The secret is in alignment

Golf: Philip Reid tests a new device and meets its inventor who claimsit makes the game of golf simpler

Golf: Philip Reid tests a new device and meets its inventor who claimsit makes the game of golf simpler

The mind of an inventor never ceases. There were nights Seamus Dunne would go to bed, but never sleep. His mind, instead, would be working overtime; working out some formula or other that would make more sense of what he was trying to create - a golfing aid that would make the game simple. Some would say he was seeking the impossible, that golf, as we know, is never simple.

But he kept on trying, and he wasn't alone. Pat Foley, an Irish putting champion, and like minded to Dunne, was also working on the same idea. Thing is, both were working on similar devices independently of each other. At first, their devices were crude and cumbersome. One day, they met - Foley is from Borris, Dunne from Kilkenny - and the two men, something of golfing anoraks, were talking about the game. During the conversation it emerged they were both examining the same concept: how to develop a device that would give a player, professional or amateur, the perfect alignment.

Impossible? At first, maybe, it would seem that way.

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They joined forces and, as time evolved, an engineer by the name of PJ Barron - a non-golfer from New Ross - was brought in to help construct the device that will shortly hit the global retail market. If the device is now lightweight and far from crude, its name is a tad cumbersome and not at all sexy. It is called the "Golf Position and Alignment Teacher" - or "GPAT" for short - but, as in many things in life, names and appearances can be deceptive and there is little doubt that the golf nuts have hit upon something that works.

Foley's original gadget was made of aluminium but had a centre cursor that didn't move, no markings and no theory. On a drizzly and dark evening in November of last year, though, Dunne took the contraption out to be tested. Without it, he hit 10 balls - using a five-iron - towards the green and four found the putting surface. Using the device, he again hit 10 shots towards the green 165 yards away and into the wind and, this time, seven balls found the surface.

There and then, he knew the device, then rough and ready, held promise.

"I had been working on my original device for five years but one miscalculation had effectively stopped me in my tracks. I'd been told by a professional that every ball position was four inches inside my left heel, and that stopped me in my tracks," said Dunne.

It was only upon realising his misdirection and, then, teaming up with Foley that matters gathered some steam.

"I'd say I dedicated three or four months to working on this," remarked Dunne when I met and tested the device at Mount Juliet recently.

"I'd find myself waking up at four in the morning as something else would click into place, when I'd find another solution to the problem. You know, your brain never stops working when you get engrossed in something like this."

The device - the "GPAT" - weighs less than a kilogram, is made of aluminium and is coated black in colour. It is a very simple device to set up and use. "The way it improves you is complex, filling in all the gaps of positive," said Dunne, "but it does it without clouding a player's mind. By practising regularly with consistent body alignment, ball position, clubface alignment and posture, your consistency and ball striking ability should improve immeasurably."

So it was with a reporter's scepticism that the device was put to the test. First off, let me say that the device was tested using borrowed clubs but, still, the results were impressive, particularly with the irons where there was a 300 per cent improvement in accuracy when using the device compared to my initial approach shots to the green without using it.

Setting up the device is simple. For instance, if you set the cursor on the centre rail to a five-iron, you put the ball on the pointing rail beside the five-iron position marking; likewise for a driver, or any club in the bag. The same procedure applies to pitching, chipping and putting. The device can be made for men and women in right and left-handed versions.

Once you know what you are doing, the device is simple to use and its real beauty is that it can be used without anyone else needing to be around. However, it could also become a very valuable teaching tool for club professionals who are attempting to acquaint their students with the requirement to have a consistently repeating swing and the proper alignment.

The "GPAT" is designed to assist players in all areas of their game, not just using fairway woods or irons.

"It does a lot more than it seems," insisted Dunne. "For a professional, it eliminates all the variables; but it will work for everyone, if they use it properly and dedicate the time to it. It improves your alignment, it does not change your swing. This device was never started out to make people swing the club better. It works because everything is in the same plane time after time.

"When everything is aligned, golf is a simpler game . . . when your alignment is wrong, it is an impossible game to play."

The trio's decision to focus in on alignment was based on the fact that it is crucial to playing well. In an article in the American magazine Golf - under the heading 'Why Your Aim Stinks' - experiments were conducted at the PGA Learning Centre in Florida. Among the discoveries were: 1) Tour professionals and low handicappers were more consistent at getting their alignment correct than were high handicappers; 2) Clubface aim and shoulder alignment mistakes for amateurs were double that of tour professionals; 3) As target distance increased, alignment mistakes increased dramatically for all players, including tour professionals. The off target distance error almost doubled from the 70 yards range to the 190 yards range. All players aimed better on the range when practising than they did on the golf course.

"All the top golf coaches in the world stress that in order to hit good shots consistently, without having to make sub-conscious adjustments during the course of your swing, there is a need for correct parallel left aim alignment," insisted Dunne. "It only makes common sense that for a shot to be hit in the direction of any given target that you have to be lined up parallel left of your intended target - the only exception being if you want to fade, draw or cut lob shots. And that's why we've invented Golf's Position and Alignment Teacher."

The device is being produced in Ireland - rather than the Far East - and is due to be launched next month.