Putting. The area of the game that is viewed as simplistic, but gives most golfers fits. At the highest level, many golfers are still constantly on the search for something more. Often times, unconventionality comes with that something more. Even mockery from peers.
Brian Tennyson was one of those golfers. Playing with the best in the world, he would find a method that worked well…for a while, but then not so much. That is until LEAN LOCK came to be. At first glance it looks as sort of a hybrid of styles, but a lot has gone into it and the story behind it is about as in depth as we have covered.
Where did the brand come from? How did the idea for Lean Lock take shape? We asked Brian Tennyson to weigh in.
“Even though I played professional golf at the highest level, I struggled to truly understand how to consistently putt well. In search of consistency, I tried virtually every instruction theory and putting method that exists, which ultimately only confused me more. I would find a method that worked well for a while, even for long stretches if I practiced for an hour or two every day, but eventually my putting would go south again. For most of my life I was confused and uncertain about how to strike pure putts. Should I control the stroke with my big muscles, feel it in my fingers, forward press, let my arms hang, keep my upper arms against my torso, point my elbows out, tuck them against my body, lead the stroke with my left hand, hit with my right hand, grip the club more in my fingers, grip it in my palms/lifeline, use an arc stroke, use a pendulum stroke, use a straight-back-straight-through stroke, etc.?
I have always been a great chipper of the ball, and I’ve always chipped with anything from my 5 iron up through all my wedges. When I was putting terribly I had on occasion “putted” with my 5 iron instead of my putter, As far back as 1996 I experimented with trying to putt the same way I executed a chip and run shot, but that positioned my hands forward with lots of shaft lean and, of course, that delofted the putter severely and therefore did not work.
In 2018 I played in the USGA Senior Amatuer and lost in the first round of match play due to three putting 3 times in a 6 hole stretch on the back nine. My putting struggles continued and the next year, at the R&A Senior Amateur, I struck the ball about as well as I ever have in my life but absolutely had the yips badly, barely able to two putt from inside 15 feet. I came home from that tournament committed to finding a way I could putt consistently, no matter how I did it, what it looked like, or what other people said about it.
I started by asking myself a simple question: “What needs to happen to strike a pure putt and what factors could I control to make that happen consistently?” My pursuit of answering that simple question eventually led me to the firm understanding that, no matter how you accomplish it, in order to strike a pure putt, at the moment of impact, the putter must be traveling at an ascending angle as close to straight along the intended start line as possible with the club face square to that line. I call that the APA. With that as my guiding principle, I cast aside all conventional theories and focused on what could help me accomplish that basic goal consistently.
I then tried again all of today’s popular conventional and non-traditional gripping and putting methods, but none solved my problems. When I attempted Arm Lock, I liked the idea but found that I could still break down my wrists through impact, and the only way to keep the shaft against my arm was to grip the club extremely tightly with my left hand and shoulder, which took away my ‘feel’ and athleticism. I then tried using the long, arm lock putter to “putt like I chip” with my hands far in front of the ball with a lot of forward shaft lean. The clubface was delofted, but I noticed that the long shaft was extending far up along and near the target side of my lead arm. That is the exact moment I got the idea to try my Lean Lock method.
I created prototype putters literally bent and hammered into various positions in a vice on a bench. Then I would return to the putting green with my video camera, yardsticks,and various other measuring and recording devices until I figured out exactly how to set up and move the putter so that the putter almost automatically travels according to my APA principles. That is the LEAN LOCK™ putting method.”
We will have a lot coming on the actual putters and what happens with our testing, but like most of our Brand Story features here, we want to focus on the company.
PGA Tour players going into the world of equipment is not that far fetched. Both from lending their name to equipment like Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan and others, to getting involved in creation. This is a similar story, albeit with purpose. Hardly an answer to a question that doesn’t exist, but rather a question that nearly every golfer has had.
What was the prototyping process like for LEAN LOCK going from idea above to creation and furthering the test? We asked Brian Tennyson to explain.
“It was pretty funny, actually, It started with me adjusting the putters I owned to try to make them fit with what I wanted to do with my Lean Lock putting method. I did not have the proper equipment, so I literally put them in a simple bench vise and hit them with a hammer and/or forcibly bent them to try different positions and shapes. Once I settled on a configuration that worked for what I wanted to do, I took the putter to a real golf repair shop to measure its characteristics.
When I set out to build my putters for commercialization, I contacted dozens of USA domestic based golf companies, custom club manufacturers, CAD designers, prototype specialists, and metal fabricators in an attempt to find someone to produce them for me. It was a very difficult, time consuming and frustrating process. I found a place that would help me for what I thought was a reasonable price, but after the first two prototypes they raised the cost so much I had to abandon them.
I then started researching overseas manufacturing, specifically in Asia, and started the process all over again. I had prototypes made by multiple different facilities. Many were of comically poor quality! I settled on one for my putter heads, another for my custom shafts made to my unique specifications, and others for my custom grips, headcovers and the Lean Lock branded badges that are attached to the back.”
It looks weird. Something that is probably said to half of the golf swings and putter strokes out there, but in this instance, it does have a bit of “unconventional” to it. LEAN LOCK by design is going to be unique, but in turn help you be better.
Yet while the overall package might be a bit different, the putter heads are anything but. Looking down at them, they are extremely conventional. High quality, built to the same specs as anybody else in golf. It’s simply a method that looks a little different. How can a brand overcome that? Brian Tennyson explains.
“The fact that the Lean Lock address position looks different at address is both a blessing and a challenge. It is a blessing because it attracts attention and curiosity. It is a challenge because people do not like to change.
Our approach is to educate and explain to people that Lean Lock looks different for a good reason, and very intentionally. In my book, on our landing pages, and in our videos we explain the logic behind WHY what we teach works as well as HOW it works. We ask people to open their minds to our ideas that challenge what has been conventionally taught about putting for many decades.
Getting people to open their minds like that, and then to actually put into practice what we teach, is the biggest challenge. However, I/we are encouraged and emboldened by the fact that when people do commit to the change and put in the time and effort to make the transition, 90% or more have great success and most say they will never put any other way again.
I’ve personally explained the logic behind Lean Lock to at least 500+ PGA Professionals, and when they hear that literally every single one has said “that makes sense”. That is why our tagline is Putting that simply makes sense.”
Growth is good. Even slow growth, and LEAN LOCK has continued to grow as more people find out about the method. Both in terms of their putter sales, but also the book. Yes, there is a book to go along with each order and when it arrived, I can honestly say I wasn’t really looking forward to reading it. Not because I wasn’t interested in the subject, just that many “comes with purchase” books leave a lot to be desired.
This one is different. It hits home. It makes you understand what is happening and why. It also makes you realize you aren’t alone. Golf is hard. Should we make it harder? Or better said, if we could find something to make it easier, would we?
Have testimonials or reviews come in that made LEAN LOCK realize they were onto something? Brian Tennyson gave us this example.
That is pretty powerful and tells a bit more than just buying the equipment to fix a problem. I do that. We all do that. Having the resources to make you better is what separates this and if there is one thing that stands out, it’s how much Brian Tennyson believes he can help.
With every facet of the game, golfers watch, learn and then emulate what better players are doing. Be it the golf swing, putting stroke, pre shot routine or anything in between. That isn’t a negative or a knock on the golfer, but like anything in life, we strive to get better.
As a rule of thumb, putting looks easy. Short stroke, low power involved and missing is accepted, because the best do it more than they convert. But do we have a general understanding about putting? We asked Brian Tennyson to break that down on his experience.
“I am quite confident that very, very few (almost none) golfers understand much at all about putting or what the putter head must do in order for the ball to roll “true” or the putt to be struck perfectly. I don’t think many try to mimic a stroke at all, they just try to either do what conventional instruction says like “use your big muscles” or they simply try to aim the putter and whack the ball to get it to go where they think it should go. Most people have no idea how bad the fundamentals of their putting stroke actually are. If they did, they would be much more willing to try something like Lean Lock.
I really think putting is the most misunderstood aspect of the game by most golfers. They “think” they know how to do it but they have no idea how little they actually know and/or how far away they are from doing what is correct. That is why the first three chapters of my book are dedicated not to Lean Lock, but to educating golfers about what the putter head and face must do to strike a pure putt.”
We have a pursuit of more. We have grappling with a design concept. We have testing and producing a theory that would make every player better. LEAN LOCK might be onto something. While differences exist in the actual putting, the equipment is less so. It’s about creation of understanding, as much as it is about the creation of products.
Education is firmly in the head of Brian Tennyson as he continues this journey. The goal sounds simple, to make everybody understand putting better. While harder to achieve, we will not discount the drive or the passion to help.
Helping golfers enjoy the game more by putting better sounds like a challenge, and while in a perfect world this would be working with a larger organization with resources to reach the masses, until that takes place, Tennyson is going to continue to work to create high quality products and an education plan that he believes will make every player better on the green.
Stay tuned to the THP Forum for more coming soon on LEAN LOCK putters.
For more information, check out their website at www.leanlockputting.com.
