Small Dot Helps Out in Big Way

“You’re moving your head.” If you are struggling with your golf game, you probably hear that more than a few times during a round.

Your playing partners can see it, but it’s not easy to correct, especially when you are concentrating on trying to make solid contact.

But an Orange County company claims to have the answer--a simple training aid for novice hackers up to the best players in the world.

At the heart of the Stabilaser Interactive Training System is a laser device that shows users how their head position is moving during a swing.

The unit attaches to the bill of a cap or visor and directs a red laser dot down on the ball. Any head movement is immediately shown by the movement of the dot.

“It’s all about determining your mistake,” says Al Tweedie, president of Dynalaser Technology Inc., the Laguna Niguel firm that created the device, “and correcting it at the same time.”

The Stabilaser already is helping the best. Tweedie has a list of more than 100 PGA, Senior PGA and LPGA professionals--including Tiger Woods, Nick Price and Nancy Lopez--who have used it.

You can get the Stabilaser--the system, including an introductory video and training tips, costs $99.95--by calling (800) 527-3729. But by the end of the year, Tweedie said, it should be available at retail outlets.

An infomercial currently in production will feature, among others, Pelican Hill teaching professional Derek Hardy, who was named one of the top 100 teaching pros by Golf Magazine in 1996.

“There’s no magic to the golf swing,” Hardy said. “There are certain things you have to do and you just have to keep working on it.”

One of the basics is controlling head movement. “This will help you do that, no question,” said Hardy, who uses it in his short-game clinics. “Anyone who has been around golf for a while knows you have to have a center. If you use it at home for a week, you will surely become a lot more stable over the ball.”

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Brainstorm: Scott Harkness, inventor of the Stabilaser and Dynalaser’s vice president, came up with the idea in 1991 when living near Toronto.

Harkness and his wife, Audrey, had a regular Sunday morning golf date with another husband-and-wife couple. The wife wanted to be able to socialize while playing, but was struggling to hit the ball and didn’t want to invest time in taking lessons. Harkness, an avid golfer since he was 6, saw that the woman needed to keep her head still over the ball.

“There was nothing out there that would do for her what needed to be done, which was teach her the fundamentals,” Harkness said.

Then one night driving by a golf course, Harkness flashed on a solution. When he got home, he taped a penlight onto a ball cap. Several months of tinkering later, he had a primitive version of the Stabilaser for his friend to try.

After about 15 minutes, she was thrilled to regularly make solid contact. Harkness, who at the time, designed and installed custom home entertainment systems, then set about developing his invention. Eventually, he and Tweedie formed Dynalaser and moved the business and their homes to Orange County to be closer to their technology base and target market.

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No more free tacos: When it became official that the Hoag Hospital Foundation was going to take over the Toshiba Senior Classic last week, it meant the end of one of the best events in the area.

Before stepping up to the big time, the hospital’s foundation had run a charity pro-am at Newport Beach Country Club for the past 23 years under several names. It was most recently the Taco Bell Newport Classic and the fast-food company provided the $100,000 purse, free food and drinks.

There was no admission charge to the two-day event and spectators walked in the fairways.

But because of the organization’s move up, the pro-am is history.

“It was a great event,” said Hank Adler, who was the tournament chairman and will serve as co-chairman for the Toshiba tournament this spring.

Notes

Jim Ream Jr. of Cerritos won the Cypress City Championship Aug. 24 at Cypress Golf Club. Ream, who also won the Cypress city title in 1995, shot two-under-par 140 for 36 holes and was tied with Kevin Bodlovich of San Pedro. Ream won the title on the second playoff hole.

The Orange County Golf Notebook runs every other week. Suggestions are welcome. Call (714) 966-5904, fax 966-5663 or e-mail Martin.Beck@latimes.com or Steve.Kresal@latimes.com