SeeMore Putters Blog

Pat O'Brien working with Tour player Vaughn Taylor.

Pat O'Brien out on the PGA Tour working with one of his students, Vaughn Taylor. This was on a Tuesday of tournament week at the The Players Championship. Vaughn went on to have a 3rd place finish.

One Man's Quest For the Perfect Putter - by The Ottawa Citizen

One man's quest for the perfect putter  by Gord Holder

 

The last time I bought a new putter, Jack Nicklaus had just won the U.S. Open. In 1980. I've puttered along since then with an old Ray Cook Golf Inc. model with a brass clubhead and aluminum shaft, believing the puttee bears more responsibility than the putter for success on the greens or the lack of it, and I've known both.

 

BY THE OTTAWA CITIZENMARCH 4, 2007

 

The last time I bought a new putter, Jack Nicklaus had just won the U.S. Open. In 1980. I've puttered along since then with an old Ray Cook Golf Inc. model with a brass clubhead and aluminum shaft, believing the puttee bears more responsibility than the putter for success on the greens or the lack of it, and I've known both.

So why I've decided to search for "the perfect putter" now isn't clear to me, but there's only one place to try. I've brought my quest to the PGA Merchandise Show, an annual extravaganza where hundreds of exhibitors from around the world talk up products to thousands of club pros, retail buyers and media.

excerpts below:  ...Like my finish, I'm holding that thought two days later when I'm introduced to the Triangulator at the indoor putting area on the show floor at the Orange County Convention Center. A freebie for those who buy a putter from SeeMore Putting Co.'s M Series ($325 U.S.), the Triangulator is a simple contraption comprising a three-sided piece of plastic laid against the putter face and a long piece of string extended toward the aiming point.

Its message is simple, too. On a reasonably straight 10-foot putt, my putter is aimed several inches too far right.

Payne Stewart, who won the 1999 U.S. Open with a SeeMore putter just months before he died, was the same way, says Scott Wilkerson, a tour rep who relates the story this way:

"You mean every putt I make, I'm pulling eight inches to the left," Stewart says.

"Yeah."

"I'm terrible."

I know the feeling, Payne. 

....Getting to a point where I'm ready to make a choice has occasionally been so head-spinning (more than 50 putters tested, 29 different companies, and I'm not sure I check with all of them) that I unintentionally double back for repeat chats with staffers for MacGregor and Callaway, so I consider sticking with my vintage Ray Cook version, for which I paid the princely sum of $20 Cdn., or updating to the M1X ($79.99 U.S.) from the company founded more than 40 years ago by the inventor/designer from San Antonio.

Yet my thoughts keep returning to SeeMore. Maybe it's the Payne Stewart story, the Triangulator or that I "get" Rifle Scope Technology. So I wander over to Booth 2586, where Jason Pouliot, the youthful co-owner of the Tennessee company, says I should get Wilkerson to fit me -- Ms. Robertson, please take note -- at the putting area.

First, though, Wilkerson must finish up with Al Clark, who wants the OK to buy one of the tour demo models. (Now merchandising co-ordinator for PGA Tour Golf Course Properties of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Clark seems quite pleasant, but I have a vague recall of controversy behind the reason he's no longer a major-league umpire. I learn later he resigned in 2001 over airline-ticket improprieties and in 2004 pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with selling baseballs he said had been used in notable games.)

Eventually we get to work. In short order, Wilkerson says my best option is SeeMore's standard M1: 70-degree angle between putter head and shaft; 35-inch shaft; 3.5 degrees of loft on the face. My "merchandise show special" price is $185, including shipping from Tennessee to Ottawa.

Then Wilkerson has another idea. After I line up -- straight this time -- he slides another shaft under my arms and tells me to keep it there as I practise. Almost immediately I realize I'm forced to keep my left elbow tight to my body, which enhances the pendulum motion and prevents that ugly inside-out post-impact move.

The next putt drops in the cup. There's only one thing to say, in only the most sporting sense, based on more than 30 years of golf experience, the last 27 with the same putter:

"Where have you been all my life?"

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