New Milton engineer David Hicks aims to leave the leading club manufacturers green with envy as he springs his Ultimate Putter on to the game of golf.

The revolutionary new putter has inter-changeable weights which can be fitted into the toe and heel of the club head - its great advantage over its rivals being that it can be set up to adapt to different putting green conditions.

The weights eliminate the need for the player to hit the ball harder or softer depending on the pace of the greens. So if, for example, the greens were quick, lighter weights would be fitted.

If the grass was longer and the greens were slower, the weights, fitted by use of an Alum Key, would be heavier.

Hicks has spent the last 18 months developing the Ultimate Putter which comes with three sets of weights from eight to 20 grams.

Another fascinating new concept is that the sweet spot of the club is in the upper half of the putter head which, according to Hicks, sets the ball off on a truer roll.

Significantly, golf's ruling body, the Royal and Ancient, have confirmed that the new putter conforms with the rules of golf, provided the necessarry weights are fitted on the practice ground and not through the course of competition. Hicks, whose New Milton-based Higar Engineering and Automation Company have been supplying to the Aerospace Industry, is a keen golfer who, according to sales manager Trevor Parker, "has turned a hobby of building golf clubs into a serious business venture."

The two met at Barton-on-Sea Golf Club where both play off single-figure handicaps.

Parker is well known is sporting circles for his feats in football manage-ment with the area's leading non-league clubs like Basingstoke, Bashley and Fareham.

His last job was at Poole and during the summer he switched to Bemerton Heath in the Jewson Wessex League to co-manage with Steve Slade.

But if Hicks's Ultimate Putter takes off, and the ball really does start rolling into the hole, Parker is looking at a potential world market for the product. The new club, which caused a major stir when it was demonstrated by a robot at the Barton-on-Sea and Stoneham Clubs, will be on display dur-ing the Victor Chandlers British Masters at Woburn next month.

From there it will go on show at the World Golf Fair before being launched in the United States.

Parker believes the Ultimate Putter will be received as the most revolutionary new club since the big-headed Callaway Driver, pointing out: "You may use your driver 14 times in a round. But you are talking, on average, of about 36 shots with a putter."

There is a great old adage in golf: "Drive for show, putt for dough." And if David Hicks's putter makes those shots drop easier on the green, then the £150,000 he has spent developing the club will seem like chicken feed.

He has the capacity at his New Milton factory to produce 500 a week. Retief Goosen, one of the European Tour's top money earners has already agreed to use the putter in the big Cardham Park Pro-Am in Lancashire next month.

And, if one of the European Tour's biggest money-earners gives it the nod, there could be many striving for The Ultimate.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.