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MOST golfers sharpen their game by spending hours on a practice range. But when Norman Lindsay wanted to improve his handicap, he headed for a research lab.
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He used to work for the Ministry of Defence designing torpedo guidance systems and turned to playing golf to escape the pressures of the job. But Norman, 58, often wondered why some of his shots were outstanding while others were pathetic. 'I wanted to find some way to measure what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong,' he says.
After experimenting for a couple of years, he came up with a swing analyser that uses magnets in the club's head to measure the angle and the velocity as it hits the ball.
Norman, from Amersham, Buckinghamshire, says: 'I tried to interest British investors but had to take it to America to find a market.'
He then focused on the biggest problem players face on the green. When a putter strikes the ball, it skids the first 15% of its run before the friction of the grass causes it to begin rolling smoothly. For a 15-foot putt, this sliding lasts about two feet.
It is the most critical part of the putt. As the ball slips across the grass it can start to veer off course and any error is magnified. The quicker the ball gains topspin, the more accurate the shot will be.
Using high-speed photography and sophisticated ballistic measurements, Norman discovered that the best way to put topspin on the ball is to lower a putter's centre of gravity by adding extra weight to the back and the base of the head.
Norman, who has a PhD in electronic engineering from Edinburgh University, says: 'My new-improved putter gets the ball rolling about 25% quicker than a standard club. I'm looking for one of the large golf conglomerates to manufacture it under licence.'
Like many inventors, Norman has struggled to pay for the expensive research tools that he needs to do his work. But a £55,000 grant from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts that he received last year helped immensely. 'It made a big difference,' he says, 'and not just in cash terms - the business advice has been invaluable.'
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