Hey Everyone,

A few quick notes

• Half Swing Series: We’re less than four weeks away from our first Half Swing Series event at Butter Brook on May 30. Two-man aggregate. $150 a person. Sign up with a friend or as a solo and we’ll find a partner for ya! Full details and sign-up here.

• Premium Subscription: If you’d like to help support my quest, you can become a premium member. You get full access to midweek posts, the ability to comment on posts, and 4 premium-only videos about my quest a year. It’s $50 for the year or $7 per month.

• Pat Bradley is donating her extensive trophy collection and other items from her Hall of Fame career to MassGolf. They will be on display in the “Pat Bradley Room” in the William F. Connell Golf House in Norton, Mass. Here’s the full story from MassGolf.

• Tips for a beginner from a recent beginner: In this week’s podcast, my friend Tung shares tips for beginners. He started playing golf in 2021 and has some great insight based on his experience. Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Putters: Loyalty and Mania

When I was a freshman in college, I decided to treat myself and buy a new putter. I had just made the Holy Cross golf team, so I fired up eBay and started poking around for a new flatstick. I found a used Newport Scotty Cameron and started the bidding. A week later it was in my hands.

The same putter was in my hands in Ireland and Scotland last summer. We’ve had quite a long and winding road together over the last 22 years. For spells, it sat in timeout, banished for too many three-putts or some other nonsense.

I dabbled with the belly putter until it was made illegal. One day, I tried out a Ping putter from the Worcester CC pro shop and shot even par, so naturally, I bought that putter, too. But that’s the extent of my putter purchases.

Putters represent loyalty and mania. I have felt a sense of pride in having the same putter over many years. It’s a club you use on every hole. It can earn you money or break your heart. You can keep the same putter and change the size of the grip, or you can change how you grip the club.

I’ve held my Scotty Cameron conventionally, with the claw, and now I use the cross-handed grip. I slapped a fat grip on it a few years ago and never looked back.

How a person holds a putter is one form of mania.

Purchasing putters is another source of mania. The putting green at a golf store is a madhouse. Putters line the edge of the astroturf green, beckoning anyone who has recently lost a $5 Nassau on the final hole. That putting green is golf’s hall pass, an opportunity to try something new without the guilt. Maybe a few 15-footers roll into the dead center of the cup. You check the price, of course it’s $300. You start to do the math in your head. You think about the putter at home, nestled in your bag, waiting for another chance to win you some money or sink that unlikely putt.

You put the putter back and go wander the driver aisle…

I’ve hit tens of thousands of putts with my Scotty Cameron. Some good, some bad.

The last putt I hit with it was in Scotland at Elie Golf House. After that, things changed, and it was completely out of my control.

You see, my clubs got stuck in Scotland and Ireland for three weeks last July. I thought they were gone forever, so I scrounged up some old clubs. I had no putter, though, because the belly putter was the only one in the basement.

My friend Mike offered me two of his putters. I fondled both of them in the car park at Presidents GC before a Public Links Q practice round. I liked the feel of the Odyssey. It was a wide blade, it felt sturdy, and it had a different neck than my Scotty. I slid it into my bag.

When my clubs returned to Boston in late July, three weeks after we returned home and 20 days after I had given up any hope of seeing them again, they arrived home.

Unceremoniously, I pulled the Scotty from from bag and replaced it with the Odyssey. We had a good thing going, and I wanted to see how long it might last.

This past week at Juniper Hills, I shot one-under par with the Odyssey in the bag. I made a bunch of good putts and a couple of long ones for birdie.

The crazy part is, now I’m wondering why I waited so long to replace the Scotty.

I was never a bad putter, but I was never very good. There were always a few rounds in the summer where I’d get hot and roll a few in the center. But now I’m more consistent than I’ve ever been putting.

I took pride in my loyalty to my putter. I’ve had it for more than half my life and would scoff at people who churned through putters at the first sign that the Honeymoon was over.

Then I watched Scottie Scheffler drop his putter like a bad habit this spring and go on a monumental win streak and win a second Green Jacket.

Romanticizing putters is its own form of mania, and now I have a borrowed putter that I love - A cruel twist of fate. There’s a chance Mike has forgotten about this putter, but he’s a reader (Hi, Mike!) and I’ll tee it up with him this summer. So he’ll remember at some point.

I don’t think this putter will be in the bag for the next 22 years. But I do know that golf has found another way to make me feel just a little bit crazy.

Double Click(s)

1. It seems like the PGA Tour walk-and-talk interviews died off pretty quickly. I bet Michael Block will absolutely do one at Valhalla. This clip of Brandon Marsh answering a fan question and chasing down a fly ball is sick.

2. A good thread here from KVV about, you guessed it, Rory.

3. The Celtics Twitter account makes some awesome videos.

When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

• Every now and then, I’m reminded that it’s an Olympics year. I enjoyed this article about two friends trying to qualify for the Olympic Marathon.

I’m listening to…

• Was in the same old podcast rotation this week. I realized Pelton is where I listen to the most music. Green Day’s Welcome to Paradise was a welcome song during a ride.

I’m eating…

• If you’re in North Station, hit up HubHall. It’s a food hall with a solid variety of food. I grabbed a slice of pizza before the Cs game on Tuesday from Apizza.

• I made a version of these tacos this week…

dishedbykate

View more on Instagram

I’m watching…

• I didn’t watch it all, but the Tom Brady Roast was something else. No punches were pulled. It seems like Netflix is going to make a run of these Roast the Goat live shows. I would love to see Tiger Woods in the hot seat. I’m not so sure he has the sense of humor to go through with it, to be honest. Brady relinquished all control, another thing that would make Woods very uncomfortable. But it would be incredible.

• Watched the first episode of Shogun this week. Liked it a lot, will continue watching.

• I recommended Sugar on AppleTV last week. It’s an LA crime show starring Colin Farrell and Amy Ryan. Episodes are around 30 min. which is kind of great. It took a massive turn in last week’s episode. I have no idea if I’m going to like it anymore. Like a wild twist. Watch the trailer.

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