Bullseye style putters. My recent experience.

[cloran]

I've been buying a bunch of old putters lately. Doing some research on head styles of yester-year and the subtle differences between brands.

Late last night I polished up a Wilson "Augusta" putter. I drilled a sight dot marking the sweet spot and rolled it for the first time this morning on the practice green (despite the 40* temps and 20mph wind).

The results were nothing short of suprising to me because I was lead to believe that these putters are IMPOSSIBLE to hit! No ONE uses them anymore! There's no tech to them!

It's increadible easy to line up the putt because the entire putter is the topline, lol... no arrows, lines, huge flanges, just the topline. Despite the 6 o'clock toe hang I had zero issues with keeping the face square to the target line on short putts, or squaring it up on longer ones. I think people have been lead to believe that the putter has to open WIDE during the swing. It just doesn't happen like that, and I proved that to myself this morning. Saying the head has to "open like a gate" is misleading, it was to me at least. The face stays square to the arc the entire swing with this putter, with no manipulation on my part. It looks "open" on the backstroke because my stroke isn't SBST.

I'm glad I gave this style a chance... My eyes are opening to the simplistic beauty and effeciency of these heads. Great putters.

Side note: My setup is similar to that of many old-time golfers. I bend at the waste a good amount and have my eyes directly over the ball. This requires a short-ish shaft for me, this one is around 32" in length. The ball is placed just inside my left foot and I have a little forward press to start the stroke, not much. The shaft is more vertical than not and I'm sure all these setup configurations effect the amount of arc in my stroke.


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[golfbaka]

Very nice Cloran! What grip have you put on?

I'm hunting around for a nice bullseye putter at the moment...

[Richie3Jack]

Bullseye was quite popular back in the day. I personally never quite liked the feel of them. I had an 8802 with the original leather wrap grip and that felt perfect to me. Eventually, somebody stole it out of my bag while I ate lunch and I could never quite find an 8802 that felt like that.

At the last PGA Merchandise Show, David Edel and I discussed all of the wacky alignment lines and putterhead shapes that are prevalent in today's designs and from talking to him, I think it's done a tremendous amount of damage to how people putt. Something simpler like an 8802 or Bullseye will usually prevent a leftward aim bias, which is what most people do today.








3JACK

[cloran]

I put a black widow round grip on it.

This one:

[roh]

I picked up a Bullseye a year or so ago at a thrift shop near my office for $10. Awesome putter. Great feel, simple look. I played with it for a while, but the only drawback was the off center hits on long putts (I'm a weekend player, so always the possibility of being off).

So, I bought a Scotty American Classic. Junk. I'd give away now if anyone wanted it. Same shape, but that's about it.

My nine year old son is drawn to the real Bullseye, so I'm going to pick up another one and cut it down for him to mess around with next year (the shop has a bunch of old clubs). Figure it can't hurt to learn with a classic. Have to laugh when I see the junior 2 ball putters. What is next, junior bellys?