About The Whippy TempoMaster
At the age of 48
I decided to take up golf in order to attain some degree of
physical fitness or at least an excuse to start exercising. I
wanted to get half-way decent at the game so I took lessons from
Jack Mann. Jack played on the tour with Hogan and Nelson and at
that time worked mostly with active touring professionals. It
was Jack who worked with Lon Hinkle to get his game back
together after his automobile accident. At the time I was
working with Jack it was thought by many well learned people
that he knew more about the golf swing than most anyone in the
world.
I was not the
greatest student. I tried hard, a little too hard. On one golf
swing I broke three ribs because I was hitting so hard with my
right side. On another swing I dislocated my left thumb. When I
dislocated my thumb Jack took my club away from me and told me
that that was it. "Golf is just too dangerous for
you", he said. He told me he was not going to work with me
anymore. We went into the clubhouse and he bought me a cup of
coffee and then told me that if I would go home and learn to
swing a rope over the next few weeks and come back then he would
reconsider. I was not sure what he was talking about but I
agreed. I really had no other choice.
I made a rope tool:
I made a rope
object, and tied a towel to the end of it, so I wouldn't hurt
myself, and began to work with it. I wasn't sure exactly what it
was that I was supposed to do but I messed around with it and
after a couple of days began to understand what Jack was talking
about. I got pretty good with the towel, and after about 10 days
took the towel off of the rope and replaced it with a rubberized
baseball. Now this was a little dangerous because that baseball
could hit you upside the head. Over the next 6 weeks I drove as
often as I could to a driving range outside of Dallas where no
one would recognize me and tried to learn to hit golf balls with
that baseball on the end of that rope. It was not easy because
the baseball really had no club face. However, after a couple of
weeks I was able to strike a ball 150-175 yards with that
baseball. Occasionally I would catch one square and it would go
200 yards. There was several other problems with this apparatus,
one of which tended to produce a major swing flaw. This was that
on the backswing if I did not raise my left elbow that baseball
would hit me on the funny bone.
I needed something better than the rope:
What I needed was
a training device that would let me strike golf balls with a
club face that I could square up to the ball and a shaft as
close to a rope as possible. I made such a device. I used a
regular driver and replaced the shaft with a very flexible
material. It was so flexible that you could just about bend it
double. When I tested it the head flew off after the 5th shot
but I knew after the third ball that it was going to work. All 5
of those balls went dead right. That was why I knew it would
work. I recovered the head, went back home, and then to the
hardware store, and bought some better glue and put that club
back together.
From 18 to 0:
I went back to
Jack and over the next 9 months working with that club and Jack
I dropped my handicap from 18 to 0. Six months after inventing
this club I shot 69 from the back tees at Glen Eagles CC in
Plano, Tx. Shoulda had 67 because on #4 the pin was up close and
my tee shot landed 4 feet in front of the hole but backed off
into the water. I thought I had a hole in one but ended up with
bogey. Not only did my handicap come down, but I added right at
100 yards to my tee shot.
Selling Golf Clubs was never my
intention:
I never had any
intention of going into the golf business. I made the original
Whippy TempoMaster just for myself. I knew it would work for me
but I never considered that there would be a demand for it.
However, over the next few months a demand presented itself. I
made these clubs one or two at a time mostly for touring
professionals and teaching professionals that saw me working
with it when they visited Jack. The really good players knew
immediately what it was for. Even now these players are the ones
that buy these clubs. The high handicap players, mainly me, was
who this club was made for. It was made so as to force them to
feel what it is like to swing the golf club instead of hitting
with their hands. Unfortunately, except for the most open
minded, these individuals are slow to accept The Whippy
TempoMaster because they cannot visualize how they could strike
a golf ball with this club. Simply stated, if they are right
sided hitters, hitters who hit from the top then there is no way
they can strike a decent shot with the Whippy. The Whippy
TempoMaster, I have been told, and I believe this is true from my
own experience, is the only tool that can convert an over the
top hitter into a left sided controlled swinger with right
sided power. My wife told me I was an idiot if I did not get
a patent on this club. I did apply for one and received it. The
demand increased and I was forced to set up a manufacturing
facility.
The Whippy TempoMaster was introduced at
the Orlando PGA Show:
The Whippy
TempoMaster, that is what I named it, was introduced at the PGA
show in Orlando. We sold out our entire inventory in the first
two hours. These sales were to teaching and touring
professionals. We sent over 40 putters out on the PGA, LPGA, and
Nike tours the first day of the show. The Whippy TempoMaster was
the only golf training club in "Golf Illustrated" 10
best training devices. Currently it is being used by over 70
active touring and long drive professionals. It is the only
training device that I know of that touring professionals will
actually purchase.
May 4th 1998
Dear John,
I am very sorry for not have written to you earlier but I do
Still enjoy playing about with The Whippy's on the range more
than writing letters.
Thank you very much for sending me the clubs and video. You will
be pleased to know that they are being used every single day for
some tempo practice and I am convinced that it is doing me a lot
of good. Actually I feel I hit better with The Whippy than my
regular clubs.
We had a funny incident with Arnold Palmer just after the par-3
competition at Augusta; he had taken position next to me on the
practice tee and muttered to his caddy he didn't know what he
was doing out there. He sounded bored and in the need of some
excitement. So there I stood with my Whippy and pushed him in to
having a go. I wished we had a video available because the
result wasn't too good. Better said there was no result; the
ball never left the practise ground. Maybe you should send him a
club and tell him he has a year to practise till we meet again
at Augusta next April.
I do thank you again and wish you a lot of success with the
future of The Whippy TempoMaster Company.
With best wishes,
Sandy Lyle MBE
25th Feb 98
Before Jack died
he told me "Doc, of all of the people I have worked with in
my life time you are the only one who ever changed the method of
applying power to the golf ball and the only reason you could do
it was because of that whippy golf club you made. It is the only
training device ever made that actually works." He did not
tell me this on his death bed but he did shortly before he died.
I have been told the same thing by several other major teaching
professionals. Currently, The Whippy TempoMaster is used by
nearly every major teaching professional in the United States.
Originally I made
only 4 clubs, the driver, 5-iron, PW, and putter. Now I make
them all. I started making the full set really just for myself.
Summer before last I shot it one under in Austin, Tx with a full
set of Whippys. However, since making the full set there are a
bunch of people who have bought them to use on the course. They
are using them in practice rounds. Whenever they need to score
they will use their regular clubs. There is one player on the
southern Senior Tour who uses the Whippy Putter in competition.
The Whippy TempoMaster does conform to USGA rules.
The Whippy Works:
There is one player
that I worked with who was written up in The Dallas Morning News.
I met Art on the driving range. I have a problem in that if I see
some one really struggling with their golf swing I cannot help but
intrude. I showed him my Whippy Golf Club and told him what I
thought his swing problem was. Art was receptive, and I worked
with him on three occasions over the next 6 weeks, and he worked
with The Whippy TempoMaster in between those sessions. He entered
a tournament in an attempt to win an amateur spot in the Byron
Nelson Pro Am. In competition he shot a gross 76 which gave him a
net 58 with his 18 handicap. He won the spot. He was not
sandbagging. He was a legitimate 18 before I met him. He had never
broken 95. It was Art that made us redesign the head of The Whippy
TempoMaster. He learned to hit it so hard that he would "cave
in" the face of the club. The last time I saw Art he could
still hit it outta sight and he scores consistently in the 70's.
Try it for Yourself!
If you really want
to feel what it is like to swing the golf club instead of hitting
with your hands then The Whippy TempoMaster is what you need. It
works. It is the only training aid that will force you to feel the
swing. Feel is the only thing you have to work with.
Cheers,
John N. Melvin,
M.D.
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Whippy Today!
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Warranty. You break it, we'll fix it!
Orders also include a Whippy training video and Whippy training
book for the range.
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Copyright © 2003 The Whippy Tempomaster Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
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are registered trademarks
owned by The Whippy TempoMaster Co., Inc.
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