Fashion, Statistics and Putters - yet another Todays Golfer rant

Yes folks, here I go again.  The Todays Golfer massive putter test (bear with me if you don't read this mag) has once again perplexed me.  As it's a subject that I have a particular interest in I had to have a bit of a closer look at it and once again I'm left wondering just how much a brand name influences their choice.

Top of the pile, unsuprisingly in my view, was the Scotty Cameron Studio Select Newport 2.  I know a lot of people rave about these, they are undoubtedly a beautifully made piece of kit, but £220 worth?  In contrast the second place MacGregor is a 'snip' at only £99.  The best value was a more reasonable Ping Karsten at £65.

So how did they rate them?  It was based on four criteria, aesthetics, alignment, feel and performance.  This I thought was slightly unfair, after all how can aesthetics actually effect how good a putter is (OK, it can be phsycological) but part of it was a blind test.  To the same extent alignment is a bit of a red herring and all it really comes down to is feel and performance.  So I thought I'd reinterpret their ratings with that element taken out, and to my surprise the top 2 were the same, but sneaking into 3rd place was the eye wateringly expensive Kramski HPP 340 (£785!) and 5th the £39 Ram Zebra (equal 10th out of 16 in the original list).  Another quick line in an Excel spreadsheet and I came up with the definitive bang for your buck bottom line - basically the rating (excluding aesthetics) with respect to the cost.  Top of the pile?  The Ram Zebra with the Titleist limping in 13th!

Just goes to show, there are lies, damn lies, statistics and marketing.

PS  Just so happens I use a Ram Zebra......

Sign of a bored engineer those stats......

Has been quiet today, that's true.  Have been experiment with smashing a big bottle of Rum with a gallon of pineapple juice.  My own version of the Large Pina Collider 

<groans>  Only science geeks may get that Tim.  Hang on, I got it.  Bugger!!!

Ha ha

My point exactly JP.  In an ideal world it would be nice if they carried out truly independant tests - but obviously that wouldn't be in the manufacturers or the publishers interests.

Still, have resurected Project 231 this afternoon - version 3 is ongoing now - wonder if I could charge £700 for it?