Almost a month and a half after the calendar marked the start of 2010, it’s time for golfers to pledge their resolutions for a new season of play. The unofficial harbinger of the hacker’s new year, the Denver Golf Expo, begins Friday at the Denver Merchandise Mart Plaza.
Amid all the new irons and drivers and their promise of 300-yard drives and enough backspin to yank your four-piece ball into last week, be aware that putting has become increasingly high tech as well. And one of the items that will be on display is the Edel Putter Fitting System.
Created by David Edel, something of a tinkerer/mad scientist based in Austin, Texas, there are only 20 places in the United States where golfers can go to be custom fit for the flatstick. One of them is in Englewood, at the McGetrick Golf Academy at the Broken Tee at Englewood Golf Course.
“The basic premise is to fit you to aim straight,” said Stan Sayers, the academy’s director of instruction. Sayers said he has fit more than 1,200 players via the system, which will be on display at the expo. “We do that by looking at what you currently do — what do we need to adjust? And we can see the stroke change right before our eyes.”
During the last couple of seasons of its PGA Tour coverage, the Golf Channel has occasionally used something called AimPoint technology, superimposing a line on a screen, to show the true path that a putt needs to take to go into the hole. The same technology is used with the Edel system. And while Sayers admits he can talk for hours about matters like heel weights and shaft flexes and other components that might produce a better putter — but only at the risk of inducing ennui in even the most avid player — the bottom line is that the process begins with a player’s eyes.
“(When golfers putt) they often try to manipulate something — their aim, their stroke — what we want to do is take all that away,” Sayers said. “We want the putter to be neutral. Now you know you see it straight so we can work on the stroke.”
Using himself as an example, Sayers, who often travels to play and work in Florida, has a putter with four degrees of loft. However, for his rounds in Colorado, where the greens are generally faster and don’t have the graininess found down South, he can replace the face with one that only has two degrees.
“It’s still the same putter,” Sayers said. “Nothing’s changed but the face.”
And, just as there are feel and analytical players when it comes to the overall game, Sayers said the same applies to putting.
“You know how there’s a black line on the back of the putter? If you change that to blue or red, a player will aim differently because it causes your eye to respond differently,” he said. “There are people who are taught to read greens by seeing the line, but some people don’t see lines, they see paths, and so no matter how much you try, they just won’t see it.”
Depending on the individual, the entire fitting process can take from five minutes to about an hour. Once the information is obtained, the putter is made from scratch.
Putters begin at $375 with another $120 for the fitting itself, although visitors to the expo will receive the latter for free.
“It’s not the cheapest way to putt in the world,” Sayers admits. “You’ll see people get fitted for drivers and buy two or three at $300-$400 each. But putting is about 43 percent of the game, you spend a lot more time with the putter. We think of it as a foundation for your game.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
Denver Golf Expo
The annual Denver Golf Expo is this weekend:
Where: Denver Merchandise Mart (Interstate 25 and 58th Avenue)
Schedule: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. -5 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $10 adult; seniors (50 and older) $8; juniors (16 and younger) free
What: More than 125 exhibitors; free seminars each day; golf club swap; demo area
