by Tom David
The Aysmm toe strike putter is the first USGA conforming putter to emphasize a direct-to-target sight line along the toe of the club.
Sooner or later a golfer will lose the ability to “see the line” of a putt. The new Aysmm putter changes the way a golfer visualizes the direction of ball travel.
The sweet spot of the Aysmm putter is near the toe of the club. Because the sweet spot sight line is so near the toe of the putter, the golfer will begin to line up the putt directly to the target along the toe of the putter instead of perpendicular to the clubface.
This change in orientation can help golfers start seeing the line, and begin putting with confidence again.
The money raised will be used to fund an initial production run of one thousand Aysmm putters . A production run of this size will allow enough economy of scale to make the clubs affordable. Once the clubs are made, the clubs will retail through one of the large chain retailers and theAysmm.com website.
With the Aysmm putters in the hands of a core group of players, our experience indicates that word of mouth will lead to more demand and opportunities for distribution. With enough demand, we would pursue a licensing agreement with one or more of the major club makers.
In a kind of Catch 22, the USGA would not issue a “Letter of Conformance” without a production model. The clubs you see pictured are from the initial batch of 100 Aysmm putters made to satisfy the USGA, which issued a “Letter of Conformance” in August of 2012. The remainder of the putters were offered for sale the at Sankaty Head Golf Club pro shop, and on the Amazon website Aysmm.com.
About half the putters were sold by word of mouth. Some players bought more than one. If you like the Aysmm putter, you really like it.
It is nearly impossible to introduce a new putter without the backing of one of the well known club makers. The Aysmm putter was shown at the “Inventor’s Corner” at the Orlando merchandise trade show last January. The response was enthusiastic, even though golfers are a conservative lot, and a completely new type of putter is difficult to accept. We were prohibited from selling putters, nor did we have any to sell, but here are representative comments:
“The putter has a very solid feel, who cares about the brand name, it feels good!”
“I’m liking it more and more every stroke.”
“I love it, it’s cool!”
“If I was a pro I’d put it in my shop.”
“I’m a huge fan of this putter!”
“I love this putter and would buy it right now, I would! It gives you a great visual to the target line.”
“I think it’s the best putter at the show.”
“I want to take one home today. I’ll pay cash. This is the cleverest thing I’ve seen. Putter of the Year!”
Tom David’s Aysmm putter was awarded patents for both design (U.S.Patent US D684,226S) on June 11, 2013 and utility (U.S.Patent No. 8,734,266 B2) on May 27,2014.
Aysmm, pronounced “Ace-em” is a play on the word asymmetrlc.
Take a look at the Aysmm.com website to see more photos and information about the Aysmm putter. The site was built to allow golfers who had seen the putter a way to buy some of the remaining USGA required production run.
Here is a link to the Aysmm.com site about using the putter. We know that some golfers are also using the Aysmm as a training tool to improve ballstriking. You begin to really concentrate on connecting the sweet spot line with the center of the ball.
Putters, for all their variety, are usually classified as either “Blade” or “Mallet”. With your help there can be a new class of putters called “Toe Strike” putters. Some time in the near future you could walk into a pro shop, see one, and say “I helped get that putter made.”
Once we have funding, we can use the same Massachusetts machine shop that made the Aysmm putter heads for the small USGA production run to make the new larger production run.
We will also be able to solicit other bids for machining the Aysmm putter heads since our quantities are higher.
Because we already have experience making the heads and fitting the shafts, and have a well known case maker for the head covers, we do not foresee any real difficulty with production.
Of course there always is the chance that something in the supply chain is unavailable. In that event we will let our backers know right away that there might be a delay.
Tom David has a long history of making things. Go to www.Unicornmills.com. for a look at some of his experience in design and delivery.
My thanks to Machinist Andy Schwartz for making a beautiful object out of an improbable idea, and to Graphic Designer Eileen Powers and Film Maker Luke David for presenting it so well.