Ringing endorsement

Now that Ernie Els has gone back to the future by putting Ricci Roberts back on his bag he should perhaps go the whole hog and also haul out his old Ping putter.

This thought came to mind after receiving an e-mail from a friend containing stats of the US Open which showed that had Tiger Woods putted for Ernie he would have won the championship.

Watching events unfold at the Battle of Wounded Knee I had the impression Ernie was putting his way into oblivion (in fact had he coaxed the ball into the hole more often on his first nine of the tournament he might well have taken control quite early on) and the stats prove that he in fact hit the ball better than Woods.

And it’s not just the US Open. Els’ indifferent form is all down to the putter and he could do worse than return to another “old friend” – the brand of Ping putter he first started using as a junior and which he wielded when he won his three Majors.

In these driver-driver days, with each new edition of the glossy magazines putting forward the virtues and widgets of the latest implement that can give you more distance off the tee, putting and putters remain the key separator when it comes to the difference between victory and defeat.

Drivers and irons gain renown but they do not become legendary like putters – clubs such as Walter Travis’ “Schenectady” which was banned after he had won a British Open wielding it; Bobby Jones’ “Calamity Jane”; Bobby Locke’s hickory-shafted blade; Gary Player’s black-headed blade picked up in a pro shop in Japan; Arnold Palmer’s Wilson 8802, Jack Nicklaus’ oversized MacGregor Response, Nick Faldo’s Odyssey “Rossie 2” or even one of Simon Hobday’s “unrepeatables!”

All these clubs became famous because they were the tools of trade of famous golfers – such as the centre-shafted Achusnet Bullseye, the Ray Cook mallet and the Ram Zebra - but they pale into insignificance compared to arguably the most iconic putter ever cast – the Ping Anser.

Designed by Karsten Solheim, who without too much exaggeration could be described as the Leonardo da Vinci of golf club design, the Ping Anser, which was very strange looking when it first appeared on the market, is undoubtedly the most-copied club ever made.

So replicated that the current most famous putter in the world, the wand brandished by Tiger Woods, is a clone – if not in colour and material then definitely in shape.

Solheim was an engineer at General Electric who worked in aeronautics and had passion for golf. In 1959 he started making his own putters, incorporating his ideas for more consistency, while living in California.

His first putter appeared to be a hollow bar of metal dangling on the end of the shaft that emitted a pinging sound when it struck the ball – hence the name Solheim chose for his company.

The “eureka” in Solheim’s design was the concept of toe-heel and/or perimeter weighting which would come to be the essence of all modern club design – whether in metal woods, irons or putters.

In 1961 Solheim moved his family and burgeoning business to Phoenix, Arizona and in 1966 he had the flash of inspiration that would result in the Anser putter that would put Ping on the map as one of the world’s leading club manufacturers.

Legend has it that, unable to find a piece of paper, he sketched the design on a record cover and thus was born the world’s most famous golf club – still sans a name. Solheim’s wife suggested the name “Answer” – for obvious reasons – and it was stripped of the “W” to make it easier to imprint on the putter head.

The Anser, with it’s distinctive hollowed-out design with blobs of weight at each end and kinked socket, thus putting the head behind the shaft, would end up being the putter of choice in more than 500 professional victories while also being “xeroxed” to the extent that every major manufacturer has a model in its range which resembles the Anser.

Most golfers have tried one at some time or another and maybe the missing magic Els is looking for is gathering dust in one of his many garages around the world. It’s certainly worth a try.