Putter Shaft Angle Changes are Unavoidable

8/8/2015: My experience with the SAM Putt Lab, a ultrasound device that measures the putting stroke in 28 dimensions showes that 11% of PGA tour players and 35% of my amateur friends changed the shaft angle putt to putt. The occurred on a uniform putt of 10 feet. The magnitude change was up to 2 degees.

To understand this, a change of 2 degrees in shaft angle results in changing the 3 degree loft of the putter face to 1 degree in one direction and 5 degrees if the change is in the other direction. The roll out of the putt with the same force will be greatly different.

To accommodate for this unavoidable variation I have patented what I call the Forgiving Face Putter. This putter has a 3 degree loft and a 3 inch vertical radius. In addition there is a series of horizontal bars, each one perpendicular to the tangent of the vertical radius.

This is the face of the traditional “anser” putter.

This is the appearance on a center shafter mallet putter head.

OBSERVATIONAL PROOF OF THIS CONCEPT: In the days before the Bridgestone tournament this week in Akron, OH I did some testing of this concept with a former PGA club pro National Champion golfer. He was hitting 20 foot putts with a Forgiving Face putter. We sprayed the face with a impact paint. The hit maybe 30 putts. All the putt roll outs were within one foot length of each other and in or about the hole.

We then looked at the putter face and saw that there were center hits fully covering two adjacent horizontal bars. A single hit of this length would fully impact one bar and tiny touch of the adjacent bar. Therefore if both bars are fully impacted the golfer has used both bars in this putting exercise. This indicated he was changing the shaft angle 2 degrees back and forth, putt to putt, yet the distance roll out was the same in spite of the shaft angle change.

This demonstrated the benefit of the Forgiving Face Putter design.

A Better Putting Stroke

August 8, 2015: There is a difference between the traditional versus contemporary putting stroke. This is most obvious while watch the two PGA tours on TV, regular and Champions.

TRADITIONAL: The traditional putting stroke is based upon the pendulum motion with an up and down arc in the vertical plane. This is seen on the Champions PGA Tour. The problem with this stroke is the elevation of the putter head on the back stroke some 4 to 5 inches even on a putt of 10 foot in length. From this elevated position, the return of the putter head to the ball has the additional acceleration from the downward pull of gravity. The golfer’s body reacts to this unexpected addition force in one of two ways. The most common way is to resist the addition uncalculated force with deceleration of the putter head. The other way is to react to the deceleration effect with a hard hit. Either response results in poor tempo and subsequent unpredicted roll out of the putt. In addition this arc does not provide a predicable impact to the ball. In some instances the angle of attack may be before the bottom of the arc and other times it may be after. Either one of these variable changes the face angle from negative or to more than anticipated. For instance, a hit with a 3 degree loft putter before the bottom of the arc would lessen the face to perhaps 1 degree and drive the ball into the ground resulting in a bounce and loss of anticipated distance. The impact after the bottom of the arc would lift the ball off the ground. The most common result is a ball that falls short of the cup due to deceleration.

CONTEMPORATY: The contemporary putting stroke is more horizontal in the vertical plane and executed as one would a pool cue. This is more common on the regular PGA tour. The putter head is lifted no more than a 1 inch off the ground for a 10 foot putt. The impact is horizontal and therefore the putter face impacts the ball at the intended loft of the putter face. The ball roll out is more predicable. This method is more understandable if you think about how a pool cue approaches a ball. One would not use a pendulum motion to direct the cue ball.

Grooved grip on Dawson’s Putter wins British Senior Open.

7/27/2015: Marco Dawson putts great with Grooved Golf Grip on putter. He shoots 64 with long birdie putt on last hole to secure the win. Since using this putter grip he earned over $954,000 in 2014. He won his first PGA event this year on Senior tour. This is his first Major win.
Congratulations to Marco.

This is the grip Marco has been using.

www.groovedgolfgrips.com

This is the 2nd win in British Senior Open with player using the grooved grip on their putter. Mark Weibe won in 2013. Ironically both wins were with Bernard Langer one stroke short.

Marco Dawson wins 1st PGA Tournament

3/22/2015: Marco Dawson has first win on Champions Tour at Tucson, AZ. He shot 13 under par. He uses the Grooved Grip Putter. His putts per green in regulation were 1.636. He won over $950,000 last year with use of this Grooved putter grip.

Congratulations.

Amazing Immediate Results with Grooved Grip

2/20/2015:
Fully Exempt Champions Tour Player

5 impacts on face of his driver on the left and the Test Driver from Driving range barrel on the right.

The imprint on the left with his driver gave him 271.7 yards average (35th) and 54.76% fairways hit (78th) the week before. The pattern on the right was with no practice swings and 5 successive hits with the test driver. He put the grooved grips on all 14 clubs. Notice the imprint of the tees are also more in line than with his driver.

Round 1: He shot 73. The next day his driving stats were 265 yards and 85.71% accuracy. He shot 3 strokes lower than his prior average.

Round 2: He shot 72. He drove an average of 262.5 yards and with an 89.29% accuracy on fairways hit.

Round 3: He shot 75 while finishing with 5 bogies on last 8 holes. He drove it 262.5 yards on average and hit 83.33% of fairways.

Summary: His scoring was 3 strokes better average than week before in spite of the multiple bogie finish. He had major improvement in driving dispersion, going from 54.76% to 83-89% fairways hit by only changing the grip. To put this in perspective, the best % fairways hit on PGA tour is 76 and the average is 60%.