How To Become Arnold Palmer

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Despite the growth of his business, Duclos spends enough time on the fairways to keep his handicap at a respectable 6. Besides the Long Beach home, Duclos and his wife Mollie own a vacation cottage near the famed Old Course at St. Andrews. Off the links, he relaxes by playing Beethoven and Mozart on a Kawai grand piano, accompanied by a $17,000 Kurzweil synthesizer that can replicate the sound of a symphony orchestra.

Golf purists sneer at the clunky look and feel of Slotline clubs, but a few pros have become converts. Slotline putters have helped Arnold Palmer and Billy Casper win tournaments on the senior tour, and Kathy Baker used one in her victory at the 1985 U.S. Women's Open. But most of Slotline's customers have much more modest goals. Thom Smith, 42, a tax lawyer in Fairfax, Va., says he chopped his handicap from 19 to 13 after he began playing with a set of Slotline irons. "I don't get to practice much," he says, "so I need more forgiving clubs." Forgiveness, though, came at a price: $468 to Duke Duclos, the merchant of high-tech golf.