Did you ever play the classic Operation game? You're a doctor, Cavity Sam is your patient, and the only surgical tool you have to make Sam feel better is a pair of tweezers. One wrong move and you get zapped. It's a game of dexterity and the gist is you need steady hands to cure Sam of his ailments.
I mention this because the new BGT Stability Tour Fire putter shaft created a heightened feel of connection between my hands and the putter head. It also removed excessive hand and wrist action from my stroke. And for some crazy reason it reminded me of the game Operation. The BGT Tour Fire shaft is the real deal and made my stroke consistently more stable.
If you don't know about BGT shaft, you can read about the technology here. In a nutshell BGT is about reducing shaft twist through a combination of technology and materials so your stroke is consistently more square at impact.
And honestly I was skeptical. I mean, you don't swing your putter anywhere close to the speed you do with other clubs in your bag. With irons and woods shaft technology constantly improving for the last half-century why didn't steel putter shafts also follow suit?
I couldn't help but wonder if BGT was just drinking the Kool-Aid marketing fluff. But it's really not. My Tour Fire putter shaft made my putting stroke consistently more stable going back and coming into impact. I'd put this shaft in pretty much every putter I own in a heartbeat.
So first let me tell you how I tested the BGT Tour Fire, and it's apples to apples stuff. I have two identical Mizuno M-Craft V putters. Don't ask why other than I like this putter quite a lot and wanted it in two different finishes. I'm a putter maniac, what can I say. And I had the Tour Fire shaft installed in one of them.
I took both putters to the practice putting green at Manakiki, tossed down a bunch of balls at around five, 10, and 25 feet, and then just went at it. I wanted to compare mano a mano how they felt, how they swung, and of course how my putts with each finished up.
BGT says the Stability Tour shafts reduces vibration at impact which causes an inconsistent face at impact. Here's a video where they talk a little bit about it.
I don't have any state-of-the-art, high speed cameras or robots to confirm how much vibration is actually reduced. But a simple eye and feel test showed me the Stability Tour Fire just quiets my hands more.
There's a heavier feel to the entire stroke with the Tour Stability Fire, but it hasn't sacrificed distance control on fast greens or downhill putts. In fact, my entire stroke just feels more consistent and smoother with less wobble going back and coming through. I even asked a friend of mine to watch the putter head with each shaft and tell me which wobbles more. And it was as clear to him as it was to me the Stability Tour wobbles less.
That's translated to feeling very comfortable and confident on all kinds and distances of putts. I actually feel the heavier sensation bring the putter back into line during my forward stroke with the Stability Tour Fire, almost like the bottom of the putter head is moving on tracks.
What's interesting about all this to me is Stability Tour shafts are supposed to be primarily about stabilizing the head from less vibration at impact but it's really been the actual stroke becoming smoother and more consistent that's my big takeaway.
I do feel more vibration coming up into my hands with the stock putter shaft. And the face of my putter with the stock shaft feels a little thicker. The feel at impact with Stability Tour Fire still gives me the deep forged feel of the M-Craft head, but it's softer. And this sensation is also more obvious and pronounced when you hit outside of center.
So what about the results, right? Because that's what really matters. Well. on those five-foot putts I didn't see any significant difference between the stock shaft and Stability Tour Fire in putts made. On 10 foot putts however, a difference began to emerge. My misses with Tour Stability Fire were better and closer. I'm not sure if there's a proximity statistic for putter misses, but it excited me enough and gave me reason to believe with a little practice I can actually start making a few more of these length putts this season.
And when I got to those longer 25 foot putts? Alarms went off. I'm not saying I became a cold-blooded ice water running through my veins kind of putter. But I did actually make a few more from this distance with the Stability Tour Fire and again saw noticeably better misses both in speed and direction. I can say with certainty there's an absolute benefit to this shaft on longer putts. And it's not just about a more stable, smoother stroke. It's also clearly about a better efficiency at impact.
Remember that scene from Happy Gilmore when Chubbs tells Happy to think of a place that's really perfect when he's putting, his own happy place? Well the BGT Stability Tour Fire putter shaft goes a long way to getting you there by creating a more exact back and through stroke consistently into impact. And plain and simple, that's going to give you more chances to roll in putts from anywhere on the green.
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