Speaker 1: Hi, James Miller from Cleveland, Ohio, and I played picking
Speaker 1: that golf course.
Speaker 2: This is golf Smart number one thousand and six.
Speaker 3: Let's make it kind of resemble a wedge, because if
Speaker 3: we're gonna putt with a wedge, we wanted to feel
Speaker 3: like it, which is why you have the perpendicular lines
Speaker 3: to the target line. Those are paying homage to the
Speaker 3: grooves of a wedge. And then the shape of it
Speaker 3: all was trying to get a visual of a wedge.
Speaker 3: We actually created the name because one we're going to
Speaker 3: spoil your opponent's game, but two we needed something that
Speaker 3: ended an ler, so we were working with industrial design firm.
Speaker 3: We all liked spoiler and that's why we went with Spoiler. Well,
Speaker 3: once we figured out the face was actually getting the
Speaker 3: role that we wanted, then it was just all about design.
Speaker 3: How do we make it look like a mallet but
Speaker 3: resemble a wedge, Because if we're going to say that
Speaker 3: we created this from putting with a wedge, like we
Speaker 3: want it to look a little bit like a wedge.
Speaker 2: Get a lead edge, roll with the spoiler putter. It's
Speaker 2: like putting with a wedge. With inventor Dan Lanblan, this
Speaker 2: is Golf Smarter, sharing stories, tips and insights from great
Speaker 2: golf minds to help you lower your score and raise
Speaker 2: your golf IQ. Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to
Speaker 2: the Golf Smarter Podcast.
Speaker 3: Dan, Hey, Fred, thanks glad to be here.
Speaker 2: Glad to have you on to talk about your new invention.
Speaker 2: Is it an invention a product? It's a product. I
Speaker 2: guess it's an invention because it's something that's out there
Speaker 2: a lot, but no one's done it like this before.
Speaker 1: That's right, right.
Speaker 3: We think it's We think it's pretty new. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, yes, we're a copycat. I don't think we
Speaker 3: are at all from where and how we design this thing.
Speaker 3: And so I think it's truly an innovation and hopefully
Speaker 3: the way that putters and everybody's going to start moving
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 2: Now, you gave away the secret. So we are talking
Speaker 2: about putters today and Dan and his dad have invented
Speaker 2: are created a new design for a putter. It's called
Speaker 2: Spoiler Golf and the key on this is the ler
Speaker 2: and spoiler stands for lead edge role.
Speaker 3: Glad you picked up on that. A lot of people
Speaker 3: do not pick up on that at all.
Speaker 2: It took me a long time to figure it out. No,
Speaker 2: it did not at all. No, No, because I got
Speaker 2: the postcard from you, and it's like l E R
Speaker 2: l E R. And then I started seeing a lead. Okay,
Speaker 2: great lead edge roll, but still to some people that's
Speaker 2: kind of confusing. So explain how you got to the
Speaker 2: point where you just you and your dad thought this
Speaker 2: could be a good idea to create a different type
Speaker 2: of putter unlike anything else based on the way your
Speaker 2: dad puts.
Speaker 3: Right, Absolutely, yeah, no, and I'd say it's probably maybe
Speaker 3: only just right now do we actually think it's a
Speaker 3: good idea because we've had a year of selling the product,
Speaker 3: and we've had good market adoption and we out of
Speaker 3: everything last year. Oh wow, congratulates you very much, and
Speaker 3: so so that was cool. So then it was like, okay,
Speaker 3: now we can take a breath, because before it was
Speaker 3: all pretty much an idea.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It was during COVID. I was living up in Philly
Speaker 3: at the time with my wife. COVID hit right, and
Speaker 3: then someone in our apartment building got COVID right, And
Speaker 3: this was very early on, so it was like to me,
Speaker 3: it was that's my death worn I'm done. Like we
Speaker 3: needed to get out of here because we're close to somebody.
Speaker 3: So we went down to South Carolina, where my dad
Speaker 3: was at the time, just to get away for a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks. Well that ended up being a year, right,
Speaker 3: as we all know what happened with COVID and whatnot
Speaker 3: and a lot of changes in life and things during
Speaker 3: that time. Well, we went down to South Carolina. Yeah,
Speaker 3: my dad was living there with my mom at the time,
Speaker 3: and you know, he was playing golf because that's pretty
Speaker 3: much all you could do right at the time. And
Speaker 3: you know, some courses were closed, but his was luckily
Speaker 3: open so he could play.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it was a great COVID was a great
Speaker 2: time for podcasting, but yeah, a great.
Speaker 3: Time, wonderful time for golf, and I guess a wonderful
Speaker 3: time for golf ideas too. So during that time, while
Speaker 3: we were down there, my dad was putting with his
Speaker 3: wedge and you know, he had told me, and you know,
Speaker 3: he he doesn't golf as much as he used to,
Speaker 3: but you know, at the time he was probably about
Speaker 3: a ten handicaps. He's a pretty good golfer, and he
Speaker 3: was telling me that, you know, hey, you need to
Speaker 3: start putting with your wedge because I swear it puts
Speaker 3: a better roll on the ball. I'm like, well that's dumb,
Speaker 3: because it's harder to hit the ball, and I have
Speaker 3: a putter, Like the putter is going to be better
Speaker 3: than it wedges, I'm going to try and belly a
Speaker 3: wedge right. So sometimes people will use a wedge and
Speaker 3: try and belly the golf ball right, just from a
Speaker 3: practice standpoint, just to work on contact location, try and
Speaker 3: work on their angle of attack, try and work on
Speaker 3: getting their risk quiet, try and work on just getting
Speaker 3: a nice rhythm with right with their stroke. Because if
Speaker 3: you don't do those things, not hit the ball in
Speaker 3: the equator. If you don't hit the ball in the equator,
Speaker 3: it will not roll properly. However, when you do put
Speaker 3: with a wedge and belly a wedge with the leading
Speaker 3: edge of a wedge hence lead edge roll, when you
Speaker 3: belly it with the lead edge of a roll, it
Speaker 3: does actually put a better roll on the golf ball.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure maybe you have tried time to time,
Speaker 3: or you haven't. You had your putter in your hand,
Speaker 3: or you left your putter at the cart, or you
Speaker 3: broke it or whatever, and so you had to putt
Speaker 3: with a wedge, like more often than not, when you
Speaker 3: just grab the wedge and hit it, it goes in right.
Speaker 3: And I'm not going to say that they all go
Speaker 3: in or anything like that, but there is some science
Speaker 3: behind it as to why it creates more forward roll
Speaker 3: earlier in the putt, So it helps the ball actually
Speaker 3: stay online better and start online better. Because it's rolling
Speaker 3: forward earlier, any deviation in the green isn't going to
Speaker 3: maneuver that ball offline. And then because you have less scared,
Speaker 3: less hopping less backspin, you have a better chance to
Speaker 3: gauge your distance control because we're removing a lot of
Speaker 3: that known that happens earlier in the putt.
Speaker 2: Let me stop you for a second and break down
Speaker 2: this concept of a proper role versus traditional putters. Explain why,
Speaker 2: what the difference is, how it starts from a traditional putter,
Speaker 2: and where it goes to on the spoiler golf PLA.
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, and I think this is something that like
Speaker 3: a lot of amateurs, I'll say most amaters probably don't
Speaker 3: even know this. I didn't know a lot about this
Speaker 3: until I dove in to working on putters. I think
Speaker 3: there's probably a lot of pro golfers that don't know
Speaker 3: this much detail. But like when you hit a putt,
Speaker 3: the ball does not stop rolling immediately. It does not
Speaker 3: just roll right. There's different forces in physics, right, putting
Speaker 3: different forces on the ball. The ball's going to scad
Speaker 3: for probably the first twenty percent. It could even have
Speaker 3: backspin or hop a lot, you know, depending on your
Speaker 3: loft or angle of attack right, and so's it's not
Speaker 3: a smooth role. It's not until there's an a friction
Speaker 3: between the putting surface and that golf ball to slow
Speaker 3: down any hopping backspinner skid to then the ball starts
Speaker 3: actually rolling forward in rolls like we would think of roll. Right,
Speaker 3: it's just rolling purely forward. But it's generally twenty percent
Speaker 3: of your putt is in that skid hot backspin phase
Speaker 3: before the ball enters into true forward roll.
Speaker 2: And that is on all traditional flat edged putters.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is on every pocket.
Speaker 2: So the ball doesn't just start rolling when you hit it. It
Speaker 2: skids skits absolutely right, and a lot of that.
Speaker 3: You know, if you just think of it from a
Speaker 3: common sense, the harder you hit it right, it's going
Speaker 3: to skid more. The harder you hit it because it's
Speaker 3: a smaller ball, it's got a lot of force being
Speaker 3: applied to it. It can't just roll immediately, right, It's
Speaker 3: got to skid a little before it can start rolling
Speaker 3: because you're just applying so much force in to that ball.
Speaker 3: And so when you have a flat face, I'm trying
Speaker 3: to use this other arm, but bear with me because
Speaker 3: I've got the rotator cuff injury. Right when you hit it,
Speaker 3: it's not going to go perfectly forward with a flat face.
Speaker 3: And really, with a conventional flat face putter, it has
Speaker 3: a little bit of loft on it, right, So if
Speaker 3: you hit a ball, really what it's going to do
Speaker 3: is shoot it up in the air and get it
Speaker 3: back spinning a little bit before then it starts rolling forward.
Speaker 2: And what is the impact of that roll when it
Speaker 2: skips or backspin or slides. What how does that impact
Speaker 2: the way your putt is going to be rolled?
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, what you're saying there, well, it impacts it
Speaker 3: in that that skid will vary. So it's you know,
Speaker 3: on average twenty percent, but based on the different turf conditions,
Speaker 3: whether you have ball marks or weeds or anything on
Speaker 3: the grass, that will always be different. It might only
Speaker 3: skid for eighteen percent, but you might be on a slower,
Speaker 3: shaggyar green and it might skid for twenty four percent, right,
Speaker 3: And if it's skidding in different amounts, then you can't
Speaker 3: really judge and gauge how hard to hit that ball. Moreover,
Speaker 3: if it's skidding and it hits a deviation in the green,
Speaker 3: it has more chance and the higher probability to skip
Speaker 3: it off of line because it's just skidding and it
Speaker 3: can kind of go wherever where if it has true
Speaker 3: for a role, if it goes through a ball mark,
Speaker 3: it just rolls right through it and it'll stay online better.
Speaker 3: So there are true advantages to getting the ball rolling
Speaker 3: with more for ad roll and earlier in the putt
Speaker 3: as early as you can, which is why when we
Speaker 3: started putting with a wedge, we realized the ball was
Speaker 3: rolling earlier. You can literally just feel and see the
Speaker 3: ball has a different role to it, And anytime we
Speaker 3: put a putter in people's hand, they're like, yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't know what it is, but it's definitely a different role.
Speaker 3: And that's the role that it's just rolling earlier in
Speaker 3: the putt. And so we've been able to kind of
Speaker 3: cut down that skid percentage and get the ball having
Speaker 3: more forward role earlier in the putt by designing this
Speaker 3: lead edge role face into our putters on spoiler putters.
Speaker 2: The way you and I connected on this is you
Speaker 2: referred to me by one of our favorite guests on
Speaker 2: the show, Joe Hallett, PGA Master professional based out of Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2: How did you get to Joe and how did you
Speaker 2: get him so excited about this putter?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And as you know, because I'm sure he sees a
Speaker 2: lot of different products, oh.
Speaker 3: My god, everything right, He's had world number ones playing
Speaker 3: under him on the LPGA. Like the man has seen
Speaker 3: everything and knows a lot about the golf swing, the
Speaker 3: golf ball, golf equipment, you name it, he knows it.
Speaker 3: We were fortunate enough to meet him through one of
Speaker 3: our partners. You know, our business is super super small, right,
Speaker 3: We just launched last January. We had a wonderful first year.
Speaker 3: I pretty much run everything day to day, right, Anything
Speaker 3: that you see it has to do a spoiler golf like,
Speaker 3: I'm doing it, even shipping clubs out, inventory management, marketing, website,
Speaker 3: you name it. I'm doing all. But I have three
Speaker 3: other partners. Four other partners actually that help us from
Speaker 3: a strategic standpoint. One of those those gentlemen named Dick Horton.
Speaker 3: The other two are Mark Singer. He helps us from
Speaker 3: a marketing standpoint. And then my father, Jeff Landman, was
Speaker 3: actually the right the one who came up with the
Speaker 3: idea of let's put the leading edge right of a
Speaker 3: wedge on a putter because that's the way I play
Speaker 3: it exactly because I think it's better. And I was like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't know about that, but over time he's proven
Speaker 3: that it is better. And so Dick Horton was with
Speaker 3: Tennessee PGA for a very very long time. He's actually
Speaker 3: a member of the Hall of Fame Tennessee. And he
Speaker 3: introduced us to Joe Hollett, who's at Vanderbilt Legends Club,
Speaker 3: and you know what, we thought we were going to
Speaker 3: have to go in and sell him on the idea.
Speaker 3: You know, he was at the time, he was the
Speaker 3: PGA Tour I mean the PGA coach and teacher of
Speaker 3: the Year, so I mean he was voted as the
Speaker 3: best teacher in the USA during that year. And so
Speaker 3: when we got to meet with him, obviously we're floored.
Speaker 3: We're a new company and we have a very different product,
Speaker 3: Like what is he going to think about it? And
Speaker 3: immediately he fell in love with it. He was like,
Speaker 3: I have people put with a wedge all the time.
Speaker 3: I know exactly what you're doing here. He's like, however,
Speaker 3: the issue is when I have people put with a wedge.
Speaker 3: They put with a wedge, but they put the putter
Speaker 3: in their hand and it just feels different because it's
Speaker 3: now a putter in their hand, it's not their wedge,
Speaker 3: so it doesn't have the same feel waiting, right, toe hang, etc.
Speaker 3: And so when he saw our putter, he was like, yes,
Speaker 3: this is this is genius, you know, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's obviously great to hear some validation from somebody who
Speaker 3: understands the space and could do something with So from
Speaker 3: a training standpoint, Joe absolutely loves this club because it
Speaker 3: forces you to truly think about ball roll and not
Speaker 3: so much about your stroke, and then you can truly
Speaker 3: feel what it feels like to get pure forward role
Speaker 3: on the ball, to truly just think about focusing on
Speaker 3: your contact and putting a good role on the ball
Speaker 3: and just letting everything else go. And that's what he
Speaker 3: uses this for with a lot of his players, and
Speaker 3: so they'll take in the bag and they'll do all
Speaker 3: their practice sessions and all their training sessions with spoiler.
Speaker 3: They might go back to their other putter, but at
Speaker 3: least now they understand the proper way in which they
Speaker 3: should put and how that ball should come off of
Speaker 3: their face.
Speaker 2: Fascinating, fascinating. So he sees it is like a training aid.
Speaker 3: He sees it as a training aid. And you know,
Speaker 3: you and I were talking a little bit before we
Speaker 3: jumped on air. There's another company.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I'm from Nashville, Tennessee originally, and so I knew them well,
Speaker 3: Seymour Putters, right.
Speaker 2: Sure, we've featured them many times.
Speaker 3: Seymore Putter started the same way. I mean, they were
Speaker 3: a training aid, or they were a putter with a
Speaker 3: training portion to it. And then realized, Hey, I'm making
Speaker 3: all my putts using this training aid, So why don't
Speaker 3: I go ahead and just put it in the bag. Right,
Speaker 3: our putters are We don't market it as a training aid.
Speaker 3: It is fully USGA conforming and it is a gamer
Speaker 3: and it is a putter that puts a better role
Speaker 3: on the ball to give every golfer a relative advantage
Speaker 3: over their playing partner and to truly help them experience
Speaker 3: pure role on the greens. Like, that's what we're trying
Speaker 3: to do, and we don't we don't care if you're
Speaker 3: using it as a gamer or if you're using as
Speaker 3: a training aid. If it helps you understand and apply
Speaker 3: a proper, more pure for roll on your ball, then
Speaker 3: we've done our job. And that's what we try to
Speaker 3: just preach day in and day out, like even you know,
Speaker 3: as little as like every time we sell a putter,
Speaker 3: we tell every single customer they can send us a
Speaker 3: video of them putting with our putter whenever they want,
Speaker 3: however many times they want, and we will analyze it,
Speaker 3: send them tips, feedback, et cetera. Because we want to
Speaker 3: make sure people are putting better, not just buying a
Speaker 3: better putter. We're truly hoping they buy a better putter
Speaker 3: to become better putters on the green and that's what
Speaker 3: we're here to do. We're not truly just trying to
Speaker 3: sell a product. We're trying to help people, Yeah, get
Speaker 3: better at putting by selling the product.
Speaker 2: Yeah wow, Okay, so this audience knows very well and
Speaker 2: if you've looked through my feeds on the various podcast episodes.
Speaker 2: You know that I've done a lot with Sam Hunter
Speaker 2: Lab Golf, and I'm a big fan of their science
Speaker 2: behind their putters.
Speaker 3: Me too.
Speaker 2: And I actually when I received your spoiler putter, spoiler
Speaker 2: golf putter, I wrote to Sam.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, he and I have strange text threads
Speaker 2: go very you know, infrequently, but still, and he said,
Speaker 2: I think it's a wonderful training.
Speaker 3: Aid good.
Speaker 2: He said that you guys, you guys reached out to
Speaker 2: him at one point, but he he he what basically
Speaker 2: what he says, I really appreciate that they have the
Speaker 2: balls to think outside the box and try new things. Yeah,
Speaker 2: nothing but respect for those.
Speaker 3: Guys I appreciate too, because we've we've exchanged some messages
Speaker 3: back and forth, Sam, right, just because you know, I
Speaker 3: knew of the lab before we ever got in the
Speaker 3: right into sure, because we just like so we spent
Speaker 3: a couple of years, you know, R and D and prototyping,
Speaker 3: et cetera. Launched last year, but before that time, you know,
Speaker 3: I heard you know, rumblings of Lab because they were
Speaker 3: finally starting to grow when Sam took over, Right, he
Speaker 3: was doing a very good job marketing getting the word out,
Speaker 3: and it was amazing, right. I was like, this is
Speaker 3: so cool and to me, the cool part and again
Speaker 3: this is before we ever got into creating our own
Speaker 3: part of company was right. It's a small company doing
Speaker 3: something in a space that is dominated by giants, right,
Speaker 3: and so like, I have just admiration and respect for
Speaker 3: what Sam's done, what Lab's done, what those guys have
Speaker 3: done over there, because it's it's amazing, and I mean
Speaker 3: I hear some of the numbers. I don't know if
Speaker 3: they're real or not, but it sounds like they're running
Speaker 3: an incredible, incredible business, which they should be because they're
Speaker 3: pushing the envelope right, and they've got cool technology and
Speaker 3: it works. And you know, we're trying to do something
Speaker 3: different in the space too. Ours is I would say
Speaker 3: a little bit more different just because it looks I mean, hit,
Speaker 3: I guess the DF looks very, very different, you know,
Speaker 3: and so it's a very very two.
Speaker 2: That's point one. But then the three is getting high adoptions.
Speaker 3: Absolutely have three, absolutely, and so we're trying to do
Speaker 3: something different in the space too, because we aren't expecting
Speaker 3: to appeal to you know, one hundred percent of right golfers.
Speaker 3: I want twenty percent of golfers to be raving fans
Speaker 3: of their spoiler putter.
Speaker 2: That's a huge number.
Speaker 3: It's a huge number, right, but of the right that
Speaker 3: and I'll say twenty percent of the entire right golfing population,
Speaker 3: but of people who hear about us, Like, I just
Speaker 3: want those twenty people to absolutely love us. And if
Speaker 3: eighty percent think that we're the dumbest thing that's ever
Speaker 3: been built or created or designed or the ugliest putter,
Speaker 3: makes no sense, Like, Okay, that's fine, I get it.
Speaker 3: That's why there's so many options out there. I mean,
Speaker 3: if you look at the putter world, like the number
Speaker 3: of putters out there is putter companies is really mind
Speaker 3: blowing if you really dig into it, Like there are
Speaker 3: so many mom and pops that I'll see and see
Speaker 3: shops right there doing but most of them to me
Speaker 3: are more of like an art form, and they're very
Speaker 3: pretty and they're nice, but there's not a lot of
Speaker 3: difference in what they're trying to achieve. And when we
Speaker 3: looked at this space, it was there's a lot about
Speaker 3: MOI and creeping your face square and these are very
Speaker 3: important things. But it's like nobody's talking about the role
Speaker 3: of the ball. All that matters is what the ball
Speaker 3: does after you hit it. Who cares what's happened up
Speaker 3: until that point. If we can get a really, really
Speaker 3: good role, well now, right now we're cooking with gas
Speaker 3: because now we have a lot more possibilities because we've
Speaker 3: figured out how to get that ball rolling earlier in
Speaker 3: the space.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know the thing that's you need, Like
Speaker 2: we're right now as we record this. This morning was
Speaker 2: the playoff between Rory McElroy and JJ spawn for the championship,
Speaker 2: the players Championship, and they had to have that Monday
Speaker 2: morning playoff because they finished too late yesterday. But what
Speaker 2: you know, I've interviewed so many people that have developed
Speaker 2: and introduced new products, but going back to lab Golf
Speaker 2: for a moment, it's one of the few interviews that
Speaker 2: I've done, one of the few products we've exposed that
Speaker 2: you're getting that kind of exposure, JJ Spahn, right, using
Speaker 2: the DF three, it's like that's going to sell putters. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: And we've always known on this show. We've always known
Speaker 2: if you get it in the hands of somebody on
Speaker 2: the tour you're going to start selling product, and otherwise
Speaker 2: even great ideas can just languish along.
Speaker 3: Here because you need that validation from kind of that
Speaker 3: third party that is, you know, has respect from the consumer, right,
Speaker 3: which you know in this space is yes, a pro
Speaker 3: golfer of some sort, right, And so I mean we're trying.
Speaker 2: And who succeeds, especially if they have success, you know,
Speaker 2: playing against Rori at a three whole yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, playing it to a three whole playoff, like you've
Speaker 3: you've yet with this product. And I felt that farm today.
Speaker 3: It's because he had sucked. He putted great the first
Speaker 3: three days he did.
Speaker 2: And what was interesting at the end of day one
Speaker 2: the three guys at the top on Thursday, who are
Speaker 2: all tied at six hunderd. We're all lab golf buttons.
Speaker 2: But that's not what you want to tell you.
Speaker 3: I'm all right, But like I said, I think they've
Speaker 3: they've done it, and they've also helped pave the way
Speaker 3: for other small companies to like to say, look, hey,
Speaker 3: there are quality products out there that don't come from Callaway, Taylor,
Speaker 3: may Dry, Puma, Cobra like they make great stuff too, right,
Speaker 3: but you know there's new stuff I just think that
Speaker 3: smaller companies can be can take more risk, right because
Speaker 3: bigger companies aren't going right, They've got their cash, how
Speaker 3: they know what's working. There's no sense for them to
Speaker 3: truly you know, test new orders until they know that
Speaker 3: there's a market for it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: We're out there trying to say, hey, is there a market?
Speaker 3: And I think think what happens with us and we
Speaker 3: see is when we tell people, hey, have you ever
Speaker 3: putted with a wedge? And when it's like you get
Speaker 3: the tinkers and the real golfers go, oh, now I
Speaker 3: get it. I put with a wedge all the time.
Speaker 3: Like I'm amazed at how many emails I get for
Speaker 3: orders that are this is genius. I put with a
Speaker 3: wedge all the time. I can't wait to get this.
Speaker 3: When can I get it? And like I didn't think
Speaker 3: I'd get that many, but it's like I swear every
Speaker 3: one in five emails right about it is like, hey,
Speaker 3: I'm I get it. I put with a wedge. I
Speaker 3: want to use this. I was like, oh, I didn't
Speaker 3: know there was that big of a population out there
Speaker 3: putting with a wedge, but hey, great to hear. And
Speaker 3: I think once people start using the putter and they
Speaker 3: feel that role and they actually feel the difference, it
Speaker 3: starts to become a little bit more addictive over time,
Speaker 3: Like I want to I want to chase that role,
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna use that putter. I'm going to continue
Speaker 3: to chase that role and chase that role.
Speaker 2: Dan, I really appreciate you letting me try out the
Speaker 2: putter before we got to have this conversation because it
Speaker 2: helps me tremendously. I'm holding it up here now and
Speaker 2: for those who, well, nobody's gonna be seeing this, but
Speaker 2: you are. So anyway, this is the lead edge, and
Speaker 2: this is what it looks like. It has a unique style.
Speaker 2: Talk about the design on this and how you came
Speaker 2: up with this design. One of the things that I've
Speaker 2: always loved about Lab Golf is that even before Lab Golf,
Speaker 2: I was using Seymour putters, and before that I was
Speaker 2: using I even forget what I was using, but I've
Speaker 2: always liked center shafted putters. I immediately, you know, I
Speaker 2: didn't grow up playing golf, so I didn't get the
Speaker 2: traditional stuff immediately. So I've always like a center shafted
Speaker 2: putter and the way the ball comes off of it,
Speaker 2: and I feel like it reduces the amount of mishits
Speaker 2: because there's not so much space between where all the
Speaker 2: weight's coming through for the shaft. And so in practicing
Speaker 2: with this and hitting some putts with it, I definitely
Speaker 2: notice the role was really coming right off. As soon
Speaker 2: as the strike happened, it starts rolling and that, you know,
Speaker 2: give me a nice, true role. But it did lose
Speaker 2: a lot of power on mishits, Like if I tried
Speaker 2: to hit it off the toe, you're gonna lose inches,
Speaker 2: you know, or feet depending on.
Speaker 3: How far it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so where did let's talk about what the design
Speaker 2: is on this putter?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So, I mean obviously we talked a little bit
Speaker 3: about you know, it was putting with a wedge, which
Speaker 3: was the inspiration for why we designed right. So that's
Speaker 3: you know, first and foremost we had to have the
Speaker 3: leading edge. The first buttter I don't have one with
Speaker 3: me right now, was a prototype we actually have. If
Speaker 3: you think of like the leading edge of a wedge
Speaker 3: and how small it is, and it's like a couple
Speaker 3: of millimeters, that's how big the leading edge on our
Speaker 3: first butter was. So if you want to talk about
Speaker 3: a training aid and actually I'm going to give Joe
Speaker 3: Hallett one of our old prototypes because he was like,
Speaker 3: from a training standpoint, I would love to see that thing.
Speaker 3: It was hard to hit the middle of the ball
Speaker 3: every time with it just like it is, which is
Speaker 3: why we've made that face a little bit wider. And
Speaker 3: you know, I will say that we've got a blade
Speaker 3: coming out in June, which we've actually made the face
Speaker 3: even a touch wider on the blade to give it
Speaker 3: a little to bit more forgiveness than we have on
Speaker 3: the mallet. So I'm going to have the greatest forward
Speaker 3: role and the purest roll out there. The blade's going
Speaker 3: to still have very very very good for a role,
Speaker 3: but it's going to have a touch more forgiveness, so
Speaker 3: it's going to have a touch less of that forward
Speaker 3: role on it. But anyway, to go back to the design,
Speaker 3: it was the leading edge of a wedge, so that
Speaker 3: had to be the first part right the face we
Speaker 3: had to design and figure out at what height we
Speaker 3: should have that face right, which was a lot of
Speaker 3: testing and working with focus groups to literally figure out
Speaker 3: how how do people hover their putter on average when
Speaker 3: they're taking a stroke? Right, So where's the impact or right,
Speaker 3: So it was you know, and then figuring out, okay,
Speaker 3: how much diameter do we need to hit right the
Speaker 3: equator of the ball on a consistent basis right, And
Speaker 3: so that was a lot of trying to figure out
Speaker 3: the front, leading edge and the face of the putter.
Speaker 3: Once we figured that out, the rest was all right,
Speaker 3: how do we now create a putter right, a mallet putter,
Speaker 3: you know, And I think we've got about forty eight
Speaker 3: hundred MOI, which is you know, it's it's it's good.
Speaker 3: But we weren't trying to create the highest MOI putter.
Speaker 3: Like we're not out there trying to say that we
Speaker 3: have the most forgiving or the highest MOI. We're saying
Speaker 3: we've got the best role and that's what we want
Speaker 3: MOI being moment of a nerve threat, which is right,
Speaker 3: going to help keep the face stable, especially if you're
Speaker 3: going to hit it off the toe or off the heel.
Speaker 3: So we're probably right in the middle of mois. You know.
Speaker 3: I think there's putters out there, like cure putters, perhaps
Speaker 3: their whole thing is and I think they're almost at
Speaker 3: like eighteen or twenty thousand, like it's really high, omi
Speaker 3: like it is a very stable face and they put
Speaker 3: a good roll on the ball too. The rest of
Speaker 3: our putter design was's make it kind of resemble a wedge, right,
Speaker 3: because if we're gonna put with a wedge, we wanted
Speaker 3: to feel like it, which is why you have the
Speaker 3: kind of perpendicular lines right to the target line. Those
Speaker 3: are you know, just paying homage to the grooves of
Speaker 3: the putter there right, or the grooves of a wedge.
Speaker 3: And then the shape of it all was trying to
Speaker 3: get you know, all right, it kind of comes back
Speaker 3: and trying to just get the visual of a wedge.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: When we did that, we were doing some and they
Speaker 3: were didn't have like the hole in the back where
Speaker 3: I quote unquote you know people call the back the spoiler,
Speaker 3: which I understand that's the name of it. We actually
Speaker 3: created the name because spoiler was one, we're going to
Speaker 3: spoil your opponent's role or your opon I mean to
Speaker 3: spoil your opponent's game. But two we needed something that
Speaker 3: ended in L E R. Right, because as you and
Speaker 3: so we were working with an industrial design firm, we
Speaker 3: all liked spoiler and that's why we went with spoiler.
Speaker 3: It just so happens that we had, you know, the
Speaker 3: entire thing when we made our first one. You know,
Speaker 3: I think it was like five hundred grams of steel, right,
Speaker 3: because we didn't have this hole cut out in the
Speaker 3: middle or any of it carved out here, so it
Speaker 3: was jagged. It was hard. This bottom part would get
Speaker 3: caught on the grass all the time because it wasn't
Speaker 3: We didn't smooth it out, We didn't round anything out.
Speaker 3: And then we went in right and started tweaking it
Speaker 3: to figure out well. Once we figured out the face
Speaker 3: was actually getting the role that we wanted, then it
Speaker 3: was just all about design, right, how do we make
Speaker 3: it look like a mallet but resemble a wedge, because
Speaker 3: if we're going to say that we we created this
Speaker 3: from putting with a wedge, like, we want it to
Speaker 3: look a little bit like a wedge. And then it
Speaker 3: was getting the waiting right. You know, we've got about
Speaker 3: twenty degrees of tow hang here. Where you say you
Speaker 3: like center shafted, I assume if here's a center shaft,
Speaker 3: generally now you're lyingle balanced, but before it was probably
Speaker 3: face balanced. And in our idea and our theory is
Speaker 3: for a pure and proper role. We want to not force,
Speaker 3: but we want to encourage. We want to encourage golfers
Speaker 3: to truly let the face rotate and let that toe
Speaker 3: release a little bit to help put a better role
Speaker 3: on that golf ball and right, and that's all just
Speaker 3: that's a lot of personal preference. You know, all of
Speaker 3: us were heel shaft I grew up with a heel
Speaker 3: shafted and I used to I grew up and I
Speaker 3: grew up right when I started when I was seventeen.
Speaker 3: But you know, I liked using I was an art
Speaker 3: major in college too, so it was like, I'm creative
Speaker 3: in my process and the way I play. I don't
Speaker 3: like to be very scientific with things or detail oriented.
Speaker 3: So I was using a blade, you know, like Phil
Speaker 3: used to use.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It was just like no line on it, just the
Speaker 3: old school blade, and I could just see a line,
Speaker 3: feel it and go. And I always always knew that
Speaker 3: if I would release the toe like the it just
Speaker 3: felt like it started on line and went exactly where
Speaker 3: I want. And so that's the theory for why all
Speaker 3: of ours right now we don't have a center shafted model.
Speaker 3: They're all heel shafted. Because we'd like to encourage a
Speaker 3: little bit of that toe release that then helps get
Speaker 3: that ball rolling even that little bit more. And right,
Speaker 3: that's a little bit of torque, But I think that's
Speaker 3: good because we want the ball coming off as hot
Speaker 3: as possible, right, and it comes off hot on this
Speaker 3: face and that's I think for me it makes sense, right,
Speaker 3: and for a lot of people who use this butter
Speaker 3: it makes But if you like a really soft buttery
Speaker 3: feel coming off, you know where you bar, you feel
Speaker 3: it like we're probably not the putter for you then,
Speaker 3: which is okay. But I think it's better to have
Speaker 3: a smaller stroke with a hotter ball coming off than
Speaker 3: having to take a larger stroke and not even have
Speaker 3: the ball come the same distance because you just have
Speaker 3: more variability in your stroke for issues to pop up. Right.
Speaker 2: So, well, yeah, the thing that that lie angle balance
Speaker 2: is they're trying to eliminate the torque, right, get that
Speaker 2: out of your system. But you're saying saying, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: this is this is built into it. We want to
Speaker 2: because the normal stroke for ninety nine percent of golfers
Speaker 2: has got that torque in there, and LAB is trying
Speaker 2: to say you don't really need it. You're saying, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: this is this is built into this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we think it's actually we're trying to use
Speaker 3: it to our advantage and to help create that role, right,
Speaker 3: But they're using it, you know, trying to take it
Speaker 3: out to try and keep that face stable. So we're
Speaker 3: both going after different goals, not ones right or the other.
Speaker 3: But it's just we like the way that it feels
Speaker 3: and we want people to be able to feel where
Speaker 3: the face is throughout the stroke so they know that
Speaker 3: if they need to correct it, they can, but they
Speaker 3: can also release that toe and know when it's time
Speaker 3: to release that toe. And we're not talking about you know,
Speaker 3: full shutdown of it, but it's just a tiny bit
Speaker 3: of release that I think is just a natural tendency
Speaker 3: for when we're putting the ball. Like even when you're
Speaker 3: bowling right, you're not going to roll it straight ahead?
Speaker 3: Are you going to roll it? You're gonna put a
Speaker 3: little bit of spin and that thing comes out and
Speaker 3: it's beautiful and starts rolling and you know, we'll slides
Speaker 3: for a while first on whatever they put on those alleys. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so that that's where we're coming from. That said, we
Speaker 3: are working on designing a center shafted putter. You know,
Speaker 3: I don't. It won't be lyingle balanced, it will be
Speaker 3: face balanced, assuming we like it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: We always design everything the prototype and make sure it's
Speaker 3: got the roll and fits within our the system theory,
Speaker 3: and then we'll release it. But we've had a lot
Speaker 3: of customers that are just used to us center shafted putter,
Speaker 3: and you know a lot of that is what people
Speaker 3: did growing up. And if you saw a lookdown, you
Speaker 3: saw center shafted all the time. Like to me, it
Speaker 3: is very very very hard for me to putt with
Speaker 3: a center shafted like I I just struggle with it.
Speaker 3: I can't see my lines. I can't, you know. But
Speaker 3: you put in anything heel shafted and I'm like, right now,
Speaker 3: I feel good. Let's do that. You know, whether it's
Speaker 3: a mallet or.
Speaker 2: Or a blade, is there a fitting process that you
Speaker 2: need to go through or is this like I would
Speaker 2: I usually use a thirty three inch putter, And you say, great,
Speaker 2: we'll send you one.
Speaker 3: Yeah. We we would love to get to a point
Speaker 3: to have a fitting process, and you know that is
Speaker 3: in the plans at some point. Right we launched this
Speaker 3: is just our second year in business, so we're trying
Speaker 3: to kind of start as as smart and focused as
Speaker 3: we can. Right last year it was just one club,
Speaker 3: one color, two shaft links, that's it. This year we're
Speaker 3: going to have you know, we've got our silver mallet,
Speaker 3: We're coming out with our black Stealth edition move before
Speaker 3: and thirty five inch. Yeah, the black is awesome. Oh
Speaker 3: I bet it looks like we need to order more
Speaker 3: of those already, so because we've been pre ordering them
Speaker 3: and I'm amazed how many pre orders we we've already
Speaker 3: had as well, so it's been a good start to
Speaker 3: this year. So we'll have those in thirty four and
Speaker 3: thirty five inch as well and left hand. And then
Speaker 3: we've got the Blade coming out later this year, which
Speaker 3: will be thirty four and thirty five inch and left
Speaker 3: handed as well. And so we're trying to keep our
Speaker 3: skews as limited as we can right now, because I've
Speaker 3: just seen too many companies get so excited about trying
Speaker 3: to appease everyone, which I want to do at some point.
Speaker 3: But our whole deal still is in the face technology
Speaker 3: and the design of the lead edge roll face, and
Speaker 3: so to us that's the most important thing, and we
Speaker 3: want to deliver that to people straight out of the box,
Speaker 3: ready to go. And if it's straight out of the
Speaker 3: box ready to go, they can make modifications however they want,
Speaker 3: right pull the shaft, put your own shaft in, put
Speaker 3: a new grip on it, change the li angle if
Speaker 3: you'd want. But right now, everything's just thirty four to
Speaker 3: thirty five inches seventy degrees because again all the technology
Speaker 3: for us is in the head. We will move along
Speaker 3: to where we are going to have more optionality once
Speaker 3: we can get our operations right, really really clean when
Speaker 3: it makes sense. But there's just we can't bankrupt ourselves
Speaker 3: right now. You know, we're still in a big hole
Speaker 3: from R and D that we've got to stretch out
Speaker 3: of a little bit before we can start adding on
Speaker 3: more services. And you know, hopefully after this year that
Speaker 3: that'll be the time if we if we hit the
Speaker 3: goals that we think we're going to hit this year,
Speaker 3: then we'll be able to invest in kind of a
Speaker 3: larger right inventory, larger operation, more customizations and that should
Speaker 3: hopefully be coming next year.
Speaker 2: Then very cool. And what are the costs retail?
Speaker 3: For the costs right now, we've got some pre order
Speaker 3: pricing going on, so it's a little bit off, but
Speaker 3: generally they started about three eighteen for the silver mallet,
Speaker 3: three twenty eight for the stealth mallet, and then I
Speaker 3: think the blade's going to come in. We're still doing
Speaker 3: final costs, but it'll be right around three hundred for
Speaker 3: the blade when it comes in. Those are costs, and
Speaker 3: you know, we know that, you know, most people want
Speaker 3: to putt with a putter before they buy one, and
Speaker 3: you know, and most people will go to Golf Galaxy
Speaker 3: right or Dicks or wherever and roll them right and
Speaker 3: they have everything there you can imagine you can roll
Speaker 3: before you you ever buy it. So we offer thirty
Speaker 3: days right money back guarantee too, so if people don't
Speaker 3: love it, you know, they can send it back and
Speaker 3: we'll give them their money back, because again we want
Speaker 3: we want people to love this. We don't want to
Speaker 3: just shove it down people's throat and if they don't
Speaker 3: like it, not enjoy it, like there's it's a.
Speaker 2: Lot of money. Yeah, let's redo it. And is this
Speaker 2: in uh internationally this order with the or nationally with
Speaker 2: the with the return policy as well? What's that with
Speaker 2: the return policy as well?
Speaker 3: International, it is, the only difference is that the customer
Speaker 3: then has to pay for the return the customer's player
Speaker 3: return shipping anyway, But it's only fifteen dollars in the US.
Speaker 3: If it's international, it can be anywhere more forty to them.
Speaker 3: I mean we've sent some that it was one hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty dollars shipping, right, and then they have to
Speaker 3: be duty and vat on top of that too to
Speaker 3: get it.
Speaker 2: So after I received it, did some putting with it
Speaker 2: in my practice yard here my practice putting green in
Speaker 2: my yard, and got some feel for it, which was
Speaker 2: kind of which was really fun. And then I did
Speaker 2: an ab back and forth with the DF three and
Speaker 2: and you know, it was like, oh, I can definitely
Speaker 2: see a difference here. And then hearing you say and
Speaker 2: and Sam saying oh it's great for training, it's like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: this is going to get a lot more time out
Speaker 2: there for that. But this weekend when I went and
Speaker 2: played golf, I brought it with me, right, and I
Speaker 2: walked out on the practice putting green and I talked
Speaker 2: to a couple of golfers and here, I'll let you
Speaker 2: hear the conversation. Here's the first one, Can I stop
Speaker 2: you for a second?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: Sim My name's Fred, Hi Fred, Tom, Tom, Good to
Speaker 2: meet you. Tom. I host a podcast called The Golf
Speaker 2: Smarter Podcast, interviewing a guy who just invented a new
Speaker 2: style putter. This is called the spoiler in the L
Speaker 2: E R. And spoiler stands for a lead edge roll. Okay,
Speaker 2: So it's based on the concept of some people putt
Speaker 2: with their wedge because because it gets.
Speaker 1: A good something I've never been able to do.
Speaker 2: What kind of putter do you use?
Speaker 1: This is Wilson eight eighty eight two Classic Classic Blade.
Speaker 2: Huh yeah? How long you been using it?
Speaker 1: That is probably my fifth or sixth season of it.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, So what I'd like you to do is
Speaker 2: just take a couple putts with your potter first from
Speaker 2: this distance and this is about nine feet, okay, go
Speaker 2: ahead and take a couple putts with your putter first,
Speaker 2: little editing here, good distance, a little bit low. Nice,
Speaker 2: great putt. Oh and it just slipped out. All right. Now,
Speaker 2: Let's give you some strokes with the spoiler and see
Speaker 2: how that feels.
Speaker 1: Fascinating.
Speaker 2: WHOA did I ask you what you're indexes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fifteen teen okay.
Speaker 2: And how's your putting generally.
Speaker 4: Depends on how much I'm playing, Okay, not playing as
Speaker 4: much as i'd like to. I'm working on something. I'm
Speaker 4: pretty happy with my putting. Actually, So that's straight back,
Speaker 4: straight through.
Speaker 2: It's up to you.
Speaker 4: It feels like it's going to be heavier at impact,
Speaker 4: but then it kind of isn't. That was a wipe,
Speaker 4: interesting though. It feels softer than you expected. Yeah, let
Speaker 4: me give it. Give it another one absolutely if you want.
Speaker 4: Are you a straight back, straight through kind of guy? No,
Speaker 4: I tend not to be. I used to put with
Speaker 4: them out before I started putting with that.
Speaker 2: Uh huh. How would you describe your putting? That one
Speaker 2: go in?
Speaker 1: That felt good? It looked great, right, and this had
Speaker 1: a nice release on it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you will try one of the longer putt.
Speaker 1: Sure, that sounds like fun.
Speaker 2: Okay, you pick it. Want to just go downhill to
Speaker 2: this one here?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Or this one over here?
Speaker 1: That's good? With this one?
Speaker 2: That's o good one too. Twenty twenty seven feet downhill.
Speaker 2: It's gonna break probably right to left, so he doesn't
Speaker 2: go straight back straight through. That's coming up a little
Speaker 2: bit short, kind of goes out and in and slides
Speaker 2: across the that that's really good. Just went past the
Speaker 2: hole on the low side.
Speaker 4: It feels like it's only hitting the top half of
Speaker 4: the ball, which is a little different, very different.
Speaker 2: For Yeah, it's a different feeling.
Speaker 1: It's interesting.
Speaker 2: It's cool, interesting idea. Yeah, it is cool.
Speaker 1: I'd like a little more weight at the bottom, I guess. Okay,
Speaker 1: that'd be my feedback.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool, Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you bet.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's awesome that I love it. People are just
Speaker 3: intrigued by it. That makes my day. Yeah, that's enough
Speaker 3: for me where it's like, okay, cool, Yeah that is different.
Speaker 3: It works, but it's not enough for me.
Speaker 2: There's another guy out there and here's what he here's
Speaker 2: that session that one went. What's your name, Mike? Thank you, Mike.
Speaker 2: Let's do this. Let's take like a ten foot putt. Okay,
Speaker 2: take three putts with your putter from that ten feet
Speaker 2: and even a six foot part seven foot putt?
Speaker 3: Here?
Speaker 2: What do we have here? This is about eight and
Speaker 2: a half feet. You practiced here before, you know, Okay,
Speaker 2: just ring the left side of your first one with
Speaker 2: your your own putter. What kind of putter. Now you're
Speaker 2: putting with a blade. This is a ping answer. And
Speaker 2: how long have you been putting with this? Oh?
Speaker 1: Probably ten years?
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: This is called the spoiler and spoiler okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The l E R is lead edge roll okay,
Speaker 2: which is spoiled lure. You said it's about the same
Speaker 2: way as your ping answer.
Speaker 1: My grip is thick. Yeah, so this is not ideal.
Speaker 2: Short put the good line on that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go a little longer putt. How's that?
Speaker 2: Okay? How did that feel?
Speaker 1: That felt fine? It's different. Yeah, obviously you.
Speaker 2: Know the point of the lead edge on like people
Speaker 2: putting with their wedges, it starts rolling immediately. With most putters,
Speaker 2: it slides a little bit. Yeah. So this is about
Speaker 2: twenty seven feet uphill, break right to left. Look at this.
Speaker 2: Whoh your first putt really nice, just on the high
Speaker 2: side of the hole. Passed it by about eighteen inches.
Speaker 2: Good line on this one, a little bit short by
Speaker 2: about three.
Speaker 1: Feet, and I still didn't hit it.
Speaker 2: A little bit short again, low side. What's your index? Mike?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: Right now?
Speaker 5: It's fifteen okay, Yeah, how's your putting? Usually my putting
Speaker 5: is inconsistent at best, but you're still putting with the
Speaker 5: same putter after ten years. Yes, it's what did they
Speaker 5: say about insanity?
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. You're going to figure out at some point.
Speaker 2: So any reviews, what do you what you're con.
Speaker 1: I like it. The only thing I would change is
Speaker 1: the grip.
Speaker 5: Is the grip really? Let me try this. I would
Speaker 5: like to try putting that off the fringe.
Speaker 2: Oh that's an interesting idea. Yeah, because of that lead
Speaker 2: edge being high.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so even into the ruff a little bit, can
Speaker 1: you put it?
Speaker 2: So let's take a little more level here. Okay, that's interesting.
Speaker 2: He's like, there's the first cut and then the rough
Speaker 2: and he's about three inches into the rough. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: the ball bounced up out of the rough on that
Speaker 2: first one came up short about four.
Speaker 1: Or five feet. It does bounce, bounces up.
Speaker 2: Interesting, And this is about a fifteen foot put That's
Speaker 2: real good. That's real good.
Speaker 1: Once you get used to it. I think it's fine.
Speaker 5: I what I'm trying to do is put that club,
Speaker 5: my regular putter under it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you don't have to do that with this.
Speaker 1: Let me try.
Speaker 2: That's not a putt that you have frequently in your game.
Speaker 2: You're just short of the green at a fifteen index. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I have a lot of puts from off the green.
Speaker 1: It definitely gets true.
Speaker 2: Yeah it does. Look at this oh.
Speaker 1: Just a little too firm and just under the hole.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one popped up. Take your putter off the
Speaker 2: green and show me what happens with this one.
Speaker 1: Wow, that was your best put off from off the
Speaker 1: green because that's your putter. All right.
Speaker 2: Nice to meet, great to meet you, Thanks so much.
Speaker 2: So I found that absolutely fascinating. Did these two random?
Speaker 2: I literally random? I just walked them excuse me? Can
Speaker 2: I talk to you? And never saw these guys before,
Speaker 2: but they both they were both intrigued by it. They
Speaker 2: both liked it. I loved the idea of the second guy.
Speaker 2: I think it was Mike taking it off into the rough.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh wait a minute, that makes a lot
Speaker 2: of sense because you know this, you know, if you're
Speaker 2: putting with a wedge, you want to strike the ball.
Speaker 2: And even as I was watching the Players Championship this weekend,
Speaker 2: whole seven.
Speaker 3: Three time, they'd all rolled Lucas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, it rolled and stop right at the edge.
Speaker 3: Now that is I was waiting for Brad.
Speaker 2: That's hell for all.
Speaker 3: If you need a spoiler. He just didn't say it
Speaker 3: if on are because he knows it's out there. He's
Speaker 3: commented on it before. But yeah, it's great for right
Speaker 3: up there, right up against like the Yeah, I would
Speaker 3: first cut and the green like that is. It's wonderful
Speaker 3: there out of the rough. It does take some getting used.
Speaker 3: You actually to me, I have to play it a
Speaker 3: little further back in my stance just because I want
Speaker 3: to try and kind of really want to make certain
Speaker 3: that I'm hitting either the top of the ball or
Speaker 3: right at the equator. If you hit under a leath
Speaker 3: it a little bit, it'll do what it sounds like
Speaker 3: that second gentleman did pop up a little bit before
Speaker 3: it starts rolling there, because I mean, it's definitely a
Speaker 3: smaller leading edge on it on that on that face,
Speaker 3: so you need to be very conscious of where your
Speaker 3: contact point is on the golf ball. It's really fun
Speaker 3: though that they yeah, that he wanted to go do that,
Speaker 3: because a lot of people will send us messages as
Speaker 3: well or call us and ask Kate, how does it
Speaker 3: work off the green. I'm like, it works tremendously well, right,
Speaker 3: You just need to play around with it. And I
Speaker 3: think it's the same with you know, with any putter,
Speaker 3: really like you need to get comfortable with it. Ours
Speaker 3: definitely looks different, but I promise it rolls or rolls
Speaker 3: better than anything else out there.
Speaker 2: As did I represent it? Well?
Speaker 3: What's that?
Speaker 2: I mean? You heard me representing your putter to these
Speaker 2: other people that are right?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Like, did I miss any point?
Speaker 3: No? And I I I actually I appreciate when people
Speaker 3: know nothing about it too and then just roll it right.
Speaker 3: And because to me, that's a lot of the reason
Speaker 3: why we haven't even approached like big box retailers or anything,
Speaker 3: because it's hard if you see this sitting on the
Speaker 3: ground somewhere and golf, the alex here, PGA superstoreg what's that? Yeah,
Speaker 3: and write it off as a gimmick. And so you know,
Speaker 3: we're doing a lot right now to make certain that
Speaker 3: we're not written off as a gimmick. We didn't build
Speaker 3: this to just be different for the hell of being different.
Speaker 3: We did it because there's.
Speaker 2: I can't afford that.
Speaker 3: No, And this is a business. It's a business, and
Speaker 3: it it truly rolls the ball better and it just
Speaker 3: looks different. But that's how we got to that end result.
Speaker 3: So you know, a lot of it is we've got
Speaker 3: to make sure that we're kind of still controlling the
Speaker 3: message to the consumer, which is why we do everything
Speaker 3: D two C right now.
Speaker 2: And direct to consumer. That's exactly what Still.
Speaker 3: We get to a point where we're a little more mainstream.
Speaker 3: I went down the PGAHO this year. We didn't have
Speaker 3: a booth, but you know, went down out, yeah, and
Speaker 3: I wanted to meet with people, and I had some
Speaker 3: meetings set up and some vendors and some manufacturers that
Speaker 3: I needed to meet with down there. So I went
Speaker 3: and met there, and you know, when I talked to
Speaker 3: a few people like, yeah, I'm Danni with spoiler often
Speaker 3: I've never heard of it, never heard of it. And
Speaker 3: I was like, well, like these are the people of
Speaker 3: golf and they haven't heard of it. But you know,
Speaker 3: if you like, we sold out last year. Our Instagram account,
Speaker 3: you know, went from zero to almost thirty thousand followers.
Speaker 2: In a year.
Speaker 3: Given a lot of tracks, We've had a lot of
Speaker 3: a lot of videos that have got millions of views,
Speaker 3: and so I think people, I think more people have
Speaker 3: heard of us than truly have, you know, So it's
Speaker 3: still there's a long way to go until we can
Speaker 3: get right enough people to hear about us, to give
Speaker 3: us a try, and and again once they give us
Speaker 3: a try. If everyone doesn't love it, I'm okay, but
Speaker 3: I want to make sure that the ones that do
Speaker 3: love it. And last year, if it's any indication, I mean,
Speaker 3: we had very very very low return rates, like you know,
Speaker 3: single less low single digits, and you know we we
Speaker 3: expected a lot more than that for being a very
Speaker 3: new product, different product and only about online. So we
Speaker 3: feel good with where we are right now. But it's
Speaker 3: a matter of getting it out there. Like you didn't
Speaker 3: just on a green I mean I do that all
Speaker 3: the time, right, give me your feedback because that's the
Speaker 3: other thing too, Like all last year to me was
Speaker 3: it was a huge focus group, right, you know, we
Speaker 3: bought our inventory, and then it was let's learn as
Speaker 3: much as we can. You know, what's the feedback, the
Speaker 3: grip feedback. I heard that a million times. We have
Speaker 3: brand new, thicker, nicer grips custom work work for us.
Speaker 3: This year. We got the same thing with the head cover.
Speaker 3: We got new brand new head covers coming out that
Speaker 3: are nicer, leather, more heavy duty, better stitching, the grip
Speaker 3: is probably twice as big, and like I said, it's
Speaker 3: going to have our logo on it, so it's all
Speaker 3: custom for us. So you know, we're making small improvements
Speaker 3: like that, you know, until and we'll continue to listen
Speaker 3: to customer too. Like the center shafted that I won't
Speaker 3: be a huge fan of, but maybe it'll change my mind.
Speaker 2: Is there any incentive that you can provide to the
Speaker 2: Golf s Murder community, you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 2: you're getting your the word out there. You've got an
Speaker 2: interest of a lot of people who are now listening.
Speaker 2: Do you have any incentive for them to come to you?
Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely no, and thank you for having me on
Speaker 3: this podcast. It's I've listened to it a bunch. Obviously
Speaker 3: Joe introduced me to you. But yeah, for any any
Speaker 3: lesser of golf Smarter, you know, if they want to
Speaker 3: make a purchase. We've been waiting to be in stock.
Speaker 3: Ran out of stock last year. We ran into some
Speaker 3: issues with tariffs and things all right, So.
Speaker 2: We're now talking in mid March here, so by the
Speaker 2: time people hear this, you'll probably have things hopefully back
Speaker 2: in stock.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, tomorrow, we'll be back in stock.
Speaker 2: Oh all right. So then by the time this thing publishes,
Speaker 2: you've got stock. All right.
Speaker 3: So so for any Golf Smarter listener out there, yeah,
Speaker 3: we can do ten percent off. For anybody who wants
Speaker 3: to give this a try. I'll send I'll send you
Speaker 3: the code, Fred and you can do with it as
Speaker 3: you will, but it'll be golf Smarter ten They can
Speaker 3: use it when they go.
Speaker 2: Just make it golf smarter.
Speaker 3: Just make it easy, all right. Let's just we're going
Speaker 3: to make the code golf Prter Moody, who yeah, hears
Speaker 3: about us through this podcast and wants to give us
Speaker 3: a try, so.
Speaker 2: On the coupon code. So just go to spoiler golf
Speaker 2: dot com when you check out, check out, check out
Speaker 2: the whole site, and when you're checking out, put in
Speaker 2: golf Smarter and you'll be getting ten percent office right,
Speaker 2: you're Spoiler Golf button.
Speaker 3: Absolutely and training it and hopefully you're back. Yeah. And
Speaker 3: how people want to use it, We're all here for it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, take one home and check it out and you
Speaker 2: got a thirty day You got a thirty day money
Speaker 2: back here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, awesactly want people to love it.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: At the end of the day.
Speaker 2: Fabulous, Dan, Thank you so much. I'm really impressed. I'm
Speaker 2: excited for you guys. I hope this works way beyond
Speaker 2: your expectations too, and anything that we can do to
Speaker 2: give you a little bit of a push, I'm happy
Speaker 2: to do it. Thank you, man, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Appreciate taking the time and always
Speaker 3: fun chatting with you.