Putting troubles? Try inserting a new putter

Andrew Landeros

Golfers are in a constant quest to find the equipment that suits them

best. On the course, no club is as in danger of being traded as the

putter.

Nothing will make a golfer make a mad trip to the golf shop faster as

paying out a week’s salary to one’s co-workers after making a handful of

three-putts and missing a two-footer on the 18th hole to tie a match.

But upon entering the nearest club dispenser, one can become

overwhelmed with all the new putters on the market.

Besides traditional brass Titleist Bulls Eye and Ping putters, there

are a flood of clubs on the market with inserts in the club head. Normal

putters are bored out in the area where the club meets the ball.

Materials such as plastic, titanium, aluminum and bronze are used to give

the clubs a softer feel for golfers.

“Putters are the most personal clubs in the bag,” said Aengus Dlouhy,

sales person at International Discount Golf on 401 N. Central Avenue in

Glendale. “It all depends on the player and what they like.”

Dlouhy suggested that if a player had trouble with distance control

and was hitting the putts beyond the hole, to stay away from mallet

styled clubs and maybe an inserted putter would help.

Titleist Scotty Cameron Putters

The most coveted clubs on the market are those carried by U.S. Open

winner, Tiger Woods. The putter that the national champion carries is the

Titleist Scotty Cameron putter. Cameron putters are all hand-milled and

built in the noted club makers’ workshop.

Cameron has two basic groups of putters. First is the Pro Platinum

line, which are solid carbon-steel milled heads with a Platinum finish.

The other group is the Teryllium putters, same carbon-steel milled heads

with Teryllium -- an alloy of titanium, beryllium and 10 other metals --

inserts. Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods both use Teryllium putters.

Odyssey Putters

The newest club insert to hit the market comes in the Odyssey White

Hot putters. White Hot putters have the same material inserted in the

cover of Callaway golf balls -- a type of syrlin plastic. The White Hot

putter was developed to give players a softer feel than could be achieved

in Odyssey’s Stronomic line of plastic inserted putters.

Ping Putters

Ping has recently released its IsoForce putters, which have 50

aluminum hexagonal “pixels” or rods placed in a manganese-bronze alloy

face, then milled flat. Ping also has its Isopur putters which have

plastic inserts in steel alloy faces.

And these are only a few of the putters vying for the suffering

golfer’s dollar.

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With all this technology in the stores giving players more “feel,”

it’s amazing that players still miss putts and have to run back to the

stores to find out what is new and exciting in putters.

I sometimes wonder if I could get that same soft feel from my fathers

rusted-over Arnold Palmer putter. Could rust be the wave of the future?

Andrew Landeros is the News-Press sports editor. His golf column

appears Mondays. He can be reached at 637-3226.