Edited by Mike Purkey

SEEN & HEARD

You've heard it talked about. You've read about athletes who have achieved it. You even may have experienced it yourself for a brief period of time.

The condition to which we refer is called "The Zone," and the hottest product on the Senior PGA Tour claims to help you get there. It's called QLink, a pendant (worn around the neck) that its makers say will reduce stress — one of the great killers of good swings — Sound strange? Perhaps — But QLink users say it works, even if they don't quite know how.

The science behind QLink seems a little on the cosmic side, but company officials point out that QLink was developed in collaboration with scientists from Stanford University and the University of California. At its heart is Sympathetic Resonance Technology (SRT™), which is supposed to resist the debilitating effects of electromagnetic fields, which the inventors say are everywhere, from computer screens to cell phones. "Lets say I have two guitars." Says Tod Sinding of QLink. "I'm playing one and the other is sitting on a chair next to me. As soon as I pluck a string on the guitar, the same string on the guitar next to me will begin to resonate sympathetically."

With the QLink which contains an SRT resonating cell, made up of a gold-plated tuning board and a copper amplifying coil — the wearer is "tuned" by the pendant, which helps place the entire body into a stress free "zone." In turn, when outside forces — like electromagnetic fields — place stress on the body, the company claims QLink wearers will resist the stress.

Clarus Products International developed the QLink 10 years ago and has sold more than 120,000 units worldwide. Originally, the company manufactured clocks that used SRT to create a stress — free environment in the home. But users wanted something to take with them, and so QLink was born.

Last April, Sinding went to the Beaumont (Texas) Open, a Senior Series event, and randomly handed out 24 pendants. Twelve out of the top 24 finishers that week were wearing a QLink. The next month, Sinding traveled to the Compaq New Orleans Classic and distributed 30 pendants. Of the 15 players who actually wore a QLink, more than three quarters made more cuts than before they began wearing one.

A number of Senior PGA Tour players wear it and swear by it — Gary McCord and John Jacobs have both won since using QLink. Bob Duval wears one, as does Fred Gibson, who was virtually unknown as a Qualifying Tournament graduate, but who won the Vantage Championship shortly after he began wearing a QLink.

One of the more remarkable stories is that of Steve Veriato, a QLink wearer who made the Senior Tour field five straight weeks as a Monday qualifier, one of the toughest things a player can do on the Senior Tour.

In a world where players want to be paid for using everything they wear or play with, endorsements for QLink are completely gratis. "The chief component of The Zone is a lack of stress," Sinding says, "and anything you can do to reduce that stress helps you get into The Zone and stay in it longer."

Interested? Call 800-246-2765 or log onto www.lowergolfscores.com for more information.