Putting with Fuzzy: it's better than using a golf tee on the practice green.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Opener - Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller gives the "Putting Peg" credit for helping him win the Senior PGA Championship trophy

Some people are visual learners, some are auditory. Fuzzy Zoeller must fit into the latter group, because for him it's not enough to see that a putt is right on the mark--he has to hear it plop into the cup.

That's why the Senior PGA champ from New Albany wasn't satisfied with a tried-and-true method of putting practice. "I've always practiced putting to a tee," he says, "but I missed that important sound. I needed to hear the sound of the ball falling into the hole."

Zoeller called upon business partner Dave Lobeck to help him come up with a solution. Lobeck was inspired by those electronic greeting cards that play music, and even called Hallmark to find out who makes the tiny audio chips. The result of his research and inventiveness was the Putting Peg. "Ten minutes with this and that hole looks like the Grand Canyon," Zoeller says.

The Putting Peg is a small, tee-shaped, stick-in-the-green target that's just an inch and a quarter wide, three inches narrower than a regulation golf hole. What gives it the Zoeller seal of approval is the noise it makes--hit it with a golf ball and a tiny speaker emits the sound of a ball dropping into a hole. "The Putting Peg sharpens skill levels while giving the player immediate feedback: the sound of the ball falling into the hole," he says. (The sound is authentic, by the way, recorded by a microphone placed in a golf hole).

Zoeller gives Putting Peg practice credit for helping him take home the Senior PGA Championship trophy at Ohio's Firestone Country Club last year. "No doubt you have to drive it well at Firestone, but for me, it was the confidence I had with my putter. I literally felt as though I could make anything from 20 feet--it's nice when the hole looks that big."

In fact, Zoeller carded...