Where you should (and shouldn’t) put lead tape on a putter | Fully Equipped

The introduction of adjustable weights has made dialing in today’s clubs a cinch. Simply use a wrench to alter launch and spin or even swingweight. It’s really that easy.

But what about if you need to make incremental changes to weight placement? An application of old-school lead tape remains one of the easiest, and most obvious, ways to gradually bump up weight, especially at the highest level of professional golf.

While lead tape can be easily purchased at your local golf shop, most golfers are unsure of how much to use or where to place it to make a noticeable improvement. During the latest episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast, Callaway PGA Tour manager Joe Toulon offered his take on where lead tape should be placed on the putter head.

The Open Championship tends to be the one event each year where players add lead tape to the putter head in an effort to get the ball to the hole on slower-than-usual greens. In the past, we’ve seen Tiger Woods, most notably, add lead tape to the sole and back cavity of his Scotty Cameron Newport 2 GSS putter to combat the slower greens.

According to Toulon, the most obvious location to place the tape is the sole for a few reasons.

“The location of the lead tape can change feel and sound,” said Callaway PGA Tour manager Joe Toulon. “But not so much ball speed. We’ve always liked to place the lead tape on the sole and spread it out evenly. Placing it in the cavity won’t change the center of gravity location much, if at all, but we like to even it out. It’s the main reason we go with the sole because it doesn’t change CG placement.”

There’s also another, albeit more selfish reason, to place it on the sole over the cavity if you’re an equipment manufacturer: “We don’t want to hide the Odyssey logo,” said Toulon.

Unless you’re using half a slab of lead tape, placing several strips in the cavity won’t noticeably change the CG location, but it can change how the putter sounds and feels at impact when you add more material directly behind the hitting area. If you need to add lead tape, start with the sole and see if it does the trick.

And if you absolutely must add lead tape to the cavity like Woods, just be aware that lead tape can strip the paint from the cavity. The 15-time major winner learned that the hard way several years ago.

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Jonathan Wall

Golf.com Editor

Jonathan Wall is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s Managing Editor for Equipment. Prior to joining the staff at the end of 2018, he spent 6 years covering equipment for the PGA Tour. He can be reached at jonathan.wall@golf.com.