I’ve been playing Boccieri golf’s Heavy Putter with great success for several years. The putter is true to its name though also the scourge of caddies who have to carry it. It works on the principal that extra weight forces golfers to employ larger, more stable muscles to swing it so that they cannot “steer” the putter with their fingers. This year Boccieri surprises with an entire line of heavy clubs—its 2011 Control Series of counterweighted drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, and wedges. Top pros have long known that counter weighting produces a more fundamentally sound, repeatable golf swing. Boccieri’s new clubs include a 50-gram backweight in the butt end of the shafts to improve tempo and stability, ensuring that sweet spot meets ball for optimal distance and accuracy.
I tried the clubs recently at the PGA Merchandise show in Orlando. With the driver, the noticeable heft slowed my backswing and seemed to help keep it on plane– a rare occurrence for me. On the downswing the extra weight ensured a full follow-through by pulling me into the shot. Frankly, I killed the ball, to the utter amazement of my colleague, who’d witnessed me shanking all varieties of drivers at previous shows. The fairway woods (in 15 and 19-degrees) also swung cleanly and well, delivering crisp contact and a sense of power at impact. The heavy irons took more getting used to, possibly due to my unorthodox (read: ugly) swing, forcing me more on plane than I’m accustomed to being except when flying, and possibly because they are an inch shorter than traditional irons. I’d definitely consider picking up the whole set of heavy clubs—if I could lift them.
