The majority of players who use the Golf Practice Centre at St Andrews spend most of the time trying to improve their driving, their iron play or their general golf swing in the hope that this might lead to lower scores. Rarely do we see anybody working hard on their short game or putting, yet this is the area of your game which potentially offers most rewards.

Kevin Craggs, one of Scotland’s top coaches, told us recently that based upon stats he keeps on some of Scotland’s best amateur players, 53% of the total shots played are within 28 yards of the pin. Gary Player reminded us at this year’s Masters that the winner would come from those playing exceptionally well from 100 yards in to the hole. Lee Westwood would no doubt agree with that, having failed to win the tournament in spite of playing superbly well from tee to green

During his putting clinic at the recent Scottish Golf Show, Kevin asked around 500 players how many had been fitted for a putter, something he considers to be fundamental to success on the greens. He was amazed to discover that nobody out of the 500 onlookers had been fitted for their putter. Is it little wonder then that golfers lose so many shots on or around the greens?

Kevin and ourselves agree that for a marked improvement in short game it requires careful selection and customisation of your equipment, learning correct technique and devoting adequate time for quality practice … in that order. Step one means customising your putter and wedges for optimum performance. We’ve been offering putter and wedge optimisation for some time but this year we have really focussed on the short game in order to update our range of products and services which can help you shoot lower scores.

Our key task at this year’s PGA Show in Orlando was to seek out a range of putters and wedges which could help any player’s short game. SeeMore putters and Scor4161 wedges ticked all the boxes.

SeeMore DB4 putter 100% milled gun metal finish

The guys at SeeMore and ScorGolf are passionate about their products. This is shown by the amount of information and advice posted on the SeeMore and ScorGolf websites and their outstanding level of customer service.

Scor4161 wedges with V-Sole technology

At AGT we provide the fitting expertise for each product, namely the careful selection and customisation of each club to the personal requirements of the player. We’ll take you through the SeeMore system of putting and we’ll optimise your Scor wedges for accuracy and exact yardages on Trackman.

Most players would love to save 3 or 4 shots a round and that is certainly achievable if you take our advice and focus on your short game instead of just hitting shot after shot on the driving range.

Give us a call at 01334 466728 to arange a visit and we’ll talk you through the products, after which you can test them for yourself on our short game area. We’re sure you will be impressed with their performance.

Great looking wedges with a performance to match

Choosing your weapons
For most players their choice of wedges is rather haphazard. Some players cherish their favourite wedges for years on end, not realising that the grooves have long since worn down. Some will have  an ad hoc collection of various wedges from impulse buys or cast off’s from their friends. Some will look to E-Bay for a well known brand at the cheapest possible price. Very few will have given any real thought to the careful selection and customisation of what are arguably the most important scoring clubs in the bag. Little wonder then that most players suffer from a poor short game.

Progressive weighting ensures optimum ball flight

Controlling yardages
The key to consistent yardages is loft selection and the ability to control ball flight and trajectory. Scor’s unique range of lofts from 41 to 61 degrees has been designed with progressive heel-toe and COG weighting. The higher COG in the lower lofts results in a flatter and more driving trajectory as required for full shots. SG3 weighting and Scor’s attention to head size offers the player a seamless transition from irons to wedges, rarely seen in other brands.

The secret of Scor's playability from any lie

Playability from any type of lie
How often have you fluffed wedges from a soft lie, or thinned a wedge shot from a tight lie. Standard bounce angles on wedges often do little to help. Some companies offer a variety of bounce angles for various turf conditions but wouldn’t it be nice to use a wedge which performs well off any type of lie?  Scor achieves this with their patented V-sole technology. This combines two extreme bounce angles, carefully matched to the loft of the club. The high bounce angle on the leading edge of the sole ensures quality strikes from soft lies and sand, whilst the shallower bounce on the rest of the sole enables you to play shots from the tightest of lies. For shot versatility Scor’s V-sole is certainly hard to beat.

Control your yardages with the Scor wedge grip

Wedge optimisation
Your wedges should be thought of as a set within a set. Each should therefore complement the other in terms of feel, accuracy and distance control.

Feel
Score4161 heads are precision cast from mild 8620 carbon steel then heated to 1200 deg. C and forged for a soft responsive feel. The choice of shaft also contributes towards feel. With this in mind, Terry Koehler has worked closely with Kim Braly to design the Genius 12 KBS steel shaft, which can be frequency matched to the player. This together with the Genius 7 and Genius 9 graphite shafts ensure the player will be properly fitted for shaft weight. You still have the option of matching your wedge shaft to that of your irons if desired.

Accuracy
The key to wedge accuracy is correct club length and lie angle. These are set to the player’s requirements as part of AGT’s custom fit process. Shaft alignment is also included in the price.

Distance control
The final step in optimising your Scor wedges is to determine your yardages on Trackman. Fine adjustments can then be made to lofts to ensure optimum yardage gaps. The Score wedge grip manufactured by Lamkin is one inch longer than standard with minimal taper so that the player can choke down without feeling the grip too thin. Two circular reference points on the grip allow you to  choke down and hit a range of yardages with each club.

AGT’s price for improving your short game with Scor4161 wedges
The more you buy the cheaper they are. Prices shown are for the Genius 12 steel shaft.

£135 for 1 wedge
£130 each for 2 wedges
£125 each for 3 or more wedges

Genius 7 or Genius 9 graphite shafts incur an upcharge price of £10 per club. We are happy to quote you for an alternative shaft of your choice.

A 30 min. session on Trackman to determine your exact yardages with your new Scor wedges will be charged at £20 (discounted £15 from usual price) but this will be provided FOC to customers who purchase 4 or more Scor wedges.

To fully appreciate the feel and performance of Scor wedges you can arrange to test hit a demo club on our short game area. Just call 01334 466728 to make an appointment.

When you think of SeeMore putters you immediately think of the late and great Payne Stewart sinking that marvellous putt on the last green of the 1999 US Open.

Payne Stewart and SeeMore winning the US Open

Re-live the moment.

Hard to believe he would be killed in a tragic air accident only 4 month’s later.

When I first saw a SeeMore putter back then I remember thinking ” What a clever idea”. Hiding the red dot seemed such a simple but effective method of aligning the putter face to the target. My only criticism was that the FGP Original didn’t look very stylish. This lack of bling seemed to limit its popularity. That is until Jim Grundberg and Jason Pouilot bought and re-launched the company in 2006. Their philosophy was to build a range of premium quality putters incorporating RST which would appeal to any golfer irrespective of personal preference or budget. Zach Johnson has won many a tournament using his SeeMore putter, including the 2007 Masters where he putted like a man possessed.

The current range of SeeMore standard length, belly and broom handle putters is now second to none.

The SeeMore One CS with a superb gunmetal finish

The One CS is unique in that it is face balanced in the conventional sense as well as being face balanced at impact. This means that with a natural putting stroke and no manipulation of the head, the putter is designed to be square to the target at impact.

So why is the SeeMore system so successful?

When you purchase a SeeMore putter and learn how to use it properly then your putting set up will be the same every time. Your eyes, shoulders and hips will be perfectly parallel to the target line and the putter face will be perfectly aligned to the target. This promotes a repetitive natural putting stroke where the clubface returns square to the target without any need for manipulation.  More consistent centre strikes means solid putts with better distance control.

When you purchase a fitted SeeMore putter from AGT you will be shown how all of this can be achieved.

Not everybody can smash a driver 300 yards off the tee but every player has the potential of improving their short game and putting. So why not start by testing a Seemore putter? We  have some demo SeeMore putters which you can take out onto our practice putting green. Just give us a call to fix up a suitable time. Then when you see how the SeeMore system improves your putting we’ll be happy to fit you for probably the last putter you will ever need to buy.

Learn how to hide the red dot

Give us a call at 01334 466728 if you would like to find out more about SeeMore putters or if you would like to try one out for yourself. You will not be disappointed!

The Power Transfer insert from Balance Certified

Robotic testing of the Power Transfer insert from Balance Certified

BC’s robotic testing has certainly shown this to be the case. However robotic testing is one thing. The acid test is whether or not they work in the hands of a golfer.

An opportunity arose last week when one of our Tour Van Gold members, Bob Chalmers, remarked that he would like to improve his driving accuracy and consistency. Martin thought this would be a good test for The Harrison Shotmaker and  the Power Transfer. Unfortunately the Shotmaker wouldn’t fit into his Aldila Voodoo because of the shaft’s S-Core technology but we did manage to test him hitting his driver on Trackman with and without the Power Transfer insert installed.

Power Transfer testing - Trackman display

To say the results were amazing is an understatement. The orange shots in the above display are Bob’s drives with no insert, whilst the purple shots are Bob’s drives with the Power Transfer installed. The improvement in accuracy and the consistency of the ball flight are obvious, with no loss of distance. Bob left with the Power Transfer installed in his driver so that he can do some testing for us out on the golf course. He promised to give us some feedback in due course.

As discussed in our last post, Shotmaker looks promising. However these results show that the Power Transfer also has great potential. We’ll keep you posted after we do a bit more testing. For those of us who dream about straighter driving, these shaft inserts could be the answer. Big advantage is that they can be tested in your current driver. This is something we’ll be offering from now on as part of our driver optimisation sessions.

The Harrison Shotmaker

At first glance it doesn’t look like much. A 12 inch tapered graphite tube, 4 grams in weight, designed to slip inside a golf shaft to a point around 6 inches from the top of the clubhead hosel. It is locked into place at the top end with a special tool. Being so light it only increases the swingweight of the driver by around 1 point eg. D1 becomes D2, which for most players is insignificant. Shotmaker is designated conforming by the R&A and the USGA.

The theory behind the Shotmaker is that it eliminates shaft distortion and minimises unwanted impact vibration during the downswing. This shaft deformation has been demonstrated with high speed photography and is inherent in virtually all golf shafts, depending on the stress placed on them by the golfer. In theory by eliminating this shaft distortion it should result in improved accuracy off the tee, and by minimising unwanted impact vibration it should improve feel.

Ed tested this for himself at the PGA Demo day and found that with the Shotmaker installed, shots felt more solid and it was more difficult to shape shots left or right. They come in different levels of stiffness so it is important to get fitted for one in order to find out which one works best. Ed brought a Shotmaker fitting kit back from the show and initial testing looks very promising.

Pat Kinsley testing Shotmaker on Trackman

Pat is having a tough time recently with his driver, suffering from too many wayward shots high right, as a result of an open clubface at impact.  This is evident from the purple shots in the Trackman display.  The initial Shotmaker flex F didn’t help much as shown by the green shots. However Shotmaker flex G (orange shots) gave a marked improvement in shot direction and dispersion. Pat felt that the shaft was much more stable and the hits much more solid. That was until we took the Shotmaker out of his club when the wild shots right returned with a vengeance. After re-installation the improved accuracy and dispersion returned. One of us had to hold him down whilst we recovered our Shotmaker from his club.  Pat can’t wait for his own one to arrive.

In the meantime we tested Pat’s son Ben to see what effect Shotmaker had on his driving performance.  Ben is one of Scotland’s best young players and already hits the ball a long way off the tee with pretty good accuracy.

Ben Kinsley testing Shotmaker on Trackman

We used Shotmaker flex LD, for Ben as he is a big hitter. The surprise this time was the fact that Ben gained around 10 yards in carry and total distance with Shotmaker installed, as shown by the blue shots on the Trackman display. The white shots are from his driver with no Shotmaker installed. Again Ben felt that the club was more stable and the impacts more solid with Shotmaker inside the shaft.

This just confirms what others have found so far. One of the most respected and reliable independent test sites on the internet, MyGolfspy Labs, claimed that Shotmaker improved driving accuracy by up to 45%. You can read their full report at http://www.mygolfspy.com/harrison-shotmaker-review/

If our testing continues with similar success stories, we will soon be offering Shotmaker fitting as part of our driver optimisation service.  Look out for more details in future news/blog posts and on our Facebook page.

Follow us on Facebook

In the above example the static measured loft of the putter is 3 degrees. At impact the shaft is tilted slightly forwards delofting the putter by 1.1 degrees. The dynamic loft at impact is therefore 3 – 1.1 = 1.9 degrees.

The rise angle measures the putter head’s vertical direction at impact. In this case the putter is travelling in a slightly upward direction with an upward rise angle of 2.3 degrees. According to Christian Marquardt, the designer of SAM Puttlab, most of the Tour pros who putt well have an upward rise angle. It is easier to achieve this with the ball positioned slightly forward of centre at address.

A good roll is achieved by optimising the launch angle and by minimising the amount of backspin at impact. In this case the predicted launch angle of 1.8 degrees is very close to the optimum figure of 2 degrees for a relatively fast green (11 on the stimpmeter).  A slower green of around 9 on the stimpmeter would require a launch angle of around 3 degrees. If necessary the dynamic loft can be adjusted by changing the static loft of the putter.

In order to avoid backspin the rise angle needs to be greater than the dynamic loft at impact. In this case the rise angle is 0.4 degrees greater than the dynamic loft so a slight amount of topspin will be added to the ball at impact which together with the optimum launch angle will achieve a good roll.

We have always found it hard to recommend the ideal putter loft for a player but by incorporating a SAM Puttlab session in our extreme putter fitting sessions, we are now in a much better position to do so.

Watch out for Part 3 coming soon.

Ed was called upon to help determine how long it would take for a golf ball to travel 150 yards from the time it was struck to the time it hit the unfortunate Mr Phee. Given a detailed map of Niddry Castle Golf Course and some known factors, and using our knowledge of club dynamics and ball flight, we were able to simulate the offending shot on our Trajectory software.  This unique ball flight software, written by Max Dupilka, is generally used in our fitting sessions to demonstrate club optimisation, but in this situation it allowed us to vary all the input factors such as clubhead speed, face angle, swingpath, attack angle, etc., in order to provide a best estimate of the time taken for the ball to travel 150 yards, which was calculated at 3.75 seconds.

Simulated shot on the Trajectory software

Ed had to justify the methods used in our calculations, and then to explain to the court how this shot could be played given the known facts and given that many of those present were non-golfers. He also used the speed of sound to calculate how long it would take for the shout of “fore” to be heard at a distance of 150 yards.

Without going into the details of the case, suffice to say the judge ruled in favour of Mr Phee, apportioning 70% of the liability to the golfer who hit the ball and 30% to Niddry Castle Golf Club. His reasoning was that the golfer striking the ball had not given sufficient consideration to the potential risk of hitting a bad shot in the direction of Mr Phee, and that the management of Niddry Castle Golf Club had not undertaken a formal risk assessment of the course, nor provided warning notices at this particular point on the golf course where 3 holes converge.

This legal decision clearly raises issues for both golfers and Golf Clubs in the future. If you don’t have golfing insurance then you better give it due consideration, but even if you are insured don’t expect the insurance company to automatically pay out in the event of an accident. As in this case they may try to prove negligence. In any event before you play a shot you better make sure that anybody in range is aware of your presence and be prepared to shout “fore” as quickly and as loudly as possible. As for Golf Clubs, in addition to having adequate insurance, they also need to show that they have carried out a formal risk assesment, with warning signs posted as and where necessary. No longer can they act on the assumption that golf is a dangerous sport played at the risk of the participant.

It is very unfortunate for this incident to have happened in the first place but hopefully this ruling will make golf courses safer for all to enjoy in the future.

Face angle – the key to hitting the putt on line

Face angle is 4 times more important than swing path in determining the direction of the ball leaving the putter head. In other words your swingpath at impact can be a couple of degrees in to out or out to in but as long as your putter face is square to the target the ball will leave the clubface on line.

SAM Putlab allows us to measure face angle throughout the putting stroke but focuses on the key area of the stroke, namely 10 cms either side of impact. Rotation of the putter face within this 20 cm distance should be minimal. In the above example the putter face is 0.3 deg. open at impact and rotates a total of 4.8 deg. in the 10 cm either side of impact. In this case the face angle at impact is very good but ideally the total rotation 10 cm either side of impact should be under 3 deg. By minimising clubface rotation it has more chance of being square to the target at impact, and squaring the clubface at impact is key to hitting the putt on line.

Watch out for Part 2 coming soon.

Question: What is the benefit of a belly putter over a convensional putter?

Answer: Anchoring the butt of the putter in your stomach creates additional stability during the putting stroke, encouraging a rocking motion with the shoulders whilst restricting wrist movement.  This should help the player whose putter wanders offline during their stroke, or where the putting stroke is a bit wristy or twitchy, or where there is excessive rotation of the clubhead.   Players who favour a belly putter claim it helps to smooth out their putting stroke and keeps the face of the club square to the target for a longer period though impact.

Question: Can I just extend my current putter shaft and replace the grip to try it out as a belly putter?

Answer: No we don’t recommend shaft extensions of more than 2 inches, which is not enough, and a standard grip on the end of a belly putter would be too short.

Question: So what needs to be done to convert my standard putter to a belly putter?

The putter head needs to be adjustable for lie angle as a belly putter is usually around 4-6 deg. more upright than a standard putter.   The shaft will need to be replaced with a longer shaft designed for belly putters.  A 21 inch putter grip is also required.

Question: Can I convert my putter back to a standard putter if I don’t like using it at belly length?

Answer: Yes we would just re-install the original shaft and grip then reset the original lie angle.

Question: How do I know what length of belly putter I require?

Answer: Fitting a belly putter for length and lie is absolutely essential if you are to achieve your optimum address position for a proper stroke.  We can fit you for length and lie using our adjustable fitting putter.

Question: How much does it cost to convert a standard putter to a belly putter?

Answer: AGT’s all inclusive price for a putter conversion including shaft, grip and custom fitting session is £45

Question: How do I know that the belly putter is improving my putting stroke?

Answer: We can check out your putting stroke on SAM Puttlab to see if you might benefit from using a belly putter.  Then after converting your putter we can use SAM to demonstrate any improvement in your putting stroke using the belly putter.

The aim of the conference was to provide club pros with up to date knowledge of Trackman and custom fitting and to encourage them to take golf into local schools with SNAG for kids. Only by introducing golf to more youngsters will new talent be discovered, ensuring success for Spencer’s long term national development plan.

Ed’s presentation and practical demonstration was well received thanks to Ozer Aslan’s help with translation where necessary. The aim of the presentation was to convince the pros of the need for custom fitting, to give them insight into custom fitting techniques and to highlight the benefits for golf coaches and their students.

Convincing anyone of the benefits of custom fitting is relatively easy. It all comes down to one important question, “Can a change of equipment affect shot performance?”

Ed showed the audience several examples of successful fitting case studies using Trackman data, where simply a change of equipment undoubtedly improved the player’s shot performance. The answer to the key question was therefore obvious for all to see and Ed’s message was then a very simple one. If the answer to this question is most definitely yes, then no reputable coach can afford to ignore custom fitting if they are genuinely interested in improving a player’s performance.

The Turkish coaches were encouraged to learn custom fitting techniques and to introduce fitting as part of their future custom fitting programmes. This way they will enhance their reputation as a coach leading to more demand for lessons, increased club sales and greater financial reward.

Thanks to Spencer and the TGF for inviting AGT to participate in what was a very successful conference. We look forward to being of service to TGF in the future.