The Quest

Burnt Edges Consulting was born by a daily observation of Arnold Palmer. He would practice his putting, changing putters every few strokes. With each putter change there were changes in the appearance of his stroke. If he changed the grip, the stroke direction changed. If he added lead tape to alter the weight, there was a change in rotation, rhythm, and tempo. If he changed the length and lie of the putter, it would change the appearance of the putter arc as it swings. This led to an idea, “What if I could define a player’s most efficient sequence of movement and then match a putter to that movement and rhythm requirements. In other words, balance a putter to the player. The problem was that no manufacturers were building putters to match my criteria. Occasionally we could find a good match, but more often we had to settle for best available. What follows in the next series of articles is explanation of our discoveries and the process we used to find, YOUR BEST COMBINATION OF STROKE STRATEGY WITH A PUTTER TO MATCH.

From the putter perspective we had several issues to consider. How to handle uneven lies? Find weighting options without influence on the internal balance of the putter. A putter that swings easily and does not torque or twist when extra effort is applied; at the start of the stroke, transition from backswing to forward swing and how to control or maintain the momentum created at these points of effort. (This was the big one) How to provide accurate feedback to enhance stroke improvement, without sacrificing performance.

Every putter ever designed and produced has strengths and weaknesses. Some have directional advantages, some create have ball speed management benefit, yet, whatever the strengths of the putter, the player is left to overcome the weakness. This has led to average results becoming the benchmark for success. I cannot accept that. My goal was to build a putter that did not hold you back.

My process over the past 40 years was to address each of the concerns and decide the best design parameter to solve the situation. Over the years I have called the prototypes Frankenstein. Fascinating to me over this time was how the best solutions were always the simplest ones. The more complicated the design, the more opportunities for new problems.

Next time. How the discovery of the Nine Profiles influenced the process.