Augusta National Invites Two Women: So?

The huddled masses of wealth and power that are the membership of Augusta National have decided to invite two women into their ranks. The first is an obvious choice, legendary golfer and all around politico, Condeleeza Rice.

Condi Rice: Augusta's Newest Big Hitter
(Mark Ralston - AFP/Getty Images)

I can just imagine Billy Payne saying, "Man, can that little lady ever bomb it! We gotta get her and I mean get her now!"

The second is Darla Moore and I don't even know or care to know who she is...

Augusta is the kind of organization with no interest in doing the right thing, unless the right thing fits with their agenda. If they had what it took to stand up and tell the world they are an exclusively male club, irrespective of the fact that the profits of publicly traded corporations pay the lion's share of the dues, I could respect them. If they showed evidence of a growing sensitivity to the kind of club they aspired to be, I could respect them.

But, the fact is they did it to buoy their public image and I can't respect that at all.

They could have invited native Georgian and one of the founders of the LPGA tour, Louise Suggs. Or, they could have invited Hall of Fame member Judy Rankin. They could have invited a woman golfer in the same way they invited male golfers back when a win at The Masters also meant a membership to the club.

Instead, Augusta served its own interests and no one else's.

SeeMore FGP Review: The Best Putter in the World is in My Bag!

I want you to know that when the late Payne Stewart won the US Open in 1999, I had no interest in trying a SeeMore putter.

I also want you to know that when Zach Johnson won The Masters in 2007 I, again, had no interest in trying a SeeMore putter.

You see, I was already a pretty fair putter and believed my collection of Ping Anser-style Scotty Camerons were just fine & peachy.

They weren't and it took an impulse-buy from used club bargain barrel to prove it to me.

One day while browsing the used clubs at my local golf club pusher I came across a really nice SeeMore FGP. It was all original, down to the grip and the 34" sticker. I could see it had been used but not abused. I looked down at the price...$29.

Did I roll a few with it in the store? No, I just plopped down my cash and took that baby on home.

Of course, I had done this very same thing scores of times before. I would probably end up rolling a few putts across the living room and then consign the poor, old putter to a spot in the back of the closet until I found time to Ebay it.

But, that's not what happened.

I did roll a few putts with it in the house. It was odd: Even though I had never used a SeeMore before I found it comfortingly  familiar. It sat squarely and aimed easily. Best of all, the ball rolled tightly and right on the line I chose. I rolled ball after ball, clicking one ball directly into the back of another until four or five of them looked like a little train made of golf balls.

Hmmm...

Over the next couple days I took the old FGP out to my local course and rolled putts with it. Pretty much everything either gave the cup a good fright or tumbled in. I had no idea what was happening, but I knew the SeeMore was going directly into my bag.

From that time onward, the SeeMore FGP has been in my bag and won't be leaving. Sure, I still hit lousy putts but when my head is right, I make a lot of putts and it is all the result of using the FGP.

I never paid much attention to the weighting of the FGP. I mean, who cares when you're making putts? But, one day I had the putter laying on my kitchen table and noticed that the toe was pointing straight down. The FGP has 100% toe hang...I have never seen that before.

It turns out that SeeMore calls this weighting face balanced at impact. I had no idea what that means, so I was happy when SeeMore's Jim Grundberg offered to explain:

"The original design was called FGP for Featuring Ground Plumb, and our modern interpretation of that is simply face balanced at impact.  Because, while the putter toe does indeed face down when balanced on a table or your finger, we realized that is not really important. And that is because we don't putt with the putter at 90 degrees, but rather closer to 70 degrees.  And the FGP putter, no matter the size or type of the arc that a player employs (all the way from square to square to a full arc), will square itself up in the impact zone."

Mr. Grundberg went on to say, "If a player builds a balanced stance and posture and allows the putter to simply swing itself in essence, the putter will rotate slightly to the inside on the take away, and slightly to the inside on release, yet be perfectly square at impact. That is its natural state at impact. Square!  And not coincidentally, during this same perfect stroke, if a player were to watch the putter head back and through (we suggest they do this in practice occasionally, just to prove a point), the signature SeeMore red dot would be hidden at all times, and the two white lines would be visible. Very quickly this all becomes rather second nature, and happens without thought, so the golfer simply makes putts and loves the results. So, it is a very real technology which helps the golfer in a very non-confusing, non-invasive, way that just makes the game more fun!"

Me? I'm all for non-confusing and non-invasive fun. Anyway, it's long been a practice of mine to keep a putter in my trunk in case I have time to roll a few while waiting for an appointment or after work. But, for some reason I genuinely hated the idea of leaving the FGP in the trunk I mean, anything could happen; the car could get stolen or broken into or who knows?  Is that paranoia or caution? Either way, I resolved to order a new FGP as a back up.

It turns out SeeMore is a great company to do business with and I was pleased to be able to build my putter just the way I wanted it. Three days after placing the order a nice, new SeeMore box had been carefully placed on my front porch by my friendly FedEx driver.

Let's take a look at the two putters and see how they're alike and how they differ:

The original brass FGP on the left 
and the stainless FGP on the right.

The original FGP was painted brass and the new FGP is painted (powder coated?) stainless steel. Both are (I believe) cast and later the face is milled. This is a very sensible way to make a putter and would surely make Karsten Solheim proud of the folks at SeeMore.

I've grown fond of the rather lively sound of the brass head, so the more muted sound of the steel head has taken a little getting used to. There's plenty of research showing that there's no difference in the actual feel of putter heads of identical dimension but made of differently prepared metals (cast, forged or milled).  What we think we feel is actually a reflected in what we hear. So then, the brass head feels (sounds?) a touch more lively than the steel. Both SeeMores feel dead-solid when hit anywhere near the sweet spot.

The only physical difference between the two heads I could find can be seen in the two photos below.

The original FGP has a fuller center section...

...while the new FGP is slightly narrower in this area.

Another interesting difference between old and new SeeMores is the slightly softer first step on the new putter. I actually noticed that the shaft was softer when I was tapping down a ball mark, then when I got home I looked and noticed the difference side by side.

The new putter also has a very cool, blue, patent-leather headcover that is distinctly more attention grabbing than the somber and basic black of the original. I like 'em both!

Black and Blue: SeeMore Putter Covers

Sadly, the grip on my original FGP had gotten very slick. I tried to revive it with every technique I knew, but it was no use. It was done. So, I replaced it with a 65 gram SuperStroke which has proven ot be a good grip (I like the fact that it doesn't taper) but am not crazy about the grip's somewhat card-boardy feel. I kinda dropped the dropped the ball and ordered my new SeeMore with the wrong grip (I got a standard sized Golf Pride when I meant to get the slightly larger version).

The soles of the FGPs are also subtly different.

Old FGP on top and the new on the bottom.

Now that I've covered the look of the SeeMore FGPs, let me tell you why I believe they're the very best putters you can buy (in a sea of pretty good ones). It's quite simple: The SeeMore FGP makes it easy to hit putts on the intended line. After just a few strokes, anyone who is paying attention will notice it. The unique weighting of the head combines with SeeMore's alignment-aiding and patented RifleScope technology to create the most consistently on-path roll I have ever experienced.

No, the SeeMore FGP won't read putts for you. But, the amazing thing is that when you're confident in your line it's easier to see and, equally importantly, to trust your line. As the line becomes reliable, a natural awareness of the best speed starts to take hold. With the FGP I have made, and come very close to making, a large bucket full of long putts. The FGP seems to accentuate a player's strengths while minimizing his weaknesses.

Is there a player out there who won't putt better with an FGP? Plenty. Why is this true? Because lots of players simply succumb to poor putting. I know; I did it to myself for years. After a while, it gets oddly easy to accept missing putts. A player who wants to putt better has to get his mind right first. He must convince himself that he can putt, that putting can be practiced, and that well-struck putts will fall.

For me, using a SeeMore FGP has made that happen more than any other putter I have ever used.

Should the Long Putter be banned?

I've been cogitating on the subject of long putters for a while now. I'll never use one because I find them inelegant and cumbersome. Since they don't look right to me I can be confident I would never putt well with one.

But, some people do...

I don't have much pity for the in-their-prime tour players, or the up and coming pros and elite amateurs, who are using long putters with great success. They could and should be putting with a conventional putter but they see the long putter as an advantage, whether it is or not.

More interesting is the player who, without the long putter, would be done and gone. Here I'm thinking of the ageless Bernhard Langer. Langer has been using the long putter since 1997 and he was pretty much forced into using it. Being almost 40, he was just at the point where the natural decline of skill would have joined with the yips to make him an instant non-contender. Instead, at 53 he is still playing great, though even with the long putter he never quite stops complaining about his play on the greens.

There are two theories of why the long putter should be banned. The first is that it is anchored at the butt end of the club to the player. The second is that in most cases players who use long putters adopt a grip which separates their two hands.

I find both theories compelling.

The use of any anchor point strikes me as against the spirit of the rules. The rules speak of playing the game using a stroke, and from stroke we speak of a swing, but can a club really be said to swing when it is in contact with three points of body (both hands and the torso)? I am pretty sure even the most staunch proponent of the long putter would balk at a player wearing a concave pad on their torso that the butt of the club fit into. It would be easy to conclude the player was using that pad to make the butt of the club even more well anchored than would otherwise be true. But, the fact is that the mere contact of the club with anything other than the hands should convey this suspicion of illegality.

The theory that the golf swing is one wherein the player creates a grip using both hands together also strikes me as reasonable. I first read this view in one of Harvey Pennick's books. Quite simply, golf is not croquet or polo, or even or baseball (google a picture of Honus Wager if you miss my reference.)

Tiger Woods' Latest Weakness: His Head?

I've always figured Tiger Woods was a total head case as a human being. 

Now it seems he's working on being one on the course.

Just how mentally out of sorts do you have to be to have won 14 majors with a certain mindset and then change it when you're in the hunt for your 15th?

"I came out with probably the wrong attitude (Saturday), and I was too relaxed, and tried to enjoy it, and that's not how I play," Woods said. "I play full systems go, all out, intense, and that's how I won 14 of these things."

This all rather points to the space between Woods ears not being exactly the happiest place on earth. 

No wonder so many people love him.