Heavy Putter H1

The Heavy Putter H1 is a center-shafted putter that takes advantage of all the greatest in standard putter technology and applies it to the Heavy Putter concept, involving use of the largest muscle groups in the body and stabilizing your putting stroke in a way that a standard-weight putter cannot. The H1 is a perimeter-weighted, center-shaft model that comes in both white (stainless steel) and black (black brushed finish) versions.

The Heavy Putter is just that, a substantially heavier putter than the conventional putter. The average Heavy Putter is about 750g with a head weight of 400-465g, compared to 350-375g for a conventional putter. Why so heavy? The swinging weight of the Heavy Putter activates the large muscle groups in your arms, legs and back in a way that conventional putters cannot. During your putting stroke, the head of the club is stabilized more effectively.

The technology used by Heavy Putter is all about weight distribution. The weight of the putter head is significantly increased--almost doubled, in fact--and weight is distributed up the shaft into the handle of the club. The effective result is your center of gravity is raised into the middle of your body rather than midway up the shaft as in a conventional putter. With the Heavy Putter H1, this newly centered weight distribution is focused down the center of the putter shaft into the center of the club. With the H1, this technology puts the sweet spot just inside the shaft, giving this putter a very geometric approach.

The Heavy Putter company put its first putter on the market in 2004 and immediately appealed to the technology-enthusiastic amateur. According to the company's website, it acknowledges that golf equipment technology has focused in an unbalanced way on driver and golf ball technology as compared to putter technology. Since almost half the strokes in the average round are taken with the putter, Heavy Putter realized that golf technology should have a serious focus on the flat stick. With that in mind, the Heavy Putter designers developed a new and novel approach to putter design.

While Heavy Putters and Heavy Putter technology has not been overwhelmingly embraced on the PGA Tour, it continues to grow in popularity on the European Tour. More and more European pros are adopting the Heavy Putter, particularly the H1 model, into their games and seeing success.

Putters are available directly from Heavy Putter for less than $200, with the H1 model priced at about $170. This falls just a bit below the premium level among top-tier precision milled putters on the current market.