Who doesn’t love a classic Anser putter? It’s a design I have long admired in professionals’ bags, especially the Scotty Cameron versions played by Cam Smith, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reid. Manufacturers all put their own design touches on them, but I generally just love the way they look.
In theory, an Anser should be a perfect putter for me.
In practice, it has not been.
This has never been about whether an Anser can roll the ball. It is about something that happens before I even make a stroke. I stand over it, and I don’t feel certain that I have aimed it where I want.
And if I cannot trust my aim, everything that happens next becomes harder.
What I want from a putter
At a basic level, I want a putter that gives me confidence that I am going to start the ball on my chosen line.
Not because I expect to hole everything, but because commitment matters. When the face looks square, I can make a free stroke and focus on pace. When it does not, I start managing the putter.
That is the story of the Anser for me.
Why the theory never matched the reality
The confusing part is that, on paper, an Anser should fit.
I have a strong arc, and I have had success using other flow neck models with plenty of toe hang. Mechanically, they should match the way I swing the putter.
But toe hang is about how the head wants to rotate during the stroke. My problem happens earlier. It happens at address. It’s visual.
I am a face aimer, not a rear aimer
The quickest way I can describe it is that my visual preference is to aim using the face, not the back of the head.
Some golfers seem to aim mainly using the rear line, flange, or the overall frame behind the ball. Others, including me, focus more on the leading edge and top line. I first explored that idea in this earlier post about why I struggle with some mallet putters, despite them being wildly popular on tour: here
Despite being a blade, the Anser still gives you a lot of information behind the face, and my eyes do not always interpret that information in a way that helps me aim.
The Anser makes me negotiate
With an Anser, the face can look slightly open to me at address even when it is not. I’ve commented on that in both of my recent reviews.
Once I see that, I start negotiating. I make a tiny adjustment. I check it again. I try to trust it. On a good day, I get away with it. On a bad day, it becomes a two-way miss pattern because I am not simply rolling a putt anymore. I am managing the face.
That is why I have always felt streaky with this style of putter. It is not that the stroke disappears. It is that the picture stops being stable.
Why stance matters more than it should
One of the clearest patterns I have noticed is that I tend to stand more open with Anser style blades and some mid-mallets.
It is not a choice I consciously make. It is a natural compensation. If I open my stance, the head looks better. The face and the target line start to agree again.
That helps, but it also tells me something important. The putter is not visually neutral for me. I can make it work, but it’s harder to do it the same way every time.
Right eye dominance can change the picture
I am right eye dominant, and I think that is part of the reason the Anser can be viewpoint dependent for me.
The neck, the offset relationship between shaft and face, and the heel-side geometry can all become strong visual references. From my normal setup, slightly inside the line, those references can pull my perception away from the face.
That is not a criticism of the design. It is simply a mismatch between what the putter is showing me and how my brain wants to aim.
Why the SeeMore has changed things
Since moving to the SeeMore mFGP, the questioning has happened less.
The simplest explanation is that it gives me a clearer, more face-forward picture at address. The face looks square quickly (compared to an Anser, it can almost appear closed). I can then stand square and still see what I want to see. I can commit. More importantly, it’s repeatable. Straight lines appeal to my engineering brain!
It does not make me a perfect putter. Nothing does!
But it removes the negotiation, especially on the putts that matter most, the ones inside six feet where doubt is expensive.
It would be interesting to try an Anser 4 / Newport 2 style head and see if their straighter lines suit my eyes better, and I plan to do that as soon as I find one.
A final thought
I am not writing this as a putting coach, and I am not claiming it is a universal rule. This is simply one of the clearest patterns I have found from testing and reviewing a lot of putters.
You can find the right putter for your stroke, and find it’s still the wrong putter for your eyes.
There is an old Groucho Marx line about who you are going to trust, him or your lying eyes. Putting has a version of the same problem. The specs can say one thing, but if the picture doesn’t look right, it is hard to commit. For me, that is the Anser in a nutshell.
I will come back to this idea in upcoming reviews, including two putters with very similar head shapes but very different alignment cues.
Over to you
If you have ever struggled with a putter that should work on paper, but didn’t work in practice, I would love to hear about it. What shapes look square to you, and what ones never quite do?
If you enjoy this kind of testing-based writing, consider subscribing. I will keep reviewing as many putters as I can get my hands on and share what I learn along the way.
Links:
For all of my putting-related articles, go to On the Green
Two recent Anser-style putter reviews