What is the best putter in the world?

About a week ago I wrote about the fact that one of my readers needed to buy a set of golf clubs for himself, and he had asked me what to buy. I was flattered because it had been over ten years since I had retired from making custom fit iron sets at PROBE GOLF.

The next day I received quite a few emails from former PROBE customers asking if and when we would make custom iron sets again. I also received emails from former customers who owned one or more PROBE 20/20 putters. They said they thought the PROBE 20/20 putter was the best putter they had ever owned, and wanted another one if we had any.

Officially we discontinued making golf equipment in 1996, and sold our last PROBE putter in 2006 when we ran out of the custom milled brass putter heads in our storage unit. I was busy providing our Reciprocal Golf services of getting golfers onto private country clubs starting in 2003, and didn't want to go back to operating a manufacturing facility with employees, inventory, assembly, shipping, etc., so we discontinued making golf equipment.

Now, due to popular demand, we will start making and selling the new PROBE 20/10 this year.

What makes a great performing putter? If you could describe the perfect putter, what benefits would you include? Here is what I would want in my putter:

1) A built-in pendulum stroke. I used to add lead tape to every putter I ever bought when I was young, because a light putter is too easy to turn off line. So I wanted a HEAVY PUTTER.

2) CONTROL of the ball, making it roll where I wanted it to roll, instead of guessing what the slope and grain in the green would do to the ball. Sound impossible?

Not at all! When I invented the PROBE 20/20 in September of 1992, the first opportunity for me to demonstrate how it worked to a name player was at the Senior Tour event in Seattle. The first tour pro?... Arnold Palmer.

Arnie tried the 20/20 on the putting green about half an hour before his practice round on Thursday. The inverted shaft gave Arnie the feeling that he could not turn the putter off line when he stroked a ball, due to the heavier head compared to the shaft and grip.

After I demonstrated for Arnie how to play the ball off the line at the toe or the heel depending upon how much he wanted to put side spin on the ball to decrease the amount of break in each putt, he was astounded and pleased at the same time. Our patented inverted shaft and center-shafted head design made it all possible.

He headed for the first tee, then birdied the first three holes. The rest is history. Arnie played his best tournament of 1992 that week with his PROBE putter, and then teamed up with Peter Jacobson in Portland the following Monday and Tuesday at Pete's Fred Meyer best-ball event.

Jim Kelley at ESPN mentioned Arnie and his PROBE inverted-shafted putter 19 times during their telecast over the two days. By Friday that week my office had received calls from 48 of the 50 states asking "is this the company that makes Arnold Palmer's new putter!"

Think about it. A putter that is head balanced so it guarantees a perfect pendulum stroke that cannot be moved off line by any nervousness in your hands! NO MORE YIPS!

And he ability to make short breaking putts do what you want them to do, instead of guessing what they will do!

Conclusion? We must make once again the best performing putter in the world, but BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL PROBE PUTTER!

The only negative comment we ever received from our 120,000 + original PROBE 20/20 customers was this:

"I wish the direction lines were a little longer, so I could better line up putts. The putter head is narrow."

Voila! I designed the PROBE 20/10 a little wider, but not quite as tall, so the direction lines are easier to see, while keeping the weight the same. And of course the putter will be center-shafted and with the inverted shaft, so the same benefits remain.

PROBE GOLF ( www.probegolf.com ) will be gearing up to manufacture the PROBE 20/10 (just like eye sight, 20/10 vision is better than 20/20 vision) as soon as I find an entrepreneur who'd like to purchase a controlling interest in PROBE GOLF and take the responsibility of running the manufacturing end of the business. I'm too close to retirement, and only want to be responsible for design of the product, and consult in marketing.

Anyone out there interested in a bright future in the golf equipment industry?