Equipment

Putter design

A putter is a club intended primarily for the putting green, where the player directs the ball toward the hole. The Equipment Rules distinguish it by intended use and a loft limit of ten degrees, while allowing design exceptions that do not apply to ordinary irons.¹

A familiar shape could be altered through use. In a statement reproduced by the USGA in 1952, Bob Jones explained that repeated polishing had made his original Calamity Jane’s face irregular. He had a copy made and used that replacement regularly from 1924 through 1930.²

Shaft position once exposed a transatlantic rules divide. The R&A’s 1910 treatment of mallet-headed clubs excluded designs such as the center-shafted Schenectady, while the USGA continued to allow them. The 1952 uniform code permitted a putter shaft to meet the head at any point, resolving that difference for the Schenectady.³

Karsten Solheim’s U.S. patent 3,042,405, granted in 1962, documents a different set of design concerns. Its stated aims included alignment, balance and a ringing note when the proper part of the face met the ball. The drawings and description preserve how the designer intended the club to give feedback.⁴

At a glance

Primary use: Putting green¹
Rules loft limit: Ten degrees¹
Calamity Jane II: Jones’s regular putter, 1924 through 1930²
Schenectady rules reconciliation: 1952 uniform code³
Solheim patent: U.S. 3,042,405, granted July 3, 1962⁴

Sources

The R&AEquipment Rules: Part 2, Conformance of Clubs
USGA, Edward S. Knapp Jr., USGA Journal and Turf Management, November 1952; Michigan State University LibrariesClubs of Champions
USGA, Jamie Wallace, April 10, 2017Rules Throwback: The Schenectady Putter
United States Patent Office; Google Patents transcriptionU.S. Patent 3,042,405: Golf club

At a glance

Sources

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