The Wonder Wand Putter-
Hello Friends!
Please let me do a little 5 minute presentation here about Putting… and about what the heck we may of been doing wrong all these years. We believe you'll then realize just what a simple & effective innovation this brand new putter & method may be for you!
Plus, I'll promise you that you'll gain some interesting insight into the golf business. And lastly, all this will help us fully explain the very legitimate reasons behind designing this putter. It's going to be released in 2025 and at a price point under $200. You'll see photos below of our latest Wonder Wand prototype.
And in a way, this story will also have to do with what the legendary Bobby Jones said to the USGA’s Joe Dey about what he didn’t like about famed golfer Sam Snead way back in 1967.
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Anyway… we've all experienced the issues & problems of the conventional golf putting stroke. The fact is: It’s an ongoing struggle to perform fluidly, consistently, accurately & successfully.
Now before I go any further here, let me jump right to the end of this story and tell you… that we may of solved this problem! And after we thoroughly explain the "Why & How" of it all, we believe that you'll then truly realize just how non-productive conventional-styled putting has been! And this in turn, will make you want to be one of the first folks to experience this solution. Fair enough?
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Let's start by saying that many of the "Putting Gurus" feel that the real root cause of all of our putting struggles is due to:
Our arms are in opposition & they're fighting each other for control of the putter & the putting stroke. The different muscle groups within your forearms & upper arms are in at least a 4-way isometric contradiction. You have a hunched over body & your head is further tucked down, and then it’s cocked again sideways. You can add in a second awkward lateral neck twist in there too. Then you squint your less-dominant eye (normally the left one), and you try and look upside-down at, and along, the target line towards the hole.
And there's still more to this age-old dilemma:
You then try & prop your shoulders up to further adjust. That feels funny & they hang uneven. So you additionally contort your wrist & palm angles, while your fingers are clenched together & your elbows are flared outwards. You've now built up a ton of tension. Your core support is poor. Your posture is terrible. You may even add in a wobbly knee & lower back pain too. And now you’re going to try and putt this way?
Neddless to say, it's a very uncomfortable & ineffective putting stance & set-up. In fact, it's been called a Kinesiologist’s Nightmare! A lot of knowlegeable folks believe: It’s unnatural, inefficient, and hard to do continually & with any sort of success. Now for some of the better or elite players or the super-athletic, it may work alright, but then it still comes and goes. And unfortunately, for most others, it just gets worse!
There’s: a jerky takeaway, an unsure backstroke, a weak pivot point at your wrist junction, a jabbing transition move, and an ill-feeling follow-through. There's just no confidence. Maybe even physical yips. And then you still need to factor in the line, speed & break to this conflicted putting equation!
Now knowing all this... you're telling me, that we THEN attempt to use this convoluted putting stroke and somehow roll a golf ball into a hole somewhere over hill & dale! Ha! Ha! Yippee-ki-yay!
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You've heard it all before... one single golf club, the Putter, accounts for an entire 40% of our golf activities & fun! Meanwhile, and as my physio-doctor friend always says: "You golfers need to make the putting stroke happen much more intuitively, instead of getting all tied up in knots."
Think about this: In all other sporting activities, that ALIKE golf, feature a club or stick and a ball or puck and a hole or net or target (think ice hockey, croquet, even the arm-motion in bowling, bocce ball, lawn bowling, polo, horseshoes, cornhole, even the basic tennis swing), the participant tends to:
Faces towards the target. Takes an open & naturally comfortable stance. The left foot is slightly forward. The right foot is slightly back. And you use both eyes to calibrate the line & speed of what you’re about to do.
If the participant is using a club/stick, the grip is normally split high & low, and the shoulders hang naturally. The dominant right hand is lower on the club, and it predominantly controls the motion & path of the swing or shot or roll. The left hand is just used as kind of a floating pivot-point or hinge. It's also used as sort of an athletic counter-balance.
Then the participant/player uses an: easy, stable, more of a single-handed, highly-controlled, under arm, pendulum-like motion, to roll the ball to the intended target. It’s pretty much of a straight-back & straight-through motion or stroke. Am I right about all this?
Another example: If you & I are on a putting green & I asked you to roll a golf ball towards a practice hole. No putter. Use just your hands. You’d probably do it the EXACT same way I just described above: Face the Target. Open your stance. Use both eyes. And with one hand, and underhanded, and with a controlled, straight-back & straight-through motion, you’d roll the ball out of your hand, and directly down the target line towards the hole.
Feel, aim, launch, skid, roll, accuracy, lag, & distance control: All these things... now happen naturally, automatically, right?
Again, you wouldn't turn sideways to the hole, bend over, tuck your head, twist your neck, look upside down, contort into some sort of weird position… and then try & roll the ball or stroke the putt. Are we crazy trying to do it this way?
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Now FYI, our colleagues in the business, they're promoting any number of things to help you treat this problem. There are new putters coming out every week. I even saw a $500 Star Trek spaceship-looking design that was actually bigger than my driver! I call what most of them are doing as just BS technology & cosmetic bells & whistles!
In no particular order, there's: armlock, side-saddle, shaft lock, shaft lean, jumbo grip, taper grip, split grip, claw grip, pencil grip, onset neck, offset hosel, face-foreward, shaft-back, forward press, left hand low, corrective face grooves, face balancing, face inserts, directional lines & arrows, ai, carbon, counter-balanced swing-weighting, heel vs. toe hang, standup, belly, center shafting, big sweet spots, tall shafts, torque & vibration-free shafts, even the stigma of the broomstick putter or the giant winged mallet… and each embedded with rare heavy metals, fancy alignment etchings, screws & nuts & bolts & all kinds of pieces of interchangeable metal & plastic! And it's all to somehow combat & remedy our putting stroke inefficiencies?
By the way here, we respect each of these companies & what they're trying to do! We just don't necessarily agree with most of it. Kind of like lipstick on a pig. We believe you should be treating the cause of the problem, not selling more lipstick!
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We believe that putting should start first with: a better Putting Motion. Specifically, a stroke that's much more user-friendly, intuitive & easily-controlled than what many golfers are using & doing now.
The simple truth to putting is: 1) be square at impact, and 2) make contact very close to the center of the putter face. A ball struck this way needs no face enhancements, MOI tail wings, anti-torque shafts, let alone detachable nuts & bolts & whatever else!
So the Million-Dollar Question becomes: How do we get to be square, centered & comfortable with our putting stroke?
And furthermore, how do we do this without resorting to the aforementioned towering broomsticks or the side-saddle, or some other uncomfortable-looking arm/shaft locking style & putting motion? And we only say this because we feel that each of these techniques is only partially correct, and then with only a piece or two of the putting puzzle. Plus they seem very awkward, but that’s just us.
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So we'd like to Propose: 1) an easy, natural, intuitive, free-flowing, kinesiologist-approved, gravity & pendulum-based, mostly straight-back & straight-through putting stroke, and 2) the ideal designed, sized & weighted & balanced Putter Head, Tri-Axial Shaft, & Split-Grip to compliment & physiologically execute the method. Form Follows Function!
In fact, when you use this method & this putter that we're proposing here, everything else will take care of itself! AUTOMATICALLY.
Additionally, we only wanted to incorporate what truly works & eliminate all the needless bells & whistles (they may look cool, but they just add cost with no discernible benefit to most folks). Furthermore, we wanted to allow the laws of physics, geometry, motion, direct force & the human anatomy... along with the confluence of angles, lie, loft, length, counter-balancing, stance, posture, position, pivot point, swing plane & path… along with club head design, varying shaft bend angles, grip size & shape & more. We wanted it all to work together SYNERGISTICALLY, both the Putting Stroke & the Putting Tool!
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Now I know that all these theories & scientific principles sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo! But just like every other product we've introduced (the last one being the Wonder Wedge), this new putter had to work noticeably easier & significantly better than many of the other putting methods & implements currently being marketed to you. PERIOD.
Oh, and by the way, about the Bobby Jones story: Sam Snead was having trouble putting in 1966. So he adopted a new putting style, and it became incredibly effective for him. And then at the Masters tournament, Mr. Jones saw this and told Joe Dey, then head of the usga, to outlaw Sam's new method. Joe did that in 1968. Kind of like what they're trying to do now in 2024 with the golf ball roll-back strategy.
Anyway, since then & for the last 56 years, all of golf has been questioning the mechanics & limitations of the conventional putting stroke.
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Now for the Good News- In 2025, we are going to be introducing the "ICS Wand w/ Tri-Axial Shaft & Split-Grip" by Wonder Golf. We're currently making some final head angulation & hosel refinements to the "near-final" prototype. It's being tested as we speak, and I should add here that this new putter & technique is nothing like what Mr. Snead was doing, nor is there any anchoring involved, or any awkwardness, and yes it does conform to usga guidelines.
Most importantly, and the reason for this detailed story, is to convey that our design & engineering of the Wonder Wand and its features & benefits is meant to address & specifically correct just about every single one of the putting issues & limitations as we have greatly detailed above.
In summary, the Wonder Wand will feature: 1) a 39", matte black, stepless steel, triple-bend, shaft, 2) a 19", elongated & counter-balanced, split-grip, and 3) a 365 gram, 431 ss, internally weighted, wide-body, blade-shaped, milled face, 3 degree lofted & 65 degree lie angled, & near center-shafted, putter head.
All together, these features will allow the golfer to utilize and benefit from: 1) a more upright & comfortable & user-friendly posture, including an open 45 degree stance, with both eyes looking towards the hole, 2) a very easy, fluid, & natural feeling, split-handed, dual-offset, forward-pressed shaft & grip, which will automatically allow for much more of an intuitively controlled, almost effortless, pendulum-like, straight-back & straight-through, putting stroke, and 3) a pleasing, proven, non-distracting, putter head which is integrated (with the shaft & grip mechanics) & offers square & optimum contact & most purely rolls the ball per this putting method & stroke path.
FYI- Many manufacturers just try and design a fancy head with new bells & whistles, and then just stick a shaft & grip on it, then make some ridiculous claims, & market it as revolutionary. Our intent was to fully integrate the head, shaft, grip & the putting stroke.
Bottom line, you’re going to find that there’s something innately appealing about the stroke & feel & results of this new putter.
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We released our very first putter back in 1992. It was 100% milled from brass, center shafted, and had adjustable weight-ports at both the heel & toe. It addressed off-center hits & MOI, and it even came with a Stroke Path training aid (just like you see the guys on tour using now). We next designed & introduced oversized, perimeter-weighted, cavity-back irons along with oversized, stainless-steel metal woods for a couple of the OEMs. Believe it or not, many golfers at the time were still playing with small, old-fashion, unforgiving, blade irons & actual wooden woods. Anyway, we've had the passion of introducing true game-improvement equipment & training aids ever since. And maybe we have something here for you with the Wonder Wand.
By the way, we've had an all-time low Return Rate on the Wonder Wedge (check out the video), because... It Flat-Out Worked! And we're feeling just as good about the performance of the Wonder Wand! We really feel that you'll find it to be one of the easiest & most natural & intuitive & free-flowing & balanced putting strokes that you've ever experienced.
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