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For those that might not be familiar with Serge Deschamps or the quality of his custom putters….let me fill you in.   Serge is a custom putter designer from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada who not only puts absolutely everything he has into not only his work, but his customer service as well.  His putters are made to order from every detail including your preferred head-weight, dexterity, length, lie, loft, stampings, alignment lines, paint-fill, finish options, grip and even custom engravings.

Now I have been contemplating trying a MOI putter for some time now….mainly due to the fact that I’m a believer that today’s technology is something that every golfer should keep up with.  I must say from the first time I contacted Serge about making me a putter; he lived up to his reputation with his customer service.  Not only was I kept up to date with the building process, but he added the step by step process to Primetimegolf.net, for all the users to see. ( http://www.primetimegolf.net/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,26/func,view/id,4943/catid,25/)   The MOI putter which is created from a solid 6061 T6 aircraft grade aluminum billet just seemed to the choice for me due to the easy alignment aid. The center of gravity is located higher than with most putters today. At impact the center of gravity is in alignment with the center of the ball. This results in all energy being transferred into forward momentum. All putters have low loft, which also helps all energy from the stroke to go forward. Each MOI putter comes with two weight kits, one main and one spare. In total there are 3 five gram, 3 ten gram, and 3 fifteen gram weights and two keys included. The weights are made from brass with screws glued in. Changing the weight setup is quick and easy. These weights are then screwed into the two weight ports, achieving your desired balance and feel. The weights allow the putter to be setup at 340-370 grams. I for one have always had problems with more of alignment rather than my putting stroke, so this seemed to be the logical choice for me.

Now to be fair,  I let Serge know that I would be putting the putter into play for several rounds to give a fair non-biased review and since the putter comes with (3) sets of removable weights, I thought it would be a must to give each set a try to see which one fit my setup the best.  So after using the putter for just under a month and 7-8 rounds, here are my findings…

Quality and Performance:

The construction of the putter was just like the customer service…VERY PRECISE.  I was very impressed with the fact the weight was checked several times throughout the process to maintain the exact weight that was ordered.  To be honest, I was concerned that the feel from the solid aluminum billet would be different then anything that I have ever tried, but to be honest it was as solid as any putter that has ever made my bag.  I had Serge add three alignment lines to the top of the putter which made aligning the short ones much easy than before. All in all, the overall weight achieved from the lighter weights seemed to work better for me.  I started off with the heavier weights and the feel just seemed to be way off for me.  I think it’s all relevant to what type of green speeds you putt on that in the end determines what weights may work the best. 

Likes and Dislikes:

From the moment I started rolling this thing even on the carpet while watching the “US Open”, I noticed it felt as solid as anything I’ve used in the past.  I really felt the alignment lines made the MOI style head very easy to line up both long and short putts.  I also felt that having the different weight to configure different swing weight combinations was a huge plus.  One other positive feature is the snug fitting custom magnetic enclosed head cover that comes with the putter.  It was a nice change from the normal velcro type cover I have been using in the past.

  The really only thing I can say that may be taken as a “dislike” would be the head shape was, and still is, a little hard to get use to.  From a first glance it appears to really be too square, but remember, I’m also someone who has used a conventional “answer” style head for the last 20 years…so the change is really hard on the eyes.  But overall, the MOI type putter made by Serge Deschamps could easily give any of the larger putter makers a serious run for the money.   I would highly recommend anyone looking into improving their putting with the new MOI technology to give this a try.  I can’t promise you that your putting will improve, but I can promise you that you won’t get the personal attention and customer service that you will get from Serge Deschamps.