Guernsey Press

Putter may net millions

THE worldwide golf industry will be keeping a close eye on the progress of a remarkable new putter designed by local player Leslie de Garis.

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THE worldwide golf industry will be keeping a close eye on the progress of a remarkable new putter designed by local player Leslie de Garis. Friends and fellow local golfers are tipping 79-year-old Royal Guernsey stalwart Mr de Garis - a former Royal Air Force flying instructor - to make a fortune from his revolutionary Lynasite design.

'I suppose if someone like Ping took it up, there is the possibility of it making millions,' said an experienced golfer at the RGGC on Saturday.

But one man who has experienced the value of the putter first-hand is quietly confident it will sell well.

Silverline Garage proprietor Richard Leslie was a terrible putter until he started using it, but in a very short time had won a major local competition and slashed his handicap.

'I think there is real potential. It could be huge as there are millions of golfers and anyone who is putting badly might well give this club a go,' he said.

After 10 years of design work, version 24 of the unique putter is now on sale on the Internet and the Guernseyman is hopeful that golfers with the 'yips' (an inability to putt properly), or anyone simply struggling to transfer good play into good scores on the green, will sample the club that can be used by right or left handers.

A keen croquet player, Mr de Garis got his idea from that most genteel of summer sporting pastimes.

'I'd been playing croquet when I thought, ?why don't we putt the same way??,' said the inventor, who had numerous designs rejected by golf's governing body, the Royal and Ancient, before somewhat reluctantly giving him permission to trade the putter.

The origin of the Lynasite design stems from his RAF days.

As chief flying instructor at Cranwell, he taught gunnery and bombing.

'One of the things I used to stress was the importance of getting behind the line of sight when shooting, which is what you do in croquet.

'So the whole idea of Lynasite was already in my head.'

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