John Webster: Use a mirror to practice indoors

In the 1970s, Ping began making two gold-plated replica putters for golfers who won major TOUR events using a Ping putter. One of the gold putters went to the player, the other was kept at the company’s headquarters in Phoenix. Eventually, the stockpile of gold putters, which mimic the exact specifications of the game-used putters, grew into a collection of nearly 3,000 that are now housed in Ping’s “Gold Putter Vault.� And the collection continues to grow. In turn, the Gold vault also houses a stockpile of fascinating stories. During a recent trip to Ping’s headquarters, I entered the vault with tour guide and longtime Director of Marketing at Ping, Pete Samuels, to uncover some of those stories from inside the vault. Below were my discoveries, with narration from Samuels. The First of Many “The first documented putter win (for Ping) was 1962, the Cajun Classic, which was won by John Barnum. I believe it was the (model) 69 series. This tradition of doing gold-plated putters started in the mid-70s, so some of these putters have been added after the fact. The first major was the ’69 Masters with an Anser by George Archer. It’s been interesting over the years, people have been becoming more and more aware of it… pros who did win, who never got a gold-plated putter, just because the records weren’t as well kept back then. So if a player reaches out to us and says ‘Hey, I won such and such tournament, but never got my gold putter.’ If it’s documented, we can prove it, we’re happy to give it them. We want as many putters in here as we can get, right?� Westwood vs. Seve: Who has more Gold putters? “From a wins perspective, Seve has the most wins with 47. And they’re all with the Anser putter… I’m pretty sure it was the same spec. So what we do is we build (the Gold putters) the exact specs of their putter: length, lie, loft, all that. I can’t say all of those wins were with the same Anser, they’re all an Anser model, but he may have had more than one over the years.� “Then as far as Westwood… so Lee just won (the 2018 Nedbank Golf Challenge) with a Fetch. I think he’s closing in on Seve, with a couple more wins he’ll overtake him. But Lee has more Gold putters in the vault because as a staff player we also acknowledge some career milestones or achievements, so he would have some Ryder Cup putters in here. We also give staff players a gold putter based on surpassing a career earnings milestone. So he has several of those as well. I’d have to count them up. It’s probably in the mid-50s in terms of how many he has. But wins wise, he’s still a hair short of Seve, but not much. Hopefully he’ll win a few more here. I think (Westwood has) 13 or 14 different models. Probably 14 now because of the Fetch, that’ll be another new model for him. What’s interesting is everything from mid-mallets to pure mallets to even blades, some Anser-style putters. Quite a variety.� Ping at THE PLAYERS “There was a string here, that mid-to-early 90s, we had a pretty good streak of putters winning THE PLAYERS. So from ’91 to ’97, every one except for Nick Price in ’93.� Steve Elkington won the 1991 and the 1997 PLAYERS Championship, Davis Love III won in 1992, Greg Norman in 1994, Lee Janzen in 1995, and Fred Couples in 1996 — all using Ping putters. Tiger Woods, the putter that started it all “It’s an Anser 2, which he used growing up. And these are the ’94 and ’95 U.S. Amateurs, where he used the Ping Anser 2, stainless steel was the material. Those are definitely must-sees when people come in here they want to see the Tiger putter. As you know, he still uses a Ping grip on his current putter. On his current putter he blacks it out, but it’s the same grip design that he had on his Anser 2.� “He did some experimenting this year for sure. Pretty much since he switched from the Anser 2 to the Cameron he’s had the Ping grip on there, because it’s our understanding, it’s not confirmed, there’s some debate… but we believe either 13 or 14 of his major wins have had the Ping grip on it. Somebody questioned all 14, but we’re pretty sure it was all 14. “He definitely loves the grip, and we provide them to him obviously, happily. We actually still sell it. We have what we call a black-out version, because he’s made that popular and people ask for it.� Not only putters “We’ve got a replica of Bubba’s wedge that he hit out of the trees on the 10th at Augusta in the playoff with Louis to win that Masters. The same year, if you recall, Louis made a double-eagle on No. 2, so we have a replica of his 4-iron in memory of that. “And then we do have some other wedges like when Bob Tway holed out of the bunker to win the ’86 PGA, that’s a Ping Eye2 wedge. Azinger hold out of the bunker at The Memorial on 18 to win to beat Payne Stewart. Jeff Maggert chipped in on I think the first extra hole at the match play to win ’99 with the Eye2 sand wedge, as well.� 1988 “The other cool story is in 1988, Ping putters were used to win all 4 major championships, which was the only time in history to date that that’s happened. If my memory serves me, Sandy Lyle won The Masters with the Ping Pal, Curtis Strange won the U.S. Open with the Zing 2, Seve won the British with an Anser, and Jeff Sluman won the PGA with the Pal 2. Pretty cool feat when you think about winning the Grand Slam of Golf.�

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Notes and observations from the final round of The RSM Classic at Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course. LEADING LIGHTS Charles Howell led the entire week at Sea Island Resort, but he still needed a strong finish to earn his third PGA TOUR title. Howell birdied three of his final four holes to tie Patrick Rodgers, then won with a birdie on the second playoff hole. Howell, who started the day with a one-shot lead, converted a 54-hole lead for the first time in his career. He shot 31 on the back nine Sunday to do it. “I thought I had it in me, but I had never seen me do it to prove it to myself,� said Howell, who finished at 19-under 267 (64-64-68-67). “It’s kind of like the guy who thinks he can dunk, bud if you can’t dunk, you just can’t do it. “I thought I had it in me but it took me a bit to actually do it.� This is Howell’s third PGA TOUR win and first since 2007. It came in his 529th start. Only two players needed more starts to reach their third TOUR win. He has 16 runner-up finishes in his career. Howell will start the New Year as the FedExCup leader after winning the RSM and finishing fifth in the CIMB Classic. Howell was already three off the lead when he stood on the third tee. He bogeyed the first hole after driving into a fairway bunker, then made double-bogey with a drive into the hazard right of the second fairway. He thought his chances of winning were over. He started his comeback with birdies at Nos. 5 and 6 to make the turn in 36, then started the back nine with a birdie. Four players — Howell, Rodgers, Webb Simpson and Cameron Champ — shared the lead on the back nine. Rodgers, playing in the third-to-last group, pulled two ahead with birdies on 14 and 15. Howell was able to chase him down, though. It started with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 15th, the day’s easiest hole. Then he holed an 18-footer for birdie on 16 to tie Simpson and Rodgers at 18 under par. Rodgers birdied the 18th hole before Howell hit his 5-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th. “That almost made my putt easier because then I knew, well, you have to make this to have a chance on 18,� Howell said. Howell made that birdie at 17 to tie Rodgers. On 18, Howell dropped to his knees as his 22-foot birdie putt missed by the smallest of margins. He barely missed his 14-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole, as well. One finally went in on the second extra hole. “Golf is a brutal game. The highs of the highs, it comes with a lot of really low lows,� Howell said. “It’s a wonderful lesson to be learned that if you truly believe in what you’re doing, to stay the course.� NOTABLES ON A TEAR Cameron Champ’s impressive fall season concluded with a sixth-place finish at Sea Island. The 23-year-old rookie is now ranked sixth in the FedExCup. His three top-10s are tied with Gary Woodland for most on TOUR. Champ was tied for the lead with nine holes remaining at Sea Island Golf Club, but he could only manage an even-par 35 on the back nine. He reached 17 under par with his birdie on the par-5 15th, but his chances ended with a bogey on the 17th hole. Fourteen of his last 16 rounds have been in the 60s. He’s been in the top 10 after 13 of those rounds. His 117 birdies are the most on TOUR this season and the most ever made in the fall portion of the wraparound schedule. By leading the TOUR in birdies and eagles at the end of the fall, Champ won the Birdies Fore Love competition. He earned $300,000 for charity.  RODGERS’ RUNNER-UP The runner-up was Rodgers’ third in 117 starts. The 26-year-old put up an admirable effort in his quest for his first win. He shot 61-62 on the weekend. His 17-under 123 was the low weekend score by five shots. He shot the day’s low round on both Saturday and Sunday, and almost became the fourth player this decade to win after making the cut on the number. “I fought as hard as I could,� Rodgers said. His round included an 86-foot birdie putt on the par-3 12th, the hardest hole of the day. Had he won, it would have been the longest putt ever made by a winner in the ShotLink era. SO CLOSE Webb Simpson was eight shots back at The RSM’s halfway point. He had to get an I.V. before teeing off Friday because of a stomach bug. He still had a 9-foot birdie putt on 18 to make it a three-way tie atop the leaderboard. He barely missed. “It’s a bummer. We read it really well,� Simpson said. SHOT OF THE DAY CALL OF THE DAY For play-by-play coverage of the fourth round of The RSM Classic, listen at PGATOUR.COM. QUOTABLES I can’t wait to go back to my day job.I want to win here. I’ve had some chances. We’ll be back next year. SUPERLATIVES Lowest round: Rodgers’ 62 was the low round of the day by one shot. Peter Uihlein shot a 63 to finish seventh. Longest putt: Rodgers’ 86-footer for birdie on No. 12 was the longest made putt this week by 26 feet. Longest drive: Uihlein hit the three longest drives of the day. He hit 332-yard tee shots on the eighth and 16th holes and a 331-yard drive on the 18th hole. Hardest hole: The par-3 12th hole played to a 3.06 scoring average. Rodgers’ birdie was one of just six on the 223-yard hole Sunday. Easiest hole: The 541-yard, par-5 15th hole played to a 4.1 average on Sunday. The hole yielded 53 birdies and nine eagles.

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