The first PGAPappas Guest Review of 2026 comes from Kevin (@KSmithWooster on X) about his Club Champion putter fitting experience. Kevin was the winner of my PGAPappas 12 Days of Christmas Club Champion Putter Fitting and Custom Built Putter Giveaway and you're going to love this review!
Kevin's fitting was extremely thorough and he takes us through every step of his day. And it's very cool to hear in Kevin's own words how he worked with his fitter to find a putter that not only worked best for him but also addressed goals and priorities Kevin was looking for in his putting game.
Here' Kevin's Club Champion putter fitting review and also the putter Kevin wound up being fit best for.
I had the great fortune of #KringleReleased this year and was selected for the Club Champion custom putter fitting and custom putter of my choosing! A BIG, BIG thank you to Pete, Mike, and Club Champion! And keep following Pete for awesome content in the future and keep trying to join the #KringleReleased crew!
Naturally, the first things I did upon seeing the notification I won was thank Pete and start Google searching “top putters of 2025,” “top putters for 6-10 foot putts,” and “putters similar to the Odyssey AI double wide blade,” my current putter. I read/watched a lot of putter reviews that week in advance of the fitting!
My goals going into the fitting were to prioritize forgiveness on mishits and confidence/speed control on putts in the 6-10 foot range when I play different courses. I putt well at my home course – L.C. Boles Memorial Golf Course. Our greens are very slow and small, and I know all the breaks by heart. When I play away from Boles, I can be hit or miss in the putting department, especially on the short-to-mid-range putts, because of the much quicker, more undulated, and much larger greens. In 2026, tidying up the putting drop-off away from Boles is a priority.
I made a list of putters I’d be interested in trying. TaylorMade Spiders were up there as they were reviewed highly in the mishit and mid-range putting categories. It is a fitting, so of course I’m going to ask to try a LAB or two! I have a pretty straight back, straight forward putting stroke and like to putt with topspin, so the zero torques were going to be good options. I put a couple Scotty’s, Odyssey’s, and PXG on the list.
I am left-handed, so that takes certain putters out of consideration immediately. Club Champion is well equipped to work with left-handers to fit them to what they need to perform at their best on the course as they had multiple left-handed putters to look at. Yes, it is still a much smaller selection than right-handed, but I knew we would come out with a winner!
I worked with Michael Snodgrass at Club Champion’s Warrensville Hts. location. This also happens to be Pete’s home Club Champion! I had off MLK Day and Pete was at the PGA Show, or else I’m sure he would have stopped by for it! Michael was absolutely amazing and first-class! He called me a couple days before to review the information I provided on the fitting form, go over some options on what I was looking for out of the fitting, and what I’d like to try. He also shared with me being left-handed they have a relationship with Golf Galaxy a couple stores down if we needed to pop over to look at anything they didn’t have at Club Champion.
Upon arrival, I was met by Michael and we went right to work. He noted all the specs of my current Odyssey AI Double Wide Putter and we got started on the SAM PuttLab. Michael noticed the toe of my club was slightly up on my swing during the process. We reviewed all my data from the SAM PuttLab. It showed I had a slightly closed face of a couple degrees, my swing path was good for considering zero torques, my point of impact was very consistent, and the recommended ball spin was top spin.
The first putter we tried was the TaylorMade Spider ZT. It is a little bit on the heavy side in terms of overall weight compared to the rest of the putters. I really liked that because I felt like I had the best control with this putter. The first round with it 4/6 putts went in and the other two caught part of the lip of the cup. The standard grip felt great in my hands and it felt like I was in total control putting. It definitely checked the boxes for the goals of my fitting. Michael mixed it back in several times throughout my fitting as we went through the other options. And each time with this putter my putts were either in or just missed the edge of the cup.
Next, we tried an Odyssey fang-style putter and I didn’t really like that one. The ball came off a little quicker and it was too light for me. Mike adjusted it a few times, but overall it was just too light for my liking.
Others we tried and ultimately ruled out included theTaylorMade Spider Tour – I didn’t have as good of face control as the Spider ZT. We also tried a Scotty Cameron (don’t remember which model) but the ball didn’t roll as smoothly as others. I did not like the look and feel of the LAB DF2 – having a putter with a driver head footprint in terms of overall size seems weird to me.
We tried a couple other different LABs. The DF3 was good but I didn’t like the feel. We also tried a Spider with a longer length, but club face control for me was not as consistent as the standard length (35inches).
The winner ultimately was the TaylorMade Spider ZT. I went with the black one, stock shaft, and stock grip. We put in for the superstroke pistol 1.0 black spider putter grip as that one will hold up better from an appearance standpoint than the white one with how much I play.
It was a great overall experience and I looking forward to it coming in a couple weeks! Now we just need to #JingleMelt this snow and if it warms up in Florida, have Pete pack the heat when he heads back north! I highly recommend Michael and Club Champion!
Thanks for the great Club Champion Putter Fitting review Kevin. I love how you and Mike went through so many models to make sure you wound up with a putter that checked absolutely all the boxes and met all your goals! And I'm going to guess right here you will in fact be putting better this year both at your home course and when you're away!
We're going to have a lot more PGAPappas guest reviews in 2026. I know all of you love reading these and reading these your unique perspectives and opinions really just makes the entire community we've created together that much more awesome. Cheers to great golf for us all in 2026!
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