for the grip, so most would fall in the 480-510g range.

Personally I think heavy for fast greens, light for slow greens.

 

[Johnny Par]

So I cut off an inch tonight, putter length is now 34 inches.
I think I will practice with this and see how it goes.
If I find that I want something heavier, I am going to start exploring the options listed above.

Thanks all for the input. :laugh: