Do you ever stand over a putt and wonder whether you’re actually aimed where you think you are? Do you sometimes feel rushed trying to line up your golf ball? Are you consistently missing putts both high and low of the hole?
According to Trident Align creator Enda McLaughlin, those doubts are more common than many golfers realise.
Alignment issues have been a constant thorn in the side of club golfers for as long as the game’s been played and there are no shortage of techniques and aides out there to help fix this.
From alignment sticks to drawing lines on golf balls, there are plenty of methods that promise to help players start their putts on their intended line.
But if golfers are still second-guessing their aim once they stand over the putt, are those methods really solving the problem?
McLaughlin would argue it doesn’t and it led him to create the Trident Align.
Speaking on the Your Golf by NCG podcast, he explained how the adjustable ball marker was designed to give golfers more time to line up their putts and greater confidence on the greens.
“Trident Align is the world’s first adjustable ball marker,” he said. “What that means is that you can get up to the green, you can put your marker down, remove the ball from the green, and then as you begin your process of reading the putt, which you would normally do, there’s an adjustable sliding top plate.
“It’s designed in two parts. You’ve got a base, and then you’ve got the adjustable slider on the top. And as you begin to read your putt – and let’s say it’s two feet outside on the right – you can go over to the marker and nudge it slightly to the left so that the centre aim line points to that desired start line.
“Then, as your playing partners are potentially lining up their puts or going through their routine, when it is your turn to putt all you have to do is go back to the marker and put the ball back down in front of it and you’re ready to go.”
How did this putting idea come about?
The idea for Trident Align came after McLaughlin discovered aim bias in his own putting. It means you can feel as though you’re aiming correctly, while actually pointing left or right of your intended start line.
McLaughlin originally drew a line on his ball. But when that didn’t work he knew he needed to try something different.
“There were two things that I didn’t like about using a line,” he said. “One was how rushed I felt when it was my turn to putt. The other element was, when I looked down, sometimes the line didn’t look like it was pointing where I thought it should be.
“So what we designed was a stencil tool that allows you to draw the trident marking on the golf ball.”
From first conceiving the concept in Zurich Airport to bringing it to market, the process took around three years. After receiving approval from the relevant governing bodies, McLaughlin turned his idea into reality.
Explaining how the training aid works, he pointed out: “There’s half a square shape on the golf ball that you mark on. There’s half a square shape on the Trident line marker and when you join the two of those together, and you look down from above, you see it forms a perfect square.
“If you don’t see that square shape when you look down, it means that the ball is not perfectly positioned at 90 degrees in terms of the line to the surface.
“So it’s about making sure that you have time to line up and have set up the marker to the desired start line. [It’s] Trying to speed up play, but at the same time giving you the confidence that once you have the ball back down it’s aimed where you want it aimed.”
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Will you be trying the Trident Align adjustable ball marker? What other techniques or aides do you use to help improve your performance on the greens? Let us know by leaving a comment or by getting in touch with us on X!