R.I.P. Charles Owen, Long Putter Creator

Former sports media reporter-turned-obituary-writer Richard Sandomir tackles the fascinating life and times of Charles Owen, the most important figure in creating the long putter.

Sandomir writes for the New York Times:

Weary of the many putters that had failed him, Owens drew up plans for an extra-long one and gave them to a machinist friend. On Christmas Day 1983, at a golf course near his home in Tampa, Fla., Owens tested the machinist’s handiwork, a 52-inch putter. He held it with his left hand against his chest; his right hand clasped it about halfway down the shaft. Within 15 minutes, he knew his new putter, christened Slim Jim, would change his game.

With the putter in his bag, he won two tournaments in 1986 and more money than he had ever had — a satisfying reward for an African-American golfer who had grown up poor in segregated Winter Haven, Fla., developed a passion for a game that was reserved mostly for whites and carved his first clubs out of tree limbs.