Oct 03, 2013 MannKrafted Putters for Charity [PICS] In 2010, I was approached by one of the Southwest's top pediatricians, Dr. Dave Curran, and was asked to build a putter for an upcoming charity event hosted by the Children's Cancer Center at Cardon's Childrens Medical Center, in Mesa, AZ. If you know anything about my family, this is a cause that hits close to home and I jumped at the opportunity. I wanted to create something special, something unique and a putter that the winning bidder could be proud to show off in a foursome, anywhere. I started with an idea in my mind of a flowing, smooth piece that looked as elegant as the event, itself. I chose to go with a CNC'd base head, milled right here in AZ at Karas Kustoms and work a neck onto that piece that would give me the look I wanted. The base head has a ton of hand shaping and smoothing on all of the edges, eliminating all sharp corners, rounding all of the flange borders to make it almost look liquid. I still had a head that was engraved with my "MANN" logo on the sole, as I wanted this one to be clean as it could, with only hand stamping to identify the blade, the year and its pedigree as a handmade piece. The neck came together beautifully. When I spin necks on the manual lathe, sometimes they show themselves a little differently than I picture when I start, and this was a premier case in point. My vision could not have shown me the flowing neck that emerged as the cutter, files and sandpaper carved out a beauty that reaches for the golfer and flows perfectly with the head. The welding and finishing went flawlessly and what you see in the pictures is a gorgeous carbon steel putter that was treated to one of my best Torch'd finishes, to date. The blues and deep purples show themselves in all the right light and give the putter that classy, elegant look that I had envisioned at the onset of this project. This was the first putter that I contributed to the cause, but far from the last. Each year, I have managed to build one at just the right time and get it into the hands of the winning bidder. Stay tuned here at MannKrafted.com and you will see the one that is in the works for the Stars of the Season event, this year. It is a replica of one I am making for a very well-known rock artist and is sure to be a hit at the auction, as well as when it hits the short green grass for its duty as the new owner's new favorite putter.
