Southern California's No. 1 Golf Source
SITE
SEARCH
GOLF RESOURCE GUIDE:
No Mulligans
|
||||
 I’ve always resisted the desire to make golf gadgets. Unless I could come up with something that could really help the player, this was an area of the golf business I thought I’d leave to the marketing geniuses. I’ve worked with a number of elite players over the past 10 years, and putting is a point of emphasis. Three factors are key: taking note of the high and low spots around the golf course and understanding how they influence the roll of the ball; learning to see the line of the putt and getting the eyes over that line; and keeping the body and the putter quiet through the motion. A few years ago, one of our players was struggling with his putting, so I used an umbrella to obscure the ball with the handle pointing down the intended line of the putt. The player started making every putt, so I asked one of our members who works in the aerospace field if he could build a teaching aid that could do the same thing, but in a more efficient manner. He came back with something we’re calling the Ingrainer. I’m stunned at its impact. I sat on a practice green with John Merrick at the Houston Open and watched him make 26 out of 30 20-foot putts with 18 inches of break. While I was confident the device was working, I was nervous showing it to John Cook, a longtime friend who has seen it all in the golf industry. He put the Ingrainer on an aerified green and made five putts in a row from 15 feet — now he carries one when he’s out playing on the Champions Tour. I attended a seminar where Dr. Craig Farnsworth, one of the world’s foremost vision doctors, was talking about the importance of the eyes being square over the target line. I asked him who was the squarest player he had seen over the ball, and he said Tiger Woods. In a subsequent trip to the Scotty Cameron Studio, they talked about how Woods consistently has the squarest face at impact. There’s an obvious correlation to proper eye position over the ball, solid contact with the putter and success on the greens. Our hope is that the Ingrainer is a tool that will help more players find that zone. SG Jamie Mulligan is chief operating officer and a PGA professional at Long Beach’s Virginia Country Club. He has twice been recognized as Teacher of the Year by the SCPGA. |
||||
RSS Subscribe
