Counterbalancing a Mizuno Bettinardi

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#21
Bonobobananas said:
Quality HB, I love it :)
Cheers, Bananabonobo! The putter feels great. The weight certainly takes out the smaller muscles from my putting stroke and I'm quite sure the 37-inch shaft also helps me set up better.

I'll need to visit a dome soon to see how it actually works outside of my hallway. :) A couple of more months before I get to take it out on the course.

I do wonder what kind of an effect a bit more weight, maybe 20 grams at the butt would have on irons. It might very well be something worth exploring in the future.
 

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#22
I'm 6'3" with legs that go all the way up. :)

This reply got a bit lengthy on how I went about the whole thing, so bear with me and I hope this makes sense to you.

I've rebuilt my whole putting stroke and stance over the past couple of months. First of all, I changed my grip, the way I hold the putter. Previously I used the same grip as with my other clubs with the grip resting on my fingers. This grip made the shaft lay quite flat leading the toe of the putter hanging in the air or me moving my arms away from my body to compensate for it. The grip also caused the occasional turning of the wrists as there was nothing to stop that. It (and the shaft being shorter) also made me hunch too much over the ball and put my eyes outside the line of putt (in other words and exaggeratedly my nose was over the ball), which is a no-no. You need your eyes on top of the ball or slightly inside the line.

Now I grip my putter so that the grip runs pretty much through my index finger and the life line in my palm. The shaft is aligned with my forearms, the putter sits flat against the floor, my eyes are on top of the ball and I'm standing more upright with my arms connected to my body.

How I determined the correct length was by standing up straight against a wall, with heels, buttocks, shoulders and the back of the head against the wall. Then I took a step forward, bent down from my hips and let my arms hang freely, connected to my rib cage. You want the putter grip in your hands in that position. Then you just need to get the correct shaft length and lie angle.

What I had was the old grip I had cut off and the two-ended shaft extension bit that was really long. I inserted the extension into the putter and the grip on the extension. It allowed me to check all the possible lengths from the original 35" to 40"+. I checked the length I felt comfortable with several times, tried moving the grip further up or down the shaft and always came back to around 37".

So, if you want to do it right, ask the pro shop to cut the old grip so that it can be used later on to check the length of the putter and buy an uncut shaft extension. Or do it in the pro shop with the pro. Move the grip up and down the shaft until you get it right. Just remember to do it with your golf shoes on and make some putts to ensure you like it. The correct length might not be 33" or 34" but maybe 33.75" or 34.2" and you can get the shaft to those lengths, it's just a matter of cutting the extension to the correct length. 

As for the grip itself, I have long fingers and all the online grip fittings tell me I should use midsize grips, which the Winnpro X 1.18 is. The normal Golf Pride Player's Wrap worked with the way I held the putter previously but for my new technique, it's just way too small for me, especially with the added weight beneath the grip. I have to say the bigger grip doesn't stop me from turning my wrists, I need the added weight to remove the issue The original Winn grips that came with the Bettinardis did wear down quite fast but these are a bit different and the one I've had on the C-01H has held up well for several years.
 

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#23
I went to a dome yesterday to hit balls for the first time this year. I spent maybe an hour putting and at first I was really worried of distance control on long putts. You certainly need to "swing" the club harder and if you do putt it too hard, the putt could be way too long.

The long putts will be something I'll probably need to work on once we get outdoors and onto real greens. The stability on shorter putts was great though. With my new putting stroke it was very easy to get the ball start on the correct line. When I missed it was always to the left. I suspect it happened when I ended up putting with my arms rather than shoulders and body. With the additional weight and toe hang of the head, I believe the toe lagged behind and the head closed on the backswing and stayed like that through the stroke.

Thus, now I feel the amount of weight I added might've been a bit drastic but anything less than 100 grams wouldn't have given the stability I wanted.

The two inches of added length also seemed like a very good decision.
 

NotOhBoy

Active Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Local club/country
Surrey
#24
There was an earthquake in Swansea this past w‘end. Did you accidentally drop your monster putter?
 

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#25
NotOhBoy said:
There was an earthquake in Swansea this past w‘end. Did you accidentally drop your monster putter?
Yep, dropped it and it was gone, fell through the 7 floors of the apartment building, the garage/air-raid shelter beneath and is now boring through the bedrock. They're currently preparing for a bigger mess in New Zealand. :(

If only I had known.
 

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#26
I'll get to try the putter outdoors on Saturday as the courses finally open but this is about something else...

We hit the range today with a friend. He had demoed a Titleist 917 4 wood with a Fujikura Speeder Pro Tour Spec 84 shaft and it was fantastic for him. He ended up buying the 5 wood over the winter and I tried it myself today. The club had a nice, heavy feel to it as the shaft is 89 grams, but it also felt a bit like counter balanced. To my surprise I could hit some of the best fairway wood shots with it right off the bat whereas my 650 (and all other fairway woods I've ever tried) requires a bit of warming up.

I got home and went to read about the shaft to find out Titleist says the shaft does have a high balance point and Fujikura site revealed it's a counter-balanced shaft by design. So, the obvious next step is to install a couple of nuts to the butt of my 650. Two nuts and a bit of threaded rod to keep them in place should give me some extra 12 grams to the 75-gram fairway wood shaft. I have new grips for the woods anyway, so destroying one for testing doesn't matter at all at this point. :)
 

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#27
And here's the adjustable weight set up, just screw the rod inside :)

 

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#28
Having played a round with the counter-balanced putter on Saturday and another round with the normal C-01H.

The green speeds change from green to green at this point of the season and the distance control issues have been very similar on both rounds. The counter-balanced putter is offering me a much more stable stroke though and thus better directional control, like I noticed over the winter.

As for the CB fairway wood, I think it's an improvement but there's a very good chance I'll be demoing new fairway woods soon.
 

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#29
The greens are improving and me and the putter are getting along better and better. Distance control can be difficult, hitting really slow putts can be difficult, there's always a bit of pace when the ball takes off and if you get the pace wrong, it can be very wrong.

Another interesting issue is that due to the speed the ball takes off, you really need to get your line right. The putter is like a train on rails, it will go straight and with a bit of pace. Thus the putts kissing the edges are very likely to lip out. Another thing I've been thinking about is the Youtube pros telling us how the human body does all sorts of compensations to accommodate swing flaws etc. to produce decent results. One such possible thing is the ability to turn your wrists during a putting stroke to get the ball down a different line than you planned (if you subconsciously think the line isn't right). With this train of a putter such compensations simply aren't possible.

Those same issues are what also make the putter great, the ball rolls off the face very nicely, the putting stroke is very stable and the ball will start off on the line you chose with confidence. Even distance control is good excluding the obvious brain farts which would be better with a normal putter.
 

Halebopp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
HCP
10.6
Local club/country
Lakeside Golf Vammala, Finland
Irons
MP-H5/53/4
Driver
MP-650/ST180
#30
The experiment came to an end this week, I removed the grip and self-made weight, reconsidered the shaft length and put on a midsize Lamkin SinkFit Pistol grip, which weights around 120 grams, so it's still a heavy grip but somewhat lighter than my own build. The shaft length is now very close to 36", about an inch longer from how it was manufactured with the 330-gram head. I got my first round in yesterday and managed it with 27 putts after a three-putt on the first. Some of the credit goes to the lack of GIRs (6) and good chipping but once again I felt comfortable and confident addressing the ball on the green. A feeling I haven't had for quite a while.
 
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