Longtime friend of everyone in the golf industry, Jim Grundberg of the SeeMore Putter Company, joins us at the 2017 PGA Merchandise Show to show us what’s new from SeeMore.

Tom Brassell: It’s always fun to catch up with our good friend Jim Grundberg at the Seemore Putter Company. Jim, how are you man?

Jim Grundberg:I’m doing great, Tom. Good to have you and Kerry here.

Tom Brassell: We’ll throw a number at you. 67,489, know what that is?

Jim Grundberg: 67,489, what is it?

Tom Brassell: That’s the number of hits on a Youtube video of you calling the Stanford – Cal game with Joey Mitchner back in the day, how about that?

Jim Grundberg: That’s fun. No, you know what, I remember when we had 2 viewings, you know? You and Kerry and I, and it’s been fun over the years. I’ve been ripped 65,000 of those by the Cal fans, unfortunately. They’re the ones that go to it, but it’s been fun.

Tom Brassell:  It’s been great being with you. Talk about tour representation because it just keeps getting better and better. It’s not just Zach anymore, right?

Jim Grundberg: No, it’s awesome. I mean, Seemore Putter Company, our parent company’s called Premium Golf Brands. And Premium Golf Brands this last year, we actually signed a deal, worldwide distribution for the RoseMark grips. So we’re now Seemore Putters – RoseMark Grips, and combined we’ve had a great year on tour. And the tour still really drives a lot of demand for a brand. Now our brand was already growing and growing through great word-of-mouth, but when players like Nick Faldo and Ernie Els pick up the putter, when Russell Knox is out there in the top 20 in the world. Zach Johnson is out there in the Ryder Cup, winning the Ryder Cup for probably the only thing that he hadn’t had as a career accomplishment. You know, the brand is really had a great run and it’s worldwide.

Tom Brassell: Yeah, the Ernie Els story was kind of fun last year because he couldn’t have been at a lower point of his life, and it really turned him around.

Jim Grundberg: No and I think that’s the great thing, is that Ernie Els … I mean he’s one of the most beloved golfers in history, he’s one of the greatest golfers in history, and he was struggling with his putting. And whether it was in the head, whether it was fundamentals, he needed to find something. And he came off that first green at Augusta completely demoralized. A lot of golfers were saying, “oh my gosh, how’s he going to bounce back from this?” And the next week at Hilton Head his bounce-back was bringing a Seemore Putter out and leading the entire field in putting, and from that point forwards, his strokes gained putting was second on the P.G.A. Tour for the entire rest of the year, behind only Jason Day. So that was a great story, and I think that type of thing, golfers can relate to that. Who doesn’t go out there and struggle with their putting?

Tom Brassell:  Yeah. Well, for those of our fans who are fortunate enough to be watching this, we would like to show you a few things, but if they’re listening, you can talk them through it a little bit.

Jim Grundberg: Fantastic. So, Seemore is known for its trademark 2 white lines and its red dot on the back heel of the putter. So, if you look at it, what happens is it’s called Rifle Scope Technology. And it just basically helps a golfer line up the putter, they set it down, and when they’ve hidden the red dot, they’re completely square. So they’ve got square shoulders, their eyes are square, they’re set up completely perpendicular to their intended putter-line. And for a lot of golfers, what it does is it triggers a sense of relaxation and calm because so many variables have been taken out of play, and I think that’s probably what happened to Ernie Els, that’s what happened to other players on tour is that it allows them to then look at the putt, read the putt, get the line and the speed right, without worrying so much about their setup, their address, are they square?

That’s what happens, golfers line up to a putt, and then they start rereading the putt. They start repositioning themselves. With a Seemore putter, that goes away. So we’ve eliminated variables; what works for the tour players works ten times better for the average player. And now more and more golfers are starting to try Seemore putters, and I’ve rarely met a player that went to a Seemore putter and didn’t stick with it for a lifetime.

Tom Brassell: Yeah, you talked about the alignment thing. Ken Venturi used to say that good golfers don’t get out of swing, they get out of align. And this is something that legally helps you do that when you’re playing.

Jim Grundberg: Exactly. All the way back to Payne Stewart winning the U.S. Open. A lot of golfers have their idea about what a putter should look like … because if you look historically there’s a couple of putters that have just taken the world on fire. But the funny thing about the old straight center-shaft putter is not only does this help you align better, it really in itself eliminates variables. The ball is struck at the end of the shaft so it’s actually a simpler system for hitting a ball than standing away from it. In fact at one point the U.S.G.A. outlawed center-shaft putters. People don’t realize that because they were too easy. Now you can’t have a driver or an iron with a straight center shaft, but you can have a putter. We want more and more golfers to just go out and try it, get fit for it. If you look in the shops, the worldwide golf stores I know, we have a lot of certified, trained fitters that can help golfers not just understand the technology behind this, but get them fit for the right putter.

Tom Brassell:  Yeah. We have a couple more models here you’d like to show too, right?

Jim Grundberg: What we’ve gone towards, the really new and exciting are the Giant series. This is the Giant FGP, this is the Giant M1T. This is the putter that really, we think, brings everything together in a really, really easy to use format. And then we’ve got the next 2, the Mini Giants. So if the Giant is too big for you, we’ve got the Mini Giants. We love these Mini Giants they’re brand.

Tom Brassell:   Papa bear, mama bear, right?

Jim Grundberg: Yeah, you can see all kinds of milled components in this thing put together, it’s like a fast sports car. This is the putter that Russell Knox has used to become top 20 in the world: the Mini Giant. And this is the brand new Mini Giant Deep Flange, which is the same shape that Nick Faldo is using … I mean that Ernie Els is using.

Tom Brassell:   All right. Awesome. You mentioned something, before we close, just a second ago that really struck home, and that’s the importance of being fit.

Jim Grundberg: Yeah, the importance of being fit. The cool thing is that golfers for quite some time now have known that they can go into one of your stores and get fit for a driver, they can get fit for a set of irons. They wouldn’t think of anything other than that. But putting is sort of the last frontier. Up until this point, a lot of golfers still think that you just go and grab a putter, and putt around with it. And of course that’s one way to buy a putter, but it sure is great if you can go in and find somebody that’s been trained in the art of fitting. The science and the art combined. And that’s what we do at Seemore. We go out, and if you go into a shop you can rest assured that we have already been training that group of people, so that if somebody wants to go over to the putting area and say, “hey, do you have a Seemore putter I can try and get fit for?” Ask for a fitter. We’ve got them certified in your stores.