February 22, 2024 • 47 mins
In Part 4 of this Fire Pit Podcast series on L.A.B. Golf’s rise to putter prominence, we hear how Kelly Slater impacted Adam Scott’s decision to make it his gamer and why Scott called Sam Hahn to tell him he could win the Masters with it. You’ll also hear from Adam Beach of My Golf Spy as to why the technology is passing his company’s sniff tests.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I think they've done an incredible job the last couple
of years, because not only are guy's using it, they're
using it successfully, and certainly on the tour. When anyone
has some success, we all look, you know, whether it's
a new shaft in Rory's driver or you know, Lucas
Glover's new potter, We're all looking at what they're doing
(00:24):
to see if that's the secret.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Put another log on the fire.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Nobody here is given time. Welcome to the fire pit
with Matt Chanella. In part three of this podcast series,
we were getting to lucky break number four in the
life and times of Lab Golf, the boutique putter company
that was hatched in the garage of Bill Pressey in
(00:57):
twenty twelve. Lie Angle the Balance was Pressey's answer to
a bad case of the yips and the solution to
what he considered false marketing by Golf's OEMs original equipment manufacturers.
After Sam Hun and his family bought into the company
in twenty eighteen, and after grinding through some of the
growing pains of marketing the logo, manufacturing efficiency and getting
(01:20):
it into the hands and bags of tour pros, it
was twenty nineteen when lab Golf started gaining some significant momentum.
At this point. It's worth noting that lab Golf doesn't
pay people to use their putters. I'm not getting paid
by lab Golf to tell this story. As I explained
in episode one, I had a college friend who tipped
me off to the technology in twenty eighteen, and after
(01:44):
Lucas Glover won back to back PGA Tour events in
August of twenty twenty three, I decided to make some calls,
and as of February twenty twenty four, I haven't stopped
making calls. I'm eighteen interviews into this story and it
keeps going, keeps getting better. I do have a deal
with Dormy Workshop, who sponsors this podcast. The Canadian based
(02:06):
company only makes handmade leather goods such as custom headcovers
and accessories. For their complete collection of originals headcovers and classics,
go to Dormy workshop dot com and use promo code
fire Pit fifteen for fifteen percent off your next purchase. Okay,
it's safe to say Bill Pressey's invention in Sam Han's
marketing have stormed the gates of putting technology and results.
(02:31):
Tim Wilkinson, Jeff Sloman Von Taylor Kelly Slater and his
relationship with Adam Scott is a big reason for lab
Golf's success. Again, here's Slater, the eleven time World Champion
of surfing, on the impact the putter had on his
game and how it ultimately influenced his playing partner at
the twenty nineteen AT and T Pebble Beach Pro Am.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I've just spoken about the club to anyone and anyone
who wants to listen, and generally I'll just play with
people and they'll see me roll the ball and just
roll so pure off the club that they can't help
but ask about it, and you know, to get to
the point with Adam, That's that's how it happened with Adam.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
I was playing with him.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
We were paired in the same group at Pebble for
three days, and at the end of the third day,
he goes, Man, you gotta just show me that club.
You got to just show me like how it works
for you and go on the putting grain and just
just tell me. Because he goes to the ball is
just rolling so pure off your club. And I was
making all sorts of putts. I didn't strike the ball
very well and I wasn't scoring great, but I was
(03:31):
making putts.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Adam Scott turned pro in two thousand. He has fourteen
PGA Tour wins, which includes the twenty thirteen Masters. In
twenty fourteen, he was number one in the world for
eleven weeks. He is number seven on the PGA Tour's
list of career earnings at sixty three million, nine hundred
and thirteen thousand, three hundred and twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean, the first time it clearly sticks out to
me was was it Pebble Beach in twenty nineteen at
the at and T pro am playing in a group
with Kelly who was using one. But I played with
him a bit before that, so he I know he
was using it for a while before that, But I
don't know that I took that much notice. But I
(04:15):
certainly did that week at Pebble because well, as you'd
know and have probably experienced, like a wet February pebble
beach green can get a little bumpy and everyone struggles
time to time putting on that surface with the ball
bouncing around. And played three days with Kelly and between myself,
(04:40):
the other pro and any of the amateurs Kelly rolled
the ball better than all of us, and I have
played with him and he is a good player. However,
you know, I still think the pros could probably out
put Kelly's slater, but he is very good and he
rolled it better, and I thought there must be something
(05:01):
in his equipment that is helping him.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Man.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I think I had a round in spyglass. I had
around a spy glass. I think I had twenty two putts,
and granted I missed a couple of greens real close,
you know, so I was putting from off the green
and they're not counted as a putt, so maybe was
like twenty seven to twenty eight putts from the ones
who included off the green. But point being that I
(05:25):
just get so confident with the thing and I just
start when I'm on, I just start making everything.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And I did the.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Same thing at Tahoe. I played that tournament up there,
and I didn't score very well. I was really nervous
and not striking the ball well and missing lots of greens.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
But man, I made everything on those greens.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
And yeah, I just people just I play with friends
and they see the ball roll off the club and.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
They want to try it. It's just that simple.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Back to Adam Scott at Pebble Beach in twenty nineteen,
how did you then sort of start start you know,
thinking let me let me check that out, or did
you get you go to the practice putting green or
what was the next step?
Speaker 6 (06:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I obviously I hit a few on the putting green
with Kelly's putter. And you know, Kelly is so thoughtful
about every part of his life really but certainly about
his surfing, but that carries over into his golf and
he has a theory and a process and you know
he walked me through all of that and how he
(06:27):
got to putting the way he parts with the lab
and you know, just getting as pure a role as
he possibly can. And it was helpful insight into starting
to use what I think traditionally we would say is
a pretty radical putter and a good start point to
(06:49):
see what that technology can do.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
You know, And you've.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Got to give credit Kelly a lot of credit that,
like he's deep dived into lab putters or putters in
general to find the best one he can.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Would you consider yourself like an equipment geek, Like are
you into sort of the like technology of things or
are you more of like a field guy.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
No, I'm I'm more of an equipment guy. I mean,
I think you have to have feel obviously for length
and you know that kind of thing. Excuse me, just
traffic here. Yeah, I think you have to have some
feel in your game. Obviously there's there's not a connection
with what's going on. But I'm more of a equipment
(07:36):
kind of guy.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
You know, I really believe in the technologies.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
You have to you have to look at what the
ball does now and how far these drivers are hitting it,
and then you know, and obviously you have to pair
that with technology, with with technique and skill. But when
I read about lab Golf and how and then saw
the Revealer with Sam using that on YouTube and showing
(08:03):
how the club doesn't spin, you know, I mean a
lot of people will talk about a face balance putter.
I don't even know why face balance is a thing
people say about a putter.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
It means nothing.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
It means that when you hold the club up it
lays horizontally like flat to the horizon. It doesn't actually
do anything through this stroke and most of those are
to heavy and the toe flip's over. So when you
use that revealer. You'll see that the club's just spin.
That's the most remarkable thing. I think that should sell
anyone because if you can just have the club and
just hold it and as it goes through the stroke,
(08:35):
it just stays wherever you square the face up to.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
I don't know what else you want to putter.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
It's not like any everyday amateur, right. This guy's an
eleven time world champion, so he's you know what I mean,
like he's a master at his craft. And so for him,
I guess that's probably what sort of validated it early.
For you, I would assume, is that the fact that
he could articulate or talk through or have some sort
(09:03):
of ye the language around how and why he was
using it, was that why it was resonating with you,
not only the results.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you know, just starting with a
level of respect for what he's been able to achieve
in his field, but then having played a fair bit
of golf with him over the last twenty years or
fifteen years at that point, and understanding he's very good
golfer and he's not afraid to experiment with things to
(09:35):
get better. And I admire.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That because you know, we all can get a bit
stuck in our ways with things, and he put the
time in to get there and the fact, yeah, like
you said, he was able to communicate what this putter
can do that other putters can't do. And I thought
that was pretty impressive. That was a good pitch from him.
So I bought into that for sure, and I ordered
(09:59):
one up straight away and I got it the next
week when Wednesday at Riviera.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
How'd that process go in terms of like ordering or
getting something to your you know, specifics or liking or
you know how you know, I mean for you to
make that change and like get that? How does how
does that? How did that? How that? How that work? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (10:21):
Kelly put me in touch with Sam from Lab and
Sam was there in l A.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
And based off what he'd seen from me putting, created
a few different options for me. And I basically said,
just give me the same thing Kelly had because that
was looking pretty good and rolling good. But he felt,
you know a couple of different angles and lengths might
be appropriate. Uh, And you know, it felt great straight away.
I didn't have the guts to pick it up Wednesday
(10:54):
night and put it in play that week in LA
but I did use it then, uh, from the Florida
Swing on through the Masters that year, and that was
the directed force, which is their kind of original, you know,
large headed zero pork Putter.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Back to Sam Han for his recollection of how and
why Adam Scott became a believer.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
I got a call. I was at Riviera and you know,
this is Adam Scott. Can you meet me in the
locker room?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Fuck?
Speaker 7 (11:30):
Yeah, Adam Scott, I can meet you in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
And it was probably more like, who the fuck is
impersonating Adam Scott and tell me me being the locker.
Speaker 7 (11:40):
I was fortunate enough that Kelly gave me a heads
up he might be calling. But yes, I probably would
have been, you know, yes, hung up on him being
like a fuck yourself. I have better things to do
than deal with the prank caller. But no, and so
yeah he comes. That was actually a really funny introduction
for me anyway. You know, it says, meeting a lot
of room round, you know whatever. Two o'clock. I go
(12:02):
in there and ask the locker om intend to where
Adam's locker is. And I go over there and he's
talking with the foot Joy guys, and Adam's in his
underwear talking shoes and like I'm like, hi, he kind
of you know, acknowledges me. But he's talking to the
foot joy guys and like, I mean, we're fucking ever,
like they're just talking. I don't, like, I have no
idea how there could be that much to talk about
(12:23):
with a fucking shoe. And there's like two guys and
they're like, you know, like this and they're holding up
shoes and they're talking toe boxes and heel relief, and
I'm like Jesus Christ and I'm just like, oh my god,
when with this conversation and I swear to God it
went on for twenty minutes and I'm just sitting there.
So I sit down like on this bench behind it
(12:43):
and behind the two of them, and I'm like, you know,
I don't know, probably on my phone, are just kind
of looking down. The foot Joye guys walk away, and
before I have a chance to get up, Adam in
his underwear like throws a leg up on the bench
right next to me, you know, and it's like kind
of corners me in, and like, you know, if there's
a if there's a guy that's going to make a
heatero dude question his sexuality. It's Adam Scott. I mean,
(13:03):
here's this just like a Donnis man, you know, half
naked standing in front of me like Hi, I'm Adam
Scott and I'm like and I'm like, I'm like trapped
in there, like I couldn't even stand up. So that
was Yeah, that was really really fun. We talked for
a while. That was a really good week too. Ernie
Els gave us a gave us a go that week.
(13:24):
Adam did too, and then He'll said something, he said
something I'll never ever forget that week. He didn't he
didn't actually put it in play that week, and he
played very well. I think he finished second or something
with an armlock, which I was super bummed about because
I was like, ah, fuck, you just putted really good,
like probably there goes my opportunity. Uh. And then later
(13:50):
I get a call from him and he had been
testing it that then, and then I think he went
to he went to the Honda, and Bill was at
the Honda with him, found a putter. And then I
got a call from a few days later for no
reason at all. He just called up and he said,
I'm going to win the Masters with this part of.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
This year, and what was the feedback you were getting
from from your peers? You know, what what was that?
What was what was there? Some raised eyes and some
eyebrows and some thoughts on like what.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, I think at that point.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
You know, I've been on tour a long time and
I've seen when when other guys had made some pretty
radical changes. And of course, you know about ten years
before I'd changed to use a long potter, and that
certainly raised some eyebrows, so I was used to that,
you know. Now this was another direction completely with there's
(14:45):
a fair bit of stuff going on with the lab
from the grip to the head, other angles in between,
and being so non traditional it raises eyebrows for sure.
But I just I just had this. It's like this,
you know, if you can embrace what this part of
does and stay out of your own way, the results
(15:07):
could come. And I just had this feeling and I
said it to Sam, although it didn't pan out, but like,
this was the putter that can win around Augusta because
it's just put such a good role on it, and
the size and everything makes it so versatile from in
and around the greens, which is tricky at Augusta because
it's so slow off the green then onto such a
(15:31):
fast surface, and chipping from certain positions at Augusta is
very difficult.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I asked Adam Scott to talk about the feel and
why this could ultimately become his gamer.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I think the standout thing when anybody first puts with
a lab putter is the smoothness of the stroke, especially
in the transition from the back swing to the through swing.
Because of the unique balance that lab putters have. That
smoothness in transition is noticeable. And you know, now I'm
(16:05):
just used to it because I've put it with a
lamb putter for.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
A long time.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
But I think when you first pick it up, that
is the different feeling. Forgetting forgetting the angles and head shapes,
which are quite radical generally, I think the feeling of
the stroke is different, so you know there's something there
and if your mind is open and willing to explore that,
I think there's the benefit comes from there.
Speaker 7 (16:29):
So he putted with it at Handah. He played very well.
He actually had a chance to win the players that year.
Rinsed one on whatever it was, eleven with the is
apart five with the angled water or whatever and kind
of took him out of it, but he putted beautifully.
And this is a short putter, by the way, This
wasn't a broomsticks the regular conventional directed force. And all
(16:50):
of a sudden we're on the map. Out of Scott
is using this big red giant potter. What the hell
is that thing? We're getting articles, we're getting pressed, w
RX is taking pictures and and it's a real thing.
It's happening, And now our sales is really starting to
go up. We're actually selling putters, like really really moving them.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
After Adam Scott and after this is happening, and this
shit's hitting the fan at like like now you're peeking
out at like how many putters a month? Or like,
can you give me some sort of quantifiable like number
that that that speaks to success?
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Like I want to say, actually, can check I can
get somewhat of a reference here real quick.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Just yeah, just to you go from like kind of
roughly four hundred into in existence.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
You know, I think I remember sometime around then Postmasters
twenty nineteen. I remember we got an order from a
Korean guy for one hundred putters, and we were like,
holy fucking shit, how the war old, are we going
(18:00):
to make one hundred putters in three weeks? So, you know,
I think at the time a really good day for
us was like five to seven orders in a day.
So yeah, I think we were probably making one hundred
putters a month at that point.
Speaker 8 (18:15):
Maybe.
Speaker 7 (18:16):
So in April, Rol's around, Adam's putting good, he's hitting
the ball good. And this is the twenty nineteen Masters,
which we all know Tiger won, and uh uh leading
after day one, my phone's ringing off the hook, I
got Textcalo or the phone's blown up, the emails blown up.
(18:37):
Orders are coming in like fucking crazy because the cameras around,
because he's a past champion, it's a big, ugly red putter,
and we're freaking out. And then day two Friday, I
believe there was like six or seven people tied for
the lead after Friday, and Adam was one of them.
And on that Friday he had made a bomb on
(18:58):
six pen was all the way back right and he
bere for maybe one of the Part three is on
the front. Just this monster putt that was on, you know,
every fifteen minutes on Golf Channel. They were showing this
putt and yeah, phones ringing off the hook. Shit's getting crazy.
Now we get our first, real, real bad break. So
(19:18):
Adam at the time was traveling with three different putters.
He had a broomstick, he had an armlock, and he
had our DF and he was working on.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Direct Force.
Speaker 7 (19:30):
Yes, sorry, directed Force. So we kept then. Yeah, way
back when we rebranded, we didn't want to lose the
little bit of name recognition that we had, so we
named the company Lab and then we named this particular model,
which used to be called the Reno, we named it
the Directed Force. So, uh, yeah, He's traveling with the DF,
a Cameron armlock, and a Cameron broomstick, and and he
(19:53):
was switching around and he kind of had in his
head that certain conditions were better with certain putters, and
YadA YadA. Saturday Momore he gets up and somebody tells
him's supposed to rain, and he had it in his
head that he putt it better with an armlock when
the greens were a little slower. So Kad is John
the money at the time, and he has John go
grab the armlock. They spent about an hour dialing it
(20:13):
in and armlock is a very different technique. You got
the shaft running against your forearm, which creates shaftling and
generally creates a very different ball position. And so he
dials in this arm lock, and then right before he's
about to tee off, decides he wants to go with
the DF. John runs back to the locker room, grabs
(20:35):
a DF. I don't even know if he hit any
puts with it, puts it in the bag and actually
made a nice one in the first hole, and then
after that proceeds to miss everything short and right, and
I get on camera. I get him on camera, and
I had a video of him from the day before
in the video on that Saturday, and I mean the
(20:56):
ball had moved back six inches like it was like
a subtle thing. I mean, it was a completely completely
different setup because he'd you know, been screwed around that armlock,
and that was whereas I was seeing the ball that day,
and and he's just squeezing these things short right, short, right,
short right. And then on sixteen he missed about an
(21:18):
eighteen inch putt and that actually had nothing to do
with anything other than he got completely fucked and you
don't I could hear it on the broadcast barely, and
he talked about it after we kind of debriefed the thing.
But he got nailed by a roar right in the
middle of his you know, backswing, like a loud tiger
had done something crazy and just got nailed by a roar.
(21:39):
Flinched on it misses this eighteen inch putt and they
show it fifteen fucking times and in the phone stopped ringing.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Seriously, it's that much that it's that much.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
Of an impact instantly, instantly, sales wise, it actually wasn't
that it. We still climbed. That was still a big
level up for us, for sure. And uh but what
I realized the takeaway from that moment was I can't
(22:16):
rely on the tour. But we just can't. We just
can't do this anymore. We have to, you know, the tour.
If it happens, great, let's be available. Let's you know,
hope that they try it. But like if we're, if we're,
if we're putting all our chips on the tour, it's
a it's just it's a it's a yeah, it's it's
(22:37):
it's a it's a high payout bet, low odds, high
payout bet. So we needed to think of a different
way to get putters out the door. And that's when
we really honed in on who we were marketing to.
Tour players don't buy putters, so fuck them and uh,
and it wasn't helping a bunch of them for you know,
(23:00):
reasons we can get into, but it was really helping
our customers. Like we had customers at this point, we're
developing a bit of a cult following because you know, frankly,
all of our customers had a trauma bond with their
putter because they got made fun of it, you know,
made fun of just the same as me. And when
you get made fun of, you get that much more
possessive of it. And so, you know, guys got really
prideful about their putters. And we've got this bit of
(23:20):
a cult following. And that's where our marketing guy, Zach
Kuzahaski with Rooted Solutions, really started to hone in on
the message, you're a better putter than you think. And
what that whole concept is about. What you know, what
we take that to mean is we're here to help
make you better. Like our company is not about like,
(23:40):
look how amazing we are, you know, like you see
some of the major brands now where they just pictures
of their designer, you know, standing by a mill and
all this stuff, and this kind of glorification of these
designers like you know, and obviously plenty of credits. A
build it with what he designed was amazing. But what
we wanted to do was make our message about you,
(24:01):
the player, to tell you you've been getting hosed. You're
actually pretty good. You read greens better than you think
you do, you judge pace better than you think you do.
The problem is is that you have this unruly, unwieldy
instrument in your hand preventing you from being you. So
let us help you. And we really started to craft
that message. We started to leverage social media and social media.
(24:23):
I mean, this is kind of another one of those
things where we got lucky. Having no golf background, Bill
and I developed our brand voice bickering with people on Facebook.
That's how the whole that's how our whole shtick got started.
That's how we started learning how to communicate the physics
in ways that you know, the average golfer could understand.
(24:44):
That's how we started learning how to be smart asses
and how to fuck patrols. And that's how we learned.
It was like real time market research, you know, because
we're getting real time feedback from people who are looking
at me doing a Revealer video and the comments that
we get below it. You know, all of these things
we learned about the road that we had in front
(25:06):
of us, and and we learned that we had to
accomplish one of the one of the most difficult human tasks,
which is to change somebody's mind. It's so hard.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
A sample of give me an example of like a
common theme to the trolling or equipment geeks, or doubters
or like skeptics. I mean, you must have a few
at the top of your head.
Speaker 7 (25:30):
What would people say? Oh, yeah, one that we still
get four or five times a day. They see the
Revealer demonstration. They see the Revealer demonstration in the first
this fucking guy walking into my building with a tailor
made putter. Uh, we get it four or five times
a day. Is uh, that's all fine and good. But
(25:54):
I don't put with the revealer. I put with my hands.
So you know what this this is? This is snake oil.
And the response is, well, are you not able to
feel the difference between the way a two ball swings
versus a newport? You know, and that's what that's what.
(26:14):
You know, We've been fitting for torque the whole time,
they just didn't call it torque. And so, you know,
very rarely do I get a response after I illuminate
the fact that torque does matter. Yes, of course our
hands can mitigate torque, but why do you want it to?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Since investing in lab Golf in twenty eighteen, Han has
worked his way through a lot of highs and lows,
good moments and bad and Adam Scott's twenty nineteen Masters
was a microcosm of that adventure. In round one, Scott
shot sixty nine and was T. Six. He followed that
with a sixty eight and was tied for first after
round two. On the weekend he shot seventy two, seventy
(26:53):
three and finished T. Eighteen. But for Han, his focus
was on the success Adam Scott had on the Florida
Swing and the first two rounds in Augusta. He had
the feedback he needed to keep moving the company forward.
Speaker 7 (27:05):
Yeah, it was huge for me to realize that, like,
we are onto something and that people aren't seeing it.
So I need to do a better job of explaining it.
I need to be patient and I need to change minds,
and changing minds is fucking hard, man, especially in golf.
Like people are stubborn, God are people stubborn in golf.
And the old guard has tremendous influence over what we buy,
(27:28):
what we learn, what we see, and the demographic of
the folks in charge of golf and in charge of
instruction are fucking old. And like old people don't do
good with technology, and you know, their basic feeling is
like if it didn't work for me, it must be broken,
you know. Like you know, we've all seen our dads
(27:49):
like sitting there fiddling with the VCR, having a VCR.
That's funny, I just dated myself, I said, VCR fiddling
with the computer and you know, saying this thing's broken,
and it's just like you just don't know how to
use it. So it's no different from with our putter,
you know. And so to get you know, these you know,
kind of old guard folks to embrace different is hard,
(28:13):
and it's and it's not unprecedented in the industry. Like
one of the things that I think about all the
time is like metal driver heads, like the Big Bertha
came out in nineteen ninety one. Davis Love won a
PGA championship with a wooden driver in nineteen ninety seven,
Like the thing had been out for six years before,
you know, it started to become commonplace. He was the
(28:34):
last person to win with a wooden driver. And the
reason is is because it required different techniques. So the
guys that were playing for Simmons, if you just plug
that same swing into a big Bertha, it didn't necessarily
do great things. But somebody had to figure out, like, well,
we know that the ball, when we fire a ball,
add it on a machine, it's coming off faster off
(28:56):
a metal driver than it does it would one. So
let's figure out how to use this thing. And then
you know, over the course of six, seven, eight, ten years,
we figured out, like we need a positive angle of attack,
and now let's look at shafts and look at swingweight
and look at these things, and you know, to figure
out how to use these things. But within the technique,
there was technique differences in how to use a metal
(29:17):
driver versus a wooden one. It's the same difference, you know.
And so we got a lot of putting gurus out
there where they have a brilliant arsenal of instructional techniques
to help somebody stabilize a face. They don't apply to
what we do. And so if it doesn't apply to
(29:39):
what we you know, since they can't apply their stick
to our putters, it doesn't work. It's not you know,
they think it's not relevant. It's not real.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Before we go any further, and we still have a
ways to go. Back to Adam Scott for more on
advancements on the equipment industry, technology labs, technology and how
and when he tries to utilize all of the above
to maximize his potential and ultimately extend his career.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
It is a really tough market to crack.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
The pot of market, you know, it's really dominated, certainly
on the tour by the big brands, and it's a
very traditional thing putting. But I certainly am of the
belief just because we started putting one way, it doesn't
mean it's the best way. You know, I've explored putting
the way I have, from short to long, to armlock
(30:28):
to clause and everything, and a lot of people have
had that process, and you know, but I think I'm
trying to give myself the best chance to make every
put before I've even hit it. Before I've even made
a stroke. The great thing with the lab is I
think it helps you make a better stroke.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
I think back to Hogan and j Singh and Bernard Langer,
and there are guys who obviously have always been notorious
for being really good ball strikers, really good tea to
green guys. And then on the green that's a whole
nother that's a whole nother that's a whole nother ass.
That's a whole other game. Obviously, that's that's And so
(31:08):
for you to have to have found this or this
technology or this this tool that you use on the greens,
has that almost like freed you up and extended your
love of the game and career and pursuit of perfect
Like I mean, does that almost like now that you've
(31:29):
got this, does it now allow you to almost like
you know, go work backwards from that and say, now
it's like now you get to continue to be Adam
Scott and contend and compete and win. And you know
what I'm saying is that has that been a key
component to like this sort of aspect of your sort
of back end of your career.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, I think putting, Look, putting is a key component
of the game for sure. I think in yeah, my
career is you know, like everyone has had a long career,
it's a journey and there are times when you have
to make change and you have to adapt. And you know,
I'm one of the last remaining guys that turn pro
(32:11):
with a Ballada golf ball, and you know, that's where
I started playing as a pro. And now look how
I'm playing, and I've made huge changes this year into
you know, my driver and golf ball and the way
my style of playing from teetera green and I think,
although it hasn't been perfect, it's the way I need
to go forward to be relevant out there playing. And
(32:35):
I think I'm getting better and I think there's a
chance that that will keep me out there being one
of the best players. But certainly having my putting in
such a solid place at a high level has allowed
me or given me the confidence to make drastic changes
elsewhere in the bag to kind of push that for
that level of improvement that I need to win big tournaments.
(32:58):
And you know, worked pretty hard over the last eighteen
months with lab with a lad putter on the greens,
and it's been very consistent and the results on the
greens have come from that, so that's it has It's
given me a lot of freedom. And look, putting and
putting is one of those things that when it's not
(33:19):
feeling good, you're in for a long day heading out
to that first te you know. Yet whereas I feel
like I walk out to the first tea with a
sense of calm and lightness every time because I know
I'm gonna put.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Okay, seems like a good time to go back to
Bill Pressey on the influence of a guy like Kelly
Slater and then Adam Scott Kelly Slater.
Speaker 9 (33:41):
Oh, here we go. I mean that was out of
the blue. We there's it's hard to say, you know
how these these all play a role, but that was
a big one. And I don't know exactly. I think
he got it in Florida. I've heard various stories, you know,
(34:02):
but there's a place in Newport Beach and uh, Carlsbad.
I think it was Carlsbad Golf channer. But either way,
I mean, to have a goat in any sport on
your side unpaid, I just hey man, this is that
(34:23):
was huge. And and then.
Speaker 10 (34:26):
Adam getting Adam to roll from from Kelly which is
just an insanely cool story. You know, we even Sam
and I look back at that and we start putting
these together and.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
How lucky.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Back to Adam Scott, Bill Pressey, does it. Have you
ever had a conversation with him or or or talked
through the technology or anything like that.
Speaker 6 (34:53):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I've always dealt with Sam, and you know, and we
have a we have a great relations and I have
a huge respect for Bill, what he created and what
Sam has taken on, and how deeply passionate they are
about what they're doing. And and you know, I've really
just tried to be kind of like a reassuring voice
(35:17):
for them, because you know, it's for small guys in
a big pond. It can be tough, and you know,
they obviously think they've got the best product out there,
but you know, trying to keep them calm and stay
the course and and not do anything to get away
from the core values of the putter and to continue
to evolve it. And you know, there's no doubt I
(35:42):
think they've done an incredible job the last couple of years,
because not only a guy's using it, they're using it
successfully and certainly on the tour. When anyone has some success,
we all look, you know, whether it's a new shaft
in Rory's driver or you know, Lucas Glover's new part,
we're all looking at what they're doing to see if
(36:03):
that's the secret.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
He set out to actually like try to make something
that actually did what everybody else was promising, because he
felt like they weren't. And now here we are twenty
twenty three, Lucas doing what he's done, You doing what
you've done, and then all these other players as you,
as you point out, does it feel like there's been
this tipping point and now you no longer have to
(36:26):
feel like you or anybody else involved in LAB doesn't
feel like they have to actually keep trying to you know,
explain it or justify it or or you know it
just it's doing it now. It's like it's speaking for
itself to this point.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Oh, I think so, And I think they should feel
proud at LAB that they've got to that point. That's
no easy feat, especially in the tour pro world. That's
a fickle little area, you know. And I don't know
that Sam would like me saying this, but I was
trying to keep it a secret I I didn't want
everyone to find out because look at look look at
what they're doing with it. When guys are doing when
(37:08):
we're out there, we're close enough where we can see
when a guy's doing something much better all of a sudden, consistently,
And you know, I think the sure a few of
the guys took notice of me with the Lab putter,
and you know, out of curiosity, probably checked the stats
and like, oh this is good. I thought Adam wasn't
a good putter, but he actually is. And you know,
(37:31):
I guess a couple of those guys then followed through
and tried it. But you know, I think it's a
great story. What I do know and why I had
a bit of a soft spot from the beginning was
I think Bill has a connection to Australia through his
father potentially or something.
Speaker 6 (37:45):
So there was a small connection there to me and Bill.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Because on the Directed Force it's got his name on
the bottom, and I've kind of had that Australian feeling,
So there is some connection there to Australia.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Like Sam, Bill and the entire team at Lab Golf.
I certainly appreciate people like Tim Wilkinson, Von Taylor Jeff Sluman,
Kelly Slater, and Adam Scott for their time and perspective
on this putting technology and why it all matters to them,
And they will all come back at the end of
this series for some reflections in final comments, But at
(38:19):
this point and before we get to Brett Rumford and
ultimately the Lucas Glover story, I felt the need to
get an independent voice in this series, someone who makes
a living and has established a loyal following by being
a doubter, a tester and authenticator of brands like Lab
golf technology like Directed Force.
Speaker 11 (38:41):
So my name is Adam Beach and I'm the owner
of my gof's by which I think the best way
it's been said is the consumer reports of golf with
a journalistic edge. I think that puts a nice bow
around it for people to understand what we do. We're
the only independent golf test facility in the world, meaning
(39:01):
if golfers buy it, I want to test it so
they're not wasting their money on a lot of the
things that I felt they were wasting their money on
for EON's.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
You know, when I say lab putters, what do you.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Say unconventionally amazing? Why the golf industry as.
Speaker 11 (39:21):
A whole can get laser focused on certain things. So,
for example, I'm not putting Scottie Cameron down. I'm just
saying Scottie cameer putters. I call it brand Washington, you know.
It creates this name, and unfortunately, unconventional things in the
golf industry tend to be looked at as gadgets or
(39:44):
not to be taken serious by the serious golfer because
they don't want to go out in the course and
have this infomercial product. When they pull it out of
their bag and go, all of their buddies go, what
the hell are you doing? You know, So it's really
hard to break into this industry with such an unconventional product.
It takes time, it takes wins on tour, it takes
trust in the gofer to believe in something like this,
(40:06):
more so than just some other company coming out with
another Scottie Cameron or another ping answer that's easily approved
by serious golfers. For a serious golfer to put this
in their bag, they have to get over a major hump,
and that is that this thing is ugly, you know,
and that for years Goffers thought that the looks of
a putter actually matter. And the interesting thing is I've
(40:28):
been collecting data for almost twenty years on this ten
really in depth let where we test putters and also
get the subjective feedback, and we can then correlate those
two to find out doesn't really matter and looks actually
matter none to how well a putter performs. The unfortunate
thing is gofer's minds can't get past that. A goffer's
(40:51):
memory is last a long time. It's very hard for
them to get over some of these these humps, and
you know, lab putters is one of them.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
They're very unconventional, but the.
Speaker 11 (41:03):
Results are pretty profound and they're pretty quick because, in
my opinion, putting is really difficult.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Right.
Speaker 11 (41:10):
Everybody knows that unless you're just one of those people
that you know is a great putter. But for the
most of us, we struggle. And it's because there's so
many variables to putters. It's the weight, it's the length,
it's the lie, it's the you know, it's the loft,
it's the alignment aids, and anything that can take some
of those variables out of the equation, in my opinion,
help golfers right. And this putter does that from what
(41:34):
we see in here by taking one of the really
simple ones away, and that is it's really important to
be square impact, meaning not facing to the right or
to the left or you know, delfting or adding loft.
And this potter really just takes one of the major
ones out of the equation, and that's people's hands, and
it keeps you really square throughout the entire stroke. And
(41:57):
you can just watch it. I mean eighty percent of
I think of our our employees here, our lab converts,
you know, and that's because the data speaks for itself here,
and they it just keeps switching. Every time I see
a new person coming up with another lab, I'm like,
what happened. I'm like, you can't argue with it, you know.
It's just it's so quick, it's so you know, so
(42:18):
many putter. Think about how many putters you've probably owned.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I've owned.
Speaker 11 (42:21):
I have a collection of one hundreds, okay, and none
of them worked, you know, none of them made me better.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
This one you put in your hand, and it's so
fast to go.
Speaker 11 (42:30):
Wow, I'm getting I'm burning the edges now instead of
putting it five feet to the left or by you
know by I'm sinking more putts, and at the end
of the day, putting is really simple. It's get the
goddamn ball in the whole as fast as possible and
find a product that can do that for you.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Have you ever seen this thing? Have you ever put
held that thing? And what are your thoughts on what
they they deemed the Revealer.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
It's interesting.
Speaker 11 (42:55):
You know Bill Pressey, the guy that found it, It
started it with like a crutch, right, you know, trying
to figure this thing out. And he really wasn't trying
to invent the lab putter. He was trying to figure
out why in the hell all of his other putters
didn't work.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
So he put it in this device and realized that.
Speaker 11 (43:12):
Golfers had been trained based on stroke type, you know,
heavy arct slight arc, straight back, straight through. And while
there are putters that can slightly help, I do think
based on data, if you have a stroke in matching
that with a stroke type, this takes it one next
step by going even if you do match it with
(43:35):
your stroke type, you're still having to struggle on the
back and forth of a stroke to keep your hands
to get it to stay square. No matter what I
mean it just is physics, right, and the revealer shows
that physics. So once again it's just a variable eliminator.
It takes all that stuff, which, yes, you don't want
to fight. You don't want to make it harder than
it's needed. Meaning if you're a straight back, straight through guy,
(43:57):
you don't want a heavy arc putter, and I don't
want to get too far in the we with putter tech.
But you're just making the game harder than it needs
to be.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
But he makes it. He cuts out all that with
the revealer and basically says, yes, that is true.
Speaker 11 (44:09):
But no matter what, watch this thing on a revealer.
When you go back and forth, all these putters are
just spinning. So that means your hands are the things
that in your arms and your muscles are going to
have to keep that from happening, whereas with the lab putter,
it's one less thing you have to worry about, which
is pretty important for putting staying square.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
In other words, this is the real deal. I mean
of all the things that you guys test and see
and you you run through sort of your system of
revealing whether or not it's marketing or whether or not
it's it's true. So to speak. This this sort of
passes the my gofspy sniff test oh far.
Speaker 11 (44:51):
I don't want to oversell it and say it's the
most amazing thing in the world, because I don't know,
but it's we've.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Only really tested it a couple of years.
Speaker 11 (44:58):
I mean, look, I've always said that golfers should stop
buying wallhangers and start playing their gamer, meaning a five
hundred or five thousand dollars putter from bet Nardi or
Scott Cameron that looks really cool, that's great hanging on
a wall, but this piece. You need technology in a putter,
no different than you do a driver, and I can't
(45:20):
imagine how gofers haven't figured that out. You know, putting
is a slow science. I do understand it's three four
miles an hour, not one hundred and twenty like a driver.
But we've seen it even roll putters Lab putters. When
there's some technology that can help a golfer get it
in the hole faster, that's what the game's about, and
it seems like Lab is doing that. So, I mean,
(45:42):
it finished really well in all of our tests so far,
whether it was the really crazy looking Lab won the
blade that they have I mean it looks absolutely insane,
but it worked.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
Too, and so have all the mallets.
Speaker 11 (45:55):
And like I said, all of our staff is switching
to them because they're helping them over their score.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
It's just a fun story to sort of report on.
And I think getting your voice and just sort of
having you articulate, you know, some of the an outsider's
perspective is really valuable. So thank you for that.
Speaker 11 (46:15):
Yeah, And I mean, at the end of the day,
I think it's unfortunate. You know, golfers aren't as willing
to try unconventional things. But if more golfers were willing
to try this unconventional putter, I'm very confident that more
golfers would sink more putts.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
And you drive for show and you put for dough.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (46:32):
We put out a tweet the other day, or I did.
I've been testing for so long and there's just some
things you learn over time. And it was about the
ping ping drivers. And I'm not saying ping is the
best driver for everyone, but if everyone played a ping driver,
you would see a tremendous jump in performance by a
majority versus a minority. They make the best driver, not
(46:53):
for ever for one person, but for everyone right as
a whole, and I feel the same is Star need
to be true with LAB. They might not be the
number one performer for everyone, but they're gonna generally be
better for you than almost every other plutter you've ever tried.
Speaker 6 (47:24):
Put another log on the fire.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
Nobody here is get the time.
I think they've done an incredible job the last couple
of years, because not only are guy's using it, they're
using it successfully, and certainly on the tour. When anyone
has some success, we all look, you know, whether it's
a new shaft in Rory's driver or you know, Lucas
Glover's new potter, We're all looking at what they're doing
(00:24):
to see if that's the secret.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Put another log on the fire.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Nobody here is given time. Welcome to the fire pit
with Matt Chanella. In part three of this podcast series,
we were getting to lucky break number four in the
life and times of Lab Golf, the boutique putter company
that was hatched in the garage of Bill Pressey in
(00:57):
twenty twelve. Lie Angle the Balance was Pressey's answer to
a bad case of the yips and the solution to
what he considered false marketing by Golf's OEMs original equipment manufacturers.
After Sam Hun and his family bought into the company
in twenty eighteen, and after grinding through some of the
growing pains of marketing the logo, manufacturing efficiency and getting
(01:20):
it into the hands and bags of tour pros, it
was twenty nineteen when lab Golf started gaining some significant momentum.
At this point. It's worth noting that lab Golf doesn't
pay people to use their putters. I'm not getting paid
by lab Golf to tell this story. As I explained
in episode one, I had a college friend who tipped
me off to the technology in twenty eighteen, and after
(01:44):
Lucas Glover won back to back PGA Tour events in
August of twenty twenty three, I decided to make some calls,
and as of February twenty twenty four, I haven't stopped
making calls. I'm eighteen interviews into this story and it
keeps going, keeps getting better. I do have a deal
with Dormy Workshop, who sponsors this podcast. The Canadian based
(02:06):
company only makes handmade leather goods such as custom headcovers
and accessories. For their complete collection of originals headcovers and classics,
go to Dormy workshop dot com and use promo code
fire Pit fifteen for fifteen percent off your next purchase. Okay,
it's safe to say Bill Pressey's invention in Sam Han's
marketing have stormed the gates of putting technology and results.
(02:31):
Tim Wilkinson, Jeff Sloman Von Taylor Kelly Slater and his
relationship with Adam Scott is a big reason for lab
Golf's success. Again, here's Slater, the eleven time World Champion
of surfing, on the impact the putter had on his
game and how it ultimately influenced his playing partner at
the twenty nineteen AT and T Pebble Beach Pro Am.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I've just spoken about the club to anyone and anyone
who wants to listen, and generally I'll just play with
people and they'll see me roll the ball and just
roll so pure off the club that they can't help
but ask about it, and you know, to get to
the point with Adam, That's that's how it happened with Adam.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
I was playing with him.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
We were paired in the same group at Pebble for
three days, and at the end of the third day,
he goes, Man, you gotta just show me that club.
You got to just show me like how it works
for you and go on the putting grain and just
just tell me. Because he goes to the ball is
just rolling so pure off your club. And I was
making all sorts of putts. I didn't strike the ball
very well and I wasn't scoring great, but I was
(03:31):
making putts.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Adam Scott turned pro in two thousand. He has fourteen
PGA Tour wins, which includes the twenty thirteen Masters. In
twenty fourteen, he was number one in the world for
eleven weeks. He is number seven on the PGA Tour's
list of career earnings at sixty three million, nine hundred
and thirteen thousand, three hundred and twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean, the first time it clearly sticks out to
me was was it Pebble Beach in twenty nineteen at
the at and T pro am playing in a group
with Kelly who was using one. But I played with
him a bit before that, so he I know he
was using it for a while before that, But I
don't know that I took that much notice. But I
(04:15):
certainly did that week at Pebble because well, as you'd
know and have probably experienced, like a wet February pebble
beach green can get a little bumpy and everyone struggles
time to time putting on that surface with the ball
bouncing around. And played three days with Kelly and between myself,
(04:40):
the other pro and any of the amateurs Kelly rolled
the ball better than all of us, and I have
played with him and he is a good player. However,
you know, I still think the pros could probably out
put Kelly's slater, but he is very good and he
rolled it better, and I thought there must be something
(05:01):
in his equipment that is helping him.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Man.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I think I had a round in spyglass. I had
around a spy glass. I think I had twenty two putts,
and granted I missed a couple of greens real close,
you know, so I was putting from off the green
and they're not counted as a putt, so maybe was
like twenty seven to twenty eight putts from the ones
who included off the green. But point being that I
(05:25):
just get so confident with the thing and I just
start when I'm on, I just start making everything.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And I did the.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Same thing at Tahoe. I played that tournament up there,
and I didn't score very well. I was really nervous
and not striking the ball well and missing lots of greens.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
But man, I made everything on those greens.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
And yeah, I just people just I play with friends
and they see the ball roll off the club and.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
They want to try it. It's just that simple.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Back to Adam Scott at Pebble Beach in twenty nineteen,
how did you then sort of start start you know,
thinking let me let me check that out, or did
you get you go to the practice putting green or
what was the next step?
Speaker 6 (06:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I obviously I hit a few on the putting green
with Kelly's putter. And you know, Kelly is so thoughtful
about every part of his life really but certainly about
his surfing, but that carries over into his golf and
he has a theory and a process and you know
he walked me through all of that and how he
(06:27):
got to putting the way he parts with the lab
and you know, just getting as pure a role as
he possibly can. And it was helpful insight into starting
to use what I think traditionally we would say is
a pretty radical putter and a good start point to
(06:49):
see what that technology can do.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
You know, And you've.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Got to give credit Kelly a lot of credit that,
like he's deep dived into lab putters or putters in
general to find the best one he can.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Would you consider yourself like an equipment geek, Like are
you into sort of the like technology of things or
are you more of like a field guy.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
No, I'm I'm more of an equipment guy. I mean,
I think you have to have feel obviously for length
and you know that kind of thing. Excuse me, just
traffic here. Yeah, I think you have to have some
feel in your game. Obviously there's there's not a connection
with what's going on. But I'm more of a equipment
(07:36):
kind of guy.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
You know, I really believe in the technologies.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
You have to you have to look at what the
ball does now and how far these drivers are hitting it,
and then you know, and obviously you have to pair
that with technology, with with technique and skill. But when
I read about lab Golf and how and then saw
the Revealer with Sam using that on YouTube and showing
(08:03):
how the club doesn't spin, you know, I mean a
lot of people will talk about a face balance putter.
I don't even know why face balance is a thing
people say about a putter.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
It means nothing.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
It means that when you hold the club up it
lays horizontally like flat to the horizon. It doesn't actually
do anything through this stroke and most of those are
to heavy and the toe flip's over. So when you
use that revealer. You'll see that the club's just spin.
That's the most remarkable thing. I think that should sell
anyone because if you can just have the club and
just hold it and as it goes through the stroke,
(08:35):
it just stays wherever you square the face up to.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
I don't know what else you want to putter.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
It's not like any everyday amateur, right. This guy's an
eleven time world champion, so he's you know what I mean,
like he's a master at his craft. And so for him,
I guess that's probably what sort of validated it early.
For you, I would assume, is that the fact that
he could articulate or talk through or have some sort
(09:03):
of ye the language around how and why he was
using it, was that why it was resonating with you,
not only the results.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you know, just starting with a
level of respect for what he's been able to achieve
in his field, but then having played a fair bit
of golf with him over the last twenty years or
fifteen years at that point, and understanding he's very good
golfer and he's not afraid to experiment with things to
(09:35):
get better. And I admire.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That because you know, we all can get a bit
stuck in our ways with things, and he put the
time in to get there and the fact, yeah, like
you said, he was able to communicate what this putter
can do that other putters can't do. And I thought
that was pretty impressive. That was a good pitch from him.
So I bought into that for sure, and I ordered
(09:59):
one up straight away and I got it the next
week when Wednesday at Riviera.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
How'd that process go in terms of like ordering or
getting something to your you know, specifics or liking or
you know how you know, I mean for you to
make that change and like get that? How does how
does that? How did that? How that? How that work? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (10:21):
Kelly put me in touch with Sam from Lab and
Sam was there in l A.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
And based off what he'd seen from me putting, created
a few different options for me. And I basically said,
just give me the same thing Kelly had because that
was looking pretty good and rolling good. But he felt,
you know a couple of different angles and lengths might
be appropriate. Uh, And you know, it felt great straight away.
I didn't have the guts to pick it up Wednesday
(10:54):
night and put it in play that week in LA
but I did use it then, uh, from the Florida
Swing on through the Masters that year, and that was
the directed force, which is their kind of original, you know,
large headed zero pork Putter.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Back to Sam Han for his recollection of how and
why Adam Scott became a believer.
Speaker 7 (11:20):
I got a call. I was at Riviera and you know,
this is Adam Scott. Can you meet me in the
locker room?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Fuck?
Speaker 7 (11:30):
Yeah, Adam Scott, I can meet you in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
And it was probably more like, who the fuck is
impersonating Adam Scott and tell me me being the locker.
Speaker 7 (11:40):
I was fortunate enough that Kelly gave me a heads
up he might be calling. But yes, I probably would
have been, you know, yes, hung up on him being
like a fuck yourself. I have better things to do
than deal with the prank caller. But no, and so
yeah he comes. That was actually a really funny introduction
for me anyway. You know, it says, meeting a lot
of room round, you know whatever. Two o'clock. I go
(12:02):
in there and ask the locker om intend to where
Adam's locker is. And I go over there and he's
talking with the foot Joy guys, and Adam's in his
underwear talking shoes and like I'm like, hi, he kind
of you know, acknowledges me. But he's talking to the
foot joy guys and like, I mean, we're fucking ever,
like they're just talking. I don't, like, I have no
idea how there could be that much to talk about
(12:23):
with a fucking shoe. And there's like two guys and
they're like, you know, like this and they're holding up
shoes and they're talking toe boxes and heel relief, and
I'm like Jesus Christ and I'm just like, oh my god,
when with this conversation and I swear to God it
went on for twenty minutes and I'm just sitting there.
So I sit down like on this bench behind it
(12:43):
and behind the two of them, and I'm like, you know,
I don't know, probably on my phone, are just kind
of looking down. The foot Joye guys walk away, and
before I have a chance to get up, Adam in
his underwear like throws a leg up on the bench
right next to me, you know, and it's like kind
of corners me in, and like, you know, if there's
a if there's a guy that's going to make a
heatero dude question his sexuality. It's Adam Scott. I mean,
(13:03):
here's this just like a Donnis man, you know, half
naked standing in front of me like Hi, I'm Adam
Scott and I'm like and I'm like, I'm like trapped
in there, like I couldn't even stand up. So that
was Yeah, that was really really fun. We talked for
a while. That was a really good week too. Ernie
Els gave us a gave us a go that week.
(13:24):
Adam did too, and then He'll said something, he said
something I'll never ever forget that week. He didn't he
didn't actually put it in play that week, and he
played very well. I think he finished second or something
with an armlock, which I was super bummed about because
I was like, ah, fuck, you just putted really good,
like probably there goes my opportunity. Uh. And then later
(13:50):
I get a call from him and he had been
testing it that then, and then I think he went
to he went to the Honda, and Bill was at
the Honda with him, found a putter. And then I
got a call from a few days later for no
reason at all. He just called up and he said,
I'm going to win the Masters with this part of.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
This year, and what was the feedback you were getting
from from your peers? You know, what what was that?
What was what was there? Some raised eyes and some
eyebrows and some thoughts on like what.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, I think at that point.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
You know, I've been on tour a long time and
I've seen when when other guys had made some pretty
radical changes. And of course, you know about ten years
before I'd changed to use a long potter, and that
certainly raised some eyebrows, so I was used to that,
you know. Now this was another direction completely with there's
(14:45):
a fair bit of stuff going on with the lab
from the grip to the head, other angles in between,
and being so non traditional it raises eyebrows for sure.
But I just I just had this. It's like this,
you know, if you can embrace what this part of
does and stay out of your own way, the results
(15:07):
could come. And I just had this feeling and I
said it to Sam, although it didn't pan out, but like,
this was the putter that can win around Augusta because
it's just put such a good role on it, and
the size and everything makes it so versatile from in
and around the greens, which is tricky at Augusta because
it's so slow off the green then onto such a
(15:31):
fast surface, and chipping from certain positions at Augusta is
very difficult.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I asked Adam Scott to talk about the feel and
why this could ultimately become his gamer.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I think the standout thing when anybody first puts with
a lab putter is the smoothness of the stroke, especially
in the transition from the back swing to the through swing.
Because of the unique balance that lab putters have. That
smoothness in transition is noticeable. And you know, now I'm
(16:05):
just used to it because I've put it with a
lamb putter for.
Speaker 6 (16:07):
A long time.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
But I think when you first pick it up, that
is the different feeling. Forgetting forgetting the angles and head shapes,
which are quite radical generally, I think the feeling of
the stroke is different, so you know there's something there
and if your mind is open and willing to explore that,
I think there's the benefit comes from there.
Speaker 7 (16:29):
So he putted with it at Handah. He played very well.
He actually had a chance to win the players that year.
Rinsed one on whatever it was, eleven with the is
apart five with the angled water or whatever and kind
of took him out of it, but he putted beautifully.
And this is a short putter, by the way, This
wasn't a broomsticks the regular conventional directed force. And all
(16:50):
of a sudden we're on the map. Out of Scott
is using this big red giant potter. What the hell
is that thing? We're getting articles, we're getting pressed, w
RX is taking pictures and and it's a real thing.
It's happening, And now our sales is really starting to
go up. We're actually selling putters, like really really moving them.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
After Adam Scott and after this is happening, and this
shit's hitting the fan at like like now you're peeking
out at like how many putters a month? Or like,
can you give me some sort of quantifiable like number
that that that speaks to success?
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Like I want to say, actually, can check I can
get somewhat of a reference here real quick.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Just yeah, just to you go from like kind of
roughly four hundred into in existence.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
You know, I think I remember sometime around then Postmasters
twenty nineteen. I remember we got an order from a
Korean guy for one hundred putters, and we were like,
holy fucking shit, how the war old, are we going
(18:00):
to make one hundred putters in three weeks? So, you know,
I think at the time a really good day for
us was like five to seven orders in a day.
So yeah, I think we were probably making one hundred
putters a month at that point.
Speaker 8 (18:15):
Maybe.
Speaker 7 (18:16):
So in April, Rol's around, Adam's putting good, he's hitting
the ball good. And this is the twenty nineteen Masters,
which we all know Tiger won, and uh uh leading
after day one, my phone's ringing off the hook, I
got Textcalo or the phone's blown up, the emails blown up.
(18:37):
Orders are coming in like fucking crazy because the cameras around,
because he's a past champion, it's a big, ugly red putter,
and we're freaking out. And then day two Friday, I
believe there was like six or seven people tied for
the lead after Friday, and Adam was one of them.
And on that Friday he had made a bomb on
(18:58):
six pen was all the way back right and he
bere for maybe one of the Part three is on
the front. Just this monster putt that was on, you know,
every fifteen minutes on Golf Channel. They were showing this
putt and yeah, phones ringing off the hook. Shit's getting crazy.
Now we get our first, real, real bad break. So
(19:18):
Adam at the time was traveling with three different putters.
He had a broomstick, he had an armlock, and he
had our DF and he was working on.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Direct Force.
Speaker 7 (19:30):
Yes, sorry, directed Force. So we kept then. Yeah, way
back when we rebranded, we didn't want to lose the
little bit of name recognition that we had, so we
named the company Lab and then we named this particular model,
which used to be called the Reno, we named it
the Directed Force. So, uh, yeah, He's traveling with the DF,
a Cameron armlock, and a Cameron broomstick, and and he
(19:53):
was switching around and he kind of had in his
head that certain conditions were better with certain putters, and
YadA YadA. Saturday Momore he gets up and somebody tells
him's supposed to rain, and he had it in his
head that he putt it better with an armlock when
the greens were a little slower. So Kad is John
the money at the time, and he has John go
grab the armlock. They spent about an hour dialing it
(20:13):
in and armlock is a very different technique. You got
the shaft running against your forearm, which creates shaftling and
generally creates a very different ball position. And so he
dials in this arm lock, and then right before he's
about to tee off, decides he wants to go with
the DF. John runs back to the locker room, grabs
(20:35):
a DF. I don't even know if he hit any
puts with it, puts it in the bag and actually
made a nice one in the first hole, and then
after that proceeds to miss everything short and right, and
I get on camera. I get him on camera, and
I had a video of him from the day before
in the video on that Saturday, and I mean the
(20:56):
ball had moved back six inches like it was like
a subtle thing. I mean, it was a completely completely
different setup because he'd you know, been screwed around that armlock,
and that was whereas I was seeing the ball that day,
and and he's just squeezing these things short right, short, right,
short right. And then on sixteen he missed about an
(21:18):
eighteen inch putt and that actually had nothing to do
with anything other than he got completely fucked and you
don't I could hear it on the broadcast barely, and
he talked about it after we kind of debriefed the thing.
But he got nailed by a roar right in the
middle of his you know, backswing, like a loud tiger
had done something crazy and just got nailed by a roar.
(21:39):
Flinched on it misses this eighteen inch putt and they
show it fifteen fucking times and in the phone stopped ringing.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Seriously, it's that much that it's that much.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
Of an impact instantly, instantly, sales wise, it actually wasn't
that it. We still climbed. That was still a big
level up for us, for sure. And uh but what
I realized the takeaway from that moment was I can't
(22:16):
rely on the tour. But we just can't. We just
can't do this anymore. We have to, you know, the tour.
If it happens, great, let's be available. Let's you know,
hope that they try it. But like if we're, if we're,
if we're putting all our chips on the tour, it's
a it's just it's a it's a yeah, it's it's
(22:37):
it's a it's a high payout bet, low odds, high
payout bet. So we needed to think of a different
way to get putters out the door. And that's when
we really honed in on who we were marketing to.
Tour players don't buy putters, so fuck them and uh,
and it wasn't helping a bunch of them for you know,
(23:00):
reasons we can get into, but it was really helping
our customers. Like we had customers at this point, we're
developing a bit of a cult following because you know, frankly,
all of our customers had a trauma bond with their
putter because they got made fun of it, you know,
made fun of just the same as me. And when
you get made fun of, you get that much more
possessive of it. And so, you know, guys got really
prideful about their putters. And we've got this bit of
(23:20):
a cult following. And that's where our marketing guy, Zach
Kuzahaski with Rooted Solutions, really started to hone in on
the message, you're a better putter than you think. And
what that whole concept is about. What you know, what
we take that to mean is we're here to help
make you better. Like our company is not about like,
(23:40):
look how amazing we are, you know, like you see
some of the major brands now where they just pictures
of their designer, you know, standing by a mill and
all this stuff, and this kind of glorification of these
designers like you know, and obviously plenty of credits. A
build it with what he designed was amazing. But what
we wanted to do was make our message about you,
(24:01):
the player, to tell you you've been getting hosed. You're
actually pretty good. You read greens better than you think
you do, you judge pace better than you think you do.
The problem is is that you have this unruly, unwieldy
instrument in your hand preventing you from being you. So
let us help you. And we really started to craft
that message. We started to leverage social media and social media.
(24:23):
I mean, this is kind of another one of those
things where we got lucky. Having no golf background, Bill
and I developed our brand voice bickering with people on Facebook.
That's how the whole that's how our whole shtick got started.
That's how we started learning how to communicate the physics
in ways that you know, the average golfer could understand.
(24:44):
That's how we started learning how to be smart asses
and how to fuck patrols. And that's how we learned.
It was like real time market research, you know, because
we're getting real time feedback from people who are looking
at me doing a Revealer video and the comments that
we get below it. You know, all of these things
we learned about the road that we had in front
(25:06):
of us, and and we learned that we had to
accomplish one of the one of the most difficult human tasks,
which is to change somebody's mind. It's so hard.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
A sample of give me an example of like a
common theme to the trolling or equipment geeks, or doubters
or like skeptics. I mean, you must have a few
at the top of your head.
Speaker 7 (25:30):
What would people say? Oh, yeah, one that we still
get four or five times a day. They see the
Revealer demonstration. They see the Revealer demonstration in the first
this fucking guy walking into my building with a tailor
made putter. Uh, we get it four or five times
a day. Is uh, that's all fine and good. But
(25:54):
I don't put with the revealer. I put with my hands.
So you know what this this is? This is snake oil.
And the response is, well, are you not able to
feel the difference between the way a two ball swings
versus a newport? You know, and that's what that's what.
(26:14):
You know, We've been fitting for torque the whole time,
they just didn't call it torque. And so, you know,
very rarely do I get a response after I illuminate
the fact that torque does matter. Yes, of course our
hands can mitigate torque, but why do you want it to?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Since investing in lab Golf in twenty eighteen, Han has
worked his way through a lot of highs and lows,
good moments and bad and Adam Scott's twenty nineteen Masters
was a microcosm of that adventure. In round one, Scott
shot sixty nine and was T. Six. He followed that
with a sixty eight and was tied for first after
round two. On the weekend he shot seventy two, seventy
(26:53):
three and finished T. Eighteen. But for Han, his focus
was on the success Adam Scott had on the Florida
Swing and the first two rounds in Augusta. He had
the feedback he needed to keep moving the company forward.
Speaker 7 (27:05):
Yeah, it was huge for me to realize that, like,
we are onto something and that people aren't seeing it.
So I need to do a better job of explaining it.
I need to be patient and I need to change minds,
and changing minds is fucking hard, man, especially in golf.
Like people are stubborn, God are people stubborn in golf.
And the old guard has tremendous influence over what we buy,
(27:28):
what we learn, what we see, and the demographic of
the folks in charge of golf and in charge of
instruction are fucking old. And like old people don't do
good with technology, and you know, their basic feeling is
like if it didn't work for me, it must be broken,
you know. Like you know, we've all seen our dads
(27:49):
like sitting there fiddling with the VCR, having a VCR.
That's funny, I just dated myself, I said, VCR fiddling
with the computer and you know, saying this thing's broken,
and it's just like you just don't know how to
use it. So it's no different from with our putter,
you know. And so to get you know, these you know,
kind of old guard folks to embrace different is hard,
(28:13):
and it's and it's not unprecedented in the industry. Like
one of the things that I think about all the
time is like metal driver heads, like the Big Bertha
came out in nineteen ninety one. Davis Love won a
PGA championship with a wooden driver in nineteen ninety seven,
Like the thing had been out for six years before,
you know, it started to become commonplace. He was the
(28:34):
last person to win with a wooden driver. And the
reason is is because it required different techniques. So the
guys that were playing for Simmons, if you just plug
that same swing into a big Bertha, it didn't necessarily
do great things. But somebody had to figure out, like, well,
we know that the ball, when we fire a ball,
add it on a machine, it's coming off faster off
(28:56):
a metal driver than it does it would one. So
let's figure out how to use this thing. And then
you know, over the course of six, seven, eight, ten years,
we figured out, like we need a positive angle of attack,
and now let's look at shafts and look at swingweight
and look at these things, and you know, to figure
out how to use these things. But within the technique,
there was technique differences in how to use a metal
(29:17):
driver versus a wooden one. It's the same difference, you know.
And so we got a lot of putting gurus out
there where they have a brilliant arsenal of instructional techniques
to help somebody stabilize a face. They don't apply to
what we do. And so if it doesn't apply to
(29:39):
what we you know, since they can't apply their stick
to our putters, it doesn't work. It's not you know,
they think it's not relevant. It's not real.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Before we go any further, and we still have a
ways to go. Back to Adam Scott for more on
advancements on the equipment industry, technology labs, technology and how
and when he tries to utilize all of the above
to maximize his potential and ultimately extend his career.
Speaker 6 (30:05):
It is a really tough market to crack.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
The pot of market, you know, it's really dominated, certainly
on the tour by the big brands, and it's a
very traditional thing putting. But I certainly am of the
belief just because we started putting one way, it doesn't
mean it's the best way. You know, I've explored putting
the way I have, from short to long, to armlock
(30:28):
to clause and everything, and a lot of people have
had that process, and you know, but I think I'm
trying to give myself the best chance to make every
put before I've even hit it. Before I've even made
a stroke. The great thing with the lab is I
think it helps you make a better stroke.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
I think back to Hogan and j Singh and Bernard Langer,
and there are guys who obviously have always been notorious
for being really good ball strikers, really good tea to
green guys. And then on the green that's a whole
nother that's a whole nother that's a whole nother ass.
That's a whole other game. Obviously, that's that's And so
(31:08):
for you to have to have found this or this
technology or this this tool that you use on the greens,
has that almost like freed you up and extended your
love of the game and career and pursuit of perfect
Like I mean, does that almost like now that you've
(31:29):
got this, does it now allow you to almost like
you know, go work backwards from that and say, now
it's like now you get to continue to be Adam
Scott and contend and compete and win. And you know
what I'm saying is that has that been a key
component to like this sort of aspect of your sort
of back end of your career.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, I think putting, Look, putting is a key component
of the game for sure. I think in yeah, my
career is you know, like everyone has had a long career,
it's a journey and there are times when you have
to make change and you have to adapt. And you know,
I'm one of the last remaining guys that turn pro
(32:11):
with a Ballada golf ball, and you know, that's where
I started playing as a pro. And now look how
I'm playing, and I've made huge changes this year into
you know, my driver and golf ball and the way
my style of playing from teetera green and I think,
although it hasn't been perfect, it's the way I need
to go forward to be relevant out there playing. And
(32:35):
I think I'm getting better and I think there's a
chance that that will keep me out there being one
of the best players. But certainly having my putting in
such a solid place at a high level has allowed
me or given me the confidence to make drastic changes
elsewhere in the bag to kind of push that for
that level of improvement that I need to win big tournaments.
(32:58):
And you know, worked pretty hard over the last eighteen
months with lab with a lad putter on the greens,
and it's been very consistent and the results on the
greens have come from that, so that's it has It's
given me a lot of freedom. And look, putting and
putting is one of those things that when it's not
(33:19):
feeling good, you're in for a long day heading out
to that first te you know. Yet whereas I feel
like I walk out to the first tea with a
sense of calm and lightness every time because I know
I'm gonna put.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Okay, seems like a good time to go back to
Bill Pressey on the influence of a guy like Kelly
Slater and then Adam Scott Kelly Slater.
Speaker 9 (33:41):
Oh, here we go. I mean that was out of
the blue. We there's it's hard to say, you know
how these these all play a role, but that was
a big one. And I don't know exactly. I think
he got it in Florida. I've heard various stories, you know,
(34:02):
but there's a place in Newport Beach and uh, Carlsbad.
I think it was Carlsbad Golf channer. But either way,
I mean, to have a goat in any sport on
your side unpaid, I just hey man, this is that
(34:23):
was huge. And and then.
Speaker 10 (34:26):
Adam getting Adam to roll from from Kelly which is
just an insanely cool story. You know, we even Sam
and I look back at that and we start putting
these together and.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
How lucky.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Back to Adam Scott, Bill Pressey, does it. Have you
ever had a conversation with him or or or talked
through the technology or anything like that.
Speaker 6 (34:53):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I've always dealt with Sam, and you know, and we
have a we have a great relations and I have
a huge respect for Bill, what he created and what
Sam has taken on, and how deeply passionate they are
about what they're doing. And and you know, I've really
just tried to be kind of like a reassuring voice
(35:17):
for them, because you know, it's for small guys in
a big pond. It can be tough, and you know,
they obviously think they've got the best product out there,
but you know, trying to keep them calm and stay
the course and and not do anything to get away
from the core values of the putter and to continue
to evolve it. And you know, there's no doubt I
(35:42):
think they've done an incredible job the last couple of years,
because not only a guy's using it, they're using it
successfully and certainly on the tour. When anyone has some success,
we all look, you know, whether it's a new shaft
in Rory's driver or you know, Lucas Glover's new part,
we're all looking at what they're doing to see if
(36:03):
that's the secret.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
He set out to actually like try to make something
that actually did what everybody else was promising, because he
felt like they weren't. And now here we are twenty
twenty three, Lucas doing what he's done, You doing what
you've done, and then all these other players as you,
as you point out, does it feel like there's been
this tipping point and now you no longer have to
(36:26):
feel like you or anybody else involved in LAB doesn't
feel like they have to actually keep trying to you know,
explain it or justify it or or you know it
just it's doing it now. It's like it's speaking for
itself to this point.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Oh, I think so, And I think they should feel
proud at LAB that they've got to that point. That's
no easy feat, especially in the tour pro world. That's
a fickle little area, you know. And I don't know
that Sam would like me saying this, but I was
trying to keep it a secret I I didn't want
everyone to find out because look at look look at
what they're doing with it. When guys are doing when
(37:08):
we're out there, we're close enough where we can see
when a guy's doing something much better all of a sudden, consistently,
And you know, I think the sure a few of
the guys took notice of me with the Lab putter,
and you know, out of curiosity, probably checked the stats
and like, oh this is good. I thought Adam wasn't
a good putter, but he actually is. And you know,
(37:31):
I guess a couple of those guys then followed through
and tried it. But you know, I think it's a
great story. What I do know and why I had
a bit of a soft spot from the beginning was
I think Bill has a connection to Australia through his
father potentially or something.
Speaker 6 (37:45):
So there was a small connection there to me and Bill.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Because on the Directed Force it's got his name on
the bottom, and I've kind of had that Australian feeling,
So there is some connection there to Australia.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Like Sam, Bill and the entire team at Lab Golf.
I certainly appreciate people like Tim Wilkinson, Von Taylor Jeff Sluman,
Kelly Slater, and Adam Scott for their time and perspective
on this putting technology and why it all matters to them,
And they will all come back at the end of
this series for some reflections in final comments, But at
(38:19):
this point and before we get to Brett Rumford and
ultimately the Lucas Glover story, I felt the need to
get an independent voice in this series, someone who makes
a living and has established a loyal following by being
a doubter, a tester and authenticator of brands like Lab
golf technology like Directed Force.
Speaker 11 (38:41):
So my name is Adam Beach and I'm the owner
of my gof's by which I think the best way
it's been said is the consumer reports of golf with
a journalistic edge. I think that puts a nice bow
around it for people to understand what we do. We're
the only independent golf test facility in the world, meaning
(39:01):
if golfers buy it, I want to test it so
they're not wasting their money on a lot of the
things that I felt they were wasting their money on
for EON's.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
You know, when I say lab putters, what do you.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Say unconventionally amazing? Why the golf industry as.
Speaker 11 (39:21):
A whole can get laser focused on certain things. So,
for example, I'm not putting Scottie Cameron down. I'm just
saying Scottie cameer putters. I call it brand Washington, you know.
It creates this name, and unfortunately, unconventional things in the
golf industry tend to be looked at as gadgets or
(39:44):
not to be taken serious by the serious golfer because
they don't want to go out in the course and
have this infomercial product. When they pull it out of
their bag and go, all of their buddies go, what
the hell are you doing? You know, So it's really
hard to break into this industry with such an unconventional product.
It takes time, it takes wins on tour, it takes
trust in the gofer to believe in something like this,
(40:06):
more so than just some other company coming out with
another Scottie Cameron or another ping answer that's easily approved
by serious golfers. For a serious golfer to put this
in their bag, they have to get over a major hump,
and that is that this thing is ugly, you know,
and that for years Goffers thought that the looks of
a putter actually matter. And the interesting thing is I've
(40:28):
been collecting data for almost twenty years on this ten
really in depth let where we test putters and also
get the subjective feedback, and we can then correlate those
two to find out doesn't really matter and looks actually
matter none to how well a putter performs. The unfortunate
thing is gofer's minds can't get past that. A goffer's
(40:51):
memory is last a long time. It's very hard for
them to get over some of these these humps, and
you know, lab putters is one of them.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
They're very unconventional, but the.
Speaker 11 (41:03):
Results are pretty profound and they're pretty quick because, in
my opinion, putting is really difficult.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Right.
Speaker 11 (41:10):
Everybody knows that unless you're just one of those people
that you know is a great putter. But for the
most of us, we struggle. And it's because there's so
many variables to putters. It's the weight, it's the length,
it's the lie, it's the you know, it's the loft,
it's the alignment aids, and anything that can take some
of those variables out of the equation, in my opinion,
help golfers right. And this putter does that from what
(41:34):
we see in here by taking one of the really
simple ones away, and that is it's really important to
be square impact, meaning not facing to the right or
to the left or you know, delfting or adding loft.
And this potter really just takes one of the major
ones out of the equation, and that's people's hands, and
it keeps you really square throughout the entire stroke. And
(41:57):
you can just watch it. I mean eighty percent of
I think of our our employees here, our lab converts,
you know, and that's because the data speaks for itself here,
and they it just keeps switching. Every time I see
a new person coming up with another lab, I'm like,
what happened. I'm like, you can't argue with it, you know.
It's just it's so quick, it's so you know, so
(42:18):
many putter. Think about how many putters you've probably owned.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I've owned.
Speaker 11 (42:21):
I have a collection of one hundreds, okay, and none
of them worked, you know, none of them made me better.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
This one you put in your hand, and it's so
fast to go.
Speaker 11 (42:30):
Wow, I'm getting I'm burning the edges now instead of
putting it five feet to the left or by you
know by I'm sinking more putts, and at the end
of the day, putting is really simple. It's get the
goddamn ball in the whole as fast as possible and
find a product that can do that for you.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Have you ever seen this thing? Have you ever put
held that thing? And what are your thoughts on what
they they deemed the Revealer.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
It's interesting.
Speaker 11 (42:55):
You know Bill Pressey, the guy that found it, It
started it with like a crutch, right, you know, trying
to figure this thing out. And he really wasn't trying
to invent the lab putter. He was trying to figure
out why in the hell all of his other putters
didn't work.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
So he put it in this device and realized that.
Speaker 11 (43:12):
Golfers had been trained based on stroke type, you know,
heavy arct slight arc, straight back, straight through. And while
there are putters that can slightly help, I do think
based on data, if you have a stroke in matching
that with a stroke type, this takes it one next
step by going even if you do match it with
(43:35):
your stroke type, you're still having to struggle on the
back and forth of a stroke to keep your hands
to get it to stay square. No matter what I
mean it just is physics, right, and the revealer shows
that physics. So once again it's just a variable eliminator.
It takes all that stuff, which, yes, you don't want
to fight. You don't want to make it harder than
it's needed. Meaning if you're a straight back, straight through guy,
(43:57):
you don't want a heavy arc putter, and I don't
want to get too far in the we with putter tech.
But you're just making the game harder than it needs
to be.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
But he makes it. He cuts out all that with
the revealer and basically says, yes, that is true.
Speaker 11 (44:09):
But no matter what, watch this thing on a revealer.
When you go back and forth, all these putters are
just spinning. So that means your hands are the things
that in your arms and your muscles are going to
have to keep that from happening, whereas with the lab putter,
it's one less thing you have to worry about, which
is pretty important for putting staying square.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
In other words, this is the real deal. I mean
of all the things that you guys test and see
and you you run through sort of your system of
revealing whether or not it's marketing or whether or not
it's it's true. So to speak. This this sort of
passes the my gofspy sniff test oh far.
Speaker 11 (44:51):
I don't want to oversell it and say it's the
most amazing thing in the world, because I don't know,
but it's we've.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Only really tested it a couple of years.
Speaker 11 (44:58):
I mean, look, I've always said that golfers should stop
buying wallhangers and start playing their gamer, meaning a five
hundred or five thousand dollars putter from bet Nardi or
Scott Cameron that looks really cool, that's great hanging on
a wall, but this piece. You need technology in a putter,
no different than you do a driver, and I can't
(45:20):
imagine how gofers haven't figured that out. You know, putting
is a slow science. I do understand it's three four
miles an hour, not one hundred and twenty like a driver.
But we've seen it even roll putters Lab putters. When
there's some technology that can help a golfer get it
in the hole faster, that's what the game's about, and
it seems like Lab is doing that. So, I mean,
(45:42):
it finished really well in all of our tests so far,
whether it was the really crazy looking Lab won the
blade that they have I mean it looks absolutely insane,
but it worked.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
Too, and so have all the mallets.
Speaker 11 (45:55):
And like I said, all of our staff is switching
to them because they're helping them over their score.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
It's just a fun story to sort of report on.
And I think getting your voice and just sort of
having you articulate, you know, some of the an outsider's
perspective is really valuable. So thank you for that.
Speaker 11 (46:15):
Yeah, And I mean, at the end of the day,
I think it's unfortunate. You know, golfers aren't as willing
to try unconventional things. But if more golfers were willing
to try this unconventional putter, I'm very confident that more
golfers would sink more putts.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
And you drive for show and you put for dough.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (46:32):
We put out a tweet the other day, or I did.
I've been testing for so long and there's just some
things you learn over time. And it was about the
ping ping drivers. And I'm not saying ping is the
best driver for everyone, but if everyone played a ping driver,
you would see a tremendous jump in performance by a
majority versus a minority. They make the best driver, not
(46:53):
for ever for one person, but for everyone right as
a whole, and I feel the same is Star need
to be true with LAB. They might not be the
number one performer for everyone, but they're gonna generally be
better for you than almost every other plutter you've ever tried.
Speaker 6 (47:24):
Put another log on the fire.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
Nobody here is get the time.
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