THE Open at Royal Birkdale forms the backdrop for a Southport success story spanning four generations.
Premier putting coach Harold Swash has been training golfers for more than 40 years and is the innovator of putters and training aids to boost performance on the green.
His creation of the C- Groove putter in 1995 gave rise to a family firm and a line-up of models bearing the names of his daughter, granddaughter and great- granddaughter.
Harold's daughter, Heather Allison, is the credit controller of Yes! Golf (UK& Europe) Ltd - independent distributors of the C-Groove - and her husband Peter is the firm's managing director.
Heather, 47, said: "We always feel our lives have been defined by The Open."
Peter and Heather had been childhood sweethearts and both worked for her father demonstrating an earlier range of putters at the 1976 Open at Royal Birkdale.
She recalled: "1976 was a red- hot summer. We had a house full of Americans and they couldn't understand why we didn't have air conditioning!"
Heather was again at The Open when it returned to Royal Birkdale seven years later, and was heavily pregnant with her son, Andrew Sumner.
Andrew is today a 'category one' amateur golfer, Yes! Golf's European Tour co-ordinator and the father of two-year-old Abbie, after whom Harold named the Abbie putter.
When The Open again came to town in 1991, Harold was coaching British great Nick Faldo and ensured Andrew received the star's autograph.
And before the 1998 tournament, Andrew walked the then 17-year-old amateur Justin Rose around his home course, Hillside.
Rose, whose skills Harold helped to hone, went on to finish in an amazing fourth place and soon turned pro.

Veteran 'putting doctor' Harold Swash (front left) with daughter Heather Allison (front right) and son-in-law and Yes! Golf managing director Peter Allison (back right). Joining them are Harold's grandson Andrew Sumner and great-granddaughter Abbie

By then, Harold had developed the C-Groove in the garage of his home in Hastings Road, less than half a mile from Royal Birkdale.
The patent was bought by a US company and Retief Goosen putted his way to victory in the US Open in 2001 and 2004 using a C- Groove, the success of which hinges on its early application of topspin to the ball.
In 2000 - the year that Peter and Heather again became a couple - Harold gave Peter a C-Groove putter as a Christmas gift, and Yes! Golf (UK& Europe) was soon born.
Bowled over by its effectiveness, Peter decided to take time off from his then garage business to sell the product in the UK.
"I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss - it's too good a product," he said.
Keeping with a trend that has seen the naming of a C- Groove after Goosen's wife Tracy, Harold has named putters after Heather and Heather's daughter, Emma, 19, a stylist at Chapel Street's Toni & Guy salon.
The Abbie putter is the latest addition to that range.
Yes! Golf, based on Banastre Road, has seen a surge in demand from top pros for custom C-Groove fittings ahead of this week's Open.
Harold said: "It's great to have The Open here, as for many players Royal Birkdale is the best championship course of them all."

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