Travel & Leisure Golf article on Bettinardi

[tksputters]

FROM MAR 2005

Page 1 of 2

Precision Play

Brown W Cannon III

Bettinardi putters are works of art that work

by Thomas Dunne

What does a fast-breaking birdie putt sweeping down the fall line

toward the hole have in common with a fourteen-foot-long bomb set

loose from an F-14 to zero in on a terrorist's tent in some dusty

corner of the world? The simple answer, of course, is that in each

case success depends on precision. A facile comparison, perhaps, but

just as the player carefully studies the undulating green to avoid the

dreaded three-jack, so the bomb will be "smart" enough (one hopes) to

avoid the orphanage next door to its intended target.

There is, however, a less-obvious point in common—a

forty-four-year-old mechanical engineer named Bob Bettinardi. From his

manufacturing facility in Tinley Park, Illinois, Bettinardi's CNC

milling machines produce casings for electronic guidance systems,

protecting a smart bomb's "brain" with quality-control tolerances set

to, well, military precision. Just five feet away from those machines

sit several others, dedicated to the products that Bettinardi is much

more famous for—namely, some of the most beautiful putters in the world.

To the cognoscenti, the Bettinardi name is synonymous with

performance, prestige and price. Since partnering with Ben Hogan in

2003, a retail Bettinardi putter can be had for anywhere from $190

(for the Hawk series) to roughly $500 (for a stainless-steel

model)—high end, to be sure, but in the ballpark with top offerings

from other major companies. But a visit to the Internet reveals a

different story, one of a feverish collector's market where rare

Bettinardi Tour prototypes can run upward of $10,000. Then there are

the models available exclusively in Japan, the only region excluded

from his contract with Hogan. There, Bettinardi putters rank in the

top three on the Japanese Tour Darrell Survey, and this is where some

of his most creative pieces can be found today.

"I sometimes think they love me in Japan because I have an Italian

last name," he laughs. "They associate it with quality: you know,

Armani, Maserati . . . Bettinardi."

So what makes a Bettinardi special? For one, each is produced from

start to finish in Tinley Park, as Bettinardi refuses to sacrifice

quality control for lower labor costs. Another is his penchant for the

exotic, creating works of art from materials such as "double-aged"

stainless steel, black chrome, gold- and copper-plating, and a

bewildering array of finishes and inserts. The third major factor is

the process itself. Time is money, as we all know, and it takes twice

as long for Bettinardi's CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines to

mill a putter head out of a single piece of steel than it does to make

a standard forged putter.

For the most part, the history of golf club design has been marked by

near-total anonymity for the innovators who actually dream up the

irons, woods, wedges and putters that we swing every day. Very few

know the name Coburn Haskell (inventor of the rubber-cored,

proto-modern golf ball), much less that of Richard Helmstetter, chief

designer of the Callaway Big Bertha. Indeed, dating back to Old Tom

Morris, who along with his architectural and playing accomplishments

was the foremost club maker of his time, only a handful of designers

can be described as celebrities in golf circles. In the modern age, a

list of such auteurs might include Karsten Solheim, Bob Vokey, Bobby

Grace, Scotty Cameron and Bob Bettinardi.

Bob Bettinardi has been working with metal his entire life. Hanging

around his father's machine shop, he grew up making parts and studying

the properties and potential of various alloys, so a degree in

mechanical engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering was a

natural move for him. After college he worked for his father for six

years before starting his own shop and quickly acquiring the medical,

communications and defense contracts that were the focus of his early

career.

In December of 1990, though, he had a revelation. Walking into a pro

shop, Bettinardi spotted his first milled putter, a Callaway Bobby

Jones model. He understood immediately what this implied. For years

putters had been almost all cast, meaning that molten metal was simply

poured into molds and left to cool, producing results that were often

imprecise. Bettinardi bought the putter and began setting his milling

machines to a new task.

And the rest is history? Not exactly. "It took me three months to make

my first putter," Bettinardi says in his dry Chicagoland accent. "One

putter, three months! Trial and error—that was my first foray into the

process."

Within a matter of months, though, the quality of his early

experiments would land him a contract with Mizuno, where he spent the

next few years designing with Scotty Cameron. One of their first

breakthroughs, in 1993, was one-piece technology, or milling putters

from a single block of metal instead of welding separate pieces

together. "Any time you add heat to metal, it distorts it, and I knew

we could take it to the next level," says Bettinardi. "People were

amazed by one-piece technology. It definitely has a better feel."

Precision Play

Bettinardi founded his own company in 1998, and the artistry of his

work really took off. "Confidence starts with looks," he says. "Golf

is such a tough sport, but if the putter looks beautiful, gives you

that warm and fuzzy feeling inside, then at least you have a chance."

The most instantly recognizable feature of a Bettinardi putter is the

honeycomb pattern on the clubface, created with a jeweler's cutting

tool. While the designer is quick to point out that the honeycomb "has

a performance characteristic in that it makes the putter face flatter

than a normal cut," it is the look—both high-tech and elegant—that

turns heads on practice greens around the world. Back in 1999, at the

Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic, announcer Gary McCord joked of

Jesper Parnevik's new putter, "The face looks like the parquet floor

of the Boston Garden." Parnevik then shot twenty-three under and won,

taking all of ninety-nine putts.

It was the first Tour victory for Bettinardi, and has been followed by

at least a dozen more, including two majors in the last two years: Jim

Furyk's U.S. Open victory in 2003 and Vijay Singh's PGA Championship

title in 2004, one of four events he won with a Bettinardi flatstick

during his monster season.

In October 2003, Bettinardi signed a multiyear contract with Ben Hogan

(now owned by Callaway), becoming the first designer to have his name

alongside that of the legendary Hawk on a golf club. Of the five lines

of putters currently offered by Hogan, three have the traditional look

familiar to Bettinardi fans, while the other two are in the modern

mallet family, including his most recent offering, the Hawk series.

The BHB11 and BHB12 are oversize alignment putters; Bettinardi is

confident that the invasion of the "potato mashers" is not a passing

trend. "Most people who play golf are not three-handicaps," he says.

"They need something to make more putts with. When you look down and

see this big mallet, with its long lines and all the weight in the

back to help you accelerate through the ball—it just makes sense."

Along with tracking his Tour players and developing new products, the

designer is primed to have an exciting year right at home in Chicago.

Studio B, Bettinardi's custom-fitting studio strictly for putters,

features a four-camera dynamic fitting system and other high-tech

gadgetry. It will debut in July, timed to coincide with the Western

Open at nearby Cog Hill. The kicker is that, unlike many studios

operated by major equipment companies, Studio B will be open to all,

not just touring pros and corporate VIPs. (Visit bettinardi.com for

details.)

"Customers will walk in to an area that will almost be like a little

museum, where they'll get an idea of how putters are made," Bettinardi

says. "After practicing on the green, they'll go into the studio,

which is right above my shop, so they'll be able to look through a

window and see putters being created while they're being fitted. We're

not going to adjust their stances. I don't want to be a golf coach—I

want to take the way they putt and fit the putter to their styles."

[DemolitionMan]

Armani, Maserati, Bettinardi??? LOL. I like Bettinardis, but that is one funny statement, not to mention a little full of himself.

How about Luigi, Spaghetti, Bettinardi? :laugh: