Dave Pelz analytic approach to putting was ahead of its time and influenced the creation of popular gear that will be used for years to come.
Before the analytics revolution changed the way elite golfers and savvy recreational players approach the game, Dave Pelz was beating the drum about the importance of getting feedback and learning everything you can from every shot. That scientific approach, along with his concentration on the short game and putting, set him apart from other golf instructors and coaches before a wave of gurus and specialists developed in the mid- and late-2000s. Pelz could talk about swing dynamics and key positions, but he thrived at teaching golfers ranging from tour pros to weekend duffers who attended his short game schools about choosing the right shots, understanding obstacles, and developing programmatic practice routines that could create formulas for success.
Pelz, who died on Sunday, March 23, also developed golf equipment and training aids, playing a huge role in the creation of one of the most popular putters ever produced, along with a putter training aid that is still used every day by scores of pros.
The 3-Ball Putter
After studying how golfers aimed their putters in the early 1980s, Pelz discovered that most players are terrible at this essential skill.
“Aim is the first fundamental of putting,” Pelz told Golfweek. “[Golfers] aim to compensate for their stroke inadequacies,” he added, before revealing his research showed most players aim to the right of their intended target line, and then pull the ball to the left with their stroke. “But if you don’t aim properly, a good stroke misses every putt.”
After talking with experts, Pelz came up with the idea of making a putter that had plastic golf balls extending back from the face to create a row on a golfer’s target line. Six balls, 10 balls, 12 balls, the more balls that were added to the back of the putter, the better the golfers aimed.
Eventually, Pelz settled on three balls and created two versions of his putter, one with a face that was 2 1/8 inches wide that featured a second piece in the back that was 5 1/8 inches wide and another putter that reversed the blades and positioned the longer one in front and shorter one in the back.
Langer, Maltbie among those who used Pelz’s putters
Pelz started selling the putters in 1985, and among the pros who used it were Bernhard Langer, Roger Maltbie, Lon Hinkle, and D.A. Weibring, who used the Pelz putter to win the 1985 Air New Zealand Shell Open.
In March 1986, the United States Golf Association ruled that the Dave Pelz 3-Ball putter with the shorter face was non-conforming because it was deeper from front to back than it was wide from heel to toe. The Pelz Big Face Putter, however, was deemed conforming.
Over time, the Dave Pelz 3-Ball putter faded, but the idea and shaping influenced several putter makers. While Pelz was working as a consultant for Callaway in the early 2000s, shortly after Callaway purchased Odyssey, Pelz licensed the patents to the three-ball putters to Odyssey.
In 2002, Odyssey released the first 2-Ball putters.
“It was like a line extension to White Hot, so the original forecast for them was like 30,000 pieces,” said Austie Rollinson, who at the time was working in R&D at Odyssey and now is the senior director of R&D at Scotty Cameron. However, Paul Lawrie made a putt with a 2-Ball from The Valley of Sin at St. Andrews in October 2001 to win the Dunhill Links Championship, and Annika Sorenstam, the world’s top female golfer, added a 2-Ball to her bag.
“I think we made close to 300,000 that first year,” Rollinson said. “Kudos to the development team and the suppliers to keep up with demand”.
And demand has not slowed down, with versions of the 2-Ball putter being added to nearly every major Odyssey family since its debut. Today, there are Ai-ONE 2-Ball, Ai-ONE Milled 2-Ball, Ai-ONE 2-Ball Jailbird, and Microhinge V-Line 2-Ball putters in Odyssey’s lineup, and each of them can trace their lineage back to Dave Pelz 3-Ball putters.
Pelz Putting Tutor
After putting mirrors, the Dave Pelz Putting Tutor is one of the most popular putter training aids that you will see pros on the PGA Tour using on the practice green because it is highly portable and provides instant feedback on how well a putt was struck. Pelz said he developed the idea for the training aid while working with Phil Mickelson, and it is extremely simple to set up and use. The triangular piece of plastic has a long white line on it and three sets of tiny holes that are designed to hold a pair of metal marbles. After reading a putt and aiming the white line along your intended target line, golfers set the marbles into the holders to create a gateway, place a ball into a holder positioned on the white line, and putt. If the player makes a good stroke and starts the putt on the white line, it will roll between the marbles, but a poorly struck putt will go offline and hit one of the marbles, instantly giving the player feedback.
Over time and with improvement, golfers can put the marbles into positions that are closer together until they reach the “Pro” setting, where only a perfectly struck putt will pass between them.
O Balls
Today, golf balls with visual technologies are everywhere and sold by nearly every major golf ball manufacturer. Some are simple and feature lines, while others are made for enhanced visibility or to help players perform better on the greens. But before TaylorMade developed Pix or Callaway offered Triple Track, the Dave Pelz O Balls were among the first designed to show players how well they struck a putt.
The idea, again, was to provide golfers with instant feedback on the quality of their putting stroke. Sold in packs of three, the white golf balls featured four red rings, with two close together near the equator and one ring near each ball’s pole. After lining up the balls along your intended target line, a well-struck putt makes the rings roll smoothly and clearly, but cutting across the ball or pulling a putt makes the rings wobble.
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