Nassau, Bahamas – Special report by Kiran Kanwar.

As we know, a “putter” can either refer to a golf club, or a person making a putt. However, there is a new use for the term – it is the name of a device that helps a putter putt – PerfectPutter. What does this device do? The simpler question is what does it not do! When Ramon Bescansa, a young professional golfer from Spain who has played on the PGA Tour, the web.com Tour and many others,  found himself focusing too much on the putting stroke and not enough on green reading, he requested his father, an industrial engineer, to make him a device which would help him read greens.

Thus was born a solid stainless steel ramp, down which one rolls a ball to understand putting direction based on a ball’s distance from the hole. Once Ramon acquired this gadget, he was not only able to instantly know, without doubt, the exact direction to aim in for a particular distance, but quickly discovered many other uses for the device. For instance, a ball can be rolled from the part of the ramp marked zero, to read the stimp of a green.

Roman Bescana and his ‘Perfect Putter’ ramp.

How does one position the PerfectPutter ramp? Simply set it up at some distance from a hole (typically 15 feet or less, the crunch putts for any golfer), aimed in the general direction of the hole and see if the ball rolls in. The trick is to drop it from the correct height which replicates the speed at which one will later make the putt from that distance. How about if one is not good at guessing where to aim the ramp? A laser can be switched on which aims straight and guides a player as to the starting direction of the putt.

Once the device has been set up correctly on a putting surface, it’s like magic rolling putts off it – they all fall into the hole without fail. Ramon also uses the device to set up several drills, such as making a colored chalk line to putt off based on where PerfectPutter was lined up. Another popular drill with his professional players is a gate drill, where he places a small stainless steel gate through which the ball should roll without touching the gate. Of course for the ball to not just go through the gate but fall in the hole, it must be placed where the bottom of the ramp would be. With the gate drill, a golfer can get instant feedback as to whether the stroke or the putting speed is off.

How does practicing with the device convert to putting on the golf course without one? “It helps with visualization,” says Ramon, “The correct swing with the correct line gives a feel for a proper line.” The gadgets are sold mostly online at theperfectputter.com as Ramon is busy, in Jacksonville, Florida, with his other job of being a golf teacher and coach to the likes of top-ranked Scot Russell Knox. While he teaches putting, he also coaches players on their wedge game, helping them to train, pushing them to practice their short game adequately, helping them with distances and training 3-4 different short-game swings.

Roman Bescana’s ‘Perfect Putter’ ramp.

Although people often imagine that the putt is the simplest stroke in golf, three equally important factors are involved in the production of a good putt. A golfer must have a good stroke; be able to read a green correctly to know where to aim; and putt at the correct speed based on the distance to be covered. The PerfectPutter seems to be able to train two of these three vital aspects of the putt – magic indeed.

Kiran Kanwar,  

•   Developer of The Minimalist Golf Swing System -100% scientific, simple and specific (www.mgs.golf)
•   BS (physics, math); MS (sports science, nutrition); PhD (biomechanics, anatomy – student)
•   Class A Member: the LPGA, The NGA of India, The PGA of India