Oh Yes! Henrik's found a winning putter

Oh Yes! Stenson celebrates in Sun City

A combination of instruction from putting coach Harold Swash and a switch to a new Yes Golf! Donna putter has sent Swede Henrik Stenson soaring up the world rankings as a result of his successive victories in the World Cup of Golf in China (with Robert Karlsson) and the Nedbank Challenge in Southern Africa.

Stenson (32) from Gothenburg has spent several sessions with Swash - inventor of the C-Groove concept used in Yes! Golf putters - and Phil Kenyon director of instruction at the Harold Swash Putting School and was immediately seduced by the Donna, a blade/ mallet hybrid model introduced last February.

Alongside Karlsson, he holed a series of crucial putts in the foursomes and fourball format before heading for Sun City to win the strokeplay event against a world class field by nine shots on 21 under par and claim the $1.2million winner's cheque.

He opened with a stunning 63 on the Gary Player course and commented:
“To win here was among my best performances and it's particularly fantastic to win by such a large margin. I’ve never done that before.”

Stenson work with Harold Swash in Holland earlier this year

The win moved him up five places in the World Rankings to No.7.

Yes! Golf came to prominence in 2004 after Retief Goosen won his second US Open title using the same C-Groove putter he used to win in 2001. The inventor claims it allows a greater margin of error for off-centre strikes and delivering a 'true' roll motion after impact and more accuracy.

"Even when the putter face is slightly open or closed to the target line, or the loft or the plane of the strike at impact is less than ideal, the C-Groove design provides compensating factors, "says Swash (74) who lives on the edge of the Hillside course at Southport.

"The groove edges are 4/1000th of an inch and only two groove edges contact the ball at impact. Assuming the plane of the strike is slightly upward they grip into the surface of the ball and impart a non-skid, top-spin rolling force much like grooves on irons and woods impart backspin on a ball."

The Donna putter

His other putting students have included Padraig Harrington, David Howell, Darren Clarke, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam.

The next generation of Yes! golf putters, revealed at Golf europe in Munich in October will include more forged models like the Callie-F and Abbie and ones which can be custom-fitted with special weights in the handle, using the

Stealex (SWS) system to encourage a more consistent putting stroke.

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