GrassrootsGolferSports: mtn restores a putter

This putter is a Spalding TP Mills putter. Mass produced back in the 70’s and 80’s, these were cheap, but a great design (some would say that Scotty Cameron, widely regarded as best mass-marketed putters, stole Mills designs). They’re a dime a dozen at a bunch of second hand stores, garage sales, and estate sales—which is where I picked this one up for $5. I probably overpaid, too. They’re some of the best feeling putters I’ve ever used. However, being a mass-produced putter that you could even buy at a Sears or Kmart, the quality control wasn’t always the best. Some were Stainless, some were high-carbon steel, some had high Magnesium content. Luckily, this one was an early production model (a few hints in the details—it has a roman numeral number, and it says “Touring Pro Model” rather than “TP Mills”), which means it is more likely a proper carbon steel putter. Additionally, it had a few spots of rust which confirms that it is carbon steel construction. The previous owner painted it dark brown, and it looks rather ugly. I’m going to sand all the paint off, including the original finish, stick it in CLR for a day or two to remove the rust, go to town with a Dremel to polish it, and then I’ll decide if I want to Gun-Blue it, or take a torch to it and drop it in motor oil to finish it. I may also go a little deeper into the face and topline with a flat metal file to take care of some of the bag chatter.

What they looked like new:

My starting point:

Where I ended up last night:

More sanding to come before the CLR step.   

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get this done within a month. The total time commitment won’t be more than 4-5 hours, but I’ll only be working on it for a few minutes a day as I get time. If it goes well, I’ll search for a few specific models of this line that I’ve always wanted, as well as maybe branching into more common putters (Camerons, Bettinardis, etc.)

Neat. Is this for your enjoyment or are you flipping this?

RossD said:

Neat. Is this for your enjoyment or are you flipping this?

This one will be for my enjoyment and education. There is no profit in it, these putters are just too common so no one would buy it for enough money. Plus, putters are something that you can never have enough of--like I said, they go bad frequently. I may give it to my dad when I'm done as it isn't the exact design I want-this run of TP Mills Spaldings had about 10 different designs, and later ones had over 14. If I enjoy it enough, I'll probably start looking for more desirable putters that could use attention to flip for profit. 

Cool project, and smart to start with something not as valuable for practice. My friend is into collecting Scotty Cameron's. He finds them online in basically the condition you found yours. Cleans, polishes, redoes the letters. I traded him a watch I built for one, but most he keeps just because he likes them. 

mtn said:

RossD said:

Neat. Is this for your enjoyment or are you flipping this?

This one will be for my enjoyment and education. There is no profit in it, these putters are just too common so no one would buy it for enough money. Plus, putters are something that you can never have enough of--like I said, they go bad frequently. I may give it to my dad when I'm done as it isn't the exact design I want-this run of TP Mills Spaldings had about 10 different designs, and later ones had over 14. If I enjoy it enough, I'll probably start looking for more desirable putters that could use attention to flip for profit. 

I'm not a golfer, but was just curious what you mean by a putter "going bad."

In reply to z31maniac :

I was curious about this as well. I'm not much of a golfer either, but the only clubs I've ever seen "go bad" were those chucked into the bushes or beaten into pretzels 

z31maniac said:

mtn said:

RossD said:

Neat. Is this for your enjoyment or are you flipping this?

This one will be for my enjoyment and education. There is no profit in it, these putters are just too common so no one would buy it for enough money. Plus, putters are something that you can never have enough of--like I said, they go bad frequently. I may give it to my dad when I'm done as it isn't the exact design I want-this run of TP Mills Spaldings had about 10 different designs, and later ones had over 14. If I enjoy it enough, I'll probably start looking for more desirable putters that could use attention to flip for profit. 

I'm not a golfer, but was just curious what you mean by a putter "going bad."

Golfers like to blame their equipment rather than ourselves. Miss a putt, blame the putter--couldn't have been me. But at the end of the day, it is a flat piece of metal at the end of a stick. There are minor differences that actually do matter--the weight distribution, the weight of the putter itself, the material, the shape and location of the hosel (attachement between the clubhead and the shaft)... but they're all relatively minor, and ultimately all the difference is between the golfers ears.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pro-golfers-love-their-puttersuntil-they-see-another-one-1503657197