Club Champion Putter Fitting Review - Westlake Ohio (Cleveland West) 2023

Putting is the simplest stroke you make in golf.  But it can also be the most confounding.  You can pull or push your putts and not even know why.  You might be hitting up on the ball too much or smashing the ball into the ground and not even be aware of it.  And sometimes even your aim might be completely off even though you're positive it's dead on.

That's where Club Champion comes in to help.  A putter fitting at Club Champion addresses all these aspects of putting and more, and ultimately fits you into a putter that's best for your unique individual swing.  Brass tacks, the moment you walk out of a Club Champion putter fitting with a new putter you're going to be more consistent on the greens.

Before I get into my Club Champion putter fitting I want to mention there are countless putting techniques and putting methods that work for different players.  Putting is really the one thing we can all do very differently and yet still be successful.  So don't go chasing the techniques of others.  Be yourself, swing your swing, and find a putter that fits you.

When I'm asked about putter fittings I often tell people to think of cars they've rented in their lives.  Sometimes we get cars that just don't feel right.  Maybe the seat wasn't comfortable or it didn't handle the way we like.  Then other times we've rented cars that felt absolutely perfect.  The seats were perfect, the leg room was perfect, the dash and controls and handling were all perfect.  

In a simplified sort of way this is what Club Champion helps you discover.  Taking you from a putter that feels and performs just sort of meh to a putter that is so perfectly suited to your game, your swing, and your comfort that you might start believing every putt you hit has a real chance to drop.

And Club Champion looks at everything in your stroke.  It's an exhaustive and complete inspection of loft, lie, offset, and length.  Toe-hang, head shapes, and weights are addressed.  

Club path, face angle, and head rotation are analyzed.  Even grip styles and sizes and face design and texture come into the equation.  By the end of your putter fitting you can have complete confidence Club Champion has put you into a putter to that's going to improve the results of your stroke.

 

The Newest Club Champion Location in the US

My putter fitting was at Club Champion's newest location in Westlake, Ohio.  I like to call it Cleveland West as Club Champion also has a fantastic studio further east in Warrensville Heights, Ohio.  The new Westlake studio is one of the larger Club Champions I've ever been in.  

In addition to the putter fitting area it has three hitting bays, all of which are noticeably larger than other studios I've been fit at.  And you can try pretty much every driver, wood, hybrid, iron, wedge, and putter head imaginable along with shaft and grip options that give you over 65,000 hittable combinations.  Club Champion is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for gearheads.

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The Club Champion Fitting Personal Touch

So I arrived for my fitting and met my fitter Greg, and could tell immediately the passion he was going to bring this day.  We were ready to get down to business.  If you have a current putter you can bring that in to use as your baseline (that's what I did), or you can also just grab any putter at Club Champion and if you want to start from complete scratch.

I should also mention definitely talk to your fitter about everything.  What you like, what you don't like, what you do well and not so well.  For Club Champion it's all about you and the more you engage in the fitting the more your fitter can help you get exactly what you want and need and even broaden the options available.

As an example if someone comes into a fitting with one particular putter in mind Club Champion is certainly going to work with you on that putter.  And your fitter will make all conceivable adjustments to that putter so it's fit as ideally as possible for your stroke.  

But with that said your Club Champion fitter also has so many putter combinations available that you'll want to look at other possibilities recommended after your SAM Lab analysis.  It might even be a putter you didn't realize was available.  Or it might just be to confirm what you wanted coming in is indeed the best putter for you by confidently eliminating other possibilities.  The Club Champion fitting is all about you.

 

I told Greg I've grown fond of more square-back blades as opposed to other styles.  Square has just become my thing.  Not too long ago the only options were mallets, blades, mid-mallets, and small mallet putters.  But the square category can be ideal for a player like me who doesn't fit perfectly into a blade but also doesn't want to go into the forgiving larger mallet.

Greg asked me about typical misses and I told him it's usually a left miss, maybe sometimes short.  And for whatever reason generally the bigger the putter head I use the more I miss left with it.  I like the stability a bigger head brings but a smaller blade seems to give me a better stroke.  

Greg immediately began wondering about offset for my putter.  Many mallet putters are double-bends and if my miss is typically left that might be because of too much offset (as opposed to faulty aim).  We were going to figure it out.  And this is where SAM Lab comes in.

SAM Lab Knows

Sam Lab knows where the ball is and where the cup is.  I start by aiming center of cup.  Greg hooks a blue-tooth device on to my putter that connects to and calibrates the main unit (or the "mothership" as he calls it).  And this is how we learn everything there is to learn about my putting stroke.  

Rotational stroke, path arc, rotation to impact, start of forward swing, rotational consistency, all kinds of data.  Throughout my fitting Greg talked with me about every aspect of data collected and if you're the curious type a Club Champion fitting will be incredibly educational as well.

It took just seven putts to collect all the data and get a baseline reading of my swing.  From there Greg began to analyze everything and started formulating ideas of the types of putters and necessary adjustments that might be best for me.

 

Club Champion Putter Fitting: (1) Head Type

First we looked at a top view of the path arc of my putter swing.  The black square in the top of the picture is the golf ball.  The grey line is an imaginary perfect straight line so to speak.  The dotted line is my takeaway, the full line is my forward stroke, and the colors represent my seven putts.

The recommendation was that a blade is best for me.  This was interesting because my path arc is considered moderate (which usually means you go into a more mallet type of head).  But the rotation of my putter stroke is very high,  I was open 9.4 degrees to start my forward swing (about double the average).

This is when Greg and I officially started geeking out.  His exact words were, "Are we having fun yet?"  We started talking about shaft offset, toe hang, how they work together, and more.  And I'll share a little of this now to help you better understand the fitting process because these characteristics are like ingredients Club Champion mixes together in choosing between different mallet, blade, or square head models as our ideal.

How much offset you have plays a huge role in how you look down at your ball, how you aim, and how pleasing it appears at address.  In the simplest terms hosel determines offset, it's what takes the shaft into the putter head.  A short-slant hosel is a half-offset.  That means the shaft hits into the face half way and sits off the face half way.  By comparison a plumbers neck puts the shaft completely off the face of the putter.  

All this matters because different hosels can open or close your aim and stroke.  And a Club Champion fitting leaves no doubt as to the best configuration for you to get your putts rolling straighter and on line.

Greg and I also talked toe-hang.  And if you've read about toe-hang on social media (and even on some websites) it can be a hot mess that just confuses you.  In a nutshell toe-hang affects the feel of your putter.  It can make you move the putter (and close the putter) at a faster rate.  Or if it's a heavier head it can actually slow down the toe and slow your close rate.

With enough practice and time dedication you can groove any putter you love and make it work, let's be honest here.  But with the Club Champion fitting you're being fit for what you're doing now, to how you swing now.  And Club Champion wants to (and does) fit putters like they do with drivers, irons, wedges.  Which is to say they fit the putter to the stroke of the individual golfer.  You can get a half-offset double bend shaft that is face-balanced or have it with 45 degrees of toe hang.  Again, Club Champion is here to help us figure out what's absolutely best for each of us individually.

Club Champion Putter Fitting: (2) Head Balance

Next up was my Rotation Relative to Path.  In the picture below blue means the face is closed, red means the face is open, and black means the face is square.  Each line represents where the face is during my entire stroke.

 

We saw the ball remain on the face of my putter for four inches primarily because I'm so closed at impact.  In fact I'm already closed before impact.  This made Greg think we need more toe-hang.  The wheels were turning and Greg was starting to put the recipe of my perfect putter together.

Club Champion Putter Fitting: (3) Shaft Configuration

Then we we analyzed my aim.  Or another way to look at it is how much or how little offset do I need?  The results showed my aim is great.

Anything under 1-degree is considered fantastic even for a low handicap player.  We tested initially with a half-offset putter so at this point there was probably no reason for that to change.  Aim was on point.

Club Champion Putter Fitting: (4) Length

Putter length was up next.  Whatever your posture is, however comfortable you are standing over the ball, the line from your eyes over ball is crucial.  Greg had me line up and saw my eyes were right over the ball (exactly where you want them).  So we knew my current length was perfect for me.

A longer length would have pushed me away from the ball and pulled my eyes inside the ball (where a shorter length would have pushed my eyes outside the ball).  This is important because the wrong length putter can wreck havoc on the arc of your natural swing and require you to make difficult adjustments of feel, aim, and swing to be precise at impact.

Club Champion Putter Fitting: (5) Putter Loft

Too much loft on your putter will cause the ball to go airborne and hurt distance control.  Too little loft on your putter will cause the ball to skid and skip, also hurting your distance control and even throw your putts off line.  And there really is no ideal static putter loft.  The ideal loft comes from how you deliver the putter to the ball and getting this right will help your putts roll smoother and more consistently.

My stroke showed an upswing at impact so we dropped loft down half a degree.  Also because less loft is needed on faster, well manicured greens this suited both my particular style and type of course I usually play.

Club Champion Putter Fitting: (6) Putter Lie

Putter lie affects where you strike the ball both toe-to-heel and top-to-bottom.  I have a toe up tendency at impact which tends to produce more of a pull miss.  Dropping the lie angle was the recommended fix.

 

This is a great place to show how important your fitter is even with the comprehensive SAM Lab analysis.  I mentioned earlier how different aspects of your putting stroke analysis are related and it's up to your fitter to take all the components of the putter build recommendations and piece them together in a way that best fits you.

I could have simply moved closer to the ball to bring my putter toe down.  But we'd already established my aim was perfect and moving closer to the ball would have changed my vision over the ball.  Greg was constantly analyzing all the moving parts of my fitting to make sure they work congruously in my new putter build.  The Club Champion fitting is about finding the right mix of all these recommendations while maximizing every aspect of putter performance.

Club Champion Putter Fitting: (7) Grip Type

Here's a perfect example of why talking with your fitter is so important and why ultimately it's up to your fitter to piece together all the recommendations from SAM Lab.  Sam Lab recommended I go with a normal size grip.  But we went with a midsize grip.

We went with a midsize grip for numerous reasons.  First, a standard grip actually makes my already handsy stroke even more handsy.  It's just not the grip for me.  On the other hand oversize grips can quiet the hands and not release the putter as much for those who miss left with a lot of hand rotation.  But I can't stand how oversize grips feel.  For me I lose all feel of the stroke.  And my (74-percent) consistency of rotation was already so good I really didn't need an oversize grip.  The average rotation consistency for a Tour player is around 90-percent.

This is why you want to share as much information and feedback as possible with your fitter.  Feel and perception matters a lot.  And as good as Greg is there's no way he would know this with certainty just by observing me or from what SAM Lab recommended.  Even grip texture and softness comes into play to be perfectly comfortable in your stroke.  Let your fitter know.

What I Wound Up With

I'll fast forward through all the putters Greg pulled for me based on SAM Lab recommendations and his own analysis.  We went through a half dozen putters at least.  I hit putts with each one, slowly eliminating the contenders because of my particular preference for looks and feel at impact.  And when we got down to my ideal putter you know what?  It wasn't even on my radar coming in.

The PING PLD Milled Anser D emerged as my conquering putter, spec'd out exactly like SAM Lab recommended with a custom shaft and custom grip.  

And no exaggeration, everything about my stroke improved.  I had even better and more consistent face rotation, tighter north-south and east-west impact location, and straighter, more immediate roll after impact.  Truly almost no chance of my putts missing left anymore.  All the boxes were checked off, every damn one of them.

That's what a Club Champion fitting and fitter can do for you.  They go above and beyond, and then above and beyond even more.  Sure you still have to read putts and breaks and judge distances.  But a Club Champion putter fitting comprehensively and absolutely dials you in.  There's no stone left unturned.  And the confidence you get from making more putts (at least in my opinion) might be the most confidence you can get from anything in this game we all love.

Any putter you buy from Club Champion also comes with a lifetime of free adjustments.  Notice something whacky or off about your putter?  Just bring it back in, they'll check it and fix anything that's needed to get you back to your original specs.  That's dedication.  Not only to helping you reach your absolute potential but also to helping you maintain it.  My highest possible recommendation for Greg and Club Champion fittings.