Ping 2021 Anser 4 Putter Review

Ping 2021 Anser 4 Putter Review

Ping is looking to crack the putter market with its unimaginatively-named 2021 putters. There are 12 models made with 11 shapes in the range and we were sent, by request, the Anser 4 putter to test on the putting green at Burghley Park Golf Club, along with the larger 2021 Fetch putter.

The first point to note is that these putters are not adjustable for length. While grips that adjust the length are available for a £40 upcharge, Ping has decided to blend back in with the crowd and only offer fixed length putters. This is a shame, as the system was really clever, discrete and easy to implement but there’s no point in going to considerable effort and cost to implement a feature that most golfers weren’t utilising.

The look of this putter, certainly at address, is very understated and premium but with out sacrificing the visual cues golfers need for alignment. The Anser 4 has a short slant hosel, which really suited our eye and strong arced stroke, as well as a longer, narrower profile and sharper corners versus the other Anser models.

Hit a few putts and the first thing that strikes you is the feel, more specifically how soft it is. On short putts, the Anser 4 barely registered a sound but this did increase the longer the putt attempted was. Thankfully, this was not to the detriment of speed. In fact, putts came off surprisingly fast for a soft-feeling blade, but not excessively so. It's certainly one of the best blade putters we've tried in recent times.

Golfers that also use a soft-feeling golf ball need to be somewhat wary - the combination could be difficult to get used to - but remember these are putters designed to work on the most part with firmer, tour-played, multi-layer premium golf balls.

The heel and toe weights in the Anser putters are obvious, framing the face insert and they definitely contributed to stable feel. The performance output from this was noticeable better control of distance on mid and long range putts. Lagging putts stone dead can take a while to achieve with regularity when switching to a new putter but for us, we quickly became accustomed to and enjoyed the pace at which the ball came off the face.

In our first round using the putter, we came off the course feeling like we holed out much better from short range and that our lag putting had also improved. In fact, after two rounds using it our Arccos data told us that we gained a shot versus a previous round using our old putter, so the gains were proven to be immediate.