Can A $200 Putter Shaft Help Your Game?

I’m a big believer in how custom-fitted golf shafts can help your game from driver to wedge. But, I honestly have a tough time drinking the Kool-Aid that a custom-made putter shaft will do the same for your prowess on the greens.

Longtime golf inventor Barney Adams says he has a solution to enhance your putt sinkage. GolfDigest.com’s equipment guru E.Michael Johnson explains.

Barney Adams (who also founded Adams Golf), however, knew that the shaft of a putter can play a significant role in how well a player performs on the greens and is now founder of a company called Breakthrough Golf Technology that has produced a putter shaft Adams says is, “a step forward in golf equipment technology.”

The Stability Shaft utilizes a multi-material approach along with different geometries. The result is a shaft that looks significantly different (considerably narrower at the bottom) and is designed to deliver the face more squarely, while producing a lower launch for a more predictable roll, thus resulting in better distance control.

Robert Stephens, one of BGT’s engineers, said the company analyzed and tested all different putter styles from all different manufacturers. “We saw the same thing coming up over and over again: the same inconsistencies in face angle delivery,” he said. “All of them were vastly improved with the Stability Shaft.”

Adds Blair Philip, BGT’s VP of R&D and formerly with putter maker Yes!, “People have worked on driver shafts for decades using the highest quality materials. We’ve just taken that same philosophy and used it in an area where there’s a need. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why the industry hadn’t focused on putter shafts, why focus completely on drivers and irons when putting is 46 percent of the game? Face angle at impact is the No. 1 fundamental to accuracy. We’ve also seen an improvement in the efficiency of the strike.”

New convert Justin Rose will play the Stability Shaft this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, so we might get a good idea how helpful it really is.