St. Louis golfers are going to be able to cure that "cabin fever" this weekend at the St. Louis Golf Expo at the St. Charles Convention Center. Attendees at this weekend's expo will be able to demo some of the newest product being introduced in 2013, including several new products being introduced for the very first time to area golfers.
One of those products being showcased for essentially the very first time to area golfers is a product called Swinggait. Swinggait is a training aid targeted at the Junior golfer, providing a tool for teaching alignment, posture, ball position and even swing path.
Swinggait began out of a true love for the game of golf. The creation sparked for creator, Ben Hagan, when he was trying to share his passion for the game with his wife and son.
"I started putting a club in my son's hand at the age of 3. Sure, he could make contact with the ball every so often, but he had no form or direction when doing so," said Hagan. "I tried to help by putting a club down and telling him to place his feet shoulder width apart and parallel to the club but he had no idea what I was talking about."
Anyone who's instructed Junior golfers can attest that some kids simply don't know their left from their right, let alone, understand the concept of aligning your body parallel to your desired target.
So, like any good parent who is looking for an answer, Hagan went to the internet. He searched and searched for an alignment training aid and found plenty of versions of putting a club on the ground to aid alignment, but none of these truly solved the problem for Hagan.
So Hagan set out to create a device that would allow his son and wife, who was also new to the game, a tool to get their feet in the correct position when addressing the golf ball. "I needed to create a non-verbal way to position them, and containing their feet was the key. I didn't want to build something for both of them, so I made it completely adjustable. Because I could manipulate the size and shape, I could also move the feet into positions for hitting a draw or a fade with a little adjustment to the swing plane guide," commented Hagan. "All of a sudden I had a training device that I could benefit from using as well. After many tweaks and rebuilds we had our first Swinggait golf training aid."
If you are headed to the St. Louis Golf Expo this weekend, be sure to find Ben Hagan at his Swinggait booth and check it out for yourself. Bring your son or daughter with you as they can participate in a little contest with contributions being donated to the St. Louis Chapter of the First Tee Program.
