L.A.B putter test! The 2 HOTTEST putters of 2024 | Golf Show Ep. 158

Hi everyone!

Welcome to Episode 158 of the Golf Show!

Last year Paul had an amazing putter fitting at Scottsdale Golf and came home with a L.A.B Directed Force 2.1 putter. He gamed this putter through the winter and took it on trips to Dubai and St Andrews. Paul enjoyed some success with it, but in the end he couldn’t get on with the size of the head.

However, he really liked the science behind L.A.B (Lie Angle Balanced) putters, which takes the torque out of the putting stroke and keeps the putter face square throughout the stroke. So in this episode he tests the L.A.B Link1 blade style putter and the L.A.B Mezz 1 mid-mallet.

How will he get on and will either of them make their way into Paul’s bag?

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RELATED EPISODES

L.A.B Golf Putter fitting using SAM PuttLab Technology | Golf Show Ep. 140 – https://youtu.be/9vVZUsIlr-4?si=AM3XkYFV07UGSL4L

L.A.B Directed Force 2.1 Putter – On course review – The Pros & Cons | Golf Show Ep. 144 – https://youtu.be/0tq7MZvVGw8?si=ESLBuOhaq0_aCXxJ

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oops I was going to say an easy to put it’s not my day is it going home for a cup of tea [Music] last year I had an amazing lab putter fitting at Scottsdale Golf and I think the big smile says it all okay so nine out of 10 again with three [Music] Putters awful back swing on that and it’s gone in the [Music] hole that was out of the toe mle of the hole so with results like that unsurprisingly I bought the directed Force 2.1 putter I gamed it all the way through winter got some amazing results with it had some great games hold some puts I just didn’t expect to hold took it to Dubai with me took it up to St Andrews but but it was just something I couldn’t quite get on with okay so after all of that after waiting 8 weeks to get my DF 2.1 fitted had it for a few months I loved it at first I drained loads of putts but then the sound was really tiny on long putts it was like someone ringing a bell and I just couldn’t get on with the looks of it when I took it to Dubai in January it almost needed its own flight case so I love the technology though I’m trying these out I’ve got the LA link one very good looking put of that more of a blade star with the center shaft and I’ve got the mes one so this is probably the the putter you think of when you think of an lab putter so lab stands for L angle balanced so when you’re fitted for these and it’s essential you get fitted for these and I’m going show you the fitting process that our head pro does a little bit later on in this episode you know they’re going to build this to your exact spec part of the reason these are so expensive this is $459 this is 539 and without being custom without a say an acur Shaft or a different L angle so the standard L angle is 69° both of these are 71° and both of these are 35 in so anything that’s not 69 is classed as a custom you can stick on another1 for that and probably double the lead time so you’ve got to be sure if you’re going to buy one of these but what lab have done is they’ve eliminated the torque of the stroke so your putter face stays Square the whole time the theory being that if the putter face is square throughout the stroke it would be square at impact and your put should start online very nice quality Putters and I’m going to test these out I’m going test them out some long puts some mid puts and some short puts see how I get on I’ve been trying both of these out over the last few weeks I’m still undecided this one is definitely pulling on the heartstrings this one’s a bit more forgiving and you know could be holding a few more puts another thing that’s interesting with this one it’s got the forward press grip so if you can see there the shaft that doesn’t come out maybe that way the shaft doesn’t come out of the middle of the grip so what that’s to do is to promote a bit of a a bit of a lean at a dress bit of a forward press cuz they want you hitting up on the putts cuz that way you’re going to impart less Back Spin you’ll get less skid and get a trer roll so there’s a ton of Science in these but are they any good let’s head over to the green now and test them out it’s a beautiful late spring evening here at fford I’ve got both of Putters to test out so I’m going to try the link one and the mees one from about 80 ft for a long range putt from about 20 ft from a mid-range and from 4T for a short range put and see how we’re going with these I want to tell you how they feel to swing what they feel like with the ball coming off the face can’t wait to try these These are definitely two of the hottest Putters out at the moment going to start up with the link one got six balls here three with dots on three without so I can see which gets closest about my typical proximity to hold this I’ll take that feels really nice coming off the face of this m blade oh that wasn’t the best part it’s done all right though okay not coming in quite as much from left to right as I thought at the end that might have a chance no they look like they within a few feet so good chance of a two put there I’m going to try three more now with the mes one I think the mes one is probably the shape most people think of when they think of a lab put there is of course the mesmax which is a bigger version of this loving it love the look on it my Zach’s been using this for a few months now there’s a few marks in it and stuff I’m going to show you in a minute some close-ups but let’s take on this challenge first didn’t feel as comfortable swinging that for a long range put it’s done pretty well though feels completely different to the the link one that’s not bad could be a bit hard that one out of there okay let’s go and check those out first Ting for the legs this year as well so sorry sorry about that guys so closest is that number one which did get knocked on a bit from the number three another number one there so number one number one so I think the link one has won that test I’m to try three from 20 foot now which is kind of Jordan spe range with the mes one these are the ones we’d all like to make a few more of right problem is I’m not Jordan spe really like the look at that dress doesn’t do much this put greens are looking good it’s been a busy day here at fford as well that was off the toe and it’s performed really well both past the hole see if we can get one got to get there oops I was going to say an easy T okay let’s see if we can hold one with the link one oh that had a good look come on last beautiful Summer’s night here at fford very nice but not for me okay so I’m going to try a few now from 4 foot do a kind of Round the Clock drill you know this is the distance that we we expect to be ha holding from but we don’t always do do we so let’s see what these feel like from close range got to be confident with these nothing worse than missing one of these in around is it nice and easy to pull the trigger with this one just back back and through shove that one three out of four kind of Rush that last one there a bit of a loss of concentration let’s see how get on with the mes one from this range let’s get it this time Paul come on well there we go okay so let’s have a close look at the link one this is beautiful and the feel the sound when the ball comes off this is unbelievable it’s much nicer than all the Scotty cameras I’ve had it’s got two weights there two there and six in the heel this is just the standard lab shaft you can upgrade to Acra or even more expensive shafts than that comes with a really nice grip so this is 303 stainless steel 100% miled beautiful Center shafted that area there is a little bit fiddly to clean you might have to get a little cotton wall bu in there or something after round you don’t want it to rust it looks like that kind of area that shouldn’t rust but you never know when it’s been a golf bag or if you leave it in the head cover if it’s wet what an absolute beauty that is so the mes one this is the smaller brother of the mesmax 10 weights Al together eight in the sole two in the face can have different weights put in so your options here you can have a lightweight head a medium head or a very heavy head again essentially get fitted for those kind of things La this this is their best looking putter it’s very angular when it sits down it has to sit nice and square I found with the other one you know I’ve got the toe up I’m not sure there isn’t really an option for that I did drop this on very soft green and it just stuck in the ground so you know very very angular now we’ve had this a few months gone for the black finish and get lots of different colors in these and there’s a couple of areas where you can just see it’s just chipping off a little bit I’m a bit disappointed with that you know it always have the head cover on we’ll talk about the head cover in a minute you know these two little screws there as well look like the rust in a little bit again this is just the standard shaft I didn’t go for the upgrade got the old Gary Player trousers grip there the forward press grip as I’ve just shown you but that’s getting dirty already again £539 you can get a lot of Scotty Cameron or really nice Odyssey for that kind of money even a bet ay but it is a good performer and if you like that kind of thing I think that’s a look at when I use this on the practice putting green here at forf get hell of a lot of comments so many of the guys are coming over and want to try it out and it’s amazing how many hole in puts with it so I’m fitted for these got fitted for this in the Pro Shop so this is a 71° li angle it’s nice isn’t it let’s compare the head covers you get with these two Putters so let’s start with the mes one so this putter is £80 dearer this head cover is ballistic nylon it’s got two magnets pretty good magnets it’s never dropped off but they say it won’t Fray and it won’t fade but it has just look at the state of that this is not even 6 months old I wouldn’t have that on my golf bag it look really shabby look at that it’s not been abused it’s not been thrown down or anything obviously been out in a few weathery conditions been in the UK but not very good that whereas this the one for the link is possibly the prettiest putter head cover I’ve ever seen it’s quite understated people think what’s in there really strong magnet closure got the lab logo there real premium feel on quality really plush inside look at that beautiful and this put is £80 pound cheaper than the other one I just don’t get that I think lab need to raise their game with the mees head covers with both of these they come fully customizable you can have different lens a whole different range of L angles as well it’s essentially get fitted I’m going to show you what the fitting process looks like you can get different grips in all these whether it’s this style but a bit chunkier a bit grainier those grips will go on this one as well I really like the look of this grip here it’s lovely to use got all the details in there so there’s all the tech in one of these lab Putters it’s essential you get fitted for them it’s personal to you don’t just guess what length you need cuz you’ve had it before it could be slightly different I’ve been fitted for a 35 in one of these I’ve never had a 35in putter before so you need to come somewhere like an approve fitter like we’ve got here at fulford golf club guy and the team will take care of you they’ve got the full range of Putters in and they’ve got the fitting tool so the fitting tool looks like the mesmax it can be used to fit right or left-handed golfers so obviously I’m a right-handed golfer so that can be adjusted either way so let’s set it up for me and then there’s two things we need to fit we need to fit the length and we need to fit the L angle so if we go out the length first so you can see here you’ve got a a scale on there should have maybe brought my glasses so that’s currently set at 34 in I’m holding that right at the end of the grip so that feels a bit short for me obviously I’m cheating a bit cuz I know I’ve been fitted for 30 five so you just keep moving that until you’re comfortable tighten that up yep okay happy with that ental you get that lle nice and flat when guy fitted me for mine he’s taking photographs looking at the close-ups to making sure we’ve not got the toe or the heel hanging up standard is 69 ° L angle if you change from that there is an upcharge cuz it’s class as a custom putter which I think is a bit harsh cuz they’ve got to build these things anyway but that’s their business so I would say about there for me obviously you’ve got someone doing this for you which makes it a little bit easier than doing itself the digital spirit level stick that on there 69° is standard that’s there you can go a bit flatter depending on how you dress it or a bit more upright cuz I like my putter a little bit closer to me I’d say about there 71.4 71 1 12° and there we go so it’s essential you come and get fitted for one of these using one of these tools using one of these someone who knows what they’re doing then once it’s been fitted to you you can have a play with it on the indoor pudding green it’s not my day is it so the million-dollar question or the 500 question which one of these is going in my bag this is so easy to sit down so easy to take back so easy to line up my Zach is deadly with this this one I’ve got to try a little bit harder to make sure it’s Square sometimes I might be getting the toe up even I’ve been fitted for this at 71° but which would you go for guys getting some some comments below I’d love to hear your views do you like Center shafted Putters to start off with is this thing a bit alien looking you know they the shaft is in the back of the head which is a bit unusual but getting back to the question this one is going in the bag for a while Putters don’t tend to last long for me do they I know but I am testing them all the time and they’re all so nice but and I know it’s me it’s not the putter so I’m going to give this one to go and stick this in the bag for now if you’ve seen the Golf Show before you know we’re 100% independent we’re not paid or endorsed anybody to promote their gear I’ll buy everything myself if I like it I’ll tell you if I don’t like it you’re going to get my honest opinion I think that’s the best way so I really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode guys if you have please give it a like if you’ve loved it please tell your friends about the Golf Show check out our back catalog of over 150 episodes and give us a subscribe and we’ll see you next time on the Golf Show I hope you enjoyed the episode of the gold show to watch another click here to subscribe click here