Equipment

An indoor putting green that’s like the real thing

Published

11 years ago

Feb 14, 2013

Zak Kozuchowski

There’s nothing golfers enjoy more than perfectly manicured putting greens.

You know the ones — the silky smooth surfaces that are usually reserved for pros and top private clubs.

But no matter what course a golfer plays, his or her greens are never pristine year round. Maintenance and climate take a toll on even the best natural greens.

Yes, synthetic putting greens have improved significantly in the last decade, but the ones that most closely mimic real greens are complicated to install and require constant maintenance. Well, not all of them, actually.

Meet “The Only Green,” a standalone, no-maintenance indoor putting green that allows golfers to raise individual parts of the green’s surface to create different combinations of breaks. Its 4-foot-by-20-foot green has 3 million different break configurations, which means a golfer could putt on a slightly different green every day for about 8200 years.

Tim Ummel, co-founder and managing partner of The Golf Tank, the company that owns The Only Green, says the secret to the product is its special construction that not only allows golfers to quickly and easily create putts with different combinations of breaks — its proprietary surface allows the ball to roll in a way that’s indistinguishable from the best greens in the world.

Ummel and Golf Tank partner Mike Helfrich are golf industry veterans — Ummel has spent 20 years in various golf businesses, while Helfrich was one of the original employees of HotStix, a Scottsdale-based custom club fitting facility.

Their deep rolodex of industry connections led them to form The Golf Tank in July 2012, which was inspired by the ABC reality TV show “Shark Tank.” The Shark Tank features a panel of entrepreneurs, headlined by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who invest in the products and businesses of other entrepreneurs.

Like Shark Tank, Ummel said The Golf Tank plans to invest in ideas and companies where they see growth potential. The Only Green, for example, ranges in price from $3,295 to more than $10,000, which differentiates it from other indoor putting greens.

“We know how to market to those kind of customers, Ummel said. “We’re also looking for equipment that everyone has got to have . . . products like the Olimar Trimetal that completely revolutionized things.”

The company’s first order of business was purchasing a company called “Dream Green,” which was the The Only Green’s old name. Dream Green inventor Rocklin Duffy actually began making his high-end indoor putting greens in 1989. But he was the only one making the greens, so production took seven to nine weeks. That meant that Dream Greens were largely a secret in the golf world.

In September 2012, The Golf Tank officially purchased Dream Green from Duffy, 67, and his wife Lisa. The founders then spent four months creating tooling that kept the greens the same, but allowed them to be produced much faster — in about seven days.

The Only Green launched in January and is sold out of The Golf Tank’s 4000-square-foot Scottsdale-based headquarters, a discreet facility located nearby the Scottsdale Air Center. It’s is available in four different sizes that take their names from famous golf architects: The Ross (2×8), The Old Tom (3×12), The MacDonald (4×12), The Tillinghast (4×16) and The MacKenzie (4×20).

The 2-foot-by-8-foot model will set golfers back $3,295 with a hard maple or ash wood base, while darker natural woods such as cherry, walnut, hickory and bubinga cost $200 more. The MacKenzie, the largest model, has a starting price of $9995. For all the models, custom lengths, headboards and enamel paint logos are available for additional charges as well.

Ummel said that he is pleased with sales of The Only Green so far, and has interested buyers that range from homeowners who want one unit to high-end department stores that are looking to purchase several hundred units to put in the men’s sections of their department stores.

Check out the photos below we shot of The Only Green at The Golf Tank’s headquarters.

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Whats in the Bag

Drew Brees WITB 2024 (April)

Published

7 mins ago

Apr 25, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

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A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

Driver: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (10.5 degrees)

Mini driver: TaylorMade BRNR Mini Copper (13.5 degrees)

5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (19 degrees)

Irons: TaylorMade P790 (4-8, PW), TaylorMade P760 (9)

Wedges: TaylorMade MG Hi-Toe (52-09, 56-10, 60)

Putter: Scotty Cameron Select Newport 2 Prototype

Check out more in-hand photos of Drew Brees’ clubs here.

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Equipment

Putter Roundup: 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans

Published

2 hours ago

Apr 25, 2024

Brian Knudson

We always get some great photos of some phenomenal putters at tour events and love to share them. Here are a few from the 2024 Zurich Classic that caught our eye and seemed interesting. (And as a reminder, you can check out all our photos from New Orleans here)

MJ Daffue’s Scotty Cameron T-11 Prototype

MJ is going with the new Scotty Cameron T-11 Prototype this week. The putter is a multi-piece mallet that puts an emphasis on stability with the wings on the back. Daffue’s putter does have a design that differs from retail with a monotone finish, which eliminates the black paint on the aluminum parts that we see at retail. He also has a half siteline milled into the top and an L-neck welded on for some additional toe hang. The face features a deeper milling that should offer a softer feel and slightly quieter sound.

Scotty Cameron T-7.5 Prototype

We spotted a few different Scotty Cameron Phantom models with modified rear flanges. It looks like the straight black flange was cut into a half circle for a little softer look at address. On this T-7.5, you can still see the raw aluminum from the back view, so this might have been a last-minute job to get them out on tour. The semi-circle also has a white line on it, maybe to frame the ball differently.

Alex Fitzpatrick’s Bettinardi SS16 DASS

Alex’s SS16 is made from Bettinardi’s famous D.A.S.S., or double-aged stainless steel, for a softer and more responsive feel. The face has a unique diamond pattern milling and features a logo that I feel like I have seen before, but can’t put a name to. The putter is a classic mid-mallet style with a simple, single white siteline on the top. The sole is clean with just the SS16, DASS, and a green triangle logo on it.

Steve Stricker’s Odyssey White Hot No. 2

This putter has made some amazing putts in its long career! Stricker’s White Hot No. 2 might be in the top 10 of most famous putters in golf. When you see all the dents and lead tape, you know the heel will be up and it will be sinking putts! The soft White Hot insert looks to be in good shape and has less wear on it than the rest of the putter. We don’t know how much lead tape is on the sole, but it has to be multiple layers compacted down over the years.

Doug Ghim’s Scotty Cameron T-7 Prototype

This T-7 should win the award for “best color finish” in this list with its deep chromatic bronze. It looks like Scotty added a cherry bomb dot to the heel of the deep-milled face and filled it with a very dark blue paint. The rest of the putter looks pretty stock with its single site line on the topline and twin site lines down the “fangs” of the putter. Twin 5-gram weights are installed in the sole and the putter is finished off with a gloss black double bend shaft with a fill shaft offset.

Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Zurich Classic

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Equipment

Spotted: Project X Denali hybrid shaft

Published

3 hours ago

Apr 25, 2024

Brian Knudson

Project X’s Denali wood shafts have been seen in more and more golf bags this year as we start off the season. As a refresher, Denali Blue is the mid-launch and mid-spin model while Denali Black is for players seeking lower launch and spin.

Denali combines great feel with stability and increased ball speed. Currently, Project X only offers Denali Blue and Black in wood shafts, but we spotted a hybrid shaft in Daniel Berger’s bag at the 2024 Zurich Classic.

Check out in-hand photos of Daniel Berger’s full WITB here.

The shaft looks to be a Denali Blue 105G – HY in TX flex. No word on details from Project X yet but we can assume that this is a mid-launching shaft that weighs around 105 grams in Tour X-Stiff flex.

Berger has this shaft in his TaylorMade P770 3-iron, likely for some added launch and spin to hold the green from longer distances.

Hopefully, this means we will see some more shafts coming under the Denali name in the future, as I think many of us would like to try one in a hybrid or utility iron!