Take a putter and put your finger under the shaft so that the shaft is balanced on your finger. Now look at the clubface: Is the clubface facing skyward, and running parallel to the ground? If it is, then the putter is face-balanced. (If the toe of the putter is pointing downward, causing the clubface to not be facing upward, then the putter is not face-balanced, it is toe-balanced.)
Putters that are face-balanced have clubhead properties (such as the shaft's entry point and the center-of-gravity location) such that they open less on the backstroke and close less on the through-stroke in the putting motion.
So golfers who use a straight-back-and-straight-through putting stroke - a k a, a straightline stroke or back-and-through stroke - should favor face-balanced putters.
Golfers who employ a more arcing putting stroke - a k a, an inside-to-inside or swinging gate putting stroke - should stay away from face-balanced putters and prefer toe-balanced models.
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