Tag: Alan White

The Kure Putting Chronicles, Day 3: A Diary Of A Passionate Golfer by Alan White

December 29, 2010

Good afternoon Guru Nation
Here is day Three’s installment with the KURE.

Today’s session began as normal for me. Double checking the KURE. I have not removed any components since the initial setup and after today’s check-out the KURE is still spot on. I started the session where I left off yesterday, using the “rock in” to check out my initial aim as I set the putter behind the ball. The results were a little better than yesterday. I did 3 reps of 10 tries and went 6,7,7 of ten. Still not where I want to be, as they say “old habits die hard”. The thing that still shocks me is how hard it is to line up the putt correctly after doing it wrong for quite some time. To me this is quite different from making full swing changes. In a full swing change things FEEL a lot different. Using the KURE things LOOK a lot different. The eye/brain just does not want to co-operate.

Today’s “General Discoveries” will focus on how the KURE is different from other putting training aids that I have used. I have used many aids in the past. Chalk lines, stretched strings, the eye-line mirror, plane board, etc. so I have some experience with these aids. So how is the KURE different?
    
1.  The biggest difference I have seen so far is that the KURE uses no lines. Lets take the old standby, a chalk line. I have used a chalk line in the past with varied results. The problem I always had was if a line was present setting the putter down on the correct aim became easy. Heck that was a no-brainer, just follow the line right?. The same is true with the mirror board, strings and other. Regardless of how much I would try to “ignore” the reference line it was always there helping lead the way. Not so with the KURE. With the KURE you have to visualize the line then set the putter down with no “hints” as to what is correct. If you get the yellow light you are good to go. If not you can quickly check to see where you error was. This is some pretty solid feedback.

2. I listed this second but it is really a tie. The KURE gives you immediate feedback on the face alignment of the putter at impact. How cool is that? Short of video I do not know of another aid that gives you this information. If you get the yellow light, make your stroke, get the green light, the ball will be going to the target. Again pretty good stuff.

3. It allows you to experiment with some level of confidence. Ever wonder if using just your right hand to align the putter was better for you than using both hands? How about cross handed vs. conventional. I think that using the KURE would help in determining if the changes you are thinking about making or are actually trying to make are better. Think about it. If you can line up the putter correctly 10 out of 10 times using just your right hand and only 6 out of 10 times using both hands that would be good information to have.

4. The KURE uses batteries (3 types). My chalk line does not. Yes I know. In the age of laser range finders and GPS systems with fly-over mode batteries are almost as essential as a tee. But,,,,I still rue the day that drive to the practice range setup the KURE only to realize that a battery has expired.

In summary, the KURE is beginning to grow on me. Once you get familiar with it and think about the things you can do it’s pull becomes stronger. With the weather continuing to moderate the snow should melt by Tomorrow.  I hope to take it to the practice green and get some “real” experience with it.  

See you tomorrow.

Alan

7 Days With “The Kure”: A Passionate Golfers Journey, Day 1

December 27, 2010

The Kure Putting Solution
As the Guru takes a few days to catch his breath after my 20 day “blogging binge”,(I am sure there is a 12 step program for this sort of condition), One of my long time students, Alan White has been gracious enough to chronicle his exploits into his putting practice with “The Kure Putting Solution” training aid. I can assure you that we have not conspired about what he is going to write. All I can tell you is that Alan is a very passionate golfer that is a very straight shooter. What I am saying is that this will be a very honest, forthright assessment on this training aid that I have been talking about for  a few months. So if you are on the fence about purchasing one, this is sure to sway you one way or the other. I hope you enjoy the posts and thank you Alan for taking the time to share your perspective from an amateur golfer. I am sure many of you will be able to relate to this diary of sorts.

Well GURU nation a conspiracy has been under foot. It seems a certain golf instructor had passed along a gift wish of mine to Santa (a.k.a the wife) this year. I am now the proud owner of the KURE putting system and I must say they did a great job of keeping it a secret. I was certainly surprised. I know a lot of you out there have been curious about this device so I thought I would share my experiences as I work with the KURE over the next week. I will give you both the good, bad and the ugly so to speak.

Day 1.
    Just unpacked the KURE inspected it and installed the batteries that were provided. The KURE comes packaged in a nice little plastic case that houses the KURE putting system and a short instructional video featuring Sir Nick Faldo and Mike Shannon from the Sea Pines resort. Mike gives the promotional side with Sir Nick covering the use and providing some drills to use. This video is NOT a putting lesson it just covers the basic use of the KURE and its benefits.

    The KURE system itself consists of 3 components.
        First is the “Target Module and Stand”. It is powered by 3 AA batteries (included). The stand is 4 legs and the module sits on top of the stand. When assembled it resembles a spider that sits over the hole or the target of your choice. Going forward I will refer to it as “The Spider”. Second is the “Aiming Module” this is a lightweight plastic part that attaches to your putter shaft. It is powered by one of the small coin batteries (included). The last component is a small “Laser module” It is powered by 2 AAA batteries (included) and clips to the Aiming Module after it is attached to your putter. The module outputs a laser so you can precisely align the aiming module square to your putter face.

Setup
    Setup is straight forward and took about five minutes the first time. I can easily be done in about minute once you understand the basics. The only issue I had initially was the laser module did not turn on. A set of fresh batteries were installed  and that took care of the issue.

The KURE in action.
    Before we get to far into the actual performance of the product. Let me clarify the basic use and feedback of the KURE. The aiming module (after attachment/alignment to your putter shaft) has a small green light built into the top of it. This green light provides feed back on your head/eye position. If your eye is directly over the target line the light will show bright green, as you move your head off the line the light will actually appear to blink then grow dim the further you eyes get from the intended line. The Target Module or “Spider” has  light two lights in the front of it. A yellow light and a green light. When your putter face is correctly aligned the yellow light will turn on to let you know you are correctly aligned.  The green light comes on after you stroke the putt if the putter face was square to the target at impact. So the sequence goes something like this. Step into your address position and line up the face so the yellow light will come on (it will stay on as long as your putter face stays in alignment). Double check the green light on the aiming module to verify eye position. Make your stroke. If the Green light on the spider comes on you know that your stroke resulted in a square putter face at impact.
    OK here we go with a real try at using the KURE. First let me say that currently my misses with the putter are almost always to the left. “Crap I pulled another one” is usually heard a lot during my rounds of golf. Anyway I set up a small target in the living room, placed the spider over it, dropped 1/2 dozen balls on the carpet 7-8 feet away, got into my address position, aimed the putter at the target and…….I did not get the yellow conformation light. Heck I say… The hole is only a couple of steps away so I back up, reset, and move back into the ball, aim the putter and……still no yellow light. This time around I rotate the putter until I got a yellow light and guess what. I was originally aimed ~3 inches to the left of my target. I repeated this a couple more times to confirm and sure enough I was consistently aiming left of my target. So now I move my body around until the yellow confirmation light came on and WOW I felt like I am aimed way to the right of the target. Now I am in denial, as I honestly did not believe I could be that far off on a putt of that length. So what do you think I did next?….Still in denial I re-checked the alignment and placement of the aiming device on the putter shaft because THAT had to be wrong. It was not. Still in denial I went back and re-tried addressing and aiming the putter….with the same results as before I was still aiming left of the target. Still in denial I enlisted the aid of a lovely assistant (my wife). I had her aim the putter face until she got a yellow light and I laid down on the floor behind the putter to confirm that it was aiming at the target and guess what???? It was aimed directly at the target::: 🙂
    I am not in denial anymore…..I can say it now…..I have not been aiming the putter where I thought I was. I have run out of time for today’s session but I will be back tomorrow and pick up where we left off today. Just a final thought ,maybe, just maybe those putts that I was “pulling” were not getting pulled after all…..

Best,

Alan White

Alan White: Guest Blogger and Member Of Guru Nation

July 28, 2010

I thought I would do something different for this follow-up post on MISCONCEPTIONITIS. We have a guest poster today. Alan is one of my students that has been working hard on his game and has improved a lot. I thought I would share his thoughts on an experience that he had that might help you guys out there.  

Guru Nation Heed The Advice.
After a quick chat with the Guru I thought I would share a recent example of the pitfalls of misconceptions. The driver has been my Achilles Heel for quite some time. About 3 months ago we started to focus on my Driver and the GURU quickly found a flaw in my takeaway that had developed over time. While I was able to get away with the flaw on most of my iron play it quickly compounded issues as the clubs got longer……

Great, Thanks GURU now I’m off to the range to practice.

Day one at the range when well-meaning friend shows up. “hey man that backswing looks a lot different remember keep it low, slow and inside on the way back”. So he demonstrates a backswing that could brush a tee placed 5 feet behind the ball. Oh yes you are right my well-meaning friend what WAS I thinking???? I have always heard that, I MUST be doing it wrong.

Fast Forward 3 Months and 9,284 range balls……….GURU my Drive is still killing my game what is going on?…..I don’t know Alan lets take a look….. Slice, pull, slice, pull, push, hook….. Alan, I though we talked about working on the backswing last time you were here…..We did GURU watch me brush this tee 5 foot behind the ball…… Alan that is not what we talked about………………………Ahhhhh you are right GURU. Lets start over. This oversight (i.e. stupidity) on my part cost me 3 months and a lot of wasted effort on my road to improvement.

This was on a Wednesday. On Thursday I worked very hard on the range with my notes from the GURU not listening to anyone or anything. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday I shot 4 of my best rounds ever with the Driver doing it’s fair part.

Moral of the story
Be very careful of friendly advice about the golf swing. Remember most people will never break 80.
If you are fortunate enough to be able to get advice from an expert. USE IT…..

See you on the course!!!!

Thanks Alan for that great take. If anyone else wants to do a guest post, please send it to my email address @jasonsuttn@aol.com for review.,

See you on the lesson tee,

Guru