Disc Selection

Choosing Your First Putter

Find a putter that fits your hand and stroke.

Why it matters

Your putter is the disc you will throw more than any other, and the one where feel matters most, because a putting stroke is built around a specific shape in your hand. This is the one purchase where what somebody else recommends is close to irrelevant.

How to do it

Hold several before buying. Rim depth, rim width and how stiff the plastic is all change how a putter sits in the hand.
Choose on feel first and flight second. A putter that feels right gets thrown with confidence, which matters more than its numbers.
Pick slightly stable rather than very understable, so it doubles as an approach disc.
Then buy two or three of the same one. Putting with identical discs removes a variable you did not know you had.
Throw that one putter exclusively for a season. Touch is built from repetition with one object.

Common mistakes

Buying the putter a professional uses.Their hand is not yours and their stroke is not yours. Hold some, pick what fits.

Switching putters after a bad round.The putter is almost never the problem. Switching resets the touch you were building, which makes the next round worse.

Putting with a different disc from the one you approach with.One mould for both means every approach is also putting practice. That is a large amount of free repetition.

Key points

Try several — feel matters more than the name.
Pick one and throw it exclusively to build touch.
A stable putter doubles as an approach disc.

The drill

Drill · Hold before you buy — try at least 5 putters in hand, then 20 putts with your pick. In a shop, hold at least five different putters and notice which one your fingers settle into without you adjusting. Buy that one, then throw twenty putts from fifteen feet. Feel is not a sentimental criterion here — a disc you have to re-grip every time will never putt consistently.

Watch: How to Choose Your Putter in Disc Golf: Beaded vs. Non-Beaded Explained — Scott Stokely