Whether you find the sport of golf intensely fascinating or terribly frustrating, there’s no denying the satisfaction of smacking a small, dimpled ball hundreds of yards.
But if you ask Sam Bettinardi, executive vice president for Bettinardi Golf, golfers do well to ensure their putting game is strong if the goal is to win or even shave off points.
Bettinardi Golf, one of three companies to manufacture golf clubs in the Chicagoland area, seeks to corner the market on the short game with its line of high-end putters. Chipping and putting may not be as sexy as driving, Bettinardi admitted, but it’s much easier to win when mere inches are standing between you and victory, and you have a good, solid instrument to make that putt.
“There’s a saying in the golf industry: Drive for show; putt for dough,” Bettinardi, 27, said. “We want people to think of us as the short-game experts.”
Bettinardi Golf started off as somewhat of a challenge for Robert Bettinardi, Sam’s dad and the company’s president and CEO. It was 1991, and Robert Bettinardi had stopped into a suburban golf shop for something when he noticed an ad on the wall, Sam said. The ad was for a putter milled on a Bridgeport, a vertical milling machine invented in 1938.
The older Bettinardi was surprised that any company would use such outdated equipment for such a precision instrument, especially when new, state-of-the-art equipment would do the job so much better. It happened that Bettinardi, an engineer who owned his own machine shop, had a number of computer numerical control machines at the ready, so he started working on putter designs of his own, Sam said.
Robert Bettinardi pretty quickly figured out that milling a putter from one solid piece of carbon steel made for a more solid feeling, smooth putt, Sam said, so he patented his One Piece Technology and started his new career in putter manufacturing as “the man behind the curtain” for a few different club manufacturers.
By 1998, however, Robert Bettinardi was ready to strike out on his own with a line of luxury putters, so he took his design and started testing different face millings on them, Sam said. He discovered the honeycomb face milling provided the flattest possible surface for putting; thus, the brand was born and introduced to the PGA circuit in 1999.
Since then, Bettinardi putters have been involved in more than 50 professional victories, mostly in the United States on the PGA tour and the Japan Tour overseas, according to the company’s website. This year alone, Bettinardi user Fred Couples has won twice, Sam Bettinardi said. Lexi Thompson, the youngest woman to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open and the No. 3 ranked woman in the world, also won once, her Bettinardi by her side.
For the company, winning is the best form of advertisement since it doesn’t have as huge an advertising presence as many brands, nor can Bettinardi clubs be found in many pro shops. After all, mass production isn’t part of the Bettinardi plan and never has been.
“Our clubs are for people who appreciate quality,” Sam Bettinardi said. “The consumer walking into a retail pro shop can get a decent putter off the rack for $300 to $400. We’re more of a boutique, though, so a person’s going to pay anywhere between $750 and $3,000 for the handwork involved in making our clubs.”
Those who want to test out Bettinardi clubs are invited to the company’s high-tech studio, where staff will spend at least an hour helping the customer get the right fit. And even though Bettinardi doesn’t offer tours of the production line, customers can peek out the studio window to see the magic happen down below in the machine shop.
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The idea of “Made in the USA” definitely carries weight with many golfers, which is why the industry will never see Bettinardi send its production overseas, according to Sam Bettinardi. Currently, the company employs 35 people, including Tom Piwowarski of Oak Forest, a topline inspector.
Piwowarski has been with the company for five years and rarely does the same thing twice each day.
For 20 hours a day, five days a week, 11 of the shop’s machines are devoted to turning 8-pound blocks of carbon steel into putters, and he has to make sure the putters fit the exacting Bettinardi standards.
“We weigh every single putter that comes out of the machine, and it has to be within plus or minus one gram (to become a full club),” Piwowarski said. “It’s not very often that we turn one into scrap.”
Since Sam Bettinardi joined his dad in the family business in 2012, the company has enjoyed double-digit sales growth each year, he said, though he declined to give exact numbers. But Bettinardi is now the fifth best-selling brand in the United States, he said.
What they may lack in volume they make up for in devotion to the brand. Golfers in 38 countries — among them Thailand, the United Kingdom and Australia — are devoted to Bettinardi. One of the company’s goals is increasing those markets.
“We may fly under the radar, but people fall in love (with the putters),” Sam Bettinardi said.
If they like the putters, they’re also going to like the wedges the company started making three years ago using the One Piece Technology. Again, it all goes back to the short game.
“Our one big belief is if you can look down and see a beautiful piece of equipment, that’s going to inspire more confidence in your game,” Sam Bettinardi said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.
Bettinardi Golf
Address: 7800 Graphics Drive, Tinley Park
Opened: 1998
Number of employees on-site: 35
Website: bettinardi.com