A Look at the YAR Putter

In the past few months I had received a few inquiries from readers about the YAR Putter. Recently, friend of the blog Jeff Martin (www.jeffygolf.com) commented that he switched over to the YAR Putter and was impressed by its work. Then Geoff Mangum (www.putttingzone.com) has given the YAR Putter his 'stamp of approval' as well.

This finally got me to start to check out the putter. I have not purchased one, but I plan on doing so in July.

As a serious golfer who has 'seen it all', I have come to trust my instincts when it comes to my perception about equipment. One of the advantages I have as an amateur is that I can really seek out the best in equipment and fitting techniques and implement those into my bag. I'm not bound by some equipment endorsement deal and having to play with inferior equipment. In fact, I was just discussing this with a PGA Tour veteran the other day who has hit the Wishon 919THI driver and told me how amazed he was by the driver as he hit it 25 yards further. But, he's tied to an endorsement contract and has to use his Taylor Made driver instead.

For me, I am always on the lookout for something different. Not just from an aesthetics standpoint, but how the equipment is engineered and what are the proposed advantages to the unique design. Here's a pic of the YAR putter and as you can see, it's very different from an aesthetics standpoint.



But, what about the actual design and what are the advantages to the design?

From what I gather the main idea behind the YAR putter is that it does not have ANY Moment of Inertia (MOI) in the putter. The putter is designed by Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt; an aerospace engineer that who works for the Department of Defense designing air-frames for sophisticated aircraft. The way I view it now is that where most putter designs are concerned chiefly with being able to produce a 'better roll', the YAR putter is designed so the 'flight' of the clubhead path with be stable throughout a stroke, just like the flight of a B-2 Stealth Bomber.

Here's a Kelvin Miyahira video showing the stability of the putter head on a toe hit.





What this allows the golfer to do is to look at the hole while they are putting. The idea is that the putter head is stable while it is in motion and if the golfer mis-hits it, the putter head will remain stable on the mis-hit.



That's enough for me to give it a shot. You still have to aim the putter well enough and make the appropriate reads. But, your best putting will come when you are doing the best at optimizing your speed on your putts. It's currently being used by Aaron Baddeley. I will give an update when I receive mine.













3JACK