LinksPutt Goes Global

The next generation in putting practice arrives on the shores of America.

(PRWEB) January 9, 2005 -- The latest addition to the golfers arsenal will soon reach the shores of the USA, courtesy of the vision of Graham Gibbons, a former oil industry design engineer and keen golfer. Following the success of its European launch at Golf Europe 2004 in Munich, Grahams innovative LinksPutt practice green will be on show at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, and will also be on public view at the London Golf Show in April.

The LinksPutt practice putting green is the first of its kind to offer both the professional and amateur golfer the realistic experience of contoured putting in the comfort of their own home, at an affordable price.

Any golfer who keeps a record of the number of putts they take in an average round, will be painfully aware of how vital good putting is to scoring well. LinksPutt, which was launched in the UK last year, has already seen demand soar in both the home and European markets.

The portable putting green has so far attracted the endorsement of Harold Swash, the renowned Putting Doctor" and coach to a number of European PGA professionals, including Irishmen Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke. In fact the veteran putting professional was so impressed with the LinksPutt practice green, that he hosted the official launch at his Putting School of Excellence in Southport, Lancashire.

The 3 metre long, fully portable green weighs only 17kg and is also available in 4 and 5 metre lengths, with the polypropylene fibre surface rolling the ball at 9 to 10 on the stimp meter, in keeping with the average speed of putt on British courses. The surface is supported by interlocking, lightweight EPP (expanded polypropylene) panels, providing a smooth but easily portable base.

The real science of the design comes to bear in the contouring element of the putting green, which allows the golfer to create 15 basic contour options, with thousands of others achievable. Straight uphill or downhill, left or right breaks, valleys, rollovers and any permutation of these can be practiced at will.

Graham commented, From the very beginning of the design, our goal was to create a fully contourable and portable putting green for practice and coaching. We were dismayed with the market options available to golfers, offering low cost putting mats with no correlation to what the golfer faces during an actual round of golf. The contouring element was central to our design, the biggest challenge however, was to make it affordable for all that play golf."

Graham, who spent 14 months working on the design, prototyping and manufacture of the putting green, is rightly proud of his achievements which are borne out of one too many bad days on the golf course! Despairing at his difficulties to master the putting aspect of his game, Graham started to look for a teaching aid that could assist him in improving, but found nothing that matched his needs.

Most practice surfaces are basically flat green carpets with local humps and bumps, which might have helped me work on my stroke but would do nothing for reading the lines and borrows on a green. Apart from anything else, once youve learned the run of your own carpet, the mat becomes boring and repetitive." He said.

Not content with accepting the status quo, Graham did what any of us would have done in the circumstances - quit his job, shut himself away in his Perthshire home and started the painful process of designing and building his own! Some 14 months later he emerged triumphant and with a business plan to take LinksPutt around the world.

Most people dont realise quite how much work goes into launching a new product from scratch. The design phase is only a small part of the overall process, then comes the hard work! - Intellectual Property protection, raising the considerable investment, website development, product quality control, sales/marketing and distribution strategy followed by the 7 day working weeks and no holidays for 2 years! I only managed to play a few rounds of golf during the project, but still managed to bring my handicap down by two points, simply because of the time I was putting" in on the product development!" he continued.

The proof of the pudding for LinksPutt has been in the rapid take up amongst professionals and golf centres. Showcased at the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond last year, the company is now handling demands from teaching professionals and golf clubs across Europe to enhance their teaching and coaching facilities. Graham is in advanced talks with distributors across Europe, and in the early negotiations with American and Asian partners.

Sales to the main target market, keen amateurs desperate to improve their putting, are also growing steadily with hundreds of golfers now practicing at home. LinksPutt greens. Priced at 225 for the 3 metre version the units can be bought online.

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