Maybe I can help. I was there in the '50s and carrying double loops (two bags, and they literally weighed more than the heaviest Sun Mountain cart bag of today ;) Your guess was actually close to reality regarding the heel shaft design. It was simple (or maybe simpleminded, in a world that didn't have torrential marketing), the heelshafted putters were designed like the rest of the clubs in your bag. Why would you design it with a club in mind?...1) even on the finest greens in the US, you had to strike the putt with 2 to 10 times more force than today. Golf was just starting to break out of the Private Club Only Sport of post-WWII, and public courses were popping up all over. You should have seen the junk on which you had putt thru on those public greens. OK? 2)And we all know that even today, a heelshafted putter is a micro/mini swing of a club. It opens minutely going back and closes coming back through the ball. This was sure as hail an unnecessary complication of something for which, most people sucked at, to begin with. 3) Reuter's Bullseye and middle-ish shaft is a straight back and straight forward stroke. Putting got better/easier for people with average hand/eye coordination and Hogan stopped saying "putting should be removed from the game. It's not really golf." 4) The only important physics improvements since the Bullseye were by Karsten Solheim. He designed the staggered head/shaft, and moved some weighting to the heel and toe of the putter, because we can't hit a putt on the exact same perfect spot of the face every time. I have an M5C Deep Face which I have mixed in with dozens of putters in the past 60 years. It has the softest brass of any Bullseye I have ever measured. It is a cruel putter, and only as good as the hands it is in. But with balata or the 4-piece ball of today, it has remained the best feel and lag putting weapon I have ever come across. There is nothing even vaguely close to it.
I have and still use my Bullseye putter. It is the best bar none. It talks to me when I use it and lets me know what I did right or what I did wrong in making the stroke. It has rewarded me on many occasions. No putter will ever kick it out of my bag.
I've used Bullseye putters my whole life. They are my favorite. Great weight, feel, and look. I like addressing the ball and just lining up the putter by feel, so I don't need a putter with lines or dots or balls to look at. Plus, it's fun to tap short putts in left-handed.
Awesome video! I love those putters. I have a Wilson 8813 and Dynacraft's version of the Bullseye and still use them both. Nothing feels so sweet as those sweet spots.
I am 28 i have shot under par many many times in the past ten years. But i had never broken par until i putted with this putter. I broke par for the first time at around 22 or 23. I shot 4 under 67 with a bogey on a par 71 course. Ive had at least 5 scotty camerons 3 odysseys. And an old wilson. Dont get me wrong scotty cameron is probably the best putter due to varying designs for all golfers today. I was traditional though. Shot 67 with titleist 695mb 4 and 5 iron nike VR TW blades. My ball striking wad okay to good. I shot 67 because of this putter. Its not forgiving at all but when u hit it pure it does what it is meant to do. Im a plus 3 handicapper and this club will never leave my bag. Driving the ball is srt iron shaping is art.... Wedge play is an artist at his best... Putting is a religion. You go with what feels good from day 1 and what has worked for you
I agree. When I switched to a bullseye in the seventies it made a difference. I spent a lot of time on my short game and I took pride in my number of putts per side. 11 putts was my best on nine. I usually putted around 15 plus or minus and rarely ever three putted. My short irons generally got me within striking distance which was out to twenty feet. I studied Ben Crenshaw, who was the best putter on the tour at the time and he helped a lot. I spent as much time on the putting green as I did playing. My course had a practice area for chipping with some bunkers and I spent a lot of time around it playing all kinds of different shots. My drives were generally straight and long, so the majority of my game was a five iron and under. So, if you play par golf and hit every green you would make 36 putts. That is half your game! If you can cut the putts down, you would finish under par every time. Moe Norman hit the ball straight, but was not a good putter. If he improved his game on the green, I think he could have done very well on the tour. Just some thoughts.
I bought a flanged bullseye 5 years ago at a flea market for $10. It is exactly like the one you show in the clip. Didn’t realize SC had something to do with it. I just started to collect older Scottie’s not realizing I actually started 5 years ago with the Bullseye. Thanks for the info.
Dusted off the one my dad gave me over a decade ago just for kicks. Long story short, my Scotty Cameron Newport 2.5 is now collecting dust on the used rack at a golf galaxy and I have a ball roller I am in love with and some fresh wedges.
I was just thinking the other day about my first set of golf clubs. I bought a mixed set second-hand without knowing much about clubs at all. My putter was an acushnet bullseye, my sand wedge (atleast I thought it was a sand wedge) literally had a wooden shaft and a thin club face, and my Driver was a Titleist 980 with an extra stiff shaft😂 I had no idea how outdated any of those clubs really were, but I was just getting into golf and couldn't care less. I was just happy to be playing and making contact with the ball🤣 I still have the acushnet putter. It's in almost mint condition, I still practice with it sometimes
Buying a house in 2003 which had an artificial green behind it motivated me to start scrounging thrift stores to find putters for house guests to use and got me interested in how putter designs and strokes evolve over the years. Toe balance is a term of art used to describe how the toe of a putter or other club will hang if balanced on a finger. The Bullseye putters, even with the counter-weighting on the heel side of the club, hang toe down. That ‘toe balance’ causes the toe of the club to want to twist open and closed relative to the swing arc, a twisting which can be felt in the hand when using a light grip. By comparison a PING “Anser” style putter which became popular in the 1960s when Pros like Tom Watson starting winning with them balance at a 45° angle and do a much better job of keeping the face of the putter square with the type of inside-square putting stroke used by most golfers then. Karsten Solheim, the founder of PING incorporated that same concept of matching mass distribution to swing arc to automatically square the face to it to irons with the introduction of the PING EYE in the 1960s and the only slightly different PING EYE2 irons in the 1980s, likely the best selling irons of all time. I have sets of PING EYE and PING EYE2 and several of the early model Anser and Pal putters. I also have one of the HUGE aluminum Anser-style MacGregor putters similar to the one Nicklaus used to win the 1986 Masters. It was the first club I bought after my original set of Browning Premiere clubs. The third distinct class of putters are those which are face balanced - resting face-up when balanced. These mallet style putters are ideally suited for the type of straight back and through putting stroke most seem to use with the longer anchored style making accurate putting such a no brainer the USGA banned them to protect Par. But the problem with this style putter is that without anchoring to a shoulder it is very difficult for a human to swing a golf club, even a perfectly heel-toe “face” balanced one, on a perfectly straight line parallel to the shoulder line. Which is the best style putter? It depends on which type of putting stroke one can execute most consistently. I find I am most accurate with a mallet style putter when swinging it perfectly down the line keeping face square but keeping it square with that perfectly neutral balance is difficult. Overall I have better results with long and short puts with an Anser putter using a slight inside-square stoke similar to what I use when chipping and taking away other clubs from the ball. The heel-toe balance brings it back square to the ball at impact and release. When I used one of the Bullseye putters I found the extra toe bias very helpful for hitting longer putts with an inside-square stroke by more difficult to control for shorter ones. So the best answer to what putter style / stroke suits you is to try all three styles. Start by balancing on the finger to evaluate toe / face balance. The ones that hang toe down or at around 45° will tend to favor an inside-square putting stroke, meaning the face will tend to automatically come back square to ball with that stroke. If used with a straight stroke the toe bias will tend to swing the toe and face open in the back stroke and closed when swinging towards the ball. If you can swing a putter on a perfect straight line then a face balanced putter will probably to a better job of putting the the ball where you aim it than one that isn’t face balanced. 😊
Plus, you could also hit the ball nearer to the toe to "ride" the green that break to the right, assuming right handed putter, Something that imposible now with those big headed straight putter. That is why I still using the old Spalding rear shafted putter wherever impossible for me to bring my broom. ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶
It was also made out of soft brass. It felt softer than most other putters especially when hitting a balata covered golf ball. No other feeling like it.
i've got the acushnet right-hand flange with the minimal hands forward offset. mine don't have the dude's name. oh and mine has what appears to be two hacksawed grooves on the topline that align with sweet spot although appear home done and crudely so. i've seen those grooves also done on ones at eBay. some of these bullseye putters came with what came to be declared an illegal grip that tapered at the top.
I use the SC bullseye copper flange one in 33” with a superstroke tour pistol grip....will never take it out of my bag. If you hit it pure it feels amazing but if not you find yourself and ball in terrible predicaments sometimes. It’s not forgiving that’s for sure.
Very informative. Actually I became aware of the 'Acushnet" name only today, even as many of the more contemporary models borrow greatly from this design.
Yup Like others, this is still my one and only. 49 yo 4.5 HCP and I putt lights out with this.. always have...I've tried other putters and they're nice but 1- they are all ridiculously expensive, 2- feedback on mis hits is hard to interpret on other putters. 3- my dad gave me this putter when I first started so the sentimental value is also immeasurable. Putting is probably the only swing where it's 100% Indian and 0% arrow so why in the world would anyone ever spend $$ on a fancy club that has virtually 0 help. Practice ur stroke, listen to the feedback, and start draining putts with you new old bullseye!!
I have eight different models of Bullseyes, from a few original Reuters models to the version Titleist forced Cameron to work on to a version that Heavy Putter did in their 'light' series (and which actually recently won a tournament on, I believe, the European PGA Tour). To this day, whenever my putting goes south on me, I can bag one of the Bullseyes to put me back on track. So why don't I always play one? Honestly, they just aren't as forgiving as modern putters are.
I just purchased a bullseye and was wondering if it’s real or a fake. It actually has a red and black bullseyes on both sides of the heal. Anyone ever seen one like that?
How much are one of these acushnet John R Jr with the original leather grips worth these days? I have a one that was given to me by my uncle and added it to my putter collection
Shorter Length usually, and the lightest of the Bullseye heads for those that like that. In those days, it was hard to find any Putter shorter than 35" Primarily, aimed towards ladies
I have many modern putters some good quality some expensive for nothing but my double side 1970 style putter I sink the most holes with and is more accurate with them
John Reuter didn't innovate or design this club, he merely copied the John Letters, Golden Goose. Centre shafted putters were made legal long before either the Bullseye or the Golden Goose.
Maybe I can help. I was there in the '50s and carrying double loops (two bags, and they literally weighed more than the heaviest Sun Mountain cart bag of today ;) Your guess was actually close to reality regarding the heel shaft design. It was simple (or maybe simpleminded, in a world that didn't have torrential marketing), the heelshafted putters were designed like the rest of the clubs in your bag. Why would you design it with a club in mind?...1) even on the finest greens in the US, you had to strike the putt with 2 to 10 times more force than today. Golf was just starting to break out of the Private Club Only Sport of post-WWII, and public courses were popping up all over. You should have seen the junk on which you had putt thru on those public greens. OK? 2)And we all know that even today, a heelshafted putter is a micro/mini swing of a club. It opens minutely going back and closes coming back through the ball. This was sure as hail an unnecessary complication of something for which, most people sucked at, to begin with. 3) Reuter's Bullseye and middle-ish shaft is a straight back and straight forward stroke. Putting got better/easier for people with average hand/eye coordination and Hogan stopped saying "putting should be removed from the game. It's not really golf." 4) The only important physics improvements since the Bullseye were by Karsten Solheim. He designed the staggered head/shaft, and moved some weighting to the heel and toe of the putter, because we can't hit a putt on the exact same perfect spot of the face every time. I have an M5C Deep Face which I have mixed in with dozens of putters in the past 60 years. It has the softest brass of any Bullseye I have ever measured. It is a cruel putter, and only as good as the hands it is in. But with balata or the 4-piece ball of today, it has remained the best feel and lag putting weapon I have ever come across. There is nothing even vaguely close to it.
I have and still use my Bullseye putter. It is the best bar none. It talks to me when I use it and lets me know what I did right or what I did wrong in making the stroke. It has rewarded me on many occasions. No putter will ever kick it out of my bag.
I've used Bullseye putters my whole life. They are my favorite. Great weight, feel, and look. I like addressing the ball and just lining up the putter by feel, so I don't need a putter with lines or dots or balls to look at. Plus, it's fun to tap short putts in left-handed.
One of my favorite parts about the club😂
Awesome video! I love those putters. I have a Wilson 8813 and Dynacraft's version of the Bullseye and still use them both. Nothing feels so sweet as those sweet spots.
I am 28 i have shot under par many many times in the past ten years. But i had never broken par until i putted with this putter. I broke par for the first time at around 22 or 23. I shot 4 under 67 with a bogey on a par 71 course. Ive had at least 5 scotty camerons 3 odysseys. And an old wilson. Dont get me wrong scotty cameron is probably the best putter due to varying designs for all golfers today. I was traditional though. Shot 67 with titleist 695mb 4 and 5 iron nike VR TW blades. My ball striking wad okay to good. I shot 67 because of this putter. Its not forgiving at all but when u hit it pure it does what it is meant to do. Im a plus 3 handicapper and this club will never leave my bag. Driving the ball is srt iron shaping is art.... Wedge play is an artist at his best...
Putting is a religion. You go with what feels good from day 1 and what has worked for you
I agree. When I switched to a bullseye in the seventies it made a difference. I spent a lot of time on my short game and I took pride in my number of putts per side. 11 putts was my best on nine. I usually putted around 15 plus or minus and rarely ever three putted. My short irons generally got me within striking distance which was out to twenty feet. I studied Ben Crenshaw, who was the best putter on the tour at the time and he helped a lot. I spent as much time on the putting green as I did playing. My course had a practice area for chipping with some bunkers and I spent a lot of time around it playing all kinds of different shots. My drives were generally straight and long, so the majority of my game was a five iron and under. So, if you play par golf and hit every green you would make 36 putts. That is half your game! If you can cut the putts down, you would finish under par every time. Moe Norman hit the ball straight, but was not a good putter. If he improved his game on the green, I think he could have done very well on the tour. Just some thoughts.
I bought a flanged bullseye 5 years ago at a flea market for $10. It is exactly like the one you show in the clip. Didn’t realize SC had something to do with it. I just started to collect older Scottie’s not realizing I actually started 5 years ago with the Bullseye. Thanks for the info.
I still use an 8802 style putter, it makes putting very simple and the feel is great. Phil M. has done alright using one.
Dusted off the one my dad gave me over a decade ago just for kicks. Long story short, my Scotty Cameron Newport 2.5 is now collecting dust on the used rack at a golf galaxy and I have a ball roller I am in love with and some fresh wedges.
RIP 400$
I just added a Super Stroke grip to my Wilson Augusta model of this putter. I love this putter.
I was just thinking the other day about my first set of golf clubs. I bought a mixed set second-hand without knowing much about clubs at all. My putter was an acushnet bullseye, my sand wedge (atleast I thought it was a sand wedge) literally had a wooden shaft and a thin club face, and my Driver was a Titleist 980 with an extra stiff shaft😂 I had no idea how outdated any of those clubs really were, but I was just getting into golf and couldn't care less. I was just happy to be playing and making contact with the ball🤣 I still have the acushnet putter. It's in almost mint condition, I still practice with it sometimes
I just was gifted one of these today. I was today years old when I found out you weren’t only on TXGs channel. 🤣🤣🤣
Buying a house in 2003 which had an artificial green behind it motivated me to start scrounging thrift stores to find putters for house guests to use and got me interested in how putter designs and strokes evolve over the years. Toe balance is a term of art used to describe how the toe of a putter or other club will hang if balanced on a finger. The Bullseye putters, even with the counter-weighting on the heel side of the club, hang toe down. That ‘toe balance’ causes the toe of the club to want to twist open and closed relative to the swing arc, a twisting which can be felt in the hand when using a light grip.
By comparison a PING “Anser” style putter which became popular in the 1960s when Pros like Tom Watson starting winning with them balance at a 45° angle and do a much better job of keeping the face of the putter square with the type of inside-square putting stroke used by most golfers then. Karsten Solheim, the founder of PING incorporated that same concept of matching mass distribution to swing arc to automatically square the face to it to irons with the introduction of the PING EYE in the 1960s and the only slightly different PING EYE2 irons in the 1980s, likely the best selling irons of all time. I have sets of PING EYE and PING EYE2 and several of the early model Anser and Pal putters. I also have one of the HUGE aluminum Anser-style MacGregor putters similar to the one Nicklaus used to win the 1986 Masters. It was the first club I bought after my original set of Browning Premiere clubs.
The third distinct class of putters are those which are face balanced - resting face-up when balanced. These mallet style putters are ideally suited for the type of straight back and through putting stroke most seem to use with the longer anchored style making accurate putting such a no brainer the USGA banned them to protect Par. But the problem with this style putter is that without anchoring to a shoulder it is very difficult for a human to swing a golf club, even a perfectly heel-toe “face” balanced one, on a perfectly straight line parallel to the shoulder line.
Which is the best style putter? It depends on which type of putting stroke one can execute most consistently. I find I am most accurate with a mallet style putter when swinging it perfectly down the line keeping face square but keeping it square with that perfectly neutral balance is difficult. Overall I have better results with long and short puts with an Anser putter using a slight inside-square stoke similar to what I use when chipping and taking away other clubs from the ball. The heel-toe balance brings it back square to the ball at impact and release. When I used one of the Bullseye putters I found the extra toe bias very helpful for hitting longer putts with an inside-square stroke by more difficult to control for shorter ones.
So the best answer to what putter style / stroke suits you is to try all three styles. Start by balancing on the finger to evaluate toe / face balance. The ones that hang toe down or at around 45° will tend to favor an inside-square putting stroke, meaning the face will tend to automatically come back square to ball with that stroke. If used with a straight stroke the toe bias will tend to swing the toe and face open in the back stroke and closed when swinging towards the ball. If you can swing a putter on a perfect straight line then a face balanced putter will probably to a better job of putting the the ball where you aim it than one that isn’t face balanced. 😊
Plus, you could also hit the ball nearer to the toe to "ride" the green that break to the right, assuming right handed putter,
Something that imposible now with those big headed straight putter.
That is why I still using the old Spalding rear shafted putter wherever impossible for me to bring my broom.
٩(◕‿◕｡)۶
It was also made out of soft brass. It felt softer than most other putters especially when hitting a balata covered golf ball. No other feeling like it.
Using the forerunner a John Letters Golden Goose and a Wilson 8813. The Golden Goose/Bullseye style seems more usable and friendly with great feel
I love blade putter very much
i've got the acushnet right-hand flange with the minimal hands forward offset. mine don't have the dude's name. oh and mine has what appears to be two hacksawed grooves on the topline that align with sweet spot although appear home done and crudely so. i've seen those grooves also done on ones at eBay. some of these bullseye putters came with what came to be declared an illegal grip that tapered at the top.
I have a Bullseye putter and the Wilson Augusta putter and I am pretty with both.
Back when marking the sweet spot of a putter would have been considered a design innovation.
I use the SC bullseye copper flange one in 33” with a superstroke tour pistol grip....will never take it out of my bag. If you hit it pure it feels amazing but if not you find yourself and ball in terrible predicaments sometimes. It’s not forgiving that’s for sure.
The SC version has a flange on the back. If you putt lefty the ball will pop up 6" and clear the fringe or your opponent's ball if stymies are allowed
Very informative. Actually I became aware of the 'Acushnet" name only today, even as many of the more contemporary models borrow greatly from this design.
Have you tried the LAB BlaD putter? I’ve tried the mallet and liked it but the blaD is more appealing
It still works honest and good.
Yup
Like others, this is still my one and only. 49 yo 4.5 HCP and I putt lights out with this.. always have...I've tried other putters and they're nice but 1- they are all ridiculously expensive, 2- feedback on mis hits is hard to interpret on other putters. 3- my dad gave me this putter when I first started so the sentimental value is also immeasurable. Putting is probably the only swing where it's 100% Indian and 0% arrow so why in the world would anyone ever spend $$ on a fancy club that has virtually 0 help. Practice ur stroke, listen to the feedback, and start draining putts with you new old bullseye!!
Curious if you would know how one would go about getting the face redone on the flange style SC putter shown in this video.
Does the SC inside the bullseye stamp really mean Scotty Cameron? I thot SC was seen on these putters already from 1969
Wow, i had no idea. On the bottom, mine says John Reuter.
Is the Bullseye face balanced or toe balanced. Thanks
I have eight different models of Bullseyes, from a few original Reuters models to the version Titleist forced Cameron to work on to a version that Heavy Putter did in their 'light' series (and which actually recently won a tournament on, I believe, the European PGA Tour). To this day, whenever my putting goes south on me, I can bag one of the Bullseyes to put me back on track. So why don't I always play one? Honestly, they just aren't as forgiving as modern putters are.
I just purchased a bullseye and was wondering if it’s real or a fake. It actually has a red and black bullseyes on both sides of the heal. Anyone ever seen one like that?
How much are one of these acushnet John R Jr with the original leather grips worth these days? I have a one that was given to me by my uncle and added it to my putter collection
The SC ones are a harder brass not like the originals
Hello, I just stumbled upon a "Bulls Eye M5P John Reuter Jr. Pat Pending Putter" . Does this have any value outside of just being a putter. Thank You.
If it doesn't say Acushnet, that's the original, before John Reuter sold his business to Acushnet.
It makes me mad when someone calls it a mini golf putter
Zero offset putters are useful for some people. People who tend to aim left, and players who use their hands instead of shoulders to put.
I have LA Femme model? What’s that about ?
Shorter Length usually, and the lightest of the Bullseye heads for those that like that.
In those days, it was hard to find any Putter shorter than 35"
Primarily, aimed towards ladies
33"?
It’s an awesome putter - keep using it
I have many modern putters some good quality some expensive for nothing but my double side 1970 style putter I sink the most holes with and is more accurate with them
Have a Slazenger with original leather grip
I picked an original and a flanged one for 4 bucks.
John Reuter didn't innovate or design this club, he merely copied the John Letters, Golden Goose.
Centre shafted putters were made legal long before either the Bullseye or the Golden Goose.
Clean brass putter ketchup. Take off the black
Terrible putters. My very first putter. It did fly great though, when flung into the pond siding 18 green, after it's last 3 putt ever.