WEBVTT - L.A.B. Golf - Part 3: "The GOAT" - The Fire Pit w/ Matt Ginella 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:07.400 I think I had a round a spyglass. I had 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:09.840 around a spyglass. I think I had twenty two putts, 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.960 and granted I missed a couple of greens real close, 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:15.400 you know, so I was putting from off the green 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:17.520 and they're not counted as a putt. So maybe it's 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.640 like twenty seven twenty eight putts from the ones that 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.560 included off the green. But point being that I just 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:26.360 get so confident with the thing and I just start 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:28.280 when I'm on, I just start making everything. 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.320 Put another logal the fire. 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.080 Nobody here is get the time. 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:50.240 Welcome to the fire Pit with Matt Chanella. In part 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.840 two of this podcast series on the relevance and rise 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.920 of lab golf, we told Bill Pressey's story, the man 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.400 who took to his garage in twenty twelve and used 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.240 a modified cane and then ultimately a crutch to invent 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:06.920 his revealer. That invention leads Pressy to the technology he 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.480 implemented into his first version of the directed force putter, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:14.800 which actually did what face balance and toe hang putters 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.120 claimed to do. Pressy received the patent to what was 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.200 the directed force putter in twenty fourteen and sold his 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:23.800 odd looking invention out of the trunk of his car. 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.120 Pressy had just enough traction to start a business, but 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.720 not enough marketing skills or manufacturing efficiency to be sustainable. 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.720 When the company was on the brink, Pressey got connected 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.000 to Sam Hahn in twenty seventeen, who, in addition to 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.640 his dad and brother, bought a chunk of the business 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.400 in twenty eighteen. Han says that from his perspective, there 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:47.840 were four magic moments that led to the success of 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.160 Lab Golf. The putter Lucas Glover used to win back 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.000 to back PGA Tour events in August of twenty twenty three, 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.880 which is ultimately where this series will end. The first 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.680 of those four magic moments was when Hans directed force 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.600 Putter broke and Bob Duncan put him in touch with Pressey. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.800 Not long after buying into the company, Han relocated the 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.200 home office from Reno, Nevada to Eugene, Oregon, which is 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.080 where Han was living, and although he was an avid 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.400 and scratch golfer, he was new to the golf industry. 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.120 This is where we resume the narrative. Here's Sam Han. 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.919 Damn dude, I mean we it would just school of 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.200 hard knocks I mean just every I had to learn 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.079 everything about what we were doing. I would say now 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:34.839 in retrospect, one of the absolute best things we had 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.600 going for us was the fact that I didn't have 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:42.080 any idea how the golf industry worked. And this allowed 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.480 me to keep an open mind on every facet of 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.320 the business. The putter is different, it works differently, you 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.079 have to tell the story differently, you use it differently, 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.480 and consequently, the way that you manufacture and market and 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.920 fulfill is different. It has to be. And if I 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:03.520 was a golf industry guy, it just it wouldn't have worked. 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.040 And early on, and I learned that. I learned that 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.680 really early. We you know, so we're putting together a 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.519 business plan and figuring out how we're going to do 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:12.959 this and how we're going to spread the word. What's 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:18.040 going to go on? And we hired a fella wonderful man. 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.120 His name is Charlie Gerber, and he used to be 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:23.880 the sales rep from here in North America. And Charlie 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.400 was sweet as can be. And he was tasked with 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:30.440 putting together a sales force. So he hired fifteen twenty 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:34.920 different independent reps around the country and to no fault 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.640 of his own. It just didn't work. You know, he's 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:39.960 got these the guys that were hiring. You know, there 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.200 wasn't enough margin for us to really make this their 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:47.520 only gig. And so the guys that we're working with 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.520 are selling gloves and balls and shoes and a four 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.080 to seven hundred dollars custom puttern. It just wasn't working. 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.040 And yah, can I ask you real quick? 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.120 So at the time that you buy the company many 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.960 how many of these putters were being sold a year? 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:07.640 Virtually? 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:07.840 Non? 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.840 I mean we had they had so twenty one putters? 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.920 Would they did they sell one hundred putters times four 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:16.080 hundred or like? 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:16.720 Like what you know? 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.120 Like was it a thousand putters? I would say, I 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:23.640 would say that the day we bought the company, I 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.080 would be very surprised if there was a thousand putters 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:27.920 out in the world, and probably closer to four or 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:28.440 five hundred. 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:30.560 Press he thinks there might have been a little more. 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.800 But regardless and relatively speaking, there was nowhere to go 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:39.560 but up or go out of business. What was at 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:41.680 the top of the priority in your mind, like what 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:43.920 did you need to do to try to make this successful? 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.080 Branding into her presence. So the first one was branding, 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.120 So I did have I'm a good consumer, like I 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.560 in the sense that like I'm an educated consumer, right, 0:04:55.720 --> 0:05:01.919 I am both clear on on the technology that I'm buying. 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.200 I look into it, I look for validation of it. 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:05.960 So I already had that. 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.160 But you were doing a lot of obviously because you're 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:10.599 going through a lot of putters, so like the. 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:16.760 Consumer exactly, so I'm using some of what was a turnoff. 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.520 There were so many turnoffs about this putter when I 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.400 got it, so many, you know, like I hated this grip, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.599 this rubber oval grip. I couldn't stand it. I actually 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:33.720 love it now, but I hated I hated the analyzing, 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.599 Like the finish on this putter was just so cheap 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.800 looking like it just it just it looked like a 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:41.440 fucking infomercial product. 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:41.320 You know. 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.760 And then this logo was so bad and Bill's probably 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:46.080 going to listen to this and he's gonna be mad 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.040 at me. But I love you, Bill, but you know 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:53.240 your logo sucked, bro, And and there was just and 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.560 then the company was called Directed Force at the time, 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.919 Like that's a fucking mouthful for a company, Like it 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:02.880 was just it it was so so a lot of branding, branding, branding, 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.840 I mean, we we that was a huge thing. Day 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.000 one re rebranded the company lab Lying of Balance. That 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.240 was Bill's call. That was, as I understand it, what 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:13.919 he wanted to call the company in the first place. 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.960 And then we needed a logo and took forever with 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.000 these guys in Colorado that were just not not handing 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.560 us anything particularly creative. And it was actually my mom 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.440 uh one day was like, well, putter is a really 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.240 interesting shape. Why not just make it the putter? So 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:33.080 we tried a couple of iterations of just like the 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.240 straight silhouette of the putter, and then I ended up 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:38.719 drawing this, you know, this one here on a napkin 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.640 and that became the logo. So when I first drew it, 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:45.440 it didn't have the notch. It just kind of looked 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:49.880 like a heart with the tip cut off. And we 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.039 had been like three months deep into finding a logo. 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.479 I drew this thing on a napkin, had some guys 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.919 actually put it, you know, make it real, sent it 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:02.200 to Bill. Well, I fuck, yeah, we did it. Thank 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.960 the Lord Jesus. The logo conversation is over. This thing 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.960 is incredible, it looks good, it's sexy, it's awesome, and 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:16.600 we're so excited. The next day, shit, I got a 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.520 back up a second. About two weeks into owning the company, 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.440 somebody sends me an Instagram post that Kelly Slater had 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.360 made the surfer that he had made about this crazy 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.480 new putter that he found at Carl's Bad Golf Center. 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:34.000 So we reached out to Kelly and you know said, 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:35.600 you know, I introduced myself. I'm like, hey, I'm the 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.840 new owner of the company, and I saw that you're 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:39.720 using the putter. Let me know if there's ever anything 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:41.800 you need. Kelly and I hit it off. We start texting, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.840 we're talking putters, and we become golfner buddies, and YadA YadA. 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:49.240 Kelly Slater is the greatest surfer of all time, very 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:54.280 commonly referred to as the Goat. Slater has eleven world championships. 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.440 He won his first in nineteen ninety two, his last 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.400 in twenty eleven. The next best in surfing is Mark Richards, 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:03.760 who has five, and he got all of his before 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:08.040 nineteen eighty three. Simply put, Slater is the secretariat of 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.760 his sport, and if there are no waves. He plays golf, 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.760 not surprisingly, he's very good at it, a scratch if 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.160 not better, and a regular at the AT and T 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.480 Pebble Beach pro Am. Through a love of golf and surfing, 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.720 Slater is friends with Adam Scott. What was your first 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.840 introduction to this putter in this technology. 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.280 Yeah, so the first time I saw LAB I was 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:39.480 playing a golf course called Redstick in Florida, and actually 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.320 I think the guy runs it used to work at Augusta, 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.600 but he moved down there to work at Redstick. 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:45.680 Really good course, great greens. 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.079 I was just playing with a buddy of mine, Bill, 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.120 who I played with a lot, an old surfer friend 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.680 of mine, and were paired up with the guy that 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.320 he plays with sometimes just a casual game, and this 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.199 guy had a directed force. 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.120 Lab lab butter, and. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.080 Like everyone else, I said same thing, like what's that thing? 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:07.440 You know? 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.480 Blah blah, And I'm I'm pretty open minded, like I'm 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.040 pretty into if something works, it works, I don't care 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:14.600 what it looks like. 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.079 I've played some goofy clubs over the year just because they're. 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:22.800 Funny, and you know, just to give you an idea. 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:24.600 I used to have this. 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.480 I'm a real Mo Norman geek and I used to 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.680 have this this sandwich. It kind of looked like the 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.000 alien that Moe used to play with, and it had 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:38.800 a giant balance on it. I think it had about 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:41.319 twelve or fifteen degrees of bounce and a big soul 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:42.360 on the bottom of the club. 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.160 And a funny story I was in. 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.240 I was on the big island planet Kokio where many 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.200 years ago as a member, and Adam was out there 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.240 and uh, I said, just hit this club out of 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:54.839 the sand, and he hit three balls to about a 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:55.640 foot out of the sand. 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.040 He goes, is this thing legal? I said, yeah, I 0:09:58.080 --> 0:09:59.600 guess so. So anyways, I've. 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.439 Always been in mind with these alternative sort of looking 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:07.160 and feeling gloves and uh, so I'm playing with this guy. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:08.719 We get around the front nine. 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.600 This guy's making all sorts of plots, are at least 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.440 scaring the hold, and uh we get on about the 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:16.920 twelfth hole and I said, you know, let me just 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:18.280 take a couple of strokes of that thing. And I 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:23.160 drained three puts from about ten twelve feet and I 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:24.439 was just sold immediately. 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.319 They just rolled the end over end. They set up 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:28.960 pretty perfectly for me. 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:31.720 It was probably an inch long and maybe a little 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:33.960 too flat of alive, but I, you know, I just 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.160 set it right and uh to see how the ball 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:41.480 would roll, and it felt amazing. So a week later 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.760 I went to I was out here in California and 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.640 I went to Carlosbad Golf Center where they did. 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:47.920 They were like one of the official fitters. 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.040 So I went there and messed around with the fit 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.000 club for a while and you know, just set my 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.280 langle length and ordered one and waited a couple of months, 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.280 And to be honest, I was like so ty to 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.000 get it. I was sending emails kind of hagging him 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:02.680 on like how long do. 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.520 The ctit go'll be done? But I really want to 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:04.840 get it. 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.600 They sent it to Hawaii, out to Hawaii for me, 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.679 and the first week I had it, I went over 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.760 to McKenna and I was playing with Tommy Armor and 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:18.920 in the first round, Tommy goes, don't ever take that 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:20.640 thing out of the back. You're rolling it's so good, 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.680 and it was just end over end, And I've just 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.439 been leaver since day one and the first time I 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.319 try that guy's putter until I got mine. And when 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.559 I got mine, my confidence and my putting just went 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:36.480 through the roof, and I feel, I honestly feel like 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:37.680 I hardly have to practice. 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.440 And I thought, really, well, more with Kelly Slater in 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:42.800 a bit, but for now, back to Sam Han on 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.800 the new logo, or so he thought. 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.320 Bill was like a huge Kelly Slater fan, so just 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.480 tuck that away for a second. So the next day 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.440 after I give him this logo, he calls me up. 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:56.720 He's like, stop, the presses can't use this as a logo, 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.840 and I'm like why, What's He's like, I just played 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:04.320 Charity Scramble with some buddies. I showed it to them 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:05.960 and they all think that the top piece looks like 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:11.040 a ballsack. And I'm like, dude, your fucking friends are weirdos. 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.360 It does not look like a ballsack. It's fine. And 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.000 he's like, dude, I'm saying, we are not using this logo. 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.080 It looks like a ballsack. I don't want to be 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:22.760 the Ballsack Potter company. It's not happening. And I'm like, dude, 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.040 settle down. Your guys are drunk. You guys are being silly. 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.920 It's not a thing. And he's like no, I'm like yes, 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:32.920 and I'm like all right, let's each do our own 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.959 little focus group here. You've picked six guys to go 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:39.600 send it to and ask them what their first reaction is. 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.120 I'll pick six guys that I send it to and 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:43.760 ask them what their first reaction to is. And I'm like, 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:45.680 I'm going to send it to Kelly because Joe, you know, 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.120 Bill's big Kelly fan. As long as Kelly signs off 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:49.679 on it will be really good. So I text Kelly, 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:51.160 I'm like, you know, what do you think of this logo? 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.400 He's like, Dude, it's actually a really really cool logo. 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.679 But if I'm totally honest, men kind of suck and 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:58.240 all they're going to see is a ballsack and they're 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:06.120 just going to make jokes about the boss. Oh like fack, 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:12.600 god damn it. Back to the drawing board. And you know, 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:15.320 just a couple subtle tweaks made it, you know, much 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:19.880 much less testicular and much more potter oriented. But I 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.800 do love that story a lot, where I was just 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.040 so positive that was a non thing, and Slater just 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.880 validated completely that Bill was absolutely right and the thing 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:27.840 looks like a ball sack. 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:33.920 On that note, and before I go any further, I 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.480 just want to thank Dormy Workshop for their sponsorship of 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.840 this podcast. As you know by now, the Canadian based 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.680 company only makes handmade leather goods such as custom headcovers 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.439 and accessories. The Bishop Brothers are good golfers, great friends, 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:49.720 and we're lucky to have them putting our logo on 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:54.120 their products. All available at Firepitcollective dot com. For their 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.880 complete collection of originals headcovers and classics, go to Dormy 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.760 Workshop dot com and use promo code fire Hit fifteen 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.840 for fifteen percent off your next purchase. Back to Samhan 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.760 in his office at Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell, 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.760 Organ home of the Oregon Ducks, and. 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.319 Now comes lucky break number two. You know you had asked, 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.160 what what did I think that we needed to do 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:17.800 in order to get this thing moving? So it was 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:23.520 branding for sure. The next piece was presence, tour presence. 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.240 We had no professional tour players, and that that was 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:30.800 in my mind, Like I was almost thinking of this 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.080 as a flip when I bought the company, Like I 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:37.360 wasn't really thinking about growing into this crazy behemoth of 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.880 a company. I was thinking that we were going to 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.560 get out on tour and that somebody was going to 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.440 grab the putter and go win a major championship and somebody, 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:48.000 you know, one of the major OEMs is going to 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.080 call us up and you know, license attack or buy 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.480 us out completely or something. So first app is we 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:55.120 got to get out on tour. So I call up 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:56.680 to tour and I find out what's the process in 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.280 getting a credential so that we could be out on 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:04.520 the green and they're like, well, you either need a 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.600 specific invitation from a player or your putter has to 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.360 have been used in enough tournaments that it qualifies for 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.520 a credential. And I'm like, well, I don't have an 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:17.360 invite from a player, and how am I going to 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:18.720 get a putter to use it if I can't get 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:20.000 out on or a player to use it if I 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:21.640 can't get out on tour. And they're like, well, tough 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.240 shit fuck. So I'm like, how does it work? You know, like, 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:26.760 how do you know if a player is using it 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.600 or whatever? And they tell me about the Daryl Survey, 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.080 which I didn't know anything about at the time, but 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.640 you know, it's a company that you know, basically tracks 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.720 every single thing that's in everybody's bag. And the woman 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:37.800 on the other end of the poem. It was just like, 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:39.400 just out of curiosity, what's the name of the company, 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.200 And so I told her it was Directed Force. She 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.120 plugs it into the system and she's like, oh, actually, 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.560 you guys qualify. You guys have had you know, eleven plays, 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:50.960 and I'm like, huh. Tim Wilkinson, a left handed New 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:57.800 Zealand Germany journeyman. New Zealander journeyman, had bought the putter 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:04.040 in New Zealand, like somehow a lefty version of this 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:08.640 putter ended up in Bumblefuck, New Zealand. Random Journeyman tour 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:10.960 pro picks it up, likes it, uses it for eleven 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.960 events on the nationwide tour at the time, and we 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:18.520 got a tour credential like day one. So talk about 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:20.680 your lucky breaks. I have no you know, you can't 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.720 write that shit that otherwise I would have no idea 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:25.120 how we ever would have gotten out there. It never 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:25.800 would have happened. 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.840 Meet Tim Wilkinson, as Han describes, he's a forty five 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.840 year old lefty tour player from New Zealand. He turned 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.240 pro in two thousand and three, and although he has 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.560 no wins, he has three top five finishes on the 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.640 PGA Tour, and he has amassed five point three million 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:42.040 in career earnings. 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:48.040 Anyway, So twenty seventeen, I believe I was playing the corn. 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:48.800 Ferry Tour. 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.400 And I think I missed probably missed a couple of cats, 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:56.440 and I got to Utah maybe on the Sasine. I 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.080 was staying with a friend of mine in Poc City 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:03.760 and I just found a golf course nearby. I don't 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.080 even remember the name of it now, but yeah, I 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.600 found a golf course nearby, and when at the pro shop, 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:12.840 asked the pro as he normally do, I asked the 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.280 pro would he mind if I did some chipping and 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.199 parting and hit some balls on the dragon range. And 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.520 while I was doing there, you know, I always go 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:21.800 and have a look at the putters that they have 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.480 on their racks. So I went in there and I 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.119 asked him about this particular putter that was kind of 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:31.040 nothing that I'd ever seen before, and he showed me. 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.399 You know, I just asked because it was one of 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:41.520 the fitting putters, so the net could bend all, you know, 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:43.280 from right hand to left hand, and it could be 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.600 said at any lie angle. So I'd ask him if 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.240 he could set it up at sixty nine degree lie 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.000 and what it was zero loft at the time, I think, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:54.960 So I asked him if he could just set it 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:56.639 up at left hand at sixty eight and I had 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:58.400 a few parts with it, and he showed me this 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.520 the revealer, which is the rack that you put the 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.199 putter around, and you can just swing it into the 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.480 face so square, and it all made sense to me. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:12.119 So I asked him, you know who makes it and 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.440 where do you get it from? And Bill was actually 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:20.360 in Utah, I believe, and so I called him on 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:22.560 the next day, or maybe even that afternoon, or maybe 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.320 it might have been ten minutes later. I don't exactly remember, 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.920 but he came out to San Francisco the following week 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.120 and fitted me it. Brought a whole lot of putterson 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:34.880 and got me fitted into one. So I started using 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.200 it from there, and I think I did I get 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:38.920 my I can't remember if I got my PJA took 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.240 card that year or not. And I remember I know 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.000 I one hundred percent used it. I think the Windhom 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.760 Championship was the first PGA to event I used it 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:53.200 at and I remember shooting sixty two in the second 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.000 or third round but I'm not I'd have to go 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:57.600 back and have a look at some of the numbers 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:58.120 from that point. 0:18:58.160 --> 0:18:59.440 But yeah, it was just. 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.080 Out of the blue and I saw the potter and 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:06.520 the reveala and it just at night sense, and yeah, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.560 I guess I'd been using it for iight o ten 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:16.160 events and when that asked for PG two credentials and yeah, 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.480 kind of went from there and now lots of guys 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:20.800 having a lot of success. 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:21.840 It's a pretty good story. 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.680 In twenty seventeen, the ten events leading into the Windham Championship, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:28.880 which is when Wilkinson put the putter in the bag, 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.680 he had missed seven cuts and had only broken seventy 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:37.520 three times. At Windham, he shot rounds of sixty three, seventy, 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.720 sixty eight and sixty seven for a T fourteen, which 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.760 tied for his best finish of his year, and the 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.640 sixty three tied his lowest round of the year. That week, 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:51.399 he was forty fourth in strokes game putting fourth in 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:52.399 total putts. 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.440 Does it feel good to know that, you know? As 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.399 Sam was looking to try to get it in the 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.320 hands of more tour pros and looking to sort of 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.520 figure out how he could get a tour credential that 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.440 it was you that popped up and had been using 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:11.480 it and ultimately got him the access he needed to 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.960 to take this company to where it's going now. 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:19.680 Yeah, probably one of the most unlikely you know, from 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:23.160 New Zealand. Yeah, you would think you'd get the putter 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.680 in the hands of a you know, right handed probably 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.840 American player really to be honest, but for me just 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:36.479 to come across the pastor and a pro shop and 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.119