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Pat O'Brien will be in New York City this coming Thursday - September 3rd from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm at the New York Golf Center - Manhattan (directions)
Readers of The Hackers Paradise are no strangers to SeeMore putters. Over the last year we have reviewed a variety of their products and each one left us grinning and asking for more. Last year we had the opportunity to review the new SeeMore SB1 Mallet and came away with a new understanding of how a putter can help your game. Earlier this year we got a chance to have our testers try out the Stainless FGP & FGP2 and it became the 1st and only putter we have ever reviewed that got 100% approval from our testing panel. A few months back we had our Huge Putter Shoot Out with 27 different putters tested by an unbiased panel of judges and the SeeMore M2 finished number one in performance. From there we had our Bi-Annual THP Reader Awards in which SeeMore Putters swept both the blade and mallet categories with the SB1 and the M1. SeeMore finished up last month with having THP review the mFGP and mFGP2 to rave reviews and setting the bar even higher for them to reach for.
However with the exception of the rave reviews they have received on sites all across the internet, we wanted our readers to be able to learn a little more about this small company that has a truly unique passion for this game and the equipment used. The pictures accompanying this piece are all pictures of a putter that is available right from SeeMore. By clicking on each image, you will get them to enlarge and really showcase the fine details that go into these works of art. The putter is from the Private Reserve Collection and readers can get much more information on this collection by joining the SeeMore Players Club. You can read all about this club on their personal blog. We wanted to showcase something incredibly unique and special and we think that this one does just that.
THP has been fortunate enough to spend some time with “team SeeMore” and learn all about this great company and we asked some of the members of that team to put something together to describe SeeMore as a whole rather than us trying to relay those messages.
From SeeMore:
As we all try to deal with a difficult economy, here are some thoughts on how and why SeeMore is experiencing some real growth and positive momentum in 2009.
In tougher times, consumers of any enthusiast category, and certainly golf, will still seek out new and improved products that offer authentic game improvement benefits. However they may be more discriminating than ever in demanding true innovation and game improvement, and may search harder in trying to find something that is truly special, truly different, truly impactful to their game. They will seek out product that is validated not by flashy marketing but instead by word of mouth recommendations from friends or respected colleagues, teachers, and equipment specialists. Any new expenditure is more likely to be viewed as an investment, and the golfer is seeking the greatest return on investment. There is a growing group of golfers who would rather a product offer them a means to improve their game for the long term in a classic sense, one where their own effort combined with the product will produce optimal long term gains. They are becoming more and more wary of products that simply offer a short term masking of a problem but do not help fix the problem in any way. Last but not least, golfers will gravitate toward owning a product which offers psychological and emotional value as well as intrinsic functional value. Product needs to work, but the experience of trying it and buying it needs to be incredible as well, including the quality of the craftsmanship and materials, and the customer service experience behind the product.
GolfBetter host Tom Brassell and Edwin Watts Golf technical specialist, Kenny Nicholson meet in studio with SeeMore Putter Company Owner and Managing Partner, Jim Grundberg. Jim discusses the Rifle Scope Technology used by SeeMore Putters, the history behind the company including the 2 Major Championship victories by players using the SeeMore Putter (1999 U.S. Open by Payne Stewart & 2007 Masters by Zach Johnson) and how the putter can help the average player.
Below is a excerpt of an article that Pat O'Brien did for the Texas Links Magazine. Give us your thoughts and feedback.
If you're struggling with your putting, perhaps understanding the design of the putter will help to free your stroke. A putter is essentially a weight on a stick, and the shaft goes into the head at an angle less than 90 degrees, usually around 70 degrees.
The balance point of the putter is about 6 inches from the head. If you held the putter lightly in your fingers, when you let it swing, you would see that the head travels on a natural arc and it comes up out of the ground. It also returns to square at impact with no effort. That is what it is designed to do.
If you are not allowing this to happen, you are putting forth too much effort into your stroke. The putter isn't designed to go straight back and straight through, or square to square.
To quote instructor Jim Hardy, "If we played pool or shuffleboard, where we stood on the target line, straight back and straight through works, but we stand to the side of the ball, so there has to be an arc."
Also, if you're trying to keep the putter low on the backswing, you are moving the bottom of the swing behind the ball. This would cause you to use your trailing arm to accelerate the putter to get it back to the ball. Speed is hard to judge when you have forced acceleration. The putter is designed to swing with a rhythm that resembles a pendulum. It's designed to swing up on the backswing and then fall down on the way through. It's not designed to swing low going back, and then forcefully finish high on the follow through.
When people come to me for help, I look to their set up for clues as to why the putter isn't swinging freely. If you are having challenges, here are a few things to look for:
Read rest of article here : Download TexasLinks_ProperPosture
Read more about Pat and his teachings at Pat O'Brien Golf and purchase the Pat O'Brien On Putting DVD.
