Katie O'Keefe, the director of instruction at Grand Haven in Palm Coast, demonstrates the 'O' Beam. She has sold nearly 5,000. N-J | David Massey

O'Keefe

During a putt, a golfer's head should stay still. If the laser moves during a putt, it shows in which part of the stroke that his mechanics are off. N-J | David Massey

The 'O' Beam delivers a small laser beam in the form of an 'O.' N-J | David Massey

More on the 'O' BEAM: www.OBeamPutt.com

Forget the shame that comes with dribbling one off the first tee. Forget the final sad fact that exposes itself four hours later when the scorecard is totaled.

That's nothing.

For a golfer, there's nothing more humbling than learning the truth -- with your own eyes -- about your own golf swing, and that includes, as I've discovered, something so seemingly uncomplicated as the putting stroke.

Back and through. That's all there is. From the wristy function of Bobby Jones to the pendulous beauty of Ben Crenshaw and all his modern worshipers, the basics have been "back and through."

Assuming you've made the proper read on how the putt will break, and assuming you've properly judged the speed, there's only one way to mess up: Faulty contact -- blade a bit closed at impact, blade a tad open or maybe you miss hitting the ball with the putter's sweet spot that sits dead-center on the blade, a simple blunder that will leave you short of your destination.

How do these mistakes happen? Assuming you have even a modest amount of hand-eye coordination, there's only one answer: You're moving your head. You don't even notice it, but all it takes is that little flinch that usually comes from the desire to raise your eyes ("peeking," golfers call it) and see where your putt is headed -- that tiny movement transfers from your head through all the connecting muscles to your hands, and your blade is off-line.

For generations, serious golfers have been training themselves to keep the head down and still. Katie O'Keefe, who hardly looks like the savior of the golfing world, has found a way to help you steady the noggin, make more putts, record lower scores and finally -- as if you didn't already know the final result -- feel better about yourself.

"The 'O' BEAM is perfect because it gives immediate feedback," says O'Keefe, whose story isn't just a lesson in putting, but a lesson in persistence, patience, imagination and the entrepreneurial spirit.

IT STARTS WITH A 'NEED'

O'Keefe, now 46, was 28 when she decided to teach herself golf. She turned pro two years later and tried the LPGA's Futures Tour before her competitive dreams fizzled. She turned her attention to instruction and became a teaching professional -- she's the director of instruction at Grand Haven in Palm Coast.

While helping Brian Callahan with his putting a few years ago, she was trying to convince him that his head was moving during his putting stroke and, of course, that there was no need to keep track of where the ball was going on the green.

"I told him, 'If you lose a golf ball on the putting green, then we really have to get another sport,'" she says. "He said, 'It's not gonna work. You have to find something that's gonna show me how much my head is moving, but more importantly, when my head is moving.'"

O'Keefe had suddenly become familiar with the proverbial mother of invention, and set out to fill the void. She attached a laser to a money clip, then attached it to the bill of her hat and there you go: If the head moves, the laser moves... and you SEE it. Immediately.

That began a process in which O'Keefe, a native of Rye, N.Y., taught herself patent law (six months, six hours per day, she says), copyright law and, with the help of a couple of engineers, how to take a small laser beam and form it into an O -- an impossibility, she was originally told.

"Taught myself everything about lasers and how they work," she says.

After the hardest of all the hard work, she had the 'O' BEAM. Through golf shops and her website (OBeamPutt.com), she's sold nearly 5,000 ($39.99, or two for $59.99) and has ordered a second run from the factory. Aside from Callahan, the struggling putter who would become O'Keefe's business partner, O'Keefe's biggest fan became PGA Tour and Champions Tour veteran Chip Beck, whom she met at the former Champions Tour event at Palm Coast's Ocean Course.

Beck clipped the beam to his visor, putted and learned the sad truth: His head was moving.

"He said to me, 'Let me try it with your visor,'" laughs O'Keefe. "I told him, 'It's not the visor. You're moving your head.'"

HEAD GAMES

Like Beck, when I tried it I learned something I almost wished I hadn't. I wasn't "peeking," looking up too soon before the stroke is complete, but actually turning my head slightly backward on the backstroke, as if following the blade of the putter as it moved away from the ball -- that, too, is a common flaw that you don't even notice.

"It's immediate," says O'Keefe, again pointing out the beauty of the 'O' BEAM. "It tells you if you moved your head, but it also tells you when you did it."

Simple solution: STOP DOING IT. Only it's not quite that simple when it's something you've probably been doing for decades. But you can train yourself to stop in fairly short order. More importantly, if you find yourself missing those 5-footers and suspect a jumpy head, you can either confirm or rule out your suspicion, within seconds, on the practice green or at home on the carpet.

Two negatives: 1. Yes, it's against the rules to use training devices during play, so leave it in the bag or car trunk during your round; 2. It's a laser, so during the mid-day sun, from just about any distance, the 'O' BEAM won't show up on the ball (no, not even for Ian Woosnam).

You may not suspect your head of flinching, one way or another, during the putting stroke. And even if you do, you may be among those who feel it does no harm. Of course, your logic would be flying in the face of what every good golfer and instructor knows to be the undeniable truth.

"When I first taught myself how to play, I learned in a hurry that your head has to stay still," says O'Keefe. "If you peek, you either leave the blade open or shut it down. You never get the ball rolling on line."

And finally, there's one more undeniable truth O'Keefe would pass along to all other would-be inventors.

"If you try to sit around and think of something that'll make you a lot of money, there's no way you can do that," she says. "My goal, swear to God, was to sell 71 of them. I have 70 first-cousins and they're all obligated. If I sold one more, I'd feel I succeeded."

View article on The Daytona Beach News-Journal website.