Yesterday I was in a golf shop looking at putters. I’ve bought my share of putters and I can’t say that any of them made me a better putter. It’s a club they call the flat stick, because really that’s all it is. It’s a flat surface on the end of a metal rod with a handle used to roll the ball in, by or past the hole.

The golf shop I visited had probably a hundred different putters priced between $100 and $450. Given that I’d have to improve to stink at putting I tested a number of them. Perhaps I could buy a game. Putters come in all designs. There’s one that looks like it’s demon spawn complete with fangs and horns.

The secret about branding a putter is that you believe one will make you a better putter than the other. If Phil Michelson won the masters with an Odyssey White Hot XG Blade Putter, maybe I can sink a couple more a round if I too use the Odyssey White Hot XG Blade Putter. So U put my money down, buy the putter and go to the golf course. If hit the first couple of putts I think what a great putter you’ve purchased. If I miss, it’s my fault.

The fact of the matter is that the brand of putter makes me believe it’s good. The pro who wins with it makes me believe that some of that will rub off on me. The more pros that use it the more confidence I have that it’s a putter that will cut strokes off my game. I’m totally hooked and ignore the fact the Michelson probably practices putting two hours a day and has for the last twenty-five years. I even want desperately to believe it.

I only stop believing in the putter when I realize that it didn’t work, but Tiger Woods wins the next big tournament with a Nike. The Nike is $100 more than the Odyssey. I should have spent more the first time.

That’s what great branding does.