Yes! C-Groove putter

The distinctive C-Groove face.

Harold Swash has always been fascinated by putting – and particularly putters.

An engineer by trade, for many years he has been tinkering with these implements of frustration and built dozens of prototypes. He even developed a device which identified the slopes and borrows on a green.

Today he’s unique as one of the world’s leading putting coaches and is at last reaping the benefits of hours of dilligent effort in the workshop of his home overlooking the Hillside course in Southport, having created the putter with which Retief Goosen won the US Open last year.

His Yes! C-groove putter is now proving a big hit with amateur golfers, who are discovering there’s more to this game within a game in choosing the right club to hole those nasty little three and four-footers.

The secret to the C-groove putters are the semi-circular grooves precision-machined into the metal face. Harold worked out that when the ball strikes these grooves it held on the face a millisecond longer than with the smooth-faced putters, to which most of us are accustomed.

He says the additional ‘dwell-time’ prevents the ball 'jumping' into action and creates immediate forward roll to give the ball a better chance of staying on line to the hole.

Notah Begay with Harold Swash.

And certainly my initial impression was that I could definitely feel the ball gripping the putter face at impact, almost like a mild adhesive.

For a better player's view I put the club in the hands of young, low single-figure handicapper Mark Smith who was impressed with the results, especially from short range.

"With a slightly shorter shaft than I am used to, it felt remarkable heavy in the head but the grip felt soft and fitted neatly into my palms," he said.

"I liked the way the crank in the shaft and the line of the back of the putter made alignment so easy. And upto 15 feet and with a slightly shorter stroke I had no difficulty keep the ball on line. In practice I couldn’t seem to miss!"

However, he says in competition the result were not quite as dramatic and from longer distance it was more difficult to judge length to get those distance putts within a ‘dustbin lid’ of the hole.

"And this did put a bit of pressure on my short-putting," he said.

Overall, Mark felt the putter was easy to line up, with a ‘nice feel off the face and good from 10-feet in.' However, he would need to get used to the heavier head to build confidence on longer putts.

Mark reckons, the C-groove is more suited to fast greens, when the ability to keep the ball on line and set the top-spin roll in motion is more advantageous.

Hopefully, during the summer months, we can all look forward to smoother, more pacey greens, when the C-Groove will come into its own.