to read the entire article

the wAndering golfer
By ted lazarus
GOLF AUSTRALIA
columnist
THE ‘NO MORE MIS-HITS’ WEDGE
To
borrow a line from Germany’s
fringe. Mungo put on his thinking cap and
play from that distance while watching the
Bernhard Langer, I know an awful lot
12 months later produced the Herbie’s One
LPGA Tour. That is more like what we (male
about the short game. I also know a lot
Putt Wedge, which went on the market in
amateurs) play.
about an awful short game.
the United States last November. Hyman,
Langer wrote a book about putting while
“One of her instructors as she was
74, who plays at Corey Pavin’s Las Posas
growing up was (dual US PGA champion)
suffering from the yips. Touch wood, I’ve
Country Club in California, has since
Paul Runyan. He’d come by and talk about
always been a reasonable putter but for
reduced his handicap from 17 to 13.
his philosophy. Basically, he said, it was an
Mungo started out in banking but
upright posture with a pendulum stroke. A
drifted into club-making about 20 years
lot of other players said the same thing. As
ago when his wife, Rea, who played the
amateurs, we can’t take a sand wedge,
Bladed shots out-of-bounds and missing
LPGA Tour in the early 1980s, introduced
set the toe on the ground and expect to
the green left or right from 30 yards as
him to Arnold Palmer and his chief club-
make contact.
well as chilli dips from the fringe that had
maker, Phil Skovronski.
the past 20 years the wedge has been like
a live snake in my hands.
From 100 yards anything could happen.
partners asking if my husband also played.
Then salvation arrived. Take this with a
He started working with Skovronski and
“What I did was design a golf club in
the position that great short game players
opened a shop in southern California
have the club in. It automatically places
grain of salt because it is still only early
where the Senior Tour players including the
you in that position. When you set up to it,
days, but I think I have been cured by a
likes of Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, George
you are ready. You don’t need to open and
new wedge from America. It is so blindingly
Archer and Lee Trevino used to have their
close the clubface.
simple that it is amazing no one thought of
clubs tweaked.
it sooner.
“Finally Arnold suggested we get some
Designed in California by Kit Mungo, it
“With the pendulum swing you are
rotating your shoulders rather than rotating
kind of mobile unit that could go to the
your spine. You are taking the club straight
has taken the terror and mystery out of my
golf course so I started working on that,” he
back so your left shoulder points to the
short game and provided consistency.
said. “I’ve always been interested in design,
ground. Then you return and your left
especially of clubs from 100 yards in. I was
shoulder is pointing to the sky. This is very
always amazed at how well my wife could
different to what most amateurs are trying
The club differs from anything else on the
market in that the shaft slopes forward of
the head, automatically and ideally setting
the hands in front of the ball at address.
From here you make a pendulum swing,
taking the club straight back and straight
through, and the heavy head does the rest.
It comes with a small card of instructions,
which, in just 137 words, tells how to hit
high, low and running shots by altering the
position of the ball in the stance.
It has taken me from pathetic to
competent with very little practice in just
three games in the club comp. Even the
occasional bad shot still goes straight.
Mungo, 54, designed the club at the
request of Herb Hyman, founder of the
Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf franchised stores,
the forerunner of the Starbucks chain (in
fact Starbucks was founded by a former
Hyman employee).
He showed him a regular chipper but
Hyman said he wanted a club that could
be used from 100 yards as well as in
greenside bunkers and from the rough and
32
june 2010
|
golf australia
Herb Hyman (right) thanks
wedge designer Kit Mungo for
helping improve his scores.
to do. They bring it inside, flat, and open the
clubface up and they can never get the
hosel out of the way.
“It is not just for high handicap amateurs.
I am getting a lot of interest from the good
players as well. Kevin Stadler (son of the
Walrus) uses one in practise. The more
traditional player has trouble changing
to anything that looks different. Eventually
they will come around. We’ve seen them
change from a conventional blade putter
It has taken me from pathetic
to competent, with very
little practice, in three comp
games. Even the occasional
bad shot still goes straight.
to something the size of a manhole cover.
They changed from a persimmon driver to
a metal driver. It takes time. For the good
players, the professional players, to change
they need to see that it helps make money.
That will come.”
On Tour, Mungo has worked on the clubs
of most of the big names including Tiger
Woods and Greg Norman. Woods, whom
he watched go from Cobra to Titleist to Nike
equipment, liked to change shafts and try
different putter loft angles. “Everything you
could possibly think of, he will do to set up
his equipment for a particular course,” he
said. Norman liked to tinker with the sole
and toe of his clubs so they had little or no
bounce and this became known as the
“Australian grind”.
Another Aussie client was actor Mel
Gibson who wanted a putter he could use
left or right handed. Mungo suggested a
number of blade putters that were already
on the market but Gibson wanted a malletstyle club which he could use right-handed
The various angles of the
OnePutt Wedge. The design
is so simple it is odd that
no one has come up with a
design like this sooner.
for long putts and left handed for the short
ones. “My design included a spring loaded
hosel that would rotate around the centre
axis,” he said. “There were no concerns with
the R&A or the USGA (on its legality). I’m not
sure if Mel is still playing golf, but if he is, take
a look on the sole and you see engraved
‘The Lethal Weapon’.”
It is a pity the club was not around
towards the end of Brett Ogle’s career
when he had the yips so badly that he had
a broomstick 8-iron made. The affliction
reduced one of the best ball-strikers
and longest hitters on the US Tour to this
desperate measure. He actually had the
club in his bag before the first round of the
1996 Australian Open but removed it when
told by officials it was illegal because it had
two grips.
Mungo has the possibility of Ogle, 46,
joining the Senior Tour covered. He is working
on a One Putt Wedge with a 48-inch shaft
Photos: SUPPLIED
that looks promising.
The club is not available in
Australia yet but can be viewed
and ordered on the internet at
www.oneputtwedge.com
golf australia
|
june 2010
33