Equipment: SeeMore putters fitting with Andy Gorman
By James Savage
My experience and knowledge of SeeMore putters was limited to seeing Zach Johnson win the Masters and The Open with one. I’d never actually seen one close-up, in a pro shop or retail outlet.
I’d seen Andy Gorman before, coaching Charley Hull on the practice green before a round in the season she won the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit.
SeeMore and Andy have now teamed up to offer the ultimate putter-fitting experience at the PGA pro’s studio at Wishaw Golf Club just outside Birmingham.
I arrive yet to be 100 per cent convinced that a putter fitting is as essential as one for woods or irons.
Putting can be quirky. There are dozens of different ways to get the ball in the hole. Find a method which gets the job done and stick with it?
Andy uses the SAM PuttLab analysis system which measures 28 parameters of the putting stroke.
I hit five putts with my putter and hole all five. How can I improve on that?
As well the data from the sensors on my putter, Andy is filming me from all angles.
Despite holing five out of five, I’m hitting up on the ball and my posture looks dreadful from down the line.
We switch to the SeeMore FGP (as used by Johnson) and go up in length from 34in to 35in and now have 2.5˚ of loft, dropping from 3.5˚.
It has SeeMore’s patented Rifle Scope Technology (RST). As you align the putter to the ball, the shaft should hide the red dot. When the red dot is hidden, the face will be lined up perfectly square. The dot should remain hidden right through the stroke.
I hole another five putts but feel much more comfortable and actually look like a golfer. The ball is rolling end-over-end quicker, and my back isn’t sore after hitting five putts.
My eyes have opened to the process. It’s a fitting with a bit of expert coaching, and there’s tangible results.
I leave confident of holing more putts with a putter I know is right for me.
Andy Gorman’s SeeMore Putters fitting philosophy
“We’re not measuring the player or the ball but we’re able to measure everything that is happening during the stroke.
“That gives us a clear picture whether or not that putter is suitable and whether or not we are delivering the putter back to the ball correctly. We can see if there are any quirky things going on in the stroke.
“As it happens, on this occasion the stroke was pretty good.
“We also carry out video analysis and it was there that we noticed the posture.
“It was clear from the video that it wasn’t very comfortable. You probably didn’t feel that until I showed you what it looked like. Front view it didn’t look too bad but down the line we were able to see that you were quite hunched.
“If you’re hitting 36 putts a round, there’s some shots we can improve on there.
“We needed to get you into a good posture and stand more freely and feel more comfortable.
“That’s not uncommon at the highest level of the game. I look at and work with tour players. I watch them on the range hitting irons and drivers. They all have good posture and are great athletes. They can do 120mph swings for five or six hours a day.
“Yet they’ll walk on to the putting green and they will be bent over a little bit like you were and after 10 minutes they are stretching and flexing their backs. That puts pressure on the time they are able to practise their putting.
“With a hunched posture I doubt you could practice for 20 minutes without feeling it in the back of the legs, the hamstrings, the lower back.
“A good posture for me has a good spine angle, allowing the arms to hang and without the chin feeling like it’s stuck onto your chest. In spite of your bad posture you moved the putter quite well but it’s not going to allow you to practise properly.
“We went up from a 34in to a 35in shaft, I gave you a putter which I believed to be the optimum fit and you didn’t have to consciously make much of a change.
“You tended to grip down on the 34in putter as well by about two inches. You were gripping down on a putter that was already too short.
“You holed five out of five putts with both putters so why would we be changing anything? Well it was too get you into a more relaxed comfortable position.
“The way you brought the putter back to the ball also improved. You were trying to lift the ball into the air – primarily because you were too low – which gets the ball skipping rather than rolling true and quick. With the fitted putter you delivered it more level and we’d taken 1.5˚ of loft off the putter too which resulted in improved impact.
“It was a subtle change but it made a big difference.”
I reckon I’d hit 36 putts in an average round. Andy reckons he could get that down to 30, that’s six shots a round. Is there another area I could improve by six shots in a relatively short space of time?
Why aren’t we all getting fitted for a putter?
Visit the SeeMore website HERE
SRPs: FGP putters from £124.99
Driver Test 2017
Gary Nicol’s short game secrets: The art of shot selection
Marcus Armitage: How I bomb it miles
James Savage
Former equipment editor of NCG. Inconsistent ball-striker and tea-maker.
