Now that the hand off to Zack has been made, I'm ready to share my thoughts on this putter. First, a little background information.
I have spent a lot of time - and money - in an attempt to understand my putting stroke, tendencies and what designs contribute or take away from my efforts. I have about 6 hours on PuttLab and have had the great fortune of having Bruce Reardon (Bargolf) evaluate my PDF's (Bruce IS the man!).
From a putter design standpoint, it is painfully clear that about 98% of the designs out there do not work for me, for one reason or another. For example, any anser style, anything with a plumbers neck or a aiming line simply do not work for me. My brain interprets those straight lines in such a way that I aim as much as 8 inches off target from 10 feet (using a laser and aiming board). BTW, in an aiming test with this putter, I was dead on the hole every time (if I wasn't, the test would have ended right there).
My stroke is what Bruce would call a Profile 1, so I have an in to out stroke that is 1.5* or so left of square at impact.
So, with all of this in play, the simple look of the Bombora, from a design standpoint, is perfect for me. No sight line - even better. Long slant neck - better yet. This SHOULD have been perfect for me. It was very, very close to being so. Perfect would have been 1/2 inch shorter, 10 grams heavier and a tad more offset so that it was a full shaft of offset.
I gave this putter quite a workout in three environments that I always use to judge how a putter works for me.
One is a practice green that i KNOW really well, so all the lines are established and the putts come down to how well I can aim and execute and how well I can feel the speed. In this situation the Bombora excelled. About 15 minutes into putting on this green, I had a group of 6 guys betting on my putts. At one point, I made 3 20 footers ins a row on an uphill putt that breaks about a foot right to left. In one exercise, I made 20 putts in a row from 4 feet - balls circling the hole; these were a combination of uphill, downhill putts, all with subtle breaks. On the practice green, I got very comfortable with the balance of the putter and was able to really dial in the speed quickly. This inspired tremendous confidence and made me 20 bucks as well! I was making putts all over this green, but's not entirely a fair test, only because I know this green so well - actually almost unfair.
The next 2 environments are 2 distinctly different golf courses. One is an old school turn of the century PA course with tiny, push up greens (grass planted in a soil base), with very subtle breaks but with dramatic slopes either side to side or back to front. Push up greens in the very best condition, cannot be made to run faster than 10, but, when they are running 10, the greens will eat you alive.
The other is a modern course with large undulating sand-based bent grass and poa greens; these greens typically run at 12. These sets of greens could not be more different, but together make for a great test of not just putting skills, but how versatile - or better - how well suited a putter is for you.
This is where the putter really showed itself. My typical tendency, because my path is 1.5 to 2* left, is that I'm really only playing to the left 1/3 of the hole. With the Bombora set up as it is, I'm pretty confident that this opened up at least another 1/3 of the hole, maybe a touch more. I feel really comfortable controlling the speed, but the really short putts escaped me; the putter was a just too long and too light for my touch and I found myself losing the head from 3 feet or so in. You might ask how I could have made all of those four footers on the practice green, but that green runs at 8 or 9 and is just slow enough to FEEL like a 5 footer.
I actually prefer playing the old school greens, and my putting reflected that with 29 putts for that round. Yet I was surprised on how well I could feel the speed on the faster greens; 34 putts on that round but my misses were all pretty good misses.
I am impressed with this putter. In fact, I liked it so much I decided not to wait for it to come up for sale, but ordered one from Byron, tweaked so it is 1/3" shorter, 360 grams (Ala Moa), little squarer nose with a long goose neck and full offset and a sight dot. With these minor changes, I should have a putter that is as close a match to my needs as I can get! These are Bruce's recommendations as well, so my confidence level is high.
Dave, thanks for making it possible for me to participate in this test. I think this is a real winner design, especially for those of us who require a very simple non-distracting look.
