Inventing the ultimate adjustable putter

A love of the game prompted Marco Renna to redesign the most-used club in the bag

Entrepreneur Marco Renna is one patent step away from changing what it means to be on your game, no matter the conditions. His all-purpose putter uses movable weights to adjust the balance and even out your swing. All he needs now is the chance to take it to market. 

The self-proclaimed “consummate generalist” has worked in many fields over the years. He took up golf when he was 24.

“It was a business decision,” Renna said. “I was working in IT in Ottawa and the surest way to go out and get contract work was to join a threesome at a golf course.”

He invested in a set of clubs and found he had a natural swing.

“I got obsessed with the game,” he said.

When he didn’t get a reasonable share of the $500 billion Forbes magazine says changes hands on the golf course every year, he headed west.
In 2006 he was between careers when he took a job at Nevada Bob’s to pass the time until he found his next calling. The pro shop there was where he discovered his love of tinkering.

“I enjoyed dealing with customers, doing lie and loft adjustments and sharpening grooves. They also had a 25-foot putting green where I went and tested every putter on the wall.”

He headed off to Furry Creek one day with four putters in his bag, just to be sure he was prepared for any conditions.

“I spent an hour trying to figure out what rolled best on the practice green and then went through a 25-minute warm-up on the range,” he said. “I considered this a huge waste of time, when I should be able to show up and go through a four- or five-minute total warm-up and go play my round.”

It was here the idea for West Coast Putters was born.

“Nothing could be adjusted for the conditions of the day and still feel like a $500 Scotty Cameron or Ping,” said Renna. “So I started thinking about why drivers, woods and even irons were adjustable but no one had bothered with the most-used club in the bag.”

Renna tested other adjustable putters on the market and then created a prototype that met what he saw as the competition’s primary flaws.

His prototype is adjustable for most, if not all, playing conditions, thanks to movable weights in the putter head that adjust balance for toe, heel or even preferences and meet varied conditions by altering the rebound effect at impact of the putter head. The brass composite for neutral greens, titanium material for slow greens and carbon fibre composite for fast greens can be swapped pre-round.

The striking face is machined incredibly thin to allow maximum performance from the insert, which is nestled between the face and body.

“This maintains a consistent feel from insert to insert and only alters the performance (read: distance) in ball roll,” said Renna.

Another advantage is you don't have to alter your swing. Make your 10-foot stroke with the brass insert on an average green at 10 Stimp and the ball will roll 10 feet. Change to titanium and the ball rolls 14 feet. Change to carbon fibre composite and the ball will roll six feet.

“I've effectively found a way for a golfer to have a favourite putter that will work consistently in the rain, heat or on normal days without altering his or her normal stroke,” said Renna.His greatest challenge has been staying patient with the patenting process.“That has been the greatest learning curve for me,” Renna said.The next step is to go into manufacturing, and he is hoping to find an investor or sell the patent to a large manufacturer.

“The industry is already going in that direction,” he said, noting Calloway’s recently-introduced flip face technology. “Obviously the industry is ready, and I can’t wait to get it out there.”