SGBGolf_Aug08_p18_19 24/7/08 12:25 Page 18
S p h e r i c a l B l a d e
Ahead of the curve
While Scott Strange was winning 2008 Celtic Manor Wales Open, Spherical Blade were
launching a new series of 10 putters, each one armed with a curved putter face. But is an
arcing blade gimmickry or breakthrough technology that will help the world hole more
putts? SGB Golf met Spherical Blade managing director Ian Smith (pictured) to find out.
Words: Duncan Lennard
T
he notion of a flat-stick without a flat face is not new. In the States, the above the ground, and so above the ball’s centre line.
barrel-shaped Teardrop putters and the radius face of the more recent Thom’s idea behind the east-west curve was to compensate for a putter that is
Q-Roll are both designed to improve contact and reduce skid. But curved slightly closed or open at impact; if the face is a degree or two shut the arc on the face
faces had always focused on the vertical, top-to-bottom axis. It took a should, in theory, minimise the effect of the mis-aim.
septuagenarian from Newport to spot the benefits of a putter curved across the face, Thom’s belief in the concept, and his desire to patent it, saw him approach potential
from heel-to-toe … and to have the guts to develop it. investors, Dragons’ Den style. In this case the dragon was Cardiff-based businessman
The first Spherical Blade putters appeared in spring 2007. Their concept came from and 18-handicapper Ian Smith. And he liked what he heard.
a retired business engineer, Welshman Ivor Thom, who had been inspired by watching “The very fact that Ivor had already established via a patent agent that the spherical
snooker. The sphere-on-sphere accuracy of the plant shot set him thinking about the face had not been done before was a great start,” Smith recalls. “There has been
efficiency of striking a ball with a curved face; meanwhile the players’ ability to produce plenty of technology going into putters in recent years, but it’s focused on inserts,
over-spin by striking the top of the cue-ball saw him focus on a design in which the weight distribution, grooves, but very little on the actual shape of the face.” Smith
putter’s face would impact the ball above its equator. put up £100,000 to secure funding for the patenting process and kick-start the
Thom set about designing a putter-face with both a top-to-bottom, north-south curve process of building prototypes. “Above all,” he adds, “I believed in what Ivor was
and a toe-to-heel east-west curve. The north-south curve would not be a bulge but saying. The technology made sense and I felt golfers would understand the benefits
would have a vertical, flat top edge that would simply curve back under itself, like the of the technology.”
shape of a broom dragged across the floor. This would ensure impact at 22.5 or 23mm But would they? Is the concept that a curved putter face can help you roll the ball
18 AUGUST 2008 - SGB GOLF
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