There are a few references to LAB putters here, so I apologise to the non-LAB readers. I will try to give some explanations where possible. These are my views, they could be completely wrong so I won’t take it personally if you think they are the incoherent ramblings of a 50 year old.

I posted an article a while back on my shift to broomsticks and the learnings. Somewhere along the line, someone messaged me asking why I hadn’t gone the armlock direction before moving to a broomstick. It was one I didn’t have a good answer for. When I ordered my broomstick, I was inquisitive about broomsticks. I’d tried armlocks once or twice but never given them a fair go.

I’m always up for an experiment, so I thought I’d give an armlock a go for six months and see whether there was anything I was missing. My logic on golf clubs has always been, “The perfect amount of golf clubs is your current number of clubs +1”, so this gave me an excuse to add another much to my wife’s dismay. My friends at the golf club are used to me changing clubs for no apparent reason, so arriving with an armlock randomly shouldn’t surprise them.

I’d been toying with the idea of switching to a TPT shaft on my broomstick and trying the DF3 head so I thought this would give me an opportunity to do that. If I found the DF3 worked well, but I wasn’t happy with the armlock, I’d buy a DF3 TPT broomstick.

Process

After I ordered the armlock putter, I shifted back to my short putter for the LAB custom putter waiting period. Having used the broomstick for the better part of 6 months, I felt this would allow me some time to get used to the shorter putting style. I was a little concerned after having used a broomstick for so long that I had forgotten how to putt it with a short putter.

After four months with the armlock, I now feel a little more qualified to give my thoughts on the broomstick vs armlock debate, along with which is a better direction for someone looking to try a new style of putter. I get the feeling there are a lot of people who jumped to a broomstick to solve a putting problem due to the renewed interest in broomsticks (thanks to the likes Lucas Glover, Adam Scott and Will Zelatoris). Some of those switches will be failed experiments, in part because the success of a broomstick depends on the problem you’re trying to solve. If you’re in this camp, hopefully this will help you.

One of the things I think helped me was being asked to do a Sam PuttLab as part of the TPT review. I didn’t expect to get as much out of it as I did, but it was really valuable, and I’ll use some of the information as feedback.

1. If you battle with distance control, go with a broomstick

An armlock putts like a normal putter and offers more in the line of stability and accuracy. Distance control with an armlock is near identical to a normal short putter, but the putter is just more locked in from a stability perspective. What makes the broomstick different is that you don’t really accelerate with the trail hand, it’s more of a pendulum swing. It gives you more consistency on lag putts and the lack of right hand acceleration takes human error out of the equation. One of the key reasons why people battle with distance control is tempo issues and the difference in acceleration from one swing to another.

2. If you battle with keeping the putter straight, both the armlock and broomstick will help, but the broomstick is better.

From a pure stability and straightness perspective they are both outstanding. If you’re battling to keep the putter steady during putts, I found both the armlock and broomstick better and straighter, all the time. That said, the Broomstick is definitely a lot better, and the success of the armlock on shorter putts may mask bigger issues. This is where I draw on my Sam PuttLab experience, and the importance of practice with balls that show alignment while they roll.

When I did PuttLab with the armlock, I thought I had a pretty decent swing. I could sink 10/10 from 10 foot on a putting simulator on a regular basis, and even in the PuttLab, I’d say I was a good 9/10 or 10/10 (he stopped the ball going in the hole because he didn’t want that as feedback). Good? Yes and no. PuttLab identified that with the Armlock, I had the putting equivalent of a slice. I was swinging on too big an arc and as a result, I’d hit the ball with a mild slice and an open face. It was mild enough that it worked from 10 feet, but it was big enough that if I had longer putts, it would be a problem. It mild side spin would also cause consistence on slopes, right to left slopes would break more than left to right. That sort of issue simply didn’t happen with the broomstick. The weight of the putter and the upright stroke meant it was more pendulum like.

3. If you putt a lot off the green, with severe up and down slopes on the fringe, the armlock is a better choice
The broomstick is that it’s not really suited to putting off the green, at least not when there is a heavy slope involved. Ball above or below your feet, or a steep up or down hill. There were cases with my broomstick, where I felt I was forced to take a wedge in situations I would prefer to have taken a putter. Heavy downslope on the fringe, the broomstick was difficult to predict, wet ground with no forgiveness on a slope, etc. Because of the weight of the head and pendulum effect, its harder to deal with slopes without the risk of jagging the head. The armlock on the other hand is like a conventional putter so off green putts on heavy up or down slopes are easy. If your chipping isn’t great, and you intend using it off the green a lot, the armlock might be a better starting point.

4. The armlock is better inside 6 foot (for me at least)
This one may seem controversial, but while my lag putting with broomstick improved drastically in line and length, I found my shorter putts were better with armlock. This may differ between people so this could just be a personal issue, possibly even related to my prescription lenses. The armlock on the other hand was deadly inside 6 foot. I’m not 100% sure why, but I think I felt more confident from 10 foot with the broomstick than from 6 foot. With the armlock, it’s the opposite way around. 

5. The armlock is easier to adapt to, the broomstick requires a rebuild of your putting stroke
If you read my notes on switching to a broomstick, you’d already know that switching to a broomstick isn’t as easy as the tutorials make it look. It’s hard work. The armlock, on the other hand, is a conventional putting stroke with a slightly different look. See point #6 though.

6. If your current putting stroke is bad, moving to an armlock may replicate your problem to a different putter

This point is similar to #5 and somewhat contradicts it from a different perspective. Sometimes starting fresh from the ground up is a good thing. There are numerous times in history when products have been successful because they were built from the ground up with a completely different approach. If your current stroke is bad, maybe a rebuild or even a shift to something like a broomstick may be a better option than falling back into your old habits on a new putter. This is one of the reasons I see people have a great time testing the putters when there is no pressure, buying a new putter and then heading out onto the course to 3 putt again when they’re under pressure. The problem never was the putter.

The interesting thing with the human brain is that we will happily buy something new and learn to use it, but we can’t be bothered to relearn how to use our old putter.  

7. Both can be hit or miss based on your grip.

The broomstick requires quite a bit of work to get a grip that works. That may be expected for most people. I expected (wrongly) for the armlock to be a lot easier, but grip has a surprisingly big difference, with both accuracy and distance control.

For example, if I put both my hands level on the grip, I don’t get the same degree of accuracy and distance control as my lead hand above my trailing hand. Obviously, it will be different for everyone, but as mentioned, I just thought the armlock would be a variation of my short putter grip, and it wasn’t.

Summary

So where did I end in my journey with the armlock vs broomstick? I’m pretty torn. If I had 15 clubs, I’d carry both, but for now, I think I’m going to go with the armlock for the sole reason that our course has a drainage issue, and that means over winter, there are a lot of occasions we are choosing to putt over using a wedge off soggy grass that is too unforgiving. Some of the slopes around the green are also fairly heavy, so combined with the wet weather, the armlock seems to be a better fit for our course. During the last month, I’ve had a 27 putt round, with a 12 putt front 9, my lowest number of putts over 9 holes, despite having varying conditions with cored greens so it seems to be working for me. 

If I played a different course regularly, I think the broomstick may still be my choice. I have a friend who plays his course with a broomstick and switches to a short putter at ours. I’m still planning to order a TPT DF3 broomstick, perhaps as a second putter, but I did sell my Mezz Max short putter because I felt I didn’t need to have a short putter as a backup anymore.

As mentioned in my broomstick learnings article, don’t disqualify your green reading before switching putters. I’ve often seen people say they are bad at putting, when they aren’t. They’re bad at reading greens. I’d recommend getting someone to read your breaks for a round, a caddy or a friend who puts well. You can understand whether you have an issue with your reading.

If you find out that’s the case, look at AimPoint. It seems complicated, but it’s actually pretty easy to work with.