L.A.B. Golf, Golftec – and the World’s Worst Golf-tech Video

Recently I saw a post from the folks at Golftec that was intended to explain “lie angle balancing”, which is the latest hot new thing in putter design from the folks at L.A.B. Golf (home of the $600 – before options – putter.)

https://x.com/i/status/1956742227587224055

Here is a screenshot of the post in question. Last time I checked some 1,400-odd people had viewed it – and I hope that at least some of them thought to themselves, “What the absolute hell is this kid talking about?”

First let’s talk about the text of the post:

They wrote “Rather than balancing a putter around the shaft […] @labgolf putters balances their putter based on lie angle.”

Well, I’ve got news for you, folks – the lie angle is the angular relationship of the long axis of the shaftof the putter to the club head, so balancing the club around the shaft and balancing the club around the lie angle are the same thing – so right off the bat you can see that they are playing a little smoke-and-mirrors game with you.

Now let’s break down the problems with the video:

1) The term is “lie”–“angle” – two words, not “line-gle”, as the kid[1] in the clip pronounces it.

2) When he picks up a “standard putter”[2] he mentions “a potentially differing weight from the end of the club to the head of the toe”. What the hell does that mean? What I think it is that they are trying to get across here, however poorly expressed, is (the obvious[3] fact) that more of the mass of the club head lies to one side (the toe side) of the axis of the shaft than to the other (the heel side.) This imbalance causes the club to rotate about the shaft such that the toe of the club is lower than the shaft. This is called “toe hang”, and most putters have some amount of it.

3) He starts out with the “standard putter” balanced on a finger and held with the toe up, and says “when I let go of this club you’ll see it has the tendency to swing wide open[4].” Here he is using misdirection to emphasize this supposed undesirable aspect of the design of this non-LAB Golf putter. Pretty much putter ever made will swing down, dropping the toe, when held in this starting position. What is important is the angle of the face relative to horizontal when the putter is at rest.

4) He then takes what appears to be a left-handed[5] LAB Golf putter with a center shaft, balances it on a finger and (allegedly, because his other hand is not visible in the video) releases it, resulting in the face remaining vertical, saying, “so when I let go of this you’ll see how the face stays square.”

What he is calling “square” here is what anyone else would call 100% toe hang. No explanation is offered as to why this configuration is desirable, what benefits it has, or what stroke shape it is suited for (based on the conventional thinking that a large amount of toe hang is suited for a stroke with a large arc in the horizontal plane, 100% toe hang suits a massively arced stroke.)

And let’s talk about toe hang for a minute.

While one putter manufacturer touts a “toe-up” design that “significantly reduces the negative effects of torque, promoting a smoother and more consistent motion and allowing the putter head a greater opportunity to return to square at impact”, it is a generally accepted fact[6] that the greater the arc in your putting stroke (arc in the horizontal plane, to be clear…) the more toe hang your putter should have, ostensibly in order to facilitate the opening and closing of the face as the putter is swung back and then forward.

Since toe hang is caused by the center of mass being well out toward the toe, away from the shaft, in the horizontal plane as the putter is used, and the putter is being swung in the horizontal plane, what force is acting on the putter to make it rotate?

Gravity acts at 90º to the orientation of the moment arm between the location of the center of mass, and inertia – which can be treated as a force in a dynamic situation like this – would cause the toe to hang back as the putter is swung back, thus closing the face, and again, in the opposite direction as the putter is swung forward, opening the face. This is the opposite of the description I have read of the reasoning behind “big arc, more toe hang”, which is “toe hang facilitates the opening and closing of the putter face in the backstroke and follow-through”.

I have never agreed with the arcing-stroke school of putting because my engineer’s predilection for finding the simplest solution eschews the complexity of a motion that requires timing to ensure that the face of the putter is square to my intended line at impact. Is this “big arc, more toe hang” thing another one of those old wives’ tales of golf like “hit down to compress the ball” (don’t get me started on that one) which no one actually understands, and which doesn’t follow physical reality but which everyone nods their heads and agrees with because they don’t know any better?

I think so, yes.

5) Finally – to close out the video, the world’s worst spokesperson[7] says “LAB will fit you first to your “linegle” (sic) which will then determine how they get the shaft axis and the head balance within each other, hence the lack of twist.” This is gobbledygook that is worthy of a Republican legislator explaining why cutting your medical benefits and giving tax cuts to billionaires is really a good deal for YOU.

The bottom line is that this video does worse than promote misinformation; it gives no actual information at all, while purporting to present a wondrous new concept in the guise of an amazing revelation. It is a load of unrelated BUMF, nonsense statements strung together by someone who has no idea what he is talking about, and no concept of how to present information clearly.

Please – PLEASE – Golftec, do better. If you feel the need to promote putters that cost what we used to spend for a high-end driver, First – use a presenter who can at least sound like he knows what the hell is talking about; Second – illustrate and explain the physical differences between the putters that are being compared and present them each in the same way, visually; and finally – explain, or at least make an effort to explain, how the $600 putter achieves its radical physical characteristic, and why it will (supposedly) turn your basic 18-handicapper into Steve Stricker or Brad Faxon on the putting green.

And for goodness sake, send the kid in this video clip back to the stockroom to count sweaters.

[1] Don’t at me – at my age anyone under 40 is a kid…

[2] Do the folks at Edel Golf know that this kid used one of their putters like it was the “Before” photo in a weight-loss ad?

[3] Or it should be…

[4] The club face is not “wide open”, because “open” or “closed” is relative to swing path; it is, in this instance “toe down”.

[5] Important rule for experiments/demonstrations: Compare apples to apples. 

[6] I use the phrase “generally accepted fact” in the sense of “widely spread concept that may or may not actually reflect physical reality” – about which more later.

[7] Who is this kid, anyway? He doesn’t introduce himself, and offers no bona fides as to his qualifications (if any) to explain the complex dynamics of the putting stroke and how different configurations of putters affect it. He could be the stock-boy, or just some junior sweater-folder at the local golf superstore.

“The Playing Lesson”, by Michael Bamberger ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -1/2

A new book from Michael Bamberger is always an occasion to celebrate. The author of classic golf titles such as The Green Road Home, To The Linksland, This Golfing Life, and Men in Green has a unique outlook on the game of golf that is grounded in a depth of experience that you won’t find, I think, in any other writer in the modern game. There are a handful that approach it, including his fellow former-Sports Illustrated colleague and co-author of The Swinger, Alan Shipnuck, but Bamberger’s work has a certain feel, a laidback mellowness, if you will, that I haven’t found anywhere else in my 200-plus-volume collection of books on golf.

The Playing Lesson, the latest from esteemed golf writer Michael Bamberger, is the chronicle of a year embedded in the professional game, as a caddy, a tournament volunteer, and a pro-am participant.

I will admit that I was expecting something a bit different from this book, but that is more a failure of imagination on my part than a shortcoming in execution on the author’s part. The Playing Lesson was billed as the chronicle of a year’s immersion in the world of professional golf, and I was expecting more content relating to actual golf lessons – but Bamberger doesn’t do obvious. Sure, he got some swing tips, and putting lessons (more about that later) along the way, but the real learning experience involved him immersing himself in the myriad aspects of the world of professional golf for a year, learning about much more than just the actual playing of the game.

Not the Bamberger is a newbie to the world of pro golf, not by a long shot. His first book, The Green Road Home (1986), chronicles his start in golf at age 14 and his adventures caddying for an array of professional golfers while also starting his life as a writer. His second, To The Linksland (1992), about his adventures as a traveling caddy on the European Tour (with his very understanding wife in tow) is such a classic that a few years ago used copies were going for $100 or more; many a golfer’s dreams of striking it rich by selling a cherished first edition were trampled when it was re-issued in a 30th Anniversary edition in 2022.

In The Playing Lesson Bamberger takes to the road again, caddying, playing in pro-ams, volunteering at tournaments – essentially sampling the many sides of professional golf. It is somewhat reminiscent of the 1968 George Plimpton book Bogey Man, which chronicles the (mis)adventures of the author and editor of The Paris Review as he spends a mere month embedded with the PGA Tour, but Bamberger’s sojourn lasts longer and delves deeper into the many and varied aspects of professional golf.

Even a quick mile-wide/inch-deep synopsis of the ground covered by this book would turn this review into a much longer read than it has any right to be; all I can say is, read it. Michael Bamberger’s prose is smooth and a delight to read, and he gets into so many corners of the game that every golfer will find something interesting, something they can relate to, or something they never knew, in this book. I particularly enjoyed the section on his late afternoon round on the back nine at Pacific Grove Golf Links, a quirky but not-to-be-missed municipal course just down the road from Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, and Cypress Point. A golf trip to the Monterey Peninsula isn’t complete without a round at Pacific Grove.

As for myself, I would love to spend some time with Michael on a putting green and talk with him about that particularly infuriating aspect of the game. He carries a two-sided putter so that he can putt leftie because he often yips short putts right-handed, a concept that astounds me (and not in a good way.) My technical-side antennae went up at a couple of mentions he made of hooked or sliced putts, and putted balls rolling “end-over-end”; these are the sort of misconceptions that are unfortunately common among golfers, and even many golf instructors, and they’re aching to be laid to rest.

Questions of his dubious beliefs about putting aside – as can be said of pretty much everything he has published[1], The Playing Lesson belongs in every thinking golfer’s bookcase.

[1] I must confess that I didn’t care for his previous book to this one, The Ball in the Air. No knock on his writing; I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the three golfers who are the subject of the book.

NorCal well represented at 125th USGA U.S. Amateur Championship

If home field advantage carries any weight in a major golf event, the winner of this week’s USGA U.S. Amateur Championship, being played at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, August 11 – 17, may well come from the ranks of the fourteen Northern Californians in the field.

The local players hail from all around the Bay Area and the inland regions of the northern half of the state, from as far south as Salinas and as far north as Red Bluff. For one local player in the field the 2025 U.S. Amateur is an actual home game – Matthew Goode, of San Francisco, is not only a member of the Olympic Club, he is the current club champion. There is one more player with a connection to the Bay Area – World #1 Amateur Jackson Koivun, who was born and raised in San Jose, attended Laurel Springs High School in Ojai, California, but now, along with his parents, calls Chapel Hill, North Carolina, home since starting college at Auburn University.

Jackson Koivun plays his tee shot on the 16th hole during the first round of stroke play of the 2025 U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club (Ocean Course) in San Francisco, Calif. on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Eakin Howard/USGA)

The NorCal field ranges in age from Aston Lim, of Union City, at 15, to recent college graduates Matthew Kress of Saratoga, and Baron Szeto, of Moraga, both 22 years of age.

Overall the ages of the players in the field range from Lim, at 15 to Arizona resident Greg Sanders, 61. The oldest winner in the 124-year history of the event is Jack Westland, 47, in 1952; the youngest is Byeong-hun (Ben) An, who played one year of college golf at Cal-Berkeley – 2010-2011; An took the title in 2009, at age 17. The average age of the players in the field this year is 23, so this championship is definitely the province of young, but experienced, players.

The tournament opens with two rounds of stroke play on the Lake and Ocean courses at the Olympic Club on Monday and Tuesday to trim the field from 312 hopefuls to the match play field of 64. The field will be further whittled down over four days of match play, Wednesday through Saturday, with the two finalists contesting for the championship in a 36-hole final on Sunday, August 17th.

Getting to the first tee box at the U.S. Amateur is an epic journey in itself. To even enter a qualifying event a player must have a handicap of 0.4 or better. This year 5,245 players submitted entries, most of whom teed it up at 47 local qualifying sites hoping to advance to final qualifying at one of 19 sites, and from there to the U.S. Amateur. Various achievements in amateur golf during the year leading up to this tournament will earn a player a direct entry to the event, and six of the 143 exempt entrants are from Northern California:

• Jackson Koivun (San Jose) – Qualified for 2025 U.S. Open; Top 20 points leaders in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of March 26; Top 100 points leaders in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of May 21
• Jaden Dumdumaya (Benicia) – Winner of 2025 Pacific Coast Amateur
• Jacob Goode (San Francisco) – Winner of 2025 California Amateur
• Matthew Kress (Saratoga) – Top 100 points leaders in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of June 25
• Zachery Pollo (Rocklin) – Qualified for 2025 U.S. Open; Top 100 points leaders in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of May 21
• Clark Van Gaalen (Turlock) – Top 100 points leaders in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of June 25

At the end of 18 holes of stroke play Jackson Koivun led the NorCal contingent, sitting T5 at 2-under. Koivun is the only local player who is currently under par for the tournament, but a handful look to be in with a chance to advance to match play if they carry on Tuesday as they began today. That group includes the youngest player in the field, Aston Lim; the 15-year-old shot a one-over-par 71 on the Lake Course today, as did Baron Szeto of Moraga; Avinash Iyer of San Ramon – a SJSU Men’s Golf team member; Sacramento’s Brady Siravo; and Clark Van Gaalen. Also currently within the Top 64 are Zachery Pollo of Rocklin and Jaden Dumdumaya, of Benicia.

Play resumes Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m., with players switching from Lake to Ocean courses, or vice versa. Ties for 64th position at the end of stroke play on Tuesday will be decided by a playoff.