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Matthew Fitzpatrick won the Estrella Damm NA Andalusian Masters Championship on the European Tour at the weekend.
In the past few years, I have been following the professional progress of this young British man under the advice of fellow writer Alistair Tait. That said, when providing context, I admit to being surprised to see what this victory means.
Fitzpatrick is only 27 years old. This is the seventh European title of his career. He is the fourth youngest Englishman, second only to the three talented trio of Peter Osterhus, Lee Westwood and Nick Faldo. That's the elite company right there.
The victory at Real Club Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain also allowed Fitzpatrick to rise to 25th in the official world golf rankings and to 5th in the European Tour Dubai. The young player was meaningless in the two Ryder Cup European matches, including last month in the whistle strait match, which is far from the young player's voice. Of course, Italy will have a better time in two years.
For gear lovers, there is another important factor: Fitzpatrick's Bettinardi DASS BBI Flow Prototype putter won the second victory in the past 10 months.
The double-aged stainless steel (DASS) insert design is known for its prototype roll-controlled face milling, which is the one-time innovation pillar of Yes! golf. You may remember it and the brand. Yes! Golf calls it C Groove technology.
Since the patent has expired (and has not been renewed), it worked well for Fitzpatrick. The mix of Titleist and PING equipment is filled with gearless players' travel bags, but his Bettinardi prototype putter provides a unique random element.
Fitzpatrick's victory is the seventh professional title for the company based in Tinley Park, Illinois in 2021. Since 1999, this has also pushed Bettinardi's global tour wins to 94.
It is by no means the same level of championship success enjoyed by Scotty Cameron, Odyssey or PING, but let us not forget: Bettinardi golf is a hobby. It is Bob Bettinardi, the founder of a side business founded in 1998. Today, it is heading towards a three-digit tournament victory.
Along with Fitzpatrick, Bettinardi putters are used by Matt Kuchar, Jim Herman, Jason Kokrak, Fred Couples, and several LPGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour players.
"In the past eight years, telling our historical story has been very interesting for me," said Bob's son Sam Bettinardi, who took over the brand's marketing and sales in 2013. "From 1999 to 2003, we have been on our own. Hogan has us from 2003 to 2005, Mizuno has us from 2005 to 2008 and 2009, until now we have been independent. Fortunately for me, , I started my business in 2013, won 40 to 50 professional golf victories, and told our unique and unique story."
Since then, this has been an amazing parent-child labeling team. This successful family business located outside of Chicago now has products in more than 40 countries around the world. A few years ago, it expanded into the wedge sub-category with its HLX series and, in cooperation with Kuchar, played an important role in creating arm lock push rod technology.
"For the first 10 or 12 years, Bettinardi Golf was a passionate project for my father. It was something he liked as a golfer. He knew how to make great bad machine parts and beautiful putters, but He doesn't necessarily own the brand behind it or know how to develop it through marketing and touring support. This is the task he gave me at the beginning: develop distributors, find new countries, fine-tune and upgrade the brand," Sam said.
Early Bettinardi was almost unique to the United States and Japan. Furthermore, the brand has established a reputation among the Midwest putting enthusiasts in these countries and near the Chicago market through Hogan and Mizuno products, respectively. But it's almost there.
Several of the first phone calls Sam Bettinardi received in 2013 were to large grocery stores and off-site retailers. PGA Tour Superstore, Club Champion, Golf Galaxy and Golf Town in Canada were all contacted. At that time, Bettinardi had zero traction on any of them. Today, it sells products in all 35 stores including Golf Town.
"When I entered this industry, direct-to-consumer sales were not powerful because people didn't want to buy putters online," Sam explained. "They still haven't. They want to be able to try it out. Putting these additional distribution points outside the door is great. It allows golfers to try one of our putters, roll a shot, touch a shot and feel a shot . Honestly, Golf Town was a coup for us because it was our first truly large international touchpoint outside of Japan. Since then, we have further established our Canadian market through Catalyst Golf."
Sam's timing is also good. The moment he joined his father's business social media, he was taking off. The young Betinaardi not only has a good story to tell, he also has an ideal platform to tell.
"It's great. Use Twitter, Instagram and Facebook megaphones to help promote what Bettinardi is, well, it's important," he said. "It really helped me tell our story in a cost-effective way. I mean my father created the first integrated milling putter for golf. He did it when the company spent most of the time casting putters. At this point. We have history, we have tour wins, and I can’t forget that we also have his honeycomb milling technology. We are just beginning to tell the story of Bettinardi. Social media is still one of our best channels."
Honeycomb face milling is still the flagship product of the brand. Bob Bettinardi was familiar with this method in 1998, which uses jeweler-grade machine tools to precisely machine the face of the putter at a vertical angle.
According to Bettinardi, “This process flattens the face by 200% and eliminates the concave effect on putters from other manufacturers.”
"He wants something completely flat. What he gets with Honeycomb is almost like a jeweler," Sam said.
It should be further recognized that itinerant verification is essential to Bettinardi's operations. There is a limit to making great products without using tour players. The use of the tour makes the prospect of this ceiling much higher.
"We used our putter with Francisco Molinari to win the 2018 British Open," Sam said. "In the same year, we won the European Championship from Li Haotong and Eddie Pepperel. This year, we won our first LPGA Grand Slam with Patty Tavatanakit. Matt Fitzpatrick won in Dubai .Jason Kokrak wins in the colony. For a brand like ours, all of this is huge. It verifies our quality and verifies performance. Dealers always want to know who is on the tour Playing it in a show? Say Matt Fitzpatrick is very good, he is ranked 25th in the world, Jason Kokrak, 29th in the world, Sam Horsfield (Sam Horsfield) ), won two European championships this season, using Bettinardi putters."
After Fitzpatrick's victory in Spain last week, this not only made the two European Tour champions this season a pair, but also added an accessory to the Bettinaardi Golf story.
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