8/12/2015: I now have some proof from PGA player that putter shaft angle changes putt to putt and hole to hole. My hypothesis is that even the best golfers change their shaft angle putt to putt and hole to hole.
This is the first of PGA tour player putting the Blast Motion device to record shaft angle changes in first 9 holes of ProAm at Twin Cities.
Notice that he made 15 putts in the 9 holes. The distance of the putt is recorded followed by the shaft lean. The change of shaft angle then changes the loft of the putter. So if the loft was 3 degrees and the shaft changed 7.7 degrees as seen below, the ball was struck with a putter face loft of 10.7 degrees. At the other end of the spectrum was a negative change of 2.2 degrees. The ball was then struck with a face loft of 0.8 degrees. The roll out distance will vary with the changes in face loft and his average change was 2.1 degrees in 15 putts.
The first number is the record of the putts in order. The second number is the distance to the hole. The third number is the shaft angle at impact.
1 4 Feet 1.6
2 3 Feet 1.6
3 15 Feet 4.4
4 1 Foot 3.0
5 22 Feet 4.4
6 1 Foot 1.1
7 15 Feet 7.7
8 4 Feet 1.5
9 20 Feet -0.1
10 2 Feet 1.2
11 15 Feet -0.3
12 1 Foot 1.8
13 6 Feet 3.0
14 1 Foot -2.2
15 4 Feet 2.4
Average 2.1
STD Dev 2.2
When we separated out the 2nd putt which were 1 to 4 feet, the shaft angle changed from 3.0 to -2.2. The latter were on 1 foot putts so they may have been one hand tap in’s.
FUTURE: Collect more supporting data on tour.
Player Soultion: The FORGIVING FACE PUTTER. https://drlanny.com/golf/putter-shaft-angle-changes-are-unavoidable/
