Bob Bettinardi hard at work

Robert ‘Bob’ Bettinardi has always chosen the path less travelled — especially when it comes to creating golf clubs.

His Bettinardi Golf company is now known across the globe as the world leader in creating unique pieces of equipment, tailored to each individual golfer — specialising in bespoke and ‘One-Piece Technology’ putters.

But it has been a journey of more than 25 years — and a lot of hard work — to reach the pinnacle in golf equipment design and production.

In 1991, Bob turned the putter industry upside down by crafting a tool from a solid block of metal — what he phrases as ‘one-piece technology’ — rather than follow the herd and opt for castings, forgings and weldings to create putters. He soon had all the top golf industry original equipment manufacturers lining up at his door when word got out about the advantages his distinctive products could offer the top professional players on the greens.

A talent for design and state-of-the-art machining methods has seen Bettinardi Golf add some of the top manufacturers and golfers to its portfolio.

And once more, that determination and talent has has been rewarded as Bettinardi Golf claimed an unprecedented five golds in the Golf Digest Hot List 2023 Awards.

Golf Digest Middle East recently caught up with Bob and Dean Cheesley of eGolf Megastores — the region’s leading golf equipment supplier and fitter — to talk about the Bettinardi journey and plans for the future.

“I started dealing with Golf Digest 20-something years ago, and I was always begging to get into their gold or silver list [on the Hot List], but it seemed they always went with the Scotty Camerons and the Pings and so on,” Bob tells us with his dry humour always lurking during a recent visit to Jeddah. “So around 15 years or go I said to myself: ‘I’m done trying. I will never get on that list.’ As soon as I did that — boom — it all started to happen. It’s like when you give up chasing that girl you were after for years, then she starts calling you.

“That’s when I brought in my son.”

In 2012, said son, Sam, joined the company’s ranks as head of marketing and sales, helping the company embrace the ever-evolving e-commerce market. Today, Sam serves as Bettinardi Golf President, clearly inheriting his father’s eye for putter designs, as well as player development alongside Bob.

“He’s 33 and he’s fantastic,” Bob continues with fatherly pride. “He’s grown the business about 1,500 per cent in the past 10 years. I was always trying to keep things small, but Sam said: ‘No, I need graphic designers, marketing people, this and that,’ and now he has grown the business very nicely into what it is today. But this year was the icing on the cake! On the Hot List we have five Gold putters and a Silver wedge.”

Then the humour creeps in again: “The greatest thing about the Hot List is it is listed alphabetically so we are listed first ahead of the Pings and TaylorMades, so it looks like we are on top — double gold!”

But as we rewind back to the conception of the solid putter and how it was received, Bob takes on a more serious tone.

“So it’s really a simple,” he explains. “When I first got into the business in 1991, everybody was casting their putters out of a mould and then pouring molten metal into the mould, let it cool and there you have your putter.

“I ended up doing some milled putters for Ken Giannini, and they were all welded. The body of the putter and the little hosel were welded together to make a milled putter.

“I started questioning why and how they were doing things. And one of the things that I questioned was, why would you weld that little hosel on to the body of the putter, because when you weld you add heat to the metal, and me being a metallurgist and engineer, I knew that when you add heat to metal, you distort the metal.

“When you’re trying to put the ball into a four-and-a-quarterinch cup from 20 or 30 yards away, you need all the precision you can get, and distorted metal will take away from that and hurt you.

“You want that putter without any spot or wrinkle basically. That’s what you want the putter to be.

“So I said to a couple of people I was doing business with — TP Mills and Scotty Cameron — ‘Why don’t we make the putter from one piece?’ And they go: ‘What do you mean?’

“I explained, we get a big block of metal and carve everything off that until we get to that putter inside.

“At first they were worried it would cost too much. But I knew if you want a precision instrument, instead of welding, you need to carve the entire thing out of one piece.”

And so Bob went off to prove it was worth it and the One-Piece Technology (trademark Bettinardi Golf!) putter was born.

“The first putter I made was very similar to the Ping Anser,” Bob continues. “I made it for Scotty and he gave it to a guy called Bernhard Langer, who in 1993 won The Masters with it. That was ‘Big’ for Scotty and me as Scotty’s name was on the putter and I was manufacturing them.

“Roll on to 1997 and Tiger Woods, you know him? He, at 21 wins The Masters. His big ‘Hello World!’ moment. He did not three-putt for four rounds with a putter that was made in my shop — a onepiece putter.

“In 1998, I decided to go out on my own, and Jesper Parnevik picked up my putter for the 1999 Greater Greensboro Open. My first tournament on my own and he wins with 27-under with 99 putts. Then my name was getting out there and my name was on the putters and that’s how we got started.”

“After a short time with Ben Hogan, I decided to set up my own company. So from 2008 Bettinardi has been on its own and we have grown into what we are today. Francesco Molinari wins the Open with our putter in 2018, Matt Fitzpatrick wins the 2022 US Open with our putter.

“I read comments about my product like: ‘I can’t describe this feeling … This putter feels like butter … It putts itself.’

“That is the culmination of doing things the right way, making it the right way. If there’s another way in the future that’s going to be better than milling, I would like to know what that is. I would want to do that. I want to make sure I’m always on the cutting edge of making the best. That’s what Bettinardi is.”

Bettinardi golfers have claimed nearly 100 elite tour titles since 1998, with players still knocking on Bob’s door for the latest blades and mallets to give them that extra edge.

Just last month up-and-coming LIV Golfer James Piot joined the likes of Matt Fitzpatrick and Georgia Hall, who carry a Bettinardi putter in their bags.

“Jason Kokrak, who won three times in one year about two years ago, uses a production Bettinardi putter that is actually off-the-rack,” Bob says. “Georgia is using a putter that is off the rack — but she wanted her name stamped on it and made a couple of custom things done to it, so we tailored it to her requirements.

“Shergo Al Kurdi is an example of one player who uses a custom putter, not a production, called our BB0, which is really meant for people who want something special. We don’t sell these production, they are made to order for each individual. Some like the Toyota, Shergo has the Ferrari.”

RELATED: Take a look at the latest Bettinardi creation

One of the most popular of the Bettinardi putter ranges is the ‘Hive’ — high-end luxury and Tour putters with one-of-a-kind designs and made-to-order diverse looks and appearances with highquality finishes. “These are very limited-edition and constructed one-to-one,” Bob explains. “It took us nearly a year-and-a-half to persuade Matt Fitzpatrick to find one of our putters that was perfect for him. I’m talking probably eight to 10 times of trial and error. So he was a very difficult person to deal with — in a good way! He would be like: ‘No, it doesn’t feel right. No, the weight is wrong. No, the loft is wrong. No, the lie is wrong. I don’t like that shaft.’

“So you were talking about days, weeks, months of working on a putter specifically for Matthew.

“But now Matt is very happy because he has the right putter for him.

“This just illustrates that the Hive and customs are really all about taking the time and the extra effort to make this special product that a golfer would like. If there is a customer that wants his initials, or a logo, or his son’s name on the putter, we will take that extra time to make the putter just the way they want it.

“We will add a special head cover, a special grip, a special shaft.

“The client is shown renderings, and they may want a few changes — so really the client is being treated like a professional golfer.

“Once we get the green light, we make the putter and 10-15 weeks later, the client has their unique product.”

Just something to ponder — imagine seeing your playing partners’ faces when you whip out that majestic, personalised mallet on the green for the first time …

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Visit any eGolf Megastore outlet to work with their team to curate your very own one-of-a-kind putter.