Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore

Ep #37 - Cutter Wedge: Dickie Walsh (Inventor and CEO)

March 08, 2021 Paul Liberatore Season 2 Episode 37
Behind the Golf Brand Podcast with Paul Liberatore
Ep #37 - Cutter Wedge: Dickie Walsh (Inventor and CEO)
Show Notes Transcript

We made it to Episode 37 of the Behind the Golf Brand Podcast.  In this week's episode, I interview my friend Dickie Walsh, the founder and CEO of Cutter Golf. 

The Cutter wedge by Cutter Golf performs as advertised in two distinct ways. It is draw bias and will help right-handed players keep their ball from traveling too far right. The Cutter wedge will also enable players to hit the ball higher than any other wedges tested by this site. Golfers will have to decide for themselves if that is a good thing or bad thing but if you are struggling with your short game and you are tired of seeing shots slicing to the right or coming out low and not stopping on greens, the Cutter wedge can absolutely offer new levels of performance to your golf bag. 

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Speaker 1:

Today, we play a golf. Let me show you how we do it in the pros. Welcome to behind the golf grand podcast. I've never missed with the seminar, a conversation with some of the most interesting innovators and entrepreneurs behind the biggest names in golf. My friends were the golf clubs. I lived on the golf course. I lived on the driving range from pro talk. You should learn something each and every single run you play to fund from on and off the green. Why would you play golf? You don't play it for money. Just let me put the ball in the hole. This is behind the golf brand podcast. With Paul libertory behind the golf brand podcast is sponsored by OnPoint. The revolutionary three-dimensional dome golf ball marker on point provides a layman recognition as small as a degree of inaccuracy from the planned course of the putt face angle endorsed by Jim Furich us open champion and 17 time PGA tour winner. On point alignment technology has been proven to increase putting performance and help lower your score. Visit OnPoint golf dot U S, and be sure to use code[inaudible] for a 10% discount on point. Make more putts.

Speaker 2:

This episode of behind the golf brand podcast is sponsored by our friends at Orca golf bags or could golf bags is the only woman owned golf bag design and build company in the country. That was so great about Orca is that they do more than just callbacks. They do gym and leisure bags too. So be sure to check out orca-golf.com for more what's up guys, Paul from golfers authority, welcome to the Heineken brand podcast. This week, we are on episode 37 of the show. Uh, Holy crap. That's starting to get out of a lot of numbers now, but this week I have a friend of mine who I've been. I don't know. We probably been talking for a year and a half before they even launched, like they even launched yet. Right. That's when we first started talking and I knew they were going to go somewhere or like the first time I talked to them and then we actually hang out, hung out at the PGA show, had lunch. So he's all my buddies. Uh, so this week I have Vicky Walsh from cutter golf, cutter golf is the newest and hottest wedge right now that is blowing up. We'll talk about why, what, how it works and who's reviewed it because we repeated, we had, I think we were the first review or actually, but it's awesome. And he's just like us. Like, he's just a dude like us who started his own wedge company pretty much in the last two years it's doing really well. So without further do welcome to the show. Dickey. Thank you, Paul. I'm looking forward to this. When you asked me I couldn't wait to do it. So I've seen a couple more of your, uh, your previous episodes and I'm looking forward to it. It's fun. It isn't like, this is just us hanging out. Like this is, I always like talk on the phone for an hour. This is the way it's like, it's like, we're talking all kinds of stuff. So where do you live? Where are you located at? I live in Northern California, near Sonoma County, a little town called Petaluma, live on the country air. It's beautiful. Over there. Smells like cow dung all the time. Does it? I didn't. I know exactly what it is. I think there's a bunch of wineries near there, right? Yeah.

Speaker 3:

I'm in wine country. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

That'd be drunk every day.

Speaker 3:

A lot of breweries popping up out here too. That's good. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think I went there like 10 years ago. We said an Airbnb or I was like early two thousands. It's expensive, man. If you try to get an Airbnb in that area is fricking expensive or it wasn't that I was like, it was like$800 for one night or something like that. And I was like, Holy crap.

Speaker 3:

There's a lot of money up here. So they expect

Speaker 2:

People to pay for it. My cousin paid for it because he worked for Google and he's like, I'll pay for it. And I was like, fine with me, man, whatever you want to do. So tell me your first golf memory. When did you first start golfing?

Speaker 3:

Gosh, I started golfing, uh, my high school girlfriend. Judy was, um, her father was a member of green Valley country club. I don't know. Maybe some viewers will know where that is Northern California. And I just remember going out with her. I think I was a sophomore in high school and I remember, um, you know, I was a sports fanatic, so I was packing away at it. But you know, when you're 17 and an athlete, you can, once you can see like, Oh wow, I can do this. So that's, that's my first memory. Um, yeah. Uh, I've got a ton more one, one, one specific memory, um, was how I came up with this club. And that was my favorite memory.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So tell us that story. Cause I remember you telling me it's like a long time ago and I think it's fascinating. Cause like you just had this idea right. When you were playing golf. So yeah. Let us know how that, how that kinda came about.

Speaker 3:

So I believe it was, gosh, it was like early nineties. I can't remember the exact year and I, maybe I should find that out when I tell this story, but it was Newport country club, Newport country club down in Newport beach. And uh, I was following Tom Watson. I've only been to a couple PGA, but that was my first following. Tom Watson. Everybody knew who's that no introduction there. Um, he hit this ball right near the green and his ball was right next to Palm tree and he couldn't hit it standing there. So he had to turn his back to the target. And at the time I'd never seen a shot like that. So you, everybody knows what it is. You turn the club around and he hit it behind or backwards. And it just pick the ball clean. Cause the cause the shape was, you know, like this, he just picked it clean. It landed on the green, you near the hole, the place erupted. But I looking at that thinking, Whoa, I've never seen that before. So of course the first thing I do when I get a club in my hand out normal wedge, I turn it over and I'm studying it. And I'm thinking, man, that's really cool. So after seeing this, I'm thinking that I'm this unbelievable golfer. I invent this shot where I hit it with a tone, with a normal stance. Everybody knows it's called shipping with the toe and I had never seen it before. So here I am shooting with this shooting with the toe near the green and I'm getting really good at it. And my buddies are like, wow, you're really good at that. And I'm like, yeah, I met at that shot. I really didn't.

Speaker 2:

But I really thought I did get out of here. But

Speaker 3:

Uh, and later on I just said to myself, wait a minute, um, let me look around and see if there's anything that's ever been done like this. And of course, no, no nobody ever attempted it. And that's how I got the inspiration. That was again, 15, 16 years ago from today, you know, it was a big, big dream.

Speaker 2:

So before that though, like you're just, you're just, you're a hacker like us, right? Like you're like pro or you're not like, you know, you just are an inventor, you know, your mind works like that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I'm a businessman. I have a job outside of all of this. And um, I am just a guy. I have never worked in the industry nor ever wanted to, uh, I, I never wanted to be. So I have a friend of mine that I went to college with plays, played in the pros for many, many years. And I remember seeing him at a reunion and I said, so how's the, how's the golf thing going? He goes, well, I ha I've been playing professional golf for about 11 years now. And I haven't played golf for pleasure since 11 years ago. It's a job just like that.

Speaker 2:

Anything like I used to be a pilot. Right. And it was, Oh, that's the best job in the world. I'm like, not when you do it for a living, like it becomes a job. Like the fun of it when yeah. There's a difference, right. When you cross that line, wherever that line is for whatever you'd like to do, like then it's like for me with the podcast and the YouTube and all this crap, like it's fun for me because it's not my job. Right. It's what I want to do when I have extra time or free time or relaxing or whatever. But it was a job I'd be like, this sucks. You know? Like,

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I mean, I've, I've never worked in industry. I don't want to be in the industry, but just by doing this, I have become a participant. And I don't, I don't want to claim that, uh, you know, I'm a, um, I'm a groundbreaking individual. That's going to change the world. I had none of that stuff. I just created a wedge that I thought that should be created from scratch. Not from a precedent of a normal, traditional looking wedge. So I looked at instead of how does physics, how does physics dictate how a wedge should be shaped? And that's, that's really how it began. So it wasn't anything like, you know, I'm going to change the world. It was just a dude trying to create a club and I ended up doing it. So it's, uh, it's been a fun ride so far.

Speaker 2:

It's crazy. So like, when did you, so you know, you've been working and you still work a full-time job, which I know tell everybody where we work, but think he's a very smart man. And he works for a very big company and he's very high up. So he's just like us though. Right. And you decide, Hey, I'm actually going to, I'm actually going to do this. I want to actually come up with something. Cause it's been probably festering for years in the back of your mind. Right? So like when did you start figuring out like, Hey, this is, I'm going to do this. I bet your wife thought you were crazy, right?

Speaker 3:

No, my wife's a golfer. In fact, when we go to Hawaii, she's the one who's saying, when are we golfing? Where are we golfing? And it's like, dude, we just paid three days in a row. But no she's super supportive of this. In fact, she's part of the company. She's an incredible marketer she's been in marketing or so she's yeah. She's, she's the idea lady. So I can tell you that. But you know, um, like I said, I thought of the idea 15 years ago, but I never really got into, you know, um, a prototype and back then too, right. In the last five years, I think, feel like people can do stuff now, you know, before it's like, where the hell do you start? Yeah. Back when the 3d printer was, uh, I guess, um, a consumer product that's when they were super expensive, thousands of dollars. And there was a term that was coined called the makers and the makers really were the people who could do stuff, but the normal consumer couldn't, but now there's so many resources, but you know, to answer your question, how I got going on this was, I just sat down one day, bought a block of clay and made this ugly Fred Flinstone thing. Yeah. And it's ridiculous. Right. But I thought to myself, okay, well, uh, I used to work for a company who, uh, made design software, computerated design software. And so I know how to use CAD software. So I made my own 3d model and all this stuff and I bought a 3d printer and printed it. And I also have some very, I have a lot of resources, friends who offered to help me. And, uh, the first submission to the USDA was kind of a joke. Um, I was very high and just about it and thinking hope, wow, this is going to be great. And I got this, I got this letter, this decline letter saying, we're sorry, but your design doesn't meet these standards. And it was the things like grooves and, um, you know, the, the Heights and all those things, the things that are pretty standard, but there was the one thing that they said, this is the most subjective category in approval for clubs is a thing called plane in shape and plane in shape is interpreted. It has basically what it means is it has to look like a golf club and, uh, this doesn't look like a golf flip. So yeah, so I licked my wounds and I said, all right, where do I go from here? But I got a, I got a handwritten note in the mail a few days later from the director of the USDA, never met the man, spoke to him on the phone a few times. And he said, basically, this dear Dickie, you're really onto something. Golf needs innovation like this. I hope you pursue this, signed the man's name. And I thought, wow, that's, that's really encouraging. And at that point I was kind of like, man, maybe I shouldn't do this. I don't have the skills for it. I'm just the guy. And, um, that really motivated. And that's when I turned up the knobs, you know, I went and found people. I found this and this and this. And I probably spent, you know, 10,$15,000 on just getting nowhere. And that's one of the things that's so hard about being an inventor is you spend money, everything you do everywhere you turn. Yeah. And it was crazy. But I finally got to a point where I said, all right, I gotta, I gotta do something about this or drop it and never think of it again. But you know, they say in life, it's not, uh, the, the things that you do that you regret, it's the things that you never did that you regret. And I said, I gotta do something. So I went to a, uh, a, uh, a golf forum. There's a lot of forums out there. Um, yeah, everyone's on it. Uh, it was, um,

Speaker 2:

Golf works. I think it was.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I don't remember. I only used it one time. Um, but you know, they have all these categories and one of them was, uh, club making. So I, you know, asked to be approved, got in there. And I posted one, one question, all I said was, does anyone know a real golf designer, not somebody who works in the product industry or consumer products as somebody who can design a golf club. And I got one answer. I mean, you'd think people would chime in and all these things and Hey, what are you making? Nothing, just one answer here. And it was from a guy, um, who I found out later is super, super famous. And he said, this guy, Jeff sheets, here's his website. That was it. This guy, Jeff sheets. Here's his website. I wrote back. I said, thank you. I clicked on the website and very kind of innocuous website, nothing, no frills. Yeah, nothing fancy. I clicked on his email address and I wrote him an email saying everything. I just told you exactly the whole story. And we're not the very end. I didn't say anything about the USDA and the handwritten note. I sent him a product spec. Well, actually, no, I just sent him the email and he writes back pretty quickly. He says, I don't work with individuals. I'm sorry, but here's a couple people that you may want to call that, you know, may be able to help you. And then I wrote back, I said, that's too bad. And I took a picture of that handwritten note. I said, I got this note, but thank you very much for your time. He writes back immediately and says, I know this person, this director at USDA, he would never say that if it wasn't something that was interesting. Why don't you send me what you have? And let me take a look at it. So again, being in the business world, um, I know how to write product specs. And I wrote a pretty good product spec. I've been doing it, you know, this one product spec for like 15 years. So it's a very fine tune. And I sent it to him and he calls me back within 15 minutes and he says two things. He goes, I got two things to tell you, I think you've created a brand new club or a shot category. And I want him, that's all he said, I didn't know what to say. I was like, um, okay, uh, hi, how are you? Yeah. What does that mean? And anyway, it was that thing that was in October of 18 and no joke on November. I think it was 17th. We submitted to the USDA and on Christmas day he calls me I'm in Hawaii and he goes, I wanted to give you some a present on Christmas day. He goes, you just got conforming with USG within less than two months. I couldn't believe it with less than two months of him saying I want in to getting approved. So, um, you know, I don't know what it was. Maybe the planets, I don't believe in astrology, but, uh, man, it was

Speaker 2:

Fricking made something that is

Speaker 3:

Revolutionary. Like people see

Speaker 2:

It or the people that know you didn't know,

Speaker 3:

You know, you thought you knew, but like you didn't know, know. And then when people actually saw it and they're like, okay, this is, this is something different. I'll tell you. It's funny. When I first talked to you, I was like, Oh, this is the new alien wedge or even better. You know what I mean? Like you didn't do a million of these things. Like I already knew it. I knew it. It wasn't like you see a lot of like clubs or, you know, whatever. Nope. I knew right away. No doubt. Yeah. But you know, it's funny you use that word revolutionary and you will never see that in anything. We do marketing whatever. And here's why I feel like I should have a musket when I say that. I just don't like that word revolutionary. A lot of people think it's revolutionary fine. But um, I just think it's a funny, funny word when it comes to, um, because so many people use it. Um, you know, my word I like to use, I don't use revolutionary IO because I feel like I hear that it's like revolution golf and all this other stuff. My favorite word is I like disruptor. Right? You're gonna disrupt the market. No one's ever seen. And like that is, that's why I always had to feel like, yeah, I kind of live that way too. Like, okay, we're not, we're doing, we're doing the opposite of everyone else was doing. Right. So yeah. So then you get USDA conforming, right? And then what happened? So once I got that part of what I do in my, in my real life is I am, uh, we manufacture product and we get it, um, manufactured in multiple countries, not just China. We get parts all over the world. And uh, you know, we sell a product that's I think from 5,000 to$10,000. So it's a high quality product. We're sort of the Mercedes-Benz of our industry. So I know a lot about importing, um, manufacturing. I sort of cut my teeth on all this. And my wife says all the time. Yeah. My wife says all the time, everything you've done in your entire career is a culmination of the cutter wedge. It's everything you do. Or you have done in the past, you know what to do now. And she's right. Everything I've done, it's been so easy to do, except for one thing, find the golf designer. And when Jeff came on board, um, you know, it was amazing. Jeff has worked with every single club manufacturer. I believe that's ever lived. I mean, he's one of the most prolific designers on the planet. Um, there are a lot of names out there. He's more of an unknown person, but what Jeff has invented or is it a part of like what clothes? Like it's pretty phenomenal. Yeah. Well, you know, Jeff told me a story, uh, and I, I'm going to try and remember it word for word, but, um, I may get some wrong. So sorry, Jeff. He told me a story that somebody paid him a lot of money to come up with a self gaming club. That's a big deal, a self gaming club, because most people say, and we've all been out there. All you golfers out there, you line up, you feel like you're perfect. You hit the clubs. So sweet. It's just that pain. And it goes off to the right or goes off to the left. So, I mean, I thought I was aiming correctly. So a self aiming club is a big deal and he tried to do it and he said he couldn't do it. And he failed. He gave the money back and that was the end, the story. And when he saw this, he goes, you've done this in one fell swoop. He goes, I don't know why I didn't see it before. So what he did was he just took my product spec and my thoughts and my ideas and sketches. And he came up with a prototype and the first prototype, I'm going to show you what it looks like. This was just the basic basic prototype. It wasn't a final, but this is the back end. You can see, this is just a amalgamation sort of this Frankenstein thing. He just cut up and welded in his shop and he sent it to me and he says, don't look at the, sort of the, how it looks. Look at the premise behind it. And the thing about what he did was he created a brand new soul. That's the start of all of this cutter wedge story, the soul of the club. I'm going to show you the real club now. Okay. So here's the real club. This is the cutter wedge. That's the backside. You can see the perimeter weighting is very balanced. The soul is RQ it and shape like a bow and arrow. Or what I like to say is it's like a boat haul. And of course the famous face, everybody says, well, the face sort of looks like a driver face, but you can see that it has a high top edge, but it's symmetrical. You have this giant sweet spot, but here's the sole area. It's a very, very narrow leading edge. So the premise behind the soul basically is like a boat haul. Think of it. This, you know, you see these, a shovel that Flathead shovel, you lay it down on the ground and try and push it through grass to be, it's going to catch. Now you take one of those pointed shovels, put that on the grass and push it through. It's just going to with ease. That's sort of the premise behind this soul. The soul is this again, I say this boat haul, but then it leans into this leading edge and the leading edge. When you swing the cutter wedge, it, it feels like you're not even catching the grass. It's like, am I above the grass? Because again, it just shoots right through it. And uh, the comments we get back from people about the field, they say, I don't feel the drag. I don't, it's so much less than obviously. I mean, the biggest thing people say is, wow, that face looks like a spatula or it looks like we get a lot of funny things that people say about it. Um, but yeah, I, you know, a lot of people go, Oh my God, I love that look. And some people go, it's such an optical illusion, but I'll, I'll talk about some comments later. But um, you put those three things together. There's three things that happened with the club. Again, you don't feel the drag. So what happens when you have less drag, ball's going to go farther. So you have to adjust. Sometimes some people say, when I'm right next to the green, normally I would swing the club at this pace. But now with the cutter, which is going farther. So you have to adjust based off of the drag. The second thing that happens is you, the club is literally lining up for you. That's when Jeff was saying, this is a self-aligning club and you're pointing it. People tell me all the time it's going exactly where I'm pointing versus it's going in a direction that I'm thinking about shooting, they're pointing and it's going. And the last thing people are saying is that it is super a super confidence builder. So many people are saying, I'm hitting this thing and I'm not thinking about it anymore. Like the dreaded shot over water or over a bunker. I'm on the other side of it. People don't think about it anymore because the there's a lot of

Speaker 2:

Physically feel confident. Right. Cause I looked down at it and I was like,

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of physics behind this. And again, I'm not a physicist, but um, I know some physicists and they've helped me with the design. Um, our club has a, um, center of gravity that is like no other, I think. Uh, and so many people in industry have told me this, but here's the kind of cool thing for the gear heads out there in golf. There's a thing called in I E M a Y it is a measurement of forgiveness. So a forgiving club that has a lot of forgiveness. What that basically means is it's a twisting thing. This is something I learned. You know, I, I watched, um, that one where you had Terry co Kaler on and he talked about a lot of different things and um, really interesting show. Uh, I really respect him and he's been doing this a long time, but you know, Jeff told me that the forgiveness factor is just basically twisting at impact. A typical wedge is right around 2,600 in that scale. Now this is what I've been told, uh, 2,626 50, the higher, the more forgiving. Well, Jeff did a quick measurement of the cutter wedge. It's like 3,400 because there's almost zero twisting because of that boat haul. So that when we discovered these things, I mean, those were not my intentions in the beginning. But man, when we, when we discovered these things that are measured in golf terms and terminology, it really was just like, uh, I was vindicated because so many people said, you know, gimmick or whatever, you know, the face. And you know, I, one P one thing I would say to people out there is, do not listen to the naysayers or the haters man. There's so many of them, but, uh, I have more supporters and haters. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Especially so, well then what happens? So you guys get it built, right? You get the prototype done and then what happened?

Speaker 3:

So the prototyping was the hardest part because you know, you have to, um, you gotta get a block of steel, literally a four 31 stainless steel block, and those are expensive. And here's the most expensive part of the entire process. You got to find somebody with a, with a three access CNC machine, if you don't know what that means is that that's one of those machines where they have three drills in different angles. It's an X, Y, and Z angle. And it's milled literally with these drill bits out of steel. So you get a golf club out of this block of steel and it takes hours. That process nearly cost me$4,300 for one golf club. And I think it's the most expensive golf club on the tiny. So once that prototype was done, then you do this thing called testing. And I gave this thing to probably, I don't know, 30 people that I knew and they all tested it and they all came back and said, man, this thing is legitimate. It's a little weird at first. But, and the thing was that the prototype didn't have groups, the guy didn't have the ability to make groups. So this was a piece of steel with no grooves and people were still able to make shots with this without grooves. And I just knew right then after the testing, like, Oh boy. And then after that, it just came down to, uh, securing a factory. And my factory, uh, also manufacturers for three of the big mafia.

Speaker 2:

I've I

Speaker 3:

Have affectionately called, uh, I am, I have the, one of the best factories on the planet and I don't cheap in and out. It's expensive to make. I, I, you know, I could have went to Vietnam or somewhere else where I could have made it for$10 a pop, but I didn't do that. You know, it's the club

Speaker 2:

You can't, you can never, uh, make, reduce your quality. You know what I mean? Like there's just no way.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And that's not my Mo I come from quality product and I figured, well, I'm going to spend the money for it. And I'm going to charge a little more for it and let some people look at the price and, you know, there's people out there that say, I only play forged clubs. Okay, good for you. And they say your club's too expensive. And there's, like I said, there's a lot of people who have a lot of opinions. And if you ever invent something, there's a lot of opinion. And it's up to you to listen, uh, to thank them for that opinion and to implement that opinion or not. But I always say, be humble. Uh, nobody likes, um, nobody likes an inventor. So you just, you gotta be humble and just say, thank you and, and move on. But, um, I can say that we had, we had one iteration from this, to this club. We had nothing in between. It was like, it was meant to be. And, um, yeah. So then we went to market. I, you know, I, again, I, I have a lot of business experience, so I built my website by myself and, um, launched it soft, launched it like you did with your, with your stuff. And, and, um, having spent a dime on marketing.

Speaker 2:

So when did you launch it? Wasn't like, I think this was like November eight. No, it was like September. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Actually it was, it was a very, it was a soft launch. October of 19. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then, uh, we did, uh, you know, I guess if you want to call it a hard launch in November, December timeframe and, um, you know, it didn't take off, it was no giant hockey stick. And I always tell people, you know, you get a lot of people saying, Oh, you need to get a pro. And I always say, man, I'd love that, but I'm not going to waste time on trying to get a pro. I don't really need a pro. That's not my goal. I don't want, I w I would love to sell millions of these, but it, my goal isn't just to sell it, hit it and quit it. I want to create a legitimate product. And that's our goal for 2021 is to create legitimacy, not sales goals, not design goals. It's create legitimacy, that's it. And, um, you know, when we launched our sales have been just going up, but gradually we've had a couple of big months and you know, any, any time does a review, it definitely spikes. And we've had a lot of reviewers.

Speaker 2:

So one of you, I know you had Rick Shiels review it. How'd you get that?

Speaker 3:

It was the biggest one. Well, you know, I always say I've never been, I've never been starstruck. I've been around celebrities all my life. Um, I played a sport in college and a lot of those guys ended up playing pro and one, guy's a hall of Famer, so I'm not starstruck. So I just figured shoot, I'm just going to email Rick shields. And I emailed him and he answered me. And I said, would you like to review my product? He said, yes, send me one. I sent it within three weeks. There was, there was the review. It was that simple, very nice, man. He's not a Nope. He doesn't charge anybody. And also nothing is after we did that review, I asked him, would you like to, you know, promote my product? He goes, I don't do that. I don't promote anyone. So a lot of people say, Oh, he gets paid by this. He gets paid by that. I think Rick just makes his money off of the advertisements and YouTube.

Speaker 2:

I love right now. I mean, I don't know him personally, but he's my favorite YouTuber. I mean, for golf, honestly, like he just, he's a straight shooter, right? There's no, I don't know. When you hold a lot of clubs, you guys, he has over a million subs. And so when I saw that, I was like, Holy crap, how the hell did he get Rick shields and view it? And then, um, and then, I mean, I said that email, I saw that I sent out to my email list and everybody I knew I was like, and you know, cause you have this up too. Cause you remember you gave us, we still have the discount, like a small, you know, uh, a discount on the product. So people, I might sell a ton of those things now. I mean, just because of that reason as well, because people you're taking care of our subs and our readers and our, you know, like, so that's some validation right there. I think, you know, because he didn't pay him. Like I haven't paid it. I don't get paid. I wish I got paid for this. I be doing

Speaker 3:

A reviewer yet. And we've got, I don't know, 12, um, 12 reviewers have done comprehensive reviews and none of them are bad. Some of them are, um, you know, offhanded comments. Like I really don't like the shape. Like when Rick said, well, I put this in the bag. I don't think so. Because of the way it looks. And he got a lot of flack for that, from his, his viewers. But I don't, you know, the look is,

Speaker 2:

Here's the thing, right? If you're, if you care about the look, then that's not the club you don't, I think you bought that. Look, that's not the club for you. If you don't care about the way it looks, because you like want to be better than you don't care. Right. And most people don't care unless, you know, like you could be, you got the best look and stuff in your bag, but you be the golfer in the world. Right. I mean,

Speaker 3:

You know, there there's something that I, uh, I, I say all the time to people who, who say to me, ah, the clubs, just not for me or no, I don't want to buy it because I don't like the way it looks. I mean, I don't know how many of your listeners or viewers, um, ever gone to get fitted for a set of clubs. I recommend it because you play better when you do that. But there's a process right here. Try this brand, try this brand. And you sort of hone into one brand. I love playing Calloway's by the way, Calloway, if you're listening, I'd like you to buy my club from me. I'd like you guys to acquire us. That's my, that's my goal anymore at all. But when you do that, you hone in on one club, set one brand because it's your, you know, your height, weight, all that stuff. I'm not offended. If somebody says I can't swing the club, I don't like it. I'm not offended by that because it's not for everyone. But I gotta be honest with you. I got a couple, you know, points that we've achieved in this last year. So your questions were what happened after that? So what happened after we launched, we are now in over 35 countries around the world. We are in every state of the U S we have sold through four orders of inventory and we have not gotten one bad review. And here's the best part, which is unbelievable. I have a 30 minute, 30 day money back guarantee. Like I said, we've sold thousands of these. I have six returns, six, six people said I can't hit it. That is a crazy, it's typically around three to 7% returns in a good world. I'm really pleased with what the reactions of, of, uh, clubs of club purchases. Well, let's see. What happened was you, when you guys first launched, I remember correctly. You guys had one club, right? Well, what was the degree of that wedge with 56 degree wedge. And then now you have all three or more? 52 56 and 58, right? And left hand. Yeah. And before you only had one and you had just the one club that was actually the club you sent me. I don't even have anymore. My dad ticket. So if you'd like me to review the other two clubs and you can send me, Oh my gosh, I would love that.

Speaker 4:

I'll send those out right away. It is really cool. I'm like, give it back. He's like, nah, I'm good.

Speaker 3:

I was like, all right, whatever. Yeah. You know, I, um, th th the thing that, uh, I don't know, I I'm, we have a patent on the club. Uh, we got a patent in seven months. I don't know if anybody out there knows, but that's unheard of it takes three to three, three and a half years. Just get an answer. We got it in seven months, like literally handed to me in seven months. We are, it is a design and one is a utility utility and design patents. And here's the thing that when we patented this product, we didn't patent a wedge. We patented a, it is, I'm going to read it to you. Here. We, what we did was it's an iron type golf club head. So our plan isn't to release wedges in the patent. It States from a, I think it's a seven degree, two all the way to a 72 degree. So our plan, isn't just a release irons. We're going to release club. Our, I'm sorry, our plan, just not wedges, going to release a set of irons into hybrids. That's the big cutter golf goal. And, um, you know, our designer, Jeff, he doesn't see any issue with that. Again, it's one of those things where somebody sees the face, Oh gosh, you know that face, I can't get over that. Look then it's not for you. But so far, you know, the whole idea of releasing a set of clubs,

Speaker 2:

You started with wedge, but now you're going to branch into other clubs because I can do it. And it's kind of cool because you're building a whole nother type, you know, like where this style has never existed, right? It's not like that's crazy.

Speaker 3:

What's interesting is a lot of people have come to me and said, well, what happens when you, you know, you have these clubs and you know, where do you go from here? And, you know, I'm not divulging anything that's secret or of our strategy. You know, I'll tell, tell your listeners, we want to be a golf company. You know, my goal isn't to keep, uh, to quit my job and to become a president of a golf company. You know, we, we talked earlier about how a job is a job, and I don't want this to be my job. I love golf. I love playing. I'm not fanatical about it, but I love to play. I don't want to become a, um, a golf company. Eventually, maybe I'll hire somebody to run this. Or maybe, like I said, somebody will acquire us because if the fact of the matter is we got the, we got the patents and we've got 15, 20 years of this ready to go. So, you know, I'm just hoping that we're able to, uh, get to that point with the irons. And if not, you know, somebody will have the opportunity to do it.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of cool. So right now you have the three wedges, are you this year or you're just what, so what's your plan for this year? That is it just to build the build well on what you already have and not like, you know what I'm saying? Like build more foundation and I guess a better way of saying it,

Speaker 3:

You know, like I said earlier, obviously I'd love to sell millions of these, but I think what it's going to come down to isn't, um, you know, getting a pro or spending a million dollars on advertising. I think there's a, there's a ground swell on this and it's going to continue to grow. I think this year, you're not going to see any more clubs. Maybe not even the next year. We might make some design changes, very subtle design changes, tweaks. Yeah. But, um, you know, for the most part we could sustain ourselves for a few years just by selling these wedges because, you know, the, the top selling products are, it goes drivers, putters wedges. Those are the top three selling products. Um, and the other trend that's happening right now, which is something that I have been doing for years in my other businesses, is selling direct to consumer through a website is really where the world is moving to. There's a lot of metrics out there that point to direct to consumer. I mean, you've probably seen this, the tailor-made arm, sorry, the Adam's tight lies. They've been, re-released strictly direct to consumer, not through dealers, because I think that tailor-made who purchased that line years ago is thinking, well, there's so much

Speaker 2:

Disappeared. What year was that? That was like four years ago. 90. It was the new

Speaker 3:

Adam Adam's blue driver. What was that number? That a couple of years ago? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. That was part of it. Yeah. Well, when, I guess when Bernie, Adam sold it to tailor-made, they buried it and then, and created really good hybrids and under the TaylorMade brand, but now they're rereleasing this. So I think if we just stick with the direct to consumer and keep pushing it, you know, um, I think we'll be fine. No, I think, I don't know. It's kind of cool to see this because you always see, you know, the same old, same old come out every year from the big brands, but then when you did something completely innovative and like, I just knew, I just knew, honestly, I was like, Oh, this guy's going to go somewhere. And then when I even talked to you, like, Oh, I saw the club, like, that's interesting, you know, it could be gaming the club who knows. And then I talked to you and I found out like the history of it and the development, I was like, Oh yeah, this is going to blow up. This takes time. You know, like you said, you're not paying somebody. Right. Like, like everybody else it's like, if you, I dunno, that's the one thing I hate is everything's, that's paid to playing golf. Right. And it's like, yeah, I'm like the antithesis of that. So I'm just more like, you're going to review it, send it to us. We'll review it. Sure. No. I mean, they all want to share a story with you guys. So after all is said and done, and things were going great. And, um, I get a letter in the mail and I want to show you, you guys, what this is, this is from Tom Watson, shut up. It's from Tom Watson. And he says, dear Mr. Walsh, thank you so much for your kind words. I li I have to admit that your club is very, I'm sorry. Wait. He says, I have to admit, I have never seen a head shape like this one before. Good luck with it. Sincerely Tom Watson. And the stamp is of Arnold Palmer. So here's why he sent this to me because on my website, I have a video of how was it created? And there's a clip of him at that actual tournament. I found it. And that's what I use and the explanation. And he saw it and he sent me this letter. So I sent him a quote, but I mean, nobody writes handwritten letters anymore. Right. It's just, I tell you, I got it framed. And you know, I was smiling ear to ear for a week after that, but really cool to get acknowledged because had you not gone to the tournament that day, right? You probably would've never have known. I mean, honestly, you don't know what's going to be the trigger or know there. Yeah. There are so many things that have happened for a reason I believe in. And you know, the, the, my friends now who used to laugh at me about, you know, when I, when I did this one, they are now saying, you know, they're just taken aback by the success we've had. And again, I'd say to everyone who's watching and listening is this was not an intent to come into the world of golf and be a new, you know, I don't want to be a PXG. I don't want to be in it. I just want to make some good clubs. And my goal is to make people love golf when they're around the green, that's really what it is. Cause that's where I, I like to think I Excel in that area and I wanted people to see

Speaker 2:

What, how, how, what the color wedge can do for you. And the premise behind it is really it works. And, uh, we're, you know, take a look at our website, play cutter.com and you can see the, the reviews. I mean, here's the other thing too, is we're the number one selling wedge on Amazon. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. We sell it for more on Amazon. Yeah. We sell it for more on Amazon and, um, it's, I think it's$5 more on Amazon and go figure people are buying it on Amazon because they're coming here to buy. Yeah. I struggled with that choice. I didn't know if I wanted to do, and I should. Let's just figure it out. What the devil, this kidney, Amazon, the other thing too, is, uh, we are now in the UK, Australia, uh, Canada, and the U S we have warehouses and all four of those countries. Holy crap. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah. We had those with all of that. Was it within 13 months we had warehouses literally in those places. So we've gone through four shipments, but we've also shipped to those countries. So it's growing, it's blown up and I love it. Like I said, my goal is to sell millions of these in like that I'd like to sell millions over a period of time. And I want to, my goal really is to erode the big five. I want to erode their sales. So they sit up and go, who are these guys? I love that. I think we all don't mind for everything because I feel like there's such a monopoly, right? Like they're totally a monopoly. And like they have, yeah. I don't know, honestly, like, I don't know with any of those brands, none of them, they want to lie. Cause they don't care about us. They don't, they have their ways of making money. So whatever, I don't care. I actually, I'm going to tell you a story. One time I, I reached out to a big brand, not gonna name names, but uh, they're actually a Scottsdale based brand that's been around for ever. So you could probably tell you who they are. And I was talking to them and they go at one point, they said to me, it's not, you it's us. That's what they told me. I swear to God, I had that in writing. And I was like, are we like junior high? Are we breaking up? Like, like, you know what I mean? And I was like, okay, fine, whatever, you know, you know your guest, Carrie Kaylor, am I saying that? Right? Taylor Taylor said something. That was really, that really resonated with me. If you want me to. He's a good dude, man. I've actually spoken to the person before. But um, he said something about how, you know, people say all the time, you should get a pro to play this. And what he said was really pointed. He saying that, you know, the clubs that the pros play are hand tuned, fine tuned, and made for those, that person they're not off the shelf. So what makes, what makes you think that you can play the clubs that they're playing? You're really not. You're buying it off the rack. My story about buying. I bought these tiles.[inaudible] right. There were like$2,000 irons. Okay. I can't remember who you use in Jordan. And somebody used them a couple years ago. I was like, I'm going to buy it. This is before I started. And the website, guess what? I could never hit those clubs. Never, never, never, never, never, never. And then I got fitted by a brand called Redbird alien, but still it's an online fitting. And they sent me a set of custom clubs, which I actually have on the show in the next couple of weeks. They're awesome. They're a Seattle and they are legit by game. Completely changed. Completely changed. I get hit solid every single time. So it's just, yeah. You know, those guys are fine tuned for the club. Don't think because they're using a title as AP two or whatever I have back there. That's what's making them win the game. No, man. They've been fitted for that club. It could have been a rock with a stick attack is tied to it. It would still hit it. Right. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3:

You know, it's it's when they, whenever you see what's what's in, you know, the bag Rory McIlroy bag, it's like, okay, great. I mean, you just have to play what you, you have to play your game. And that's why we created this club in all honesty. We've created the club because it makes the game easier. And some people go, somebody once said, why are you creating a glove to make the game easier? Why don't they just go get a lesson and make the shot and learn how to hit the shot? And it doesn't work like that. Right.

Speaker 2:

Not play golf. It does not work like that.

Speaker 3:

And a lot of people, yeah. A lot of people have a lot of things to say, but you know, the only way to do this is to try the club. I mean, once you try it, you're going to go, Holy crap. It's exactly Mo the most common thing that people say to us when they review the club, it says exactly what you say it does. That's the thing

Speaker 2:

People say. Yeah. I mean, there's no BS, right? Like, I don't know. I think you get a blow up, I think in five years, you and I wasn't a cutter is, and I don't know. I just, I just do. I think,

Speaker 3:

Yeah. The number one strategic thing we did that worked was we named it cutter because I said, I want people to say, Hey, toss me my cutter, not tossing my 56 tossing me, my tossing, my cutter. Well, which one? The 58. I want cutter to be synonymous with short game, 30 yards in it kind of a thing. And I think that's, uh, so many people call me and say,

Speaker 2:

You got a fan of me. You had a fan of me since. Awesome, man. Thank you friends. Like people go, Oh yeah. UFC people, your friends. No, I don't invite just random people on my show. Number one. And number two, we'd had lunch together. We've hung out. We've hung out. Like, I mean, that's in California. Like we talked a bunch before that and then we actually you'll have so many lunches in the PGA show. How many do we have? Like two right. Two days I had lunch with that guy. So at the little, the little cafeteria area,

Speaker 3:

All you guys out there, you know, Paul is true blue. I mean, he is, he's a good guy and he is, he doesn't fudge it. So that's why I'm doing this. Obviously. It's great to talk to you again, see you again. Um, but

Speaker 2:

Appreciate the time. Let's do more stuff together. I want to do more stuff with, I liked your stuff, man. I think you're going to you guys. Seriously. It's going to blow up. I mean, it's already blown up, but like, it's going to blow up. It's going to be like, I really think that it's gonna like alien wedge blow up like a gimmick. No dude, they sold a hundred million dollars of those wedges back on the 900 million,$200 million million back then it was like barely the internet on television. And it had an alien wedge. So it was because why they want to get better. So I'm telling you right now, Mark it right now. This is the time that cutaway wedge will be the alien wedge of this generation. No. Now awesome. Thank you for that prediction. You're going to fly me out to your house and we're going to go wine tasting. It's absolutely a hundred percent. Well, thanks for being on the show today. What's your website again? Cut her wedge. Cut her.com. Cut her wedge and you'll find it. First four pages of SEO. So we're covered. I think I'm number five. Let's see if I go cut her wet. I bet you I'm on there. Let's see cutter, which hold on. I gotta do this. I'm in position nine for uh, Google. That's an e-commerce term. It's cause Amazon and then you it. man. Cutter golf. Just got it wrapped up as well. Actually. Hold on one, two, three. Yeah. I'm actually supposed to seven today. So check them out. If you check out a review, Dickie gave us a discount on the cutter wedge too. I'm just telling you guys Alma, what it is. I think it's like 10 or 10% off. 15% off. I don't remember what it was. It's in the article. So it's cool. Cause you have to do that. You just did because we're friends. So, um, if you want you to check out Vicki's site or check out our full review on the site too, and you'll see that we loved it. We loved it back in 2019 or 2019, not now. Right? So like anyways, thank you for this show and I will talk to you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it very soon, my friend. All right, bye bye. Have a good day. This week's episode was sponsored by their friends at Oracle golf bags or golf bags is the only woman owned golf bag design and build company in the country. They call it beg as your biggest piece of equipment. So make sure it feels like you Erica golf bags, they stand out in a sea of lookalike products. So check out, work a golf@orca-golf.com to learn more.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to another episode of behind the golf bread podcast. You're going to beat me, like get off, stay connected on and off the show by visiting golfers authority.com. Don't forget to like subscribe and leave a comment. Golf is always more fun when you're winning, stay out of the beach and see you on the green.