The 19th Hole

Finding Joy in the Learning Process
By Lori Gertz

I have never purported to be much of an athlete. It’s certainly not my mindset holding me back as I am known for having a highly competitive personality style in many aspects of my life. It’s more that the relationship between my brain and my body is just not attuned and never really has been. So, it was with low expectations that I took up Natural Golf last year.

So now, you are scratching your head and asking the obvious, “What does a new golfer know about running a golf company? What could she possibly know about marketing golf related products and why didn’t the new owner bring someone in who had experience in the industry?”

What I know is this: Golf is hard! Perhaps even the hardest game on the planet. The industry is having a very difficult go of things as there are nearly as many people leaving the game finding it too hard, too frustrating, too cost prohibitive and too time consuming as there are entering every year. Enter the 1.7 million new people who try golf every year. I’m one of those. I’m a golf-curious, female, 40 something full-time working married mother of three. I don’t have a lot of time, nor much discretionary income, and I’m addicted to immediate gratification. I’m someone who enjoys any excuse to be in the outdoors, loves the smell of fresh cut grass, and am interested in finding more social outlets for developing business contacts.

Prior to my introduction to Natural Golf, the concept of a clubhead on the end of a 3-foot shaft hitting a 2-inch ball nearly 3-½ feet below me eluded any logic to me. I always knew my athletic limitations and assumed that I was not someone who would ever be good at, nor fit into the social ranks of the golf world, so I just steered clear of it and played the occasional tennis game or stuck to biking.

I was hired to spearhead the new marketing direction for Natural Golf specifically because I am the future of golf, and specifically Natural Golf. I am the novice, the new golfer looking for a decent game and the appropriate instruction that gets me on the green, having fun, sooner.

When I began my foray into the world of golf it was as an assessment of it as a viable consumer “good” that can be the source of a great amount of growth for a company trying to market “it.” There is no doubt that golf is BIG BUSINESS! In the current economic downturn and with rising costs the industry is cradling many challenges.

I am not a person who is driven off course by challenges, so the opportunity to learn about an industry hitting hard times didn’t scare me one bit. In fact, I am thrilled to be part of the reinvention of Natural Golf. Learning to play and hitting that itty bitty ball with that club, well, that was equally the challenge, or so I thought it would be.

While I pained over what shoes to wear the morning of my first lesson, it never even occurred to me that I might actually be good at it. That I might actually be able to take direction and relay it to my brain which would then request it of my body never even crossed my mind. That I might actually hear the sound of the clubface hitting the sweet spot on that itty bitty 2 inch white target sitting on the rubber pegged Tee in front of me didn’t even seem a distant possibility. Who would have guessed that across the nearly empty driving range that morning, the echo of my squeals of delight would be heard by all?

The method is simple. The key to success IS in its simplicity. Ken Martin, Natural Golf Director of Instruction and I often laugh over how difficult the conventional method is and can’t figure out why ANYONE would choose to play that way. When you take it all apart, it’s so involved with all its rotation and steps, it IS truly amazing that anyone can pull it off. The three fundamentals to the Natural Single Plane Swing are simple enough for even the most non-athletic person to be a successful golfer.

Now, it’s true, I have a long way to go before I can call myself a successful golfer or anything but a new golfer for that matter, but I have lots of company these days with all the visitors to the Moe Norman Golf Academy. Many golfers-to-be have joined our ranks and have downloaded over 100,000 videos to learn more about the easiest swing in golf.

I’m inundated with books on golf etiquette these days – mostly from those who have heard my delight as I hit the ball straight and consistent at the range and I’m excited to share news of this spring’s first 18-hole course I play, with you, the Natural Golfing public. Until then, I am practicing drills in my family room, living the business of Natural Golf daily, and in-wait knowing I’ll be playing Natural Golf with confidence in no time at all.

On a closing note, I’d like to share the prominent outcomes of some of our first marketing efforts at Natural Golf. I think you, as a Natural Golfer, should feel as much a part of the company as I do, and be able to celebrate the explosive nature of what we have accomplished in just the last 7 months.

100,000 videos downloaded since the launch of the Moe Norman Golf Academy
2,000 NEW Natural Golfers signed up after intro to Natural Golf at Golf shows
260,000+ copies of Natural Golfer Magazine circulating as of this issue
500 to 4,000 visitors per day to the Moe Norman Golf Academy website
10 radio interviews featuring Ken Martin on the “Easiest Swing in Golf”
4 feature articles about The Moe Norman Golf Academy in outside magazines
80+ potential new Affiliate CI’s
Recertification of 15+ Natural Golf Certified Instructors by the start of Spring Golf Season

Are Fork-Shafted Putters Legal for Play?

Ross’s Fork Flange and Jerry’s Fork Mallet are tour tested, patented and conform to the USGA Rules of Golf

by Peter Lineal

Ross Paquette invented it. Jerry Korte added extra weight and alignment in making a mallet style putter. And now these two putters are available exclusively from Natural Golf.

Jerry Korte, who passed away last May, was a close friend of mine for most of the last 30 years and exuded a passion for golf and especially for putting. He passion as a serial inventor of sport related items including golf, fishing and hunting accessories must have had something to do with winter ending in June and beginning again in August in the Wisconsin tundra.

Jerry’s putters grew out of a relationship with inventor Ross Paquette of Massachusetts who had invented a unique fork flange putter with a patented stabilizer bar that created a ball-width sweet spot. Jerry took over the sales and marketing of Ross’ putter and being the master of “unique”, he enhanced the design. He made changes that he felt made his putter better than every other major manufacturers putter.

For most of the 8 years he sold them, Jerry hawked his putters out of his minivan and at local golf shows. He relied heavily on word of mouth in getting them in the hands of Wisconsin professionals and top amateurs. Along the way, his putter and the putting lesson that he gave to amateur and professionals alike, helped many Wisconsin golfers to enjoy tour victories earning Jerry a good deal of local notoriety.

Quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at the time Jerry said, "I work weekends and evenings, and I'm having a ball with it. The response has been so great among the good golfers around here that I think I've got something."

As a result of that story, Jerry became good friends with that golf writer, Gary D’Amato and they later went on to write and publish a putting instruction book entitled, The Proof is In the Putting. (This book will be available from Natural Golf later this spring)

What makes Jerry's putter unique is that the shaft is not directly attached to the putter head but instead is attached at two points, like a fork. The shaft is connected to a two-inch "stabilizer bar," which then is attached to the back of the putter with two prongs.

"Most putters are pushed and pulled from one spot (where the shaft attaches to the head)," Korte said. "The head wants to torque if the ball is struck slightly off the heel or toe. In this putter, the stabilizer bar wants to keep the putter head moving straight back and forth."
Both Ross’ original flange design and Jerry’s mallet style update are face-balanced, center-shafted putters. This reduces the amount of torque on miss-hit putts. The stabilizer bar expands the sweet spot. The putter is patented and approved by the United States Golf Association.

When Jerry first started to market the putter, Ross told Jerry that he had PGA Tour players using the club before paid endorsements took over the industry. "He told me the putter won $3.5 million on tour," Korte said. "I have no way of verifying that figure, but it is tour tested. He said he got out of it when all these companies started paying big bucks for the pros to use their putters. He couldn't do that."

Both Ross’ Fork Flange and Jerry’s Fork Mallet are available exclusively from Natural Golf for $149. Visit http://www.naturalgolf.com/ or call 888-NAT-GOLF to order today.

Original story appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on March 7, 2001.