A Putter Fitting From PING Changed My Game, Literally.

How much would you pay for a better golf game?

Your answer, like mine, will vary greatly depending on what you stand to gain from getting better at golf.

Over my years at MyGolfSpy, I’ve gotten fitted for each part of my bag. My driver and irons are dialed. My golf ball is dialed. Wedges? So dialed.

But the putter has always been the missing piece for me. I’m not a great golfer by any stretch but there’s nothing more frustrating than my driver and irons doing their job only to be let down by miserable putting.

I’m not big into Arccos or stat tracking, so we’re gonna have to go with the good ol’ “trust me, bro” approach here. But trust me, bro. I three-putt way too much which is why I finally decided I’d go all in on a PING PLD putter fitting.

In a matter of minutes, I learned more about my game on the green than ever before. And, after testing the finished, fitted product, I can definitely say my PING putter fitting makes me better, with data to back it up.

Let’s dive in.

It starts with iPING

The entire custom fitting process starts with the world’s greatest technology, aka an iPod Touch. After scheduling my custom fitting, PING shipped out an iPod Touch and a cradle, used to attach said iPod to my current putter.

From there, it’s easy. You hit a few straight putts, the iPING device captures your swing data and you send it off back to PING for analysis. The process could not have been any more straightforward or simple. It took all of 10 minutes. It’s seriously foolproof and revealed a lot of cool stuff about my stroke that we’ll talk about in the next section.

Sorting through the numbers

Once I sent my data to PING, I scheduled a consult with a master fitter. From there, we got on the phone and walked through each number from my iPING session including a detailed comparison of my numbers against ideals.

It’s not about trying to get you to fix your stroke; it’s about building a putter that fits your stroke. In my case, I was heavily delofting the club with a ton of forward press and had a slight arc.

My tempo and lie angle were dialed so we didn’t mess with anything there.

After explaining what each number meant in real terms, my fitter then gave me suggestions on a putter style, hosel, loft and lie that would work for my stroke.

Ultimately, the decision was left to me. But I went with what my fitter suggested with the only subjective “additions” to my custom putter being color, face milling style and other cosmetic changes like stamping.

After an excruciating two-month wait, my fully fitted putter showed up at my door. From the first roll, I was blown away.

The data

You’re here for the data, right?

The data doesn’t lie. And I’ll sum up what the data says: my custom-fitted PING PLD putter made me a better golfer. No doubt. No ifs, ands or buts.

It flat-out made me better.

After running my current putter and the new custom PING putter head to head on our PuttView, the results couldn’t have been more drastic. The number to pay attention to is PuttView handicap, a calculation that we use in partnership with PuttView for all of our Most Wanted putter testing.

My PuttView handicap with the old, non-fitted putter? A measly 13.

But my PuttView handicap with the fully fitted, custom PING putter? 1.

I’ll link you to a longer explanation here but let me sum it up this way. If golf were only played on the green, I’d be a 13-handicap with my “other” putter. I’d be nearly scratch (1) with the fitted putter.

What a freakin’ difference it makes. For context, if you compare mallet putters from our Most Wanted test, there was a 5-handicap difference across the entire field from best to worst.

And the PuttView handicap doesn’t even tell the whole story. Heck, my tendency to miss right was eliminated with the new, fitted putter. So much so that because I’m so used to setting up left for my right miss (I’m left-handed), my tendency with the PING putter was to start it left.

What’s even more telling is when you break down my PuttView handicap by putt length. I was flat-out abysmal with the old putter (a 48!). With the new putter, I dropped below scratch to -1.6. For medium putts, I dropped to -2.4.

And if you want to talk Strokes Gained, I dropped over an entire stroke (per 18) with just the putter switch.

I mean, I literally just watched my game change … all from swapping into a putter actually built for me.

What are you willing to pay for better golf? Maybe you can buy a better game after all.

At least in this case.