WGD product review

[goatt...@yahoo.com]

The Putt Straight Practice Aid (available at
www.maxiaids.com/store/prodView.asp?idstore=1&idproduct=5779)

Got this as a Christmas throw-in gift and was initially puzzled by
what would inspire someone to buy sometehing like this. After the
initial puzzlement passed, intrigue set in; enough intrigue to make us
want to test this gadget, review it, and share the findings with the
Goat Tracking public.

Reasons for testing and reviewing the Putt Straight Practice Aid:

- from a few feet away, it can be easily mistaken for a quadruple
stuff Oreo
- upon closer inspection, it's best described as a golf ball with
training wheels
- it's inexpensive and we didn't have to pay for it

These factors placed the Putt Straight squarely in the Goat Tracker
wheelhouse, so we felt compelled, make that eager, to review it for
the Tracking public.

Our tests were conducted using a classic Reuter design Acushnet
Bullseye putter and a nearly classic Teardrop putter. The testing
methodology and procedures were reviewed and approved by the esteemed
Tracking Sherpa known as Friar Tuck. Based on the tests, we reached
the following conclusions in the Goat Track Test Lab:

Some things that Putt Straight does well:

* gives you a clue as to whether you have an inside-out or outside-in
path to the ball......because the training wheels will skid out of
control based on which side of center you hit it

* helps you visualize a squared up alignment at address

* helps you achieve a short, consistent stroke for tap-ins, the kind
that Sergio Garcia, et. al. gak up during crunch time and the kind
that your opponent won't give you in match play, just because he wants
to bust your chops

By "training" the user to hit the ball straight, this gadget
reinforces the Foremost Universal Truth of Goat Track Putting, i.e.,
"there is no break on a green at a public course!" and it earns high
marks for that.

Some things that Putt Straight doesn't do well:

If, as most Goat Trackers do, you find yourself with a first putt of
at least 15 feet on a glacierly slow green, you know that you need to
bring the hammer down to get it in the same zip code as the hole.
Despite a limited test sample and even more limited putting skills,
the Putt Straight Practice Aid isn't exactly conducive to taking the
follow-through necessary to make a 20-foot putt on anything other than
a hardwood floor.

"Good mechanics" do not necessarily equal good Track Acumen. There's
a reason why experienced Trackers drain the occasional 30-foot putt;
some may call it luck; good form sure as hell has nothing to do with
it; so it must be Track Acumen. Any Tracker using the Putt Straight
device needs to me mindful that he can't let it disturb his finely
tuned short game when it comes down to the reality of putting over and
around dead spots, mushrooms, leaves, goose crap, etc.

Ideally, the Putt Straight gadget should've been field tested with a
pool cue to determine how sensitive it is to topspin, follow-through,
etc., but that will have to wait until the field testers are willing
to risk public ridicule in a gin mill with a pool table.

In the grand scheme of things, the Putt Straight isn't the worst
gadget conceived and it has some practical uses, but the wheels are
already spinning, so to speak, in the Goat Track test lab...just how
far can one hit that thing with a 7-iron and what will it do if it
hits the green? The intrigue continues...