The Long Putter's Rise to Controversy

1983
Charlie Owens, a former army paratrooper and a pioneer of minority golf, solved his putting yips by welding two shafts together and having a machinist cut a brass bar into a flying saucer-like shape with a squared face. Thus was born the Slim Jim Putter, weighing 3.5 pounds, the original long putter. Owens had a successful Senior Tour career with the Slim Jim, winning twice in 1986, but he never patented the invention. "That thing was so ugly," he said years later. "I didn't think it was going to be a hit."