Golf World - July 16, 2012

Big wins can spark business for
small wonders of putter world

Victories by Na yeoN choi aNd ted potter Jr. drew atteNtioN to bobby grace aNd piretti, the compaNies that made their putters. traNslatiNg that iNto sales is a welcome challeNge

Hunter Martin/Getty iMaGes

Small putter companieS

were the Davids amid golf’s Goliaths at The Greenbrier Classic and U.S. Women’s Open, and the underdogs came out on top with Na Yeon Choi using a prototype Bobby Grace NYC putter and Ted Potter Jr., wielding a Piretti Cortino.

What makes the success of the Grace and Piretti putters impressive is the increasing difficulty of getting putters in play on tour (let alone in the hands of a winner). On any given week five companies—Titleist, Odyssey, Ping, TaylorMade and Nike— account for approximately 90 percent of the putters used on the PGA Tour, leaving scant opportunities for upstart or long-standing smaller companies—a far cry from a decade ago when, according to the Darrell Survey 2002 Equipment Almanac, putters from Kevin Burns were the fourth-most-used on tour.

“It’s definitely more difficult now,”
said Piretti’s Mike Johnson, who made Potter’s putter. “But
a win helps. We’ve already gotten calls and some orders as
a result. It also helps get product into golf shops. The first
question is always, ‘Who’s playing it on tour?’ It gets play-
ers curious as well. At most tour events we’re hoping to get
a putter in play. Now guys will give us another look.”
Indeed, such success stories allow small companies the
luxury of thinking they have a puncher’s chance in the
world of equipment heavyweights. And, every so often,
they do. Vijay Singh won several events using a putter
from Dandy, while Matt Kuchar generated some visibility
for Bettinardi when he took the 2002 Honda Classic as
cameras zoomed in frequently on the back of the putter
and revealed the name.

There have been major successes as well. Rich Beem
captured the 2002 PGA Championship with an STX model.
Payne Stewart (1999 U.S. Open) and Zach Johnson (2007
Masters) each won a major using a SeeMore putter, with
some 50,000 orders coming in
the six weeks after Stewart’s win.