If you really want us to make you a perfectly fitted putter, then I recommend that you go and get fitted for a putter professionally, and email to us your specifications.  In the mean time, for some of you what you read below may be enough.

Fitting a Putter to a golfer as compared with fitting a set of Irons to a golfer is like comparing a Rock to a Turkey.  There is no set method for fitting putters to golfers, because everybody's putting styles and stances are different.  Some golfers like to stand up taller, some like to bend over at the waist, some like to stay sort of straight and simply crouch down a bit etc.  The putter is the only club in the bag where a coach might tell you... "Do what feels comfortable and natural to you."  There are however, little things within the putter stroke that are important that good coaches will tell you to be conscientious of, like keeping the putter head (heel & toe) parallel to the ground, not breaking your left wrist during any part of the stroke, get your eyes over the ball, things like that, and these are clues that will tell you how long of a putter you need.  Well I’m not here to teach you how to putt, but there are some issues I’d like to talk about that many golfers overlook, like the “Lie Angle” & “Length” of a putter.  Lie angle is as important as length.  The longer a putter is, the more upright (lie angle) it needs to be in order for the golfer to stand more over the ball etc.

So I feel we need to discuss both topics together, because their importance hinges upon one another.  But before we address these issues, we need to establish an industry standard for Mens & Womens putter sizes.

Note: not all manufacturers use the same standards, but the ones I've posted below, seem to be the most common.  So these are the standards that TreeLine Putters uses.

I'm going to get a bit personal now, personal that is of myself, and use myself (Bart Nordstrom, Owner & Putter Designer of TreeLine Putters) as an example.

Putter length is not as important as lie angle?  Except to some men that aren't as tall as the average person, and I'm one of them.  I'm 5'ft-7"in tall, I've been golfing since 1975, and the macho side of me for the first 20 years of golf, told me that I needed a standard men's length putter.  Heaven forbid I'd ever be caught with a putter the same or shorter than a Woman's standard length putter.  To make a long story short, and it took some education to finally realize that my game would be better off with a proper fitted putter.  The putter I carry in my bag today is 33" long, a full inch shorter than a Woman's Standard Length Putter, and I'm proud to use that length because I'm dropping a lot more putts than I used to.

One of the things I used to do with my putter when I had a full sized mens standard putter, is I'd heel the putter to the ground, making the toe of the putter higher off the ground than the heel, which also caused my head to be too far away from the ball (my eyes weren’t over the ball).  Over time, I noticed that if I held the putter more upright, so that the heel and toe of the putter were the same distance off the ground, thus placing the putter head parallel to the ground, my putts were more accurate.  But in order to accomplish keeping the putter head parallel to the ground (it now being more upright), caused my elbows to be bent too much for my comfort.  So to compensate that effect, I’d lower my hands toward the bottom of the grip, thus turning my 35” putter into a 33” or 32” putter.  And when a golfer does that, he eliminates the purpose of the shape of the grip, because the meaty part of the grip is towards the top end of the grip.  So I cut my putter down, and regripped it, and I was amazed at the difference.  That was a long time ago, but still, every time I go golfing I see someone practicing my old habit, heeling their putter or gripping their putter down low.  The meaty portion of the grip was designed and placed there for a reason.  Watch a professional tournament someday, and take a good look at each different player when he/she putts.  I may be wrong, but I can’t think of a single professional golfer that grips their putter anywhere besides the meaty part of the grip, or heels their putter to the green---which means they are all using putters that fit their stance and playing style.

On the other hand, I see golfers who are six feet tall and think they need a taller than standard sized putter when they don’t.  In actuality, unless a person has a bad back, and cannot get over the ball, a standard sized putter should fit most golfers up to 6’ft-5” tall.  But because they are taller than the average person, they think they need their putter to be longer.  The same holds true with fitting tall individuals with a set of irons, a standard size set of irons will fit most individuals between the heights of 5’ft.-7”in. all the way up to 6’ft.-4or5”in.  What happens (theoretically of course), is that as a person grows taller than another person, his/her arms grow longer, thus enabling their wrists (at an upright standing position), to hang off the ground at approximately the same distance as the shorter persons hands.

Phil Mickelson (one of the greatest golfers on the pro tour) is a perfect example of someone who understands the importance of having a well fitted putter.  If you haven’t seen Phil putt, then I highly recommend that you take a moment from your busy schedule on some weekend when Phil is playing and not only watch him on TV, but study and analyze how he addresses and bends over the ball.  Phil is 6’ft.-3”in. tall, and when he addresses his putt, he bends way over the ball and lets his hands hang nearly straight down.  I don’t know the length of his putter, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were shorter than 34” tall, on TV it doesn’t look like the top of his putter is anymore than 6” above his knee (television cameras can be deceiving).  The point is, “If a shorter putter will help you hold the putter more in the meat of the grip, and allow you to get more over the ball, keeping your arms straighter with less elbow bend, then don’t be afraid to go to a shorter putter,” it just might help your game.

I’m not saying that elbow bend is bad, it’s important to be comfortable, but know this, the more the elbows are bent, the easier the tendency to allow too much wrist action in the stroke.  A good putting stroke is done with the shoulders, not the wrists, and by letting your arms hang down, it is easier for the shoulders & arms to engage the stroke as a complete unit.

Lie Angle

Go into any sporting goods store and pick up any putter.  You will find many different lengths of putters, from 32" to as tall as the average persons chest (but no higher than 48”in.), you will find most of them to be 35 and 34 inches tall.  But one thing most of them have in common is the lie angle, and the lie angle will probably be 72 degrees, at least for the majority of the putters in house (the belly & chest putters may very well be different).

How to tell if you are heeling your putter? (see photo of “Heeled Putter” and also figures 2 and 3).

While gripping the putter grip properly (in the meaty portion of the grip), and your hands and arms are comfortably in a position of making a smooth, accurate stroke while addressing the ball, look at your putter head, is the heel of your putter closer to the ground than the toe end of your putter?  It it is, then you are heeling the putter to the green, hence the putter is too long or tall for you, and you need to have it cut down.  All things being equal, a heeled putter, even though some golfers won’t believe this, is actually aimed left of the target line (to explain why, would take us into a huge topic, so we’ll skip that, you are welcome to do your own research though.  Study Club Fitting, loft & lie etc.).  That doesn’t necessarily mean that the ball will always go left, some golfers may put spin on the ball and make it go the other way etc.  But all things being equal, with a true stroke, the ball will go left of its intended line, because at address, compounded by the loft of the club, the face/loft is now perpendicular to a line left of where the golfer thinks he/she is aiming.

Look at photo on this page labeled “Heeled Putter”, notice how the toe of the putter is higher above the floor than the heel?  The golfer basically is addressing the ball and is ready to putt, this is a "heeled putter".

Now then, what would happen if the golfer wanted to make the putter head parallel to the ground the way it was designed?  But let’s say the golfer doesn’t want to move his/her feet closer to the ball, or extend his/her hands out, away from his/her body?  So from the photo labeled “Heeled Putter”, without moving his feet, the golfer has to raise his hands straight up until the putter head is parallel to the ground, see photo labeled “Parallel Putter”.  Now you can see that the putter head is parallel to the ground/green, but the putter is nowhere near the ball, the golfer is now standing too far away from the ball, so now he has to move his feet in a few inches so his putter is addressing the ball correctly.  The benefit is that the golfer is now more over the ball, in a better position to make an accurate putt.  Note: it is possible that now the putter is too long, and needs to be cut down, to allow the arms to hang down in the original position the golfer was comfortable in the first place.

Figure 2

Heeling the putter

Figure 3

Correct Alignment

How to remedy heeling a putter?

There are basically two things that can be done to remedy the heeling of your putter, without changing your comfortable arm, shoulder, and head position.

1-    The first solution would be to alter the lie of your club by making it flatter.  Decrease the lie from 72 degrees to 68 or 65 degrees, whatever will make the putter head parallel to the ground (heel and toe equal distance off the green at address).  I don’t recommend this method, because it causes other complications.  If you have a 35” putter, but you should probably be using a 33” putter, but you don’t want to cut it down, so instead you decrease the lie to 65 degrees, what happens is you push yourself further away from the ball, thus not allowing your head and eyes to be over the ball where they need to be.

2-    The safest bet, to remedy this is to simply use a shorter putter.  If your 35” putter is so long that you heel the putter, simply have it cut down to the proper length.  This will cure the heeling of the putter, because you will have to stand closer to the ball, which will automatically bring the shaft up to where the head of the putter is parallel to the green, as it was designed to stand at ball address.  The bonus is that now, you are really on top and over your ball more than you ever have been, and it’s a totally new feeling.  And you thought your head was always over the ball before?  Now you know.

So you see, most golfers don’t need a putter flatter than 72 degrees, however some golfers do need a putter that is even more upright than 72 degrees.  Some golfers like a putter that is extremely upright, like 78, or even 80.  But these are rare, they can be a good antidote though for someone who is tall and has a bad back.  You can get too upright though, to the point that your putter is non-conforming to USGA specifications, so there is a limit. 

Why we have to charge more money for a custom shaft.

We order all of our standard shafts pre-bent and with a 72 degree lie angle. But we can’t get them any longer than the men’s standard full length of 35” inches, or in a different lie angle.  The longer shafts aren’t offered from our suppliers in pre-bent form.  So to fill a custom shaft order, which we are happy to do, requires that we bring in a special shaft and bend it ourselves to your specifications.  We have to do the same thing for anyone wanting a putter longer or taller than the standard men’s 35” or any putter that has a lie angle different than 72 degrees.  However, as I’ve mentioned earlier on this page, 90 percent of golfers can use a 72 degree lie angle without any problems, so long as the length of the putter is correct.

How to measure your existing putter?

See figure 1 of this page.  Hold your putter on the ground with the putter head parallel with the ground so as you’re not heeling or toeing the putter.  In this position, place a yardstick (or tape measure, yardstick is better because it doesn’t have an “L” shaped hook at the end where it will hold the zero point off the ground) along and parallel to the shaft.  Allow the yardstick to touch the ground, and notice where the top (end) of the grip sits on the yardstick.  This is the length of your putter.

Theory of Grip Size

Grip size is very important with putters.  Grip size will effect different aspects of your putting; Lag (distance), Accuracy (aim). 

If your main concern is Lag putting (distance), then I recommend a standard size grip.  A standard sized grip is smaller than an oversized grip, and therefore allows you to easier feel the weight of the putter, to help you know how hard to hit the ball.  If you have a 40’ft putt, you want the ball to stop close enough to the hole so you can easily sink it on your next shot.  Nothings worse than putting the ball 8’-10’ft past the hole, only to miss your next putt coming back, all because you hit the ball to hard.

If your main concern is Accuracy, then you may want to go with an oversized grip (thicker grip).  You can’t feel the weight of a putter as well with an oversized grip, but if does seem easier to aim.  So if you’re one of those who knows how to read the greens well, and can start your ball on its intended line, then maybe the oversized grip is for you.

In my experience, most of the professionals I’ve watched, use a standard size grip.  To them, they are accurate enough with anything they get their hands on, but even more important to them is distance, and they like to feel the weight of their putter.

Another factor is how big are your hands?  If you have gorilla sized hands, then you may want to go with an oversized grip, but for most people, a standard size grip may be the best way to go.

If you are still confused, then please email me, bart@treelineputters.com, and I will be glad to help you with your putter fitting questions.