Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number four hundred eleven, published on November nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: Welcome to golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
Speaker 2: insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Speaker 2: Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets old. Our
Speaker 2: interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
Speaker 2: like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 3: My biggest deal is is I never want a three touch.
Speaker 3: If I can hit the ball within twenty feet as
Speaker 3: the hole and I can play most of them, I'm
Speaker 3: going to make three or four. It's all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I'm shooting three under, you know, And that's what I
Speaker 3: strive to do. I never want a three touch. And
Speaker 3: the consistency with my putter. If you cast the plutter,
Speaker 3: if you heat a piece of material up and let
Speaker 3: it cool off, it's going to be hotspots in that putter.
Speaker 3: There will be places on that face or the wall
Speaker 3: will jump off faster than others, and places that are
Speaker 3: dead when they win is seated up, you know, those
Speaker 3: molecules will run and they'll stay there at when the cools,
Speaker 3: they'll stay out there too. We're seeing the putters, it's
Speaker 3: the same all the way across that face, so it's
Speaker 3: always going to feel the same. That's why I don't
Speaker 3: do any putters with inserts, because inserts number one, they
Speaker 3: will move number two if the temperature changes by or
Speaker 3: ten degrease the fuel or an insert change, so it's
Speaker 3: like you're putting it's a different putter. I want this
Speaker 3: putter to feel the same if you're playing in one
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty degree heat or you're playing at forty degrees.
Speaker 3: Is a thirty mile an mile win and having it rain,
Speaker 3: and it's going to feel the same every time you
Speaker 3: stroke it, and that's going to want build confidence and repeatability.
Speaker 1: How to pick your perfect putter with Kenny Janini. This
Speaker 1: is Golf Smarter. Welcome to Golf Smarter for members only. Kenny, Well,
Speaker 1: thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Bred I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1: This is interesting. I'm recording this late at night. We
Speaker 1: never do nighttime recordings, and I'm excited that we're both
Speaker 1: kind of sitting back, relaxed. We've had dinner, glass of wine,
Speaker 1: and now it's time to talk about putters.
Speaker 3: Well, it's sure is. I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1: Not as excited as I am. So what I wanted
Speaker 1: to focus on this conversation is the consumer and what
Speaker 1: they need to know if they want to build the
Speaker 1: perfect putter for themselves, all the different elements that they
Speaker 1: should be looking at, as opposed to walking in a
Speaker 1: store where they have this little practice putting green that's
Speaker 1: kind of filtered right into a hole and not really knowing,
Speaker 1: just like putting a club in your hand, going yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the right one for me. Is that the
Speaker 1: best way to buy a putter.
Speaker 3: No, that's not the way to buy a putter.
Speaker 1: I didn't think you did that. I thought you'd agree
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 3: No, you know, you need to be fitted. You know,
Speaker 3: somebody needs to be fitted for a putter. You know,
Speaker 3: some people have a putting path that goes through the
Speaker 3: inside the square to the inside. Some people go straight
Speaker 3: back and straight through. Some butters are made for the
Speaker 3: toe to release, and some of you know, it's they're
Speaker 3: not made to release. And you know, you need to
Speaker 3: first find out what kind of a plutty stroke you have,
Speaker 3: whether it's straight back and straight through, whether it's on
Speaker 3: an arc. Basically, putters that are center shaft that they
Speaker 3: balanced type putters. You know, it's hard to get to
Speaker 3: toes to release on that and to square up, so
Speaker 3: you don't want to have an inside path inside the
Speaker 3: square back to the inside. Again, if you have a
Speaker 3: putter that's a toe on release on, you know, that's
Speaker 3: that's an important thing right there.
Speaker 1: So this is a situation where people go, you know,
Speaker 1: I have I have an inside to outpath. They shouldn't
Speaker 1: be changing their stroke or listening to teachers saying, you know,
Speaker 1: you're doing it all wrong. They should do it what's
Speaker 1: most comfortable for them and then pick the putter that
Speaker 1: works in that direction.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, I mean, I mean there is a lot
Speaker 3: of you know, people will watch the tour over the years,
Speaker 3: I mean, there are a lot of putting strokes out
Speaker 3: there that you wouldn't teach somebody to put like. But again,
Speaker 3: if you can repeat it and know where the ball
Speaker 3: is going to go, it works, you know. I mean
Speaker 3: there's I mean, there's you know, obviously there's an ideal
Speaker 3: stroke where you're making everything that bit I'm not I
Speaker 3: wouldn't want to change anybody's putting strokes somebody that they
Speaker 3: have grooveed. I mean, we can get a putter that'll
Speaker 3: fit that stroke.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: I mean that's what I believe. M hm.
Speaker 1: So you create putters, you create putters for both styles.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, you know. I mean I don't you know,
Speaker 3: I know, the putter that I like to cut with
Speaker 3: but looks good in my eye. I mean the first
Speaker 3: thing when you find a putter has to look good
Speaker 3: to you. I mean, it has to look good down there.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's why we have so many different styles.
Speaker 3: I mean, not everything looks you know, good to the
Speaker 3: same to everybody. H So you find something that looks
Speaker 3: good to you to your eye down there, and then
Speaker 3: you know, you know, we make a putter that we
Speaker 3: call it G four and we have that and shafted
Speaker 3: with double bind where the total release. We have it
Speaker 3: set back with a double bend where it won't release
Speaker 3: as much. We have the set back with a straight
Speaker 3: shaft in it with no offset on it in center shaft.
Speaker 3: You know, it's basically the same putterhead, but it's four
Speaker 3: different putters, but it has that look. So we can
Speaker 3: fit anybody in that putter if they like that, look
Speaker 3: for any stroke that they have.
Speaker 1: And the design of the head is really more about
Speaker 1: the what you feel comfortable looking at. It has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with performance.
Speaker 3: Oh, it has everything to do with performance. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, to be honest with you, I mean, I've
Speaker 3: produced putters that I don't really care for myself. They
Speaker 3: don't look good to my eye. But again, as I
Speaker 3: said before, you know, I don't know everything that there is.
Speaker 3: I learn every day and I listen to everybody that
Speaker 3: talks about putters. And just because I don't prefer it
Speaker 3: it doesn't look good to my eye doesn't mean it
Speaker 3: doesn't look good to yours. I know, I'm taking and
Speaker 3: make it as the best that I can make it
Speaker 3: personally myself, I might not put with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's that's the honest truth. No, And then
Speaker 1: that makes more. That makes a lot of sense because
Speaker 1: you're trying to sell putters, so you want to appeal
Speaker 1: to as many people as possible. Exactly, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: You're in business. I mean, that makes total sense. And
Speaker 1: so let's talk about getting fitted for a putter. What
Speaker 1: does that entail and what should you be looking for?
Speaker 1: Because you know, I guess that guys who do club
Speaker 1: fittings for your your irons and your your fairway woods,
Speaker 1: your drivers may not have the skill to fit you
Speaker 1: for putters. Are they different skill sets?
Speaker 3: Well, it's going to be pretty much the sense Gill set.
Speaker 3: I mean, you need to know a little bit about
Speaker 3: putting number one and how the platter works. You know
Speaker 3: that you know you have the right size of grip.
Speaker 3: You know, the bigger the grip, the less hands that
Speaker 3: you can get. You know, personally myself, I'm using a
Speaker 3: larger grip right now, and after we get done talking,
Speaker 3: I'm and go out in my garage and I'm going
Speaker 3: to cut that grip off and go back to a
Speaker 3: little one because I'm more comfortable with that. You need
Speaker 3: to know the shaft that's in it. You know, shafts
Speaker 3: can vary in weight, they can vary in stiffness. I
Speaker 3: prefer a step shaft kind of the shaft that we
Speaker 3: use is kind of like the old Wilson head speed.
Speaker 3: It's got a little whip at the bottom so you
Speaker 3: get a lot of fuel. You know, if I put
Speaker 3: a stiffer, heavier shafts in there, you're going to have
Speaker 3: less feel at the bottom.
Speaker 1: You know, you're getting the head off. Now. I was
Speaker 1: going to get to shafts in a little bit, but
Speaker 1: I want to get through the fitting process.
Speaker 3: It's all it's all part of fitting. It's all goes
Speaker 3: into there, right, you know, the lie on the golf club,
Speaker 3: you know, and what kind of a stroke you have.
Speaker 3: I mean they should be able to figure out if
Speaker 3: you are somebody putt whether they go straight back and
Speaker 3: straight through or whether they have an art in their
Speaker 3: spleen and their stroke. That's pretty easy to figure out.
Speaker 3: And you just go from there. You know, we give him,
Speaker 3: you know, I would fit somebody. I would give him
Speaker 3: different putters to try and you know, see what works
Speaker 3: best with their with their pudding stroke.
Speaker 1: And when you say works best, what exactly does that mean.
Speaker 3: That they make the most parts? You know, I want
Speaker 3: to I like to sit somebody with a putter and
Speaker 3: watch them, you know, uh, you know, as an example,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to use this gentleman's name that I
Speaker 3: fit somebody last week, or the putter and stood there
Speaker 3: and watched to make fifteen out of fifteen for twelve
Speaker 3: feet whoa and he was a static.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, from fifteen feet that's a big deal.
Speaker 3: From twelve feet twelve.
Speaker 1: It's still from twelve feet. I mean, what even on
Speaker 1: the tour, they're only making about fifty percent of the
Speaker 1: putts inside of ten.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I can't say that that this is
Speaker 3: going to happen on the golf course every time and
Speaker 3: he goes out. But I know that I fit into
Speaker 3: perfection and this putter fits him, and he who loves it.
Speaker 3: I bet he just absolutely loves it. You know, we
Speaker 3: were on an absolutely pure, pure beyond belief putting surface
Speaker 3: to do this on. I mean, it's a little tougher
Speaker 3: to do it if you're not on a good green
Speaker 3: or something that's not level where you can see everything
Speaker 3: that the one that I did this ang was absolutely perfect.
Speaker 1: So you're saying that most club fitters understand how to
Speaker 1: fit for putters as well, That's not something that I'm
Speaker 1: going to say that.
Speaker 3: I'm going to say that they have a pretty good
Speaker 3: idea for butter. Yes, okay, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: they should be able to if you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: they can fit it. I'm not sure how much they
Speaker 3: understand the difference in the in the putters and how
Speaker 3: they're made and what they do. I mean, I just
Speaker 3: don't know. I don't you know. If you gave me
Speaker 3: a specific person, I could give you an answer. But
Speaker 3: every fitter in the world.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, right, Well, I mean, because I recently had
Speaker 1: a fitting for my my uh fairwy Woods Hybrids that
Speaker 1: kind of thing, not my not my irons. But you
Speaker 1: know we're talking about, you know, the the ball speed,
Speaker 1: the club head speed, all these things that really aren't
Speaker 1: relevant to putters. But the fitter was pretty well versed
Speaker 1: in all the different products that were out on the market.
Speaker 1: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, if I could take I could take one putter,
Speaker 3: one of my putters, and I could put different shafts
Speaker 3: in it, different grifts on it, and change you know,
Speaker 3: things that I can do just with grifts and shafts,
Speaker 3: and I could take ten of these putters and you'd
Speaker 3: have ten putters that felt different, reacted different to the
Speaker 3: ball coming.
Speaker 1: Off of them.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, it's very it's important, very important
Speaker 3: to get the fitting exactly, you know. I mean, the
Speaker 3: lie is so important, the liar, you know, I don't
Speaker 3: know where you want to go now. I mean, the
Speaker 3: lie is is very very important, the lie in the
Speaker 3: putter when it sits on the ground.
Speaker 1: So now I need for you to clarify exactly what
Speaker 1: that means. The lie of the putter.
Speaker 3: Well, if you if you know, you can grab a
Speaker 3: putter in store and set it down on the ground
Speaker 3: with you know, every individual was different to hold their
Speaker 3: hands in a different spot. Some are shorter, some are
Speaker 3: taller their hands, you know. And so if the toe
Speaker 3: of the putter sits up in the air, the putter
Speaker 3: is too upright. It needs to be bent down to
Speaker 3: where that putter, you know, sols you can hold your
Speaker 3: ones where you want to hold them, and that putter
Speaker 3: is sold correctly. And if it was too flat, it
Speaker 3: would be up on a toe.
Speaker 1: Mm hm.
Speaker 3: So you have to be able to bend this putter
Speaker 3: you wanted to go smoothly through.
Speaker 1: So then let's move on. And then too uh, Now
Speaker 1: that you found the fitter that you like, he's doing
Speaker 1: a fitting on you. Now you have to put the
Speaker 1: different elements together to create the pitter, the putter that
Speaker 1: works best for you. And where should should you start
Speaker 1: on talking about the different components.
Speaker 3: Well, again, most most pro shops or you know, retail outlets,
Speaker 3: you know, they're not able to do what I'm able
Speaker 3: to do. I mean I have the heads, I have
Speaker 3: the chefs, I have the grips, you know, I mean
Speaker 3: I could fit anybody into anything. I mean, I could,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean, I'm a little bit different than
Speaker 3: your average guy. But you're going to take a putter.
Speaker 3: If the average person amateur walks into a discount store
Speaker 3: or whatever and finds the putter that they like and
Speaker 3: feels good to them and they keep square, I mean
Speaker 3: they should. You know, they need to have the grip
Speaker 3: put on it that they that they want, and they
Speaker 3: need to have that club vent. I mean, those are
Speaker 3: the two things that the club fit are. The store
Speaker 3: like that's going to be able to do. He's going
Speaker 3: to be able to bend it. He's going to be
Speaker 3: able to put the right grip on, did you like?
Speaker 1: I recently I'm going to go up to the grips
Speaker 1: for this moment, but I recently put one of the
Speaker 1: fat grips on my putter and I was amazed at
Speaker 1: the difference. Or it's huge, it really is.
Speaker 3: I mean it really changes things that you know, it's
Speaker 3: going to change the fuel at the golf club. You know,
Speaker 3: as an example, if you take a thirty five inch
Speaker 3: putter and put a seven excuse me, a seventeen inch
Speaker 3: grip on there, you know you're counterbalancing the cutter. You're
Speaker 3: adding more weight to the butt end of the putter.
Speaker 3: You're going to lose swing lay points, your total overall
Speaker 3: weight on the putter is going to go up. But
Speaker 3: the putter's going to feel completely different with that grip
Speaker 3: on there, And you could cut it off and put
Speaker 3: a regular grip on there, and it's going to be
Speaker 3: a completely different putter and feeling again.
Speaker 1: To wait a minute, you said seventeen inch gript, you
Speaker 1: mean the length of the grip.
Speaker 3: We're doing a lot of putters that the guys that
Speaker 3: are switching over from the belly putters where we're doing
Speaker 3: like maybe a thirty six or thirty seven inch putter
Speaker 3: that they're going back to putting regularly with. But we
Speaker 3: put that seventeen inch gript counterbalance, so it's kind of
Speaker 3: kind of feel a lot like a belly putter when
Speaker 3: they're putting with it.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's really interesting. That extends the length of the putter.
Speaker 1: It's not just necessarily like I generally, it.
Speaker 3: Doesn't extend the length of the putter whatsoever. The grip
Speaker 3: just comes down for you have more weight than that
Speaker 3: butt end of the putter.
Speaker 1: The counterbalances so it's not just the thickness. It's just
Speaker 1: not the girth of the putter. It's also the length
Speaker 1: of it, I mean the grip.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, Basically we're putting on the same grip that
Speaker 3: they have on a belly putter on a short putter.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmmm. And there's been this all this excitement lately
Speaker 1: about you know, especially with Mickelson and a bunch of
Speaker 1: guys winning on the tour, which changes the view of
Speaker 1: everybody when somebody wins on the tour. But these these
Speaker 1: fat grips, fat grip putters have become very very popular, right,
Speaker 1: and you're getting a lot of demand for that.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know, we hit a little bit of demand
Speaker 3: for it, you know on my custom putters, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean we do not we have our own grip.
Speaker 3: We use pure grips at Arizona, and which I think
Speaker 3: is a fantastic grip.
Speaker 1: Why we got hooked.
Speaker 3: I just love the way it feels and I love
Speaker 3: the way it looks. It just feels great in your hands.
Speaker 3: Mm hmmm. So we put that on all of our
Speaker 3: stock putters that go out. I mean, if somebody custom
Speaker 3: mort or something and wants, you know, a superstroke grip
Speaker 3: or a win grip or something like that on there.
Speaker 3: We have, we'll put it on.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: We try to give everybody just what they want.
Speaker 1: Well, of course, of course first time out. And is
Speaker 1: that the basis of your business is customized putting putters
Speaker 1: or do you have I mean I've talked to Tim
Speaker 1: and he's saying that, you know, PGA superstores are now
Speaker 1: going to start carrying your putters. Is this true?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, I have the grand opening out here in
Speaker 3: Palm Desert this last week and it was we did
Speaker 3: very well out there.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, that's great.
Speaker 3: Well we had they had a re ordered Monday after
Speaker 3: the two days after they opened they needed to order
Speaker 3: more product.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: And that is just you know, that's our standard cutter,
Speaker 3: and you know, and that's the bulk of our business,
Speaker 3: you know, is the retail in our standard putter, which
Speaker 3: are I don't know. I think there's thirteen different models
Speaker 3: now a fourteen.
Speaker 1: And that could all be found at Kenny Giannini putters
Speaker 1: dot com.
Speaker 3: Yes, mm hmm.
Speaker 1: But you do custom custom made putters for people as well.
Speaker 1: You mentioned in the last conversation that you've made for
Speaker 1: some of the biggest names in golf history.
Speaker 3: Well, you know I do, and you know I do
Speaker 3: a lot of those putters. Those are you know, those
Speaker 3: are my one of putters are definitely a different price point,
Speaker 3: and it takes a little while to get one, you know.
Speaker 3: Right now I'm back ordered about I don't know, three months. Wow,
Speaker 3: I only I only do. I only do between ten
Speaker 3: and fifteen of them a month. That's it.
Speaker 1: Mhmm.
Speaker 3: You know. I mean they take a long time to make,
Speaker 3: and we do a lot of special things to them
Speaker 3: and make them different. When somebody orders something like that,
Speaker 3: it's the one of you know, it's the only one
Speaker 3: like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it takes a long time to make it right.
Speaker 3: Well, I just try to make everything right.
Speaker 1: When you're custom making a putter, how do you At
Speaker 1: what point do you go got it?
Speaker 3: This is it?
Speaker 1: This is exactly what he wants.
Speaker 3: Wow, I mean I think I have it, you know,
Speaker 3: from the beginning. You know, I'm going to get an
Speaker 3: idea what he wants. You know, I understand when he's saying,
Speaker 3: you know, what kind of neck he wants on there?
Speaker 3: You know, I might take you know, our number four
Speaker 3: putter and and uh get that basic head designed to
Speaker 3: put a completely different neck on it. You know, I
Speaker 3: might put six degrees of loft on it instead of
Speaker 3: three and a half like we have on our standard putters.
Speaker 3: You know, he might be somebody that presses their hands
Speaker 3: way forward to needs that loft.
Speaker 1: Oh so if somebody pushes their hands forward like that,
Speaker 1: then they need more loft to the putter.
Speaker 3: Sure, because if they set their hands forward like that,
Speaker 3: they're taking off whatever loft is on the putter.
Speaker 1: And what is the what's the optimum loft for.
Speaker 3: Three and a half to three and a half to
Speaker 3: four degrees, it's the optimum loft. With the way that
Speaker 3: the greens are these days. You know, we used to
Speaker 3: put four, you know, and when I you know, and
Speaker 3: you know twenty five or thirty years ago, when we
Speaker 3: sent butters to Japan, we had to put four and
Speaker 3: a half or five on there because the greens are
Speaker 3: so fuzzy. You know, you need that ball to pop
Speaker 3: up and roll, you know, to kind of you know,
Speaker 3: now the greens are getting so good you can go
Speaker 3: with less locked qu My butters all have three my
Speaker 3: standard production putter, they all have three and a half
Speaker 3: degrees are lots on it.
Speaker 1: So you don't want the ball to get airborne at all,
Speaker 1: off the off the face of the pudd No, I want.
Speaker 3: That ball to just roll like to where it's supposed.
Speaker 1: To go in the hole, in the whole bottom of
Speaker 1: the hole, in the bottom of the cup. And should
Speaker 1: the butt when the ball leaves the putter ahead, should
Speaker 1: there be some slide to it or should it be
Speaker 1: rolling immediately?
Speaker 3: Well, you try to guess there's always going to be
Speaker 3: a little bit of skid to it, but you wanted
Speaker 3: to you want to get that roll as quickly as possible,
Speaker 3: so it'll always be a little skied to it, mm hmm.
Speaker 1: And on the on the putter heads, and I love
Speaker 1: just having this conversation with you breaking down all the
Speaker 1: components to it. On the putter heads. Do you have
Speaker 1: a preference whether you go blade or mallet or you know,
Speaker 1: obviously personally, but also do you think one is better
Speaker 1: than the other? Or is again do we get back
Speaker 1: to just the look and the feel of it from
Speaker 1: from interesting individual?
Speaker 3: I mean, I know what works for me. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know I have my swing is inside back to
Speaker 3: square to the inside. I don't I'm not a straight back,
Speaker 3: straight through guy. So I mean, I know what I like.
Speaker 3: I mean, I put it with the same putter for
Speaker 3: twenty three years. I have a different one in my
Speaker 3: bag now. I just you know, I took the other
Speaker 3: one out. I put it for with twenty three years,
Speaker 3: and I took it out for a year, and then
Speaker 3: I put it back into another four and now it's
Speaker 3: out of there and I'm putting with something different. You know,
Speaker 3: I know what works for me and and and I again,
Speaker 3: just because it works for me doesn't mean it's going
Speaker 3: to work for somebody else. Sure, That's why we have
Speaker 3: so many different models that you know, everybody people have
Speaker 3: an idea of what they want, what they want to
Speaker 3: look at. You know. Personally myself, I don't care for
Speaker 3: a mallet. I'd never put with a mallet ever. It's
Speaker 3: just too bulky and too. It's just different for me.
Speaker 3: It just doesn't hit my swing, my stroke. And I
Speaker 3: make a lot of them. The guys that have them
Speaker 3: love them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a I'm a mallet kind of guy too.
Speaker 1: I like the line that gives me something to you know,
Speaker 1: go perpendicular or actually when I'm addressing and I can
Speaker 1: be parallel to that line.
Speaker 3: Alls. I mean myself, I look at the ball, and
Speaker 3: I look at the top edge of the player. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't need to look at the rest.
Speaker 3: I want to concentrate on on the ball, that's what
Speaker 3: I want to hit.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, let's move up from the putter ahead,
Speaker 1: now back up to the shaft and not just the
Speaker 1: center shaft or heel shaft. But then you talked about
Speaker 1: a double bend in a straight shaft. What are the
Speaker 1: differences there and what are the advantages of one over
Speaker 1: the other.
Speaker 3: Well, a straight shaft, you know, it has no bend
Speaker 3: in it. It's just going to be straight going right
Speaker 3: into the head in that shaft. I do in our
Speaker 3: Chubby R Number four putter with its center shaft where
Speaker 3: it's first perfectly face balanced, and then I do it
Speaker 3: set back a little bit to where that toe hangs
Speaker 3: at about two o'clock two or three o'clock, so that
Speaker 3: toe will release a little bit on that club. And
Speaker 3: I do the same in my mallet. Those are the
Speaker 3: ones we put the straight shaft hand. And then I
Speaker 3: also will take those shafts and put a little offset
Speaker 3: in it, which is going to get your hands a
Speaker 3: little bit ahead a little bit ahead or with the
Speaker 3: straight shaft, it's right over the center of the top
Speaker 3: line is where your hands are. You know, if you
Speaker 3: have a forward press, you don't want to use a
Speaker 3: butter like that unless you have a lot of loft
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 1: And the center shaft, the straight shaft is the one
Speaker 1: for center shafted heads.
Speaker 3: Center shaft and then set back a little bit, set
Speaker 3: back about so a little about a half an inch
Speaker 3: three come out of three come that's three eighths of
Speaker 3: an inch back of center. So it releases a little bit.
Speaker 3: And you know, I mean we should sell a bunch
Speaker 3: of those.
Speaker 1: And tell me about the double bend. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: And again what's the advantage of a double bend in
Speaker 1: the shaft.
Speaker 3: Well, the double bend in the shaft is when it
Speaker 3: comes up and without a neck on it, it's going
Speaker 3: directly into the head and that shaft will come up
Speaker 3: and it'll have a bend on it. We'll just put
Speaker 3: a little offset in it without having a neck on
Speaker 3: the putter hands a little bit more forward of the wall.
Speaker 3: It's just a different look. It's what looks good to
Speaker 3: different people for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and are there I know that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of variation not only in quality but also in
Speaker 1: price on shafts. When you're let's just say, building a driver,
Speaker 1: are there a lot of options on because you don't
Speaker 1: need a lot of bend on your shaft for your putter,
Speaker 1: So are there a lot of options on which shaft
Speaker 1: you should be looking towards for other than just the
Speaker 1: double bend or a straight.
Speaker 3: Well, the material we use you, you know, I mean
Speaker 3: we put the first steel on all my all of
Speaker 3: my putters. I put I don't put any graph light
Speaker 3: in where a graph flight, you're losing a lot of
Speaker 3: weight and a lot of the putters can balance differently,
Speaker 3: you know, I prefer the steel shaft. We use two
Speaker 3: different shafts. We use one that that has no steps
Speaker 3: in it. It's a little heavier, it's a little stiffer.
Speaker 3: And then the one I prefer is the one that
Speaker 3: put the step downs in it, which is basically a
Speaker 3: take off of the old Wilson head speed shaft. You know,
Speaker 3: it has a little width at the bottom, you have
Speaker 3: a little feel. I prefer that. You know, putting is
Speaker 3: a feel. You have to have that feel. You need
Speaker 3: to know where the head is. All the time, and
Speaker 3: I believe this and that's what I do with my
Speaker 3: product that I make.
Speaker 1: Mm hm.
Speaker 3: Those are the two shafts that I use. I use
Speaker 3: the KBS shaft that they make is what I put in.
Speaker 1: And why those shafts, Why do you like those the best?
Speaker 3: I just do. I mean, they give me the best feel.
Speaker 1: And it's really it really comes down to how it
Speaker 1: feels to you exactly. You don't do focus groups, you
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of people try them out and
Speaker 1: you watch them. It's all about how you feel.
Speaker 3: Well. No, but I do have a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: I have a circle of friends that are that are
Speaker 3: you know, ninety nine percent of them are former tour
Speaker 3: players that I might send you know, we'll go and
Speaker 3: play golf and I'll say, hey, well you think about
Speaker 3: this or something, and I'll get a little feedback back
Speaker 3: like I told you before. But I believe me. I
Speaker 3: do not believe that. I know. I'm not the king
Speaker 3: of putters. You know, I do the best that I
Speaker 3: can do, and I don't believe that I know the
Speaker 3: answer to every question. That's why I listen to everything
Speaker 3: that people say to me. Whether I said I've learned
Speaker 3: some things from thirty handicaps about platters, you know, an
Speaker 3: idea they might have and say, well, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: looking at this, or you know, I listen and then
Speaker 3: I try to, you know, take that file it away
Speaker 3: in my little brain and pull it out when I
Speaker 3: need it. And I let guys try my putters before
Speaker 3: we put them on the market. Oh yeah, I'm a
Speaker 3: small group of friends who get the prototypes and get
Speaker 3: to play with those and go then I if I
Speaker 3: need to, you know, all listen to what they have
Speaker 3: to say about it. Luckily that I don't really ever
Speaker 3: have any negatives about them, so I'm a happy guy.
Speaker 3: Very few I've had, or very few of them I've
Speaker 3: had to redo. I kind of them on one hand
Speaker 3: in thirty five years.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, that's and the wouldn't fill up the hand.
Speaker 1: You can still hold a couple of balls in your hand. Well,
Speaker 1: you may not be the king of putters, but you're
Speaker 1: probably the prince, the prince of putters.
Speaker 3: I'm just I'm just Kenny. That's it. I'm the same
Speaker 3: as everybody else, and I treat everybody the same, and
Speaker 3: I'm not I don't have a gigantic ego or I
Speaker 3: listened to everything. Everybody has to say everything.
Speaker 1: One of the things that you mentioned when we were talking,
Speaker 1: you know, off microphone, was the finish of a putter,
Speaker 1: and you feel that that's really important and I'm not
Speaker 1: even sure I know exactly what that means.
Speaker 3: Well, the finish on the putter is you know, it's
Speaker 3: kind of like why you know, finished on the putter
Speaker 3: is going to give you the feel you know, you're
Speaker 3: covering that steel up to protect it from rusty. Now,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know if I should say this,
Speaker 3: but personally, on my own butters, I've paid nothing on them.
Speaker 3: I let them rust and turned that brown Nashville brown,
Speaker 3: really without anything on them. That's what I do on
Speaker 3: my own, so mine because I like to feel and
Speaker 3: nothing on there. I just like to feel there the
Speaker 3: raw steel, and I like to look at it.
Speaker 1: So when they start rusting, do you it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm done with this, when I can move on.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I like it to look like that.
Speaker 3: I want it to look like it's one hundred years old.
Speaker 3: I'm not one of the guys, is you know. Like
Speaker 3: I told you before, I'm not in the blink. I
Speaker 3: don't want it shining in my eyes. I don't. I
Speaker 3: want it to perform. And you know, like the putter
Speaker 3: i'm putting with now is a prototype that we're going
Speaker 3: to introduce next year, and I love it and I
Speaker 3: did only made two of them, and I made one
Speaker 3: and I put no finish on it all and another
Speaker 3: one that has our black PVD finish on it. And
Speaker 3: you know, for some reason, they feel about they feel
Speaker 3: about the same. There's no real difference between them that
Speaker 3: I just prefer the other one that's rusting naturally and
Speaker 3: the other one. I had played with one of my
Speaker 3: friends the other day to form a tool player, and
Speaker 3: he just happened to I had the black one in
Speaker 3: my bag putting with it that day and he just
Speaker 3: happened to say, I got to have this. I'm taking it.
Speaker 3: So he has it now and I'm just playing with
Speaker 3: the natural one. That's what I prefer. It's kind of
Speaker 3: like bon Vogi when he does his wedges for the tour,
Speaker 3: you know, the raw finished they sweat a rust.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but on a wedge.
Speaker 3: That's what that's what I That's what I do with mine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But a wedge is is a little different because
Speaker 1: now you're digging into the saying, you know you're digging
Speaker 1: into the grass. You got to get the mud up there.
Speaker 1: You gotta get it wet. It's it's getting a lot
Speaker 1: of different performance on a wedge then you're getting in
Speaker 1: a butter. It's going through a lot more torture me.
Speaker 3: But when I do that, this plutter is polished the
Speaker 3: same as one that would begin to finish on it.
Speaker 3: And I mean if I did one with no finish
Speaker 3: on it and didn't platinum putter with a finish on it,
Speaker 3: you would probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference
Speaker 3: between the two. Then that that platinum one will always
Speaker 3: stay like that. The one I'm playing with it's going
Speaker 3: to rust, it's going to turn brown.
Speaker 1: And what are the options on finishes or for r
Speaker 1: putters are there any well?
Speaker 3: The natural plutters like I play with, that's only on
Speaker 3: my custom want us. We don't do that production. And
Speaker 3: then our finish in production is we have our satin
Speaker 3: nickel finish which we call platinum, and then our black
Speaker 3: PVD that is I just changed that finish and we're
Speaker 3: going to a satin black which will be no glare
Speaker 3: or shining the sun of putter whatsoever. We're just running
Speaker 3: the first bunch of those right now. M So those
Speaker 3: are the two finishes that we offer.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put you in an uncomfortable position for
Speaker 1: a moment, Kenny. I know you're not going to like
Speaker 1: this question, but I'm gonna I'm gonna throw it out
Speaker 1: here anyway. Why should people own a Kenny Giannini putter?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I think I believe it's the finest
Speaker 3: putter made on the market. It has the engineering to it.
Speaker 3: It has slot face, the soft slot face, which will
Speaker 3: be discussed before. I'm it's going to keep the blade
Speaker 3: square that I believe that anyone out there. I think
Speaker 3: it looks great. And you know, I mean it's kind
Speaker 3: of old school. I mean there's no gimmicks, there's no
Speaker 3: you know, bells and whistles that goes along with it.
Speaker 3: It's just major perform better than anything else in the market.
Speaker 1: Look, I'm going to toss out an answer. You tell
Speaker 1: me an answer to that question. You tell me if
Speaker 1: you would agree with this statement. When I ask why
Speaker 1: should somebody own a Kenny Ganini putter, the answer I
Speaker 1: think should be because you're going to sink more putts.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, if you I believe. I agree with that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you'll sink more puts.
Speaker 1: There you go, then you will. So it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what it looks like or what you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: what what the elements are, as long as the results
Speaker 1: are there and you hear the happy sound of the
Speaker 1: ball going in the cup. Isn't that what it's all about?
Speaker 3: That is what it's all about, you know. Personally myself,
Speaker 3: you know, my biggest deal is is I never want
Speaker 3: a three cuts. I'm gonna make. If I can hit
Speaker 3: the ball within twenty feet as a hole and I
Speaker 3: can play most of them, I'm going to make three
Speaker 3: or four all of a sudden, I'm shooting three under,
Speaker 3: you know. And that's what I strive to do. I
Speaker 3: never want a three cut. And the consistency with my putters,
Speaker 3: there's noe by knowing the plutter. If you can the
Speaker 3: plutter or forth. If you heat a piece of material
Speaker 3: up and let it cool off, it's there's going to
Speaker 3: be hot spots in that putter. There'll be places on
Speaker 3: that face where the wall will jump off faster than others,
Speaker 3: and places that are dead. When it's sheet it up,
Speaker 3: you know, those molecules will run and they'll stay there,
Speaker 3: and then they'll when it cools, they'll stay out there too.
Speaker 3: You know, when machining the putters, it's the same all
Speaker 3: the way across that face, so it's always going to
Speaker 3: feel the same. That's why I don't do any putters
Speaker 3: with inserts sound because inserts number one they will move
Speaker 3: number two. If the temperature changes five or ten degrees,
Speaker 3: the fuel of that insert will change, so it's like
Speaker 3: you're putting, it's a different putter. I want this splutter
Speaker 3: to feel the same. If you're playing in one hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty degree heater, you're playing in forty degrees. Is
Speaker 3: thirty mile a mile win? And having it raining, It's
Speaker 3: going to feel the same every time you stroke it,
Speaker 3: and that's what I want, built confidence and repeatability.
Speaker 1: Well you ain't the king of bling, but you're the
Speaker 1: prince of putters.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Kenny. I really appreciate you. You've
Speaker 1: given the education but also sharing your knowledge with us.
Speaker 1: I've learned a tremendous amount and I cannot wait to
Speaker 1: give a Kenny Giannini putter a try because I just
Speaker 1: have a sense that I may be going from thirty
Speaker 1: three thirty four putts around down to twenty eight twenty nine,
Speaker 1: and that is my goal.
Speaker 3: Well that's you know, that's the only club in your
Speaker 3: bank that you're going to be able to do that with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so so important.
Speaker 3: When you get one and try and then who you'll
Speaker 3: be able to say, hey, this really works, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Kenny. Well again, it's Kennygianini putters dot com and
Speaker 1: Ganini is g I N N I N I and
Speaker 1: the information is there on our blog posts and please
Speaker 1: check them out because really, stop spending money on drivers
Speaker 1: and all these other things, because that's not the way
Speaker 1: to go. And if you missed that conversation, definitely check
Speaker 1: out the last episode. Kenny, thanks so much for your
Speaker 1: time and I look forward to speaking with you again.
Speaker 3: SOO well, Fred, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed it, and thank you