The Craftsman

The putters feature wavy as opposed to straight grooves on the putter face, which were a hallmark of your previous designs. Indeed, you invented closely spaced grooves for putters. What is the advantage of grooves in general and wavy grooves in particular?

This gets quite technical but I'll give you a brief explanation. Grooves in general grip the ball at impact. The combination of this gripping effect and a reduction of loft from the old standard of 4 to 6 degrees down to 2 degrees allows the ball to achieve end-over-end roll in only 20 inches instead of 60 inches on a 20-foot putt. The sooner the ball achieves roll the less it is effected by grass grain allowing for greater accuracy and distance control.

My new wavy VSE (Variable Surface Engaging) grooves keep the ball from sliding off the face on an off-centre hit which keeps the ball 25% closer to the target line than my original straight grooves and 50% closer than standard non-grooved putters.

You’ve also come up with a concept named "RockerSole". What is it, and how does it work?

Any golfer that has to fight their putter to keep the face square while addressing a putt will love the RockerSole. Golfers position their hands differently due to one of their eyes being stronger than the other; 85% of golfers are right eye dominant. This means that they will position their hands under their right eye at address thinking the shaft is at 90 degrees when in fact it is leaning back away from the ball one or two degrees. This causes the back edge of the putter to engage the ground and forces the toe to turn in, or "hook". This causes the golfer to constantly adjust the putter head while trying to set up to the target line. The RockerSole allows the putter to sit square to the target line regardless of hand position. The putter face always stays square.

You garnered great success with your Two Bar putter, which found its way into the bags of many tour professionals in the mid-late 2000s. How important to you is it that tour pros are seen wielding your putters, and how difficult is it to convince them to even try them out given endorsement deals that the majority have in place with the 'Big 5' manufacturers - Acushnet, Ping, Callaway, TaylorMade and Cleveland/Srixon?

I haven’t launched a PGA Tour programme yet. That is a serious investment of time and money. Having said that there is no better advertising than a close-up ground level "wormcam" picture of a PGA Tour player using one of my putters to win a tournament, especially a major. That’s what we call "lightning in a bottle." It’s the fastest way to success in the golf business. But you have to be incredibly lucky and have the financial means to capture the "lightning" once it strikes.

When I have the other two models I mentioned then I will have enough variety to attract the few players that aren’t under contract with the major manufacturers. When players do begin putting your putter in play it is necessary to give them constant service or lose them to other manufacturers. My initial efforts will be directed toward the Champions, LPGA, European, and the Asian Tours where there are very few putter contracts and players are more receptive to trying something new.