Meet Astral Putters: The Putter That Always Fits Your Stroke
Check out how much tuning the Astral Putter to my stroke improved my accuracy
How many putters do you own?
Golfers are notorious for ditching their flatstick every time they sense a putting slump. But how much effort do we put into finding the right putter to replace it with? Putters may look simple, but the truth is, they are incredibly nuanced clubs.
Using the wrong length, lie angle, toe-hang, or shaft offset – just to name a few variables – for your putting stroke can lead to inconsistencies that hinder your results but are nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.
The bottom line is, playing a putter that is fit to your stroke is important. Astral is a brand-new putter maker that's trying to make sure we always have a putter that fits our stroke, and they’re going about it in a unique way. Astral putters – which just launched at the 2024 PGA Show – are completely modular, allowing golfers to assemble their putter to their exact specs, and change it up at any time.
I had a chance to build and test an Astral putter, measuring exactly how it impacted the most important areas of my putting game over about a six-week trial. So let’s jump into my complete life-tested review of Astral Putters.
Astral Putters: What You Need to Know
- Astral Putters are available in two heads, a traditional blade and a mid-mallet head
- Astral Putters are completely modular, allowing you to dial in your lie angle, toe-hang and offset, and even choose from two face inserts
- You can get your putter set up through a fitting with Astral, or if you already know your ideal specs, you can build it and adjust it yourself
My putter history is probably very similar to that of most golfers. I spent about 10 years using one putter that I got because it was a perfect fit when I bought it – for my budget, that is. I putted well with it, despite it being way too long. It always lacked stability through my stroke, and it never quite felt natural in my hands or at address, which bothered me.
The more I learned about putter fitting, the more confidence I lost in my putter, even though I was performing well with it. So eventually I swapped the mid-toe-hang blade that I thought was ill-fit for me for a face-balanced mallet that was the right length, stable and felt great. Unfortunately, even though I felt I was consistently hitting solid putts with the newer putter, they always seemed to just miss.
I never blamed that mallet putter until I decided it was time for my first proper putter fitting. That's where I learned that my tendency to push putts was a result of the face-balanced putter working against my arced stroke. It was enough to be the difference between a make and a miss on putts longer than about six feet, and those really add up.
It turned out that the random, odd-feeling blade putter I had been using all that time was actually a better fit for my stroke. The problem was I had shipped it off to live in my mother’s garage with my other old clubs, where I could use it during visits.
That’s when I learned about Astral Putters, and with fresh knowledge of putter fittings and detailed info on the specs I need in a putter, it was a perfect time for me to test Astral’s modular, fit-to-a-tee putter concept.
Why You Need a Putter Fitting and How to Do It Yourself
Astral Putter Review
Pros:
- Excellent look
- Building an Astral putter to my specs improved my miss bias significantly
- The ability to dial in the puter to your specs, and change it as needed, can help any golfer
- The Astral Putter feels great in your hands, from the grip to the weight, it guides you to a comfortable set-up
- The Astral out-performed the ill-fit mallet putter it replaced
Cons:
- I struggled with distance control using the Astral putter
- Not as forgiving across the face as some other putters
- Surprisingly, Astral did not out-perform my older blade putter from my mom's garage
I’ve been testing and using the Astral putter for more than six weeks now. In that time it’s been the only putter I’ve gamed, and I’ve only putted with my old putters to get a baseline to compare the Astral to.
During my testing, I’ve practiced with the Astral putter at home and at the golf course, and played several rounds with it, collecting very insightful data using the Stack Putting app during practice sessions and Shot Scope on the course.
Astral Putter Performance
This build had 2.40 shafts of offset, which I later turned down
To evaluate the performance of the Astral Putter, I’m breaking it down into a couple categories. The first is accuracy, and the second is speed and forgiveness.
Accuracy
The biggest thing that jumped out at me after weeks of testing the Astral putter and comparing it to the putters from my past – yes, I retrieved that old blade from my mom’s garage for this test – is just how much being fit to the proper toe-hang for your stroke impacts the accuracy of your putts. Yes, there are plenty of other elements in a putter that influence your results, but after this test, I’m convinced that if nothing else, matching the proper toe-hang to your stroke is the quickest way to improve your putting.
The best evidence I have of this is via the Stack Putting app, which is an excellent tool for training your putting, working on the putts that make the biggest difference in your game, and testing different putters, putting styles, and other variables that can influence your putting performance.
With my face-balanced mallet putter, my directional bias was 22% left, so as a left-handed player, I was pushing putts. That makes sense considering my face-balanced putter was fighting my arced stroke. When I switched to the Astral Putter that was fit to my specs, that directional bias dropped to 4% to the right. This led to an improvement in strokes-gained, and most importantly, a noticeable increase in makes from 4-6 feet, 7-10 feet, and 11-16 feet, where I had always felt like my good putts just weren’t dropping before.
Which Type of Putter Fits Your Stroke
Speed & Forgiveness
Despite improving my accuracy markedly and making more putts with the Astral Putter than my previous putter, I struggled to gain a good feel for speed control with the Astral. On the course I had too many misses that were be either woefully short or way long, which led to more 3-putts than before.
Nobody would expect a blade putter to be as forgiving as a full mallet, and that difference was evident in my testing. Even though I had a strong push tendency with the mallet putter, misses off the toe and heel still got much closer to the hole, leaving a much easier putt. When I mis-hit the Astral, those misses came up much shorter, leaving a tougher putt to finish the hole.
When I compared the Astral to my old blade putter – both are blade putters with moderate toe-hang – the Astral once again dominated in the direction bias category, but the old putter won overall, and convincingly.
For whatever reason, my speed was much better with the old putter, and instead of missing short – which was my tendency with the Astral – my bias was to hit putts past the hole, which led to more made putts from all distances inside 16 feet.
Because my Astral putter build had significant offset, which often leads to greater dynamic loft at impact, my next move is to re-configure my putter with less offset. My goal is to improve that short miss bias, and speed control issues overall, by delivering the putter with less loft to get a more consistent roll.
Look, Feel & Sound
The most impressive part of the Astral putter is its ability to improve your accuracy and hit your lines. However, the look, sound and feel are a close second.
As soon as you pick up an Astral Putter, there’s no doubt it’s a premium piece of golf equipment. The black grip, black shaft, and – in the case of the blade – matte black head contrasted with a brass or copper face insert leaves a strong impression. The weight of the putter gives it a very sturdy feeling, which leads to confidence over the ball.
The feel and sound at impact are right in line with the rest of this putter’s premium DNA.
Testing Your Results
I know many golfers don’t like to evaluate data on their golf games as much as I do, but the whole concept of the Astral putter is to optimize it to your game. That’s why it’s important to use data-tracking tools like the Stack Putting app and/or Shot Scope, especially when evaluating an adjustable club.
I can tell you from my own experience that your perception of your bias is probably distorted at best. To really take advantage of what a modular, adjustable putter can offer, you have to know for sure how it’s performing as a whole, not just on the putts you remember most.
Who Should Consider an Astral Putter
From concept to execution, Astral has nailed the inception of the modular putter. On the surface, you might think this putter is a tinkerer’s dream, and it is. But it’s also a great solution for any golfer whose putter collection is slowly (or quickly) growing, yet they’re no closer to finding that holy grail.
Given that Astral can easily adapt to your tendencies or changes in your stroke, you can finally game a putter that can buy real estate in your golf bag, not just pay rent.