The ultimate test - on the greens

The putter. It used to be the simplest club in the bag, but anyone who casts an eye over the Bobby Grace range from Cobra will testify to the metamorphosis that has taken place. Okay, so the master designer has his traditional bladed putter heads, too - but the mallet heads are certainly different and, with their yellow milled faces, are also attractive.

With names like The Soft Lady, The Pay Day, The Ice Man and The Cute Kid, the putters are definitely a club of the '90s and so it fell to our testers, Aonghus McAnally, a ninehandicap member of St Margaret's, and Paddy Cullen, an 18-handicapper out of Hermitage, to try out the club which has the single biggest bearing on any player's scorecard. Given that putting is very much a personal thing, it is probably not surprising that our two testers had quite contrasting opinions. The Grace putters take a little step away from the norm and the designer himself is most proud of his mallet designs. "I believe them to be the most solid and forgiving clubs out there," he said. "In terms of design features, I am proud of our innovative sole designs. The no-drag sole offers a major advantage putting from side hill and fringe lies." Grace is certainly innovative, and confident enough of his putters to christen the yellow insert HSM (Hole Seeking Material). This material was the brainchild of Grace and chemical engineer Larry Cardorniga and HSM was moulded under heat and pressure into the face cavities of the putters. Unlike many epoxy resin inserts, HSM is apparently a very stable material in that it doesn't change characteristics in different temperature and climatic conditions. The putters were actually designed to help most handicap players who use two-piece balls. "The advantage of our HSM insert in the Cobra range is that it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between that (a two-piece) and say a Tour Balata. The player is thus able to develop a consistent feel on every putt," said Grace. Grace's mallet putters are milled from the softest aluminium available. One of the last steps in producing the putters is to make a machine cut on the face, trimming the excess insert off and giving the hitting area the trademark precision milled striking surface. To further enhance the putters for cosmetic reasons rather than performance, a second milling takes place to give a very distinctive look.

On the underside of the mallets there are two distinctive discs located on the heel and toe areas. These are added weights to reduce the chances of the putter twisting on impact with the ball, while another feature aimed at game improvement is the sole which Cobra call the triplane. Among the professionals who use the Bobby Grace line of putters are Nick Price and Annika Sorenstam. Price actually performed the initial competitive test on the HSM putter at the 1996 US PGA championship and later that year David Ogrin claimed his first tour win in 14 years after switching to one of the putters.