I Already Have A Custom Fit Putter But I Simply Have To Buy This On Black Friday

(Image credit: Future)

published 29 November 2024

Around this time last year I was fortunate enough to experience a custom putter fitting with Ping where their expert fitters analysed every detail of my putting stroke and then came up with the ideal putter for me. These are the guys who work with Viktor Hovland and Tyrrell Hatton amongst others, so they know what they're talking about. The putter they fit me into was the Ping PLD Oslo 3 and I've been very happy with it. It even has its own name - 'El Pistolero' - engraved on the sole.

So I probably shouldn't change, because I know that this is the putter best suited to my stroke and, not only that, it was further customized in terms of loft and lie to make it even more perfect for me. And yet today I'm probably going to take advantage of a deal I've seen on another putter. Why would I do that? Am I crazy?

Quite possibly, yes. But there is some method to my madness as the putter I'm looking at is one I reviewed earlier this year and in all honesty, I was devastated to have to give it back. Had I been able to keep it there's every chance it would have eventually gone in the bag. It's vastly different to the Oslo 3 putter the professional fitters say I should be using, but there are some things that can't be measured with technology and sometimes a putter just feels right in your hands.

The Ping Anser D and I clicked immediately. I even holed a birdie with it my first putt out on the course, and if you've ever seen me putt on the golf course you'll know how rare that is (all of my Golf Monthly colleagues are nodding furiously right now)!

Ping 2024 Anser D Putter — Summer loving, happened so fast! Here I am out on the links with the Ping Anser D putter before we were so cruelly separated.

In my review of the Anser D I ended it by saying;

"All in all I really enjoyed using this putter. Visually it ticks every box for me but I'm happy to say that the performance lived up to the looks, which isn't always the case. I haven’t had a blade putter in the bag consistently since I first started playing over thirty years ago and I’m not going to start now, but hand on heart, if I hadn’t already been professionally fitted into the Ping PLD Oslo 3 then I’d give serious consideration to making this my gamer as I love everything about it and it is definitely right up there when it comes to the best Ping putters."

Well, ever since I had to send it back I have been giving serious consideration to whether it could have been my gamer. Then I saw this Black Friday offer and I think I'm going to take the plunge and give it a shot. It isn't the biggest discount, but seeing this putter for under two hundred dollars really grabbed my attention as it's just too tempting. And if it doesn't work out for me, I can always go crawling back to 'El Pistolero', golf cap in hand.

This deal is with PGA Tour Superstore and I spotted some other bargains which I've added below if the Anser D isn't to your taste.

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Dave is a distinctly average golfer with (fading) aspirations to be so much more than that. An avid collector of vintage Ping putters and the world's biggest Payne Stewart fan, in 2021 Dave turned his front garden into a giant putting green to work on the weakest area of his game. Progress has been slow but steady! In addition to his work reviewing golf gear and writing features for Golf Monthly and T3, Dave is the founder of the Bang Average Golf website.

Dave’s lowest round is a one over par 73 around Kirkby Valley Golf Club in 2018, which included a bogey on the 18th to ruin the one and only chance he’ll ever have of shooting an even par or better score. That errant tee shot on 18 does not still haunt him to this day though, in fact he hardly ever thinks about it. No, honestly, he doesn’t. Not at all. Never.

Dave splits most of his golf between Hurlston Hall Golf Club in Ormskirk, Lancs, and Berrington Hall Golf Club in St Helens and has a handicap that fluctuates between 9 and 12, largely depending on how poor his putting is.

Dave’s current What’s In The Bag?

Driver: Wilson Staff Dynapower Titanium, 9.5°

3 wood: Cobra Speedzone, 15°

5 wood: Tour Edge Exotics 722, 18°

7 wood: Callaway Mavrik Max, 21°

Irons: Cobra Darkspeed, 6-PW

Wedges: Cleveland CBX ZipCore (graphite), 48°, 52°, 56°

Putter: Ping PLD Oslo 3

Ball: Wilson Staff Triad

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