My personal testimony for the Chip Roller putter and here’s the revelation ABSers – those ugly bastards and the stroke Lag advocates both really do work.
Some of you know that Lag and I are friends and that I assist him in getting classic clubs to you ABS fans/students. I have a passion for collecting putters that is almost as great as building, repairing and customizing the classics that you love to play. I own hundreds of putters (without exaggeration).
I understand Lag’s theories about the Chip Roller style putter but always preferred my old classics, DB Palmers, 8802s, Wizards etc. and always used them for play. I am a decent putter and roll the ball pretty well. ( I can’t really ABS it otherwise worth a darn though – old dog).
I recently built a few CRs for Lag and one was an old Titleist Dead Center Anser style blade that has a big toe cavity for the lead. These will not bend worth a darn so I had to do a shaft bend to get it flat enough and it had some loft already. It came out nearly face balanced even with the added toe weight. Used a round grip as Lag likes.
Lag did not like the putter, I suspect because it is a bit too modern, so I got it back and now I owe him big time. What an absolute revelation. I own much prettier putters, more collectable and classic putters and some down right expensive collectors. This is the best feeling and most usable putter I own. I won’t offer any stats on putting rounds other than zero three putts, astounding feel and near total confidence that the putter will work. Perhaps the putter is a passing fancy, a temporary infatuation even, and maybe it will die a slow death as have so many others, but I think not. I think the change is not just the putter – it is also the new stroke it promotes.
These putters are really not that hard to build and I will gladly help you if you are inclined to be one of the “Brave Ones” and tackle a CR project. Lag prefers the old 8802, or Iron Master models that are heel shafted but others work also. You need to be able to melt some lead and mix some epoxy. A bit of lead tape helps secure the new lead addition. Personally, I prefer the toe cavity models because the putter is a bit more attractive. It is function we are after lads so go with your gut.
Mike
Got any pictures of the putter to show, and how you did it…sounds interesting. 
Mike,
I am game. Make me one. This is Grady.
I love the Jerry Barber CR I got from Lag and you, Mike. I’ve afew other older style blade putters i’d like to convert to CR . . . but none of the golf shop pros where I live believe me or will touch the clubs. I love putting with the CR. It slots so well into the feel of all the other ABS spec’d clubs. Hogan’s blade was pretty flat . . . would love to know his specs.
. . .I should add that it looked really strange when I first received it, and I thought there wasn’t any way i’d be able to putt with it. I can see the line so much cleaner and I just use a miniture golf swing. So simple. I’d be interested to know if this was how putters used to be?
I have an ironmaster to which I have added lots of leadtape, and, of course, I have flattened the lie. What else needs to be done make it a CR? Add loft?
Dang,
I married a wilson geo low original 600
Bent to 58* original leather grip
and a few grams I ugly lead Between the hosel and the sweets spot
After reading the last few posts I experimented…
I just added 28 grams ( almost a oz) to the toe
Back in love and time for a second honeymoon
As you get closer to the green… your irons, down into your wedges, get shorter, heavier, stiffer, with progressive lie angles and you hit more down on the ball. All your clubs have round grips, and the wedges are much more toe heavy than the other irons.
So why when you get on the green, would you suddenly want a club that is lightweight, upright, little or no loft, whippy shaft, face balanced, and a grip with a flat surface that doesn’t feel like any other club in your bag?
Why spit the game into two games?
I spent years trying to perfect two games… tee to green then on the greens. Rarely was I very successful at doing that… even as a full time player. Once I tossed away the idea of carrying a putter, golf became one uniform game.
The club I use on the greens (chip roller) is a golf club… not an oddity amongst my other clubs. I use the exact same technique to move the ball across the greens as I do chipping the ball. No difference.
In the putting (chip rolling) module, students learn the basics of the protocol to simplify the game.
There have been a lot of great putters in history who applied some or all of these concepts… particularly Bobby Locke.
Popular putting instruction makes zero sense to me. While some learn to putt doing that… I think it’s much harder to learn.
I’ll chime in.
Ive been Chip Rolling for approx 12 months. Im deadly now, with ZERO pratcice.
Previous 25 years. STD putter, STD technique. Woeful with hours of practice.
Cant add any more
Thanks Lag
Steve
I have always used a vardon grip to putt with
It never made sence to me to change grips, as a mater of fact I have tried all the different putting grips for 30-60 seconds none of them - especially the claw - feel like your holding a club
To me it feels like balancing even before you address the ball
It is amazing how you don’t have to do all the fancy alignment to get the ball rolling quickly straight into the hole
Just look and fire
There of course is a ton of detail in the chip roller module area…
But the reason we add all this lead is simply to make it a golf club… similar in weight and toe heavy balance to it’s next door neighbor, the PW.
Rather than treating a putter as an alien tool used only for “the other game”… we take our swing onto the greens and use all the same principals… and effectively just play golf on the greens.
Put me on some crap greens and I feel like I can putt with anyone now even without practicing. While that still might not be reality, the fact I think it to be true is what has made me a much better putter. With this method, the ball comes off the face the same all the time… so the only focus now…is just the options presented by various line and speed combinations. The experience then moves from mechanics to intuition and feel.
When I was on tour trying to putt… I worked on bad mechanics which never really allowed me to open up and just roll the ball. If I tried to just putt by feel, my mechanics got worse and I putter even worse.
I am convinced that the chip rolling method is the best mechanics. Simpiest and most natural particularly if you are already a good player.
Here are some clips of a ugly Geo Low weighted to 524 gm total weight and with 28gm on the toe.
I simply went down to wal-mart and bought 1oz lead fishing weights,
melted it into strips or bars then hammered them into a similar shape as the putter; remelted to shape
initially i used rubber cement to attach (to confirm weight and placement)
Then I just epoxied away
FYI Persimmon, blades and a Ugly putter gets you stokes on the first tee box : )
I use an old Bulls Eye Flange brass putter, which I’ve had since the early 90’s. Weighs in at a solid 18.22 oz, just slightly heavier than my SW. Just never liked using the newer putters.
Anyone play with any of the Spalding Elite model putters? The Elite IV looks somewhat like a stock “chip roller”.
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That Spalding Elite IV weighs in at 17.25 ounces. I’d like it up around 18.5 or even little bit more. What’s the best way to add that much weight? Combo of tungsten powered down the shaft and lead taps? What’s the heaviest putter you’ve played?
