|
|
|
Improve Your Putting this Year | |
|
|
|
Greetings!
If you're wondering what happened to my reports from the "Front Line" - I had an equipment failure. The keyboard on my trusty Sony went out and I went dark. Then, imagine what it feels like getting back to the shop after eight days out. Egad!!
I know I owe you the analysis and wrap-up of the Show, the state of the golf industry and a prediction of when the next meteor is going to hit. That's pretty far along - but more important - I want to introduce a product and a technique that - worked together - have the best chance to produce lower scores this year. It's all about your putter - and your brain.
Rather than bury my most important topic in a ho-hum review of the Show - I'm putting it here - out front. Read this email. It will be good for your game.
|
| David Balbi Experience |
I've been working with David Balbi for just over a month. For readers who missed the introduction, David is a long time PGA Class A teaching professional. He was recognized as "Teacher of the Year" in 1999.
I've been looking for a teaching professional to team up with. You just can't separate golf clubs from golf swing. Improvement always requires at least a little work on your swing.
I have attended all ten "Get Acquainted Sessions" with Golf Lab Clients - an hour of swing analysis and an hour of putter fitting. David halved his hourly rate for the introduction.
Results have been immediate. After only a few weeks, we have seen surprising improvement from some clients - "the Pilot" at the head of the list. David is not the kind of teaching pro who shows you a movie of Ernie Els and tells you to "swing like that". He sets up his electronic gizmos so that you can see - and more importantly - feel for yourself.
David has done the same thing for the golf swing that I have for golf clubs - he built a swing analysis system that relies on state-of-the-art electronics. The Balbi "Studio" is indoors. It is spacious, comfortable and fully-equipped. He has a full-size simulator. The Balbi Studio is now open to Golf Lab clients.
Swing analysis means just that. We use visual and printed data. How is your weight moving? David shows you. A platform transmits your weight movement to a monitor so you to see your weight transfer while you swing. All you have to do is make the line move in the right direction. Balance is a key factor for an efficient, powerful swing. Visual cues are easy to follow.
A motion sensor system maps your body and can tell if all of the moving parts are firing in the proper sequence. Fascinating results include measuring swing speed and tracking a player's DECELERATION. Most amateurs begin to decelerate at around nine o'clock on the downswing - too early - wasting power.
The gizmo reveals how much speed you are losing as a percent. We have found players losing 30% of their swing speed BEFORE they hit the ball. Tour players lose far less - around 5% is common. Tweak your technique, make your swing more efficient and significant improvement in distance and shot shape will be the result.
The Pilot was hitting his six iron twenty yards farther after just one swing analysis session.
The "Get Acquainted Special" includes a putter fitting. The putter fitting follows the method developed by David Edel over the last ten years - fitting for aim.
The result of those fittings was so surprising it boardered on shocking.
With almost nobody capable of aiming a putter inside the hole, it made me wonder how any puts go in. You have to get your aim checked. If you can't aim, how can you expect to make putts?
Russian roulette is no fun with six bullets in the cylinder. |
|
|
| Hands-on: The Edel Putter Fitting System |
|
The Edel fitting process is all about aiming your putter. That might sound strange - who can't aim their putter? Try this.
Attach a laser to a target hole and aim the laser at the center of a ball eight feet away.
Player steps up to the ball and aims his putter at the hole. When "ready" the fitter removes the ball. The laser bounces off of a small mirror on the player's putter and reflects to a black backdrop behind the hole.
In thirteen putter fittings, not one player hit the hole with his own putter. Some mis-aimed by two feet from only eight feet away.
I repeat for emphasis. Not one player aimed his putter inside the hole. If you make a putt with that setup - it will be by mistake.
The fitting continues to build a "new" putter from hundreds of components out of the Edel putter fitting cart. Test putters are customized for shape, offset, weight and a host of other variables. The number and placement of sight lines is even tested.
Industry research concluded that the majority of players aim their putter seven degrees left of the hole. Edel fitting methodology would reduce offset or possibly change the shape of the putter head to a blade. Overall, there are millions of variables that can be juggled. It is amazing to see the effect of such changes on a player's ability to "see" the line.
In a world where putter "fitting" is cut to length, set loft and lie and allow a player to pick a comfortable - fitting a putter by a player's ability to aim it straight is a completely new way of thinking. Why didn't anybody think of that before?
We're still including the putter fitting with the "Get Acquainted Special". If you don't want to take a chance on booking a fitting we'll test your own putter and your ability to aim it at the Golf Lab for no charge. Just let us know when you're coming and we'll set aside fifteen minutes. We'll use the testing apparatus direct from David Edel.
The "Get Acquainted Special" is still in effect. Swing analysis and putter fitting - two hours. $150. |
|
|
|
|
| Aim Point Green Reading System |
|
|
David Edel is an "overnight success". He just spent seven years waiting for the night it happened. David's preparation is paying off. Anyone interested in aiming a putter - or deciding where to aim a putter will get in touch. David is the "King of Aiming".
The common thread of aiming brought David Edel and Mark Sweeney together. Edel is "how" and Sweeney is "where".
Introducing Mark Sweeney is easy. He's the brains behind the blue line on the Golf Channel that predicts the path of the player's putt. How many times have you seen that wrong? Bet on the blue line.
Mark calls Aim Point a "putt simulation engine" - technical enough for us.
Mark has spent the last few years perfecting his system and earning his street cred on the PGA Tour. Done. Look at his website for details.
Mark is now releasing his green reading system and the "Magic Book" that comes with it.
Here's what you get: A crash course in reading greens based on finding the "Zero Lines".
Once you can do that, you locate your ball in relation to the "clock face" with the upstream Zero Line at 12 o'clock. Ninety degrees from twelve o'clock is three o'clock.
Imagine your ball positioned at three o'clock ten feet from the hole. You will have tested the green earlier to get an accurate stimp rating with a simple technique developed by Mark.
Here's the closer.
You pull out your "Magic Book" - locate your ball on the chart and the chart says that the putt breaks right to left.
The Magic Book also tells you that the putt breaks three inches.
I repeat: the Aim Point chart tells you how many inches your putt will break.
It is all totally legal, nothing different than a yardage book.
Visit the Aim Point website for authentic success stories.
It sounds preposterous, but the Aim Point system works. Aim Point could be the "Next Big Thing" in golf. |
| Aim Point Workshops |
|
|
There is going to be no "rollout" of the Aim Point System to the mass market. First of all, there are very few "trained professionals" available to teach the green reading technique. It just so happens that David Balbi has been accredited for PGA Tour tournament representation by both Edel and Aim Point. I'm an advanced apprentice.
We are just now arranging locations where we can present Aim Point workshops. (We need greens with "character".) Each workshop takes two and a half hours of presentation and practice plus half an hour of follow up personal attention. The cost is $150 per person for a minimum of four and a maximum of eight people.
If you would like us to bring a workshop to your golf course, let us know and help us book the necessary slots. We're happy to contribute 10% of the fees to the pro shop to help us coordinate the event.
We will definitely offer "Open" Aim Point workshops at Bay Area locations. Coyote Creek and Metropolitan come to mind - as does out old friend out in the country - Poppy Ridge.
This is a plea for your feedback. Please express your interest in attending an Aim Point workshop. Our capacity is 16 players per day. If these workshops turn out to be as game-changing as they have for Scott McCarron - improving from 156 on Tour to 18 after learning the Aim Point System - we're likely to be sold out pretty quickly.
First dates will be the beginning of March - probably the week following the San Jose Bay Area Golf Show.
Call the Golf Lab and just leave a message that you're interested. We'll keep a waiting list for players who want to be sure to get into a session before the season gets too old. We'll return the call and discuss available dates. (650) 493-1770. Or, better yet, let me know directly by email: Leith@calgolftech.com.
|
| For More Information . . . |
|
|
|
| Call to Action |
|
Please help with a response. I'll answer any questions quickly by email..
It would be very helpful to understand reader reaction. I think that this newsletter might be my most important ever if my goal is to help the most players drop the most strokes. In my opinion, the Edel - Aim Point approach has the best potential to help serious players make a big dent in their "putts per greens in regulation". That's the second most important statistic in scoring - right after "greens in regulation" on the PGA Tour.
This could be the most important equipment story of the year. Don't hold it against me that it's coming out first. Shouldn't the most important come out first? Aren't we trying to pick the winners?
If there is only one golf club you should consider buying in 2010, it is a custom fitted Edel Putter. What is more important than aim in putting?
If you're in doubt, take the Edel putter fitting. You may find that you do aim your own putter well. You also may gain some insight about what your stroke has to do to compensate for faulty aim. Putter fitting: $125 - satisfaction guaranteed.
Please get in touch with your reaction, pro or con.
Thanks for your help. | |
|
|
|
L
Leith Anderson, Clint Smith, Dian Terova
The Golf Lab
2103 St Francis, Palo Alto, CA 94303
(650) 493-1770
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
