Robert Bettinardi revolutionized putter manufacturing through advanced technology and relentless attention to detail
Disrupting the status quo of an industry requires brave innovators, original concepts and a little bit of luck. It was on a cold winter day in 1991 that Robert Bettinardi saw the future, a singular moment in time that would forever alter the course of golf history. There, hanging on the wall at local Chicago golf shop, was an advertisement for a putter milled on a Bridgeport machine – a contraption that Bettinardi knew was technologically inferior and decades behind his own state-of-the-art CNC (“computer numerical control”) machines. Already specializing in milling highly sophisticated equipment for the Department of Defense, telecommunications, and medical industries at his own manufacturing facility, Bettinardi believed that he could produce a better product, a putter of superlative quality and precise detail, made right here in the USA. And he was right.
After months of perfecting prototypes, Bettinardi, along with his team of elite engineers, crafted a putter out of a singular block of steel – a groundbreaking moment within the golf industry. Bettinardi’s new method, known as “one piece technology,” eliminated human error and would forever change the way a putter was made.
In a recent interview with California Golf+Travel, Bettinardi talked about his early days in the golf equipment business, the evolution of the process that creates his acclaimed putters, and the growing popularity of the Bettinardi brand with players of all skill levels.
How and why did you decide to go into the world of golf and, more specifically, to engineer milled putters?
When I walked into that golf shop in 1991 and saw the ad for a putter that was milled using old technology, I asked myself, ‘why is this golf company using outdated technology to mill putters?’ I called the person on the ad, flew to California, came back and it took me nearly two months to machine a putter on one of my two CNC machines. This “one-piece” milled putter, as we coined it, transformed the putting world, and the rest is history.
There’s definitely a lot more that goes into the design of one of your putters, can you share with us these processes at Bettinardi Golf?
Before one of our putters ever reaches a golfer’s hands, it goes through a myriad of tests and processes to ensure absolute consistency and accuracy. That is the Bettinardi difference, by machining all of our putters in our own state of the art facility in Tinley Park, Ill., and being located 15 feet from our manufacturing floor, we have a focused eye on all that is being produced.
What is the difference in the new 2016 BB Series vs. the 2015 series? Our new BB Series has been received very well, thanks to our new Midnight black PVD finish, new brushed nickel shaft, and sticking with the classic, traditional Bettinardi look people come to expect from us. We take our best designs, and make minor improvements and adjustments each year based on how I think we can make a putter better, in addition to PGA Tour player’s feedback.
How much input from Tour Pros do you take into consideration when designing your putters?
There is a lot of dialogue back and forth throughout the year with different Tour players talking about design concepts and how to make a better putter. Most noteworthy is our relationship with Matt Kuchar; we sent him more than 20 putters over eight months until we finally nailed it with his current arm lock putter. This model features 7 degrees of loft, 2.5 shafts of offset, and weighs in at 400 grams, designed to take the player’s hands and small muscles out of the stroke.
What makes a Bettinardi putter different from other premium putters on the market? The difference we have vs. our competitors is that we manufacture all of our putters ourselves. No outsourcing, not made in China, all milled on very expensive machine tools with the tightest tolerances, and thorough inspection every step of the way, until it finally reaches the player’s hands. As a consumer, it is great to know how your product was made, and that’s why many Tour players trust us with the most important part of the game, putting.
How different are the putters you make for Tour pros to the ones we purchase off the shelf? One of the great things about our putters is that when you see a player on Tour using a Bettinardi putter, you know as a consumer that if you buy a Bettinardi, it was made the same way as the one the Tour pro uses. Take Bettinardi brand advocate Jim Herman, for example; he recently won the Shell Houston Open with our Inovai 1.0. This is a current model we offer to all golfers.
How important is it (to you) that the putters have the “Made In The USA” stamp on them? When you look at all of our models, every single putter says “Made in the USA” on them. This is something that I am very proud of, and when golfers see that they can be rest assured they are using a quality made product.
