EPISODE #170
The boys are joined by the ultra-talented Bradley Converse, Founder, Bradley Putters.
Bradley is handcrafting the most impressive wood putters. A true creator, Bradley is dedicated to telling your story through his art.
Check out his work on instagram https://www.instagram.com/bradleyputters/
Build your dream putter today https://www.bradleyputters.com/
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Shots I just one birdie wo new driver repl M2 it’s F yeah like met the good good guys there a couple years ago before they were big so that was fun yeah I gotta play golf with Rick Shields um yeah just you meet all sorts of cool people long drive guys um yeah a lot of people there
Yeah we got uh we got some long dve buddies always trying to fix their uh their Butters too so it’s good that it’s good that they’re trying to find you maybe um yep so Rick Shields that’s uh you were I think you were building that or you just built it like shortly after
We chat it that’s been a little while yeah I made him one um yeah yeah I mean everything’s a blur at this point just you know been doing it for seven plus years now so um yeah it’s I mean business taking a bunch of different directions which is cool yeah but uh
Yeah going going going big and you know meeting all the cool Rick Shields and the big stuff and then um you know family stuff and having to focus on you know my son’s health and that whole world and then uh yeah just kind of enjoying being a dad and making sick
Putters and not trying to hustle too hard the golf world’s crazy though because they can take you anywhere like people that like oh yeah just random people that are great people that just love golf and even like athletes and other sports and stuff are huge into golf like it’s just
Oh yeah I make circle all sorts of random Pros um baseball players and yeah I mean it just you never really know who’s gon to approach you next CEOs and stuff and it just golf connects so many people in such a cool way um that yeah
I’m excited it’s it I’ll see a lot of people having I mean I’m I’m kind of near Bandon Dunes but I’m not that near Bandon Dunes I’m just so far away from everyone else um you guys kind of know that being up in Canada but I mean
You’re at least big city I’m four hours from Portland and Portland’s not even that big a city so um yeah I used to do a lot more events but you know three kids I don’t do events now either so um yes PGH will be like my one chance a
Year to say hi to people and prove I you know still alive so we’re in conversation we can just roll right in if you don’t mind Bradley Bradley sure Bradley Converse right that’s it that’s me yeah memory memory still there I love it uh Bryer I confirmed this is episode
170 so it’s been uh it’s been a long that’s yeah thank you man thank you that’s exciting it’s been a long time since we’ve had uh Bradley on so um like gol just such a cool space I feel like there’s so many like abilities for people to cross over like you said it
Might be cosos or something like that or athletes like there’s so many uh like the YouTube space is huge right now there’s so many like athlete Crossovers and stuff like that so it’s really cool and then seeing like you know NBA players playing on like the good good
Channel and stuff like that it’s it’s sweet man and uh like the biggest athlete of all time Jerry obviously making a hole in one at the beach recently it’s wild oh that was ridiculous that yeah that that’s a I mean we’ve talked about all sorts of things breaking the internet but that
Was everywhere for like a week it was yeah because I’ve had I had had that conversation I posted something about how with tiger splitting up with Nike or whatever it was like did he just win the PIP alone doing that and somebody brought up that Jerry right we were
Saying like yeah that might have been bigger news they’re pretty close too it had to 36 hours yeah yeah you get that big of a brand behind something like that it’s hard for not to blow up you know especially bar still being the social Med one of the social media Kings
I mean it’s hard not to blow up like that but I think it was great I thought it was cool yeah it was uh it was fun to well fun to watch for us maybe not as much for him but yeah yeah could imagine like hand just yeah hand just like a
Mess after that but um Bradley do you mind kind of taking it back to when we first had it years ago kind of giving us like an intro anybody wasn’t caught that pod um obviously things are a lot different for Bryce and I things are a
Lot different for you can you kind of give us an idea of who you are maybe just start us off with how you got started in the the putter world in the golf world in the golf space whatever it is up until maybe just a little synopsis
Up until now yeah yeah um so I’ve been doing this since 2016 now so I was a engineer first worked on uh worked for a military contracting company so I wasn’t military but I worked for a company that supported military and um designed like ship parts to survive nuclear blast and
Did a lot of R&D stuff so I got good at like um programming and and uh breaking things and figuring out why they broke and then um I used to work out of Virginia a lot but I’m over here in Oregon so Southern Oregon and uh it just
Didn’t make sense to keep traveling back and forth so um I was Black Friday of 2016 I was uh at this really nice high-end furniture store and pictured a a golf ball dropping on this really cool drum and like I mean the idea of like making wood Putters um first ideas were
Terrible like they were so bad they were not going to work well but I got the idea on black Friday on Saturday buil a website Sunday built my initial designs Monday figured out those designs weren’t going to work and then uh Tuesday had them done Wednesday like shafted them up
I went to a a pawn shop and bought like old Putters and cut off the heads and glued in shafts and stuff Thursday I had them on the course and then two months after that I went to the first PGA show so the 2017 PGA show and golf.com set it
Was one of the coolest products there which was crazy and then uh since then it’s been kind of a you know wood putters to the level I do them didn’t exist really before me and so um it was kind of figuring out where do I fit in
The space do I go Mass Market do I do um you know $300 Putters that are just basic wood because you know wood and uh lead weight and stuff like it performs really well but then quickly finding out that it’s just impossible to prove it to
People like when they roll it they get it but explaining that to someone why don’t I just buy a Scotty well sure uh so then pivoting from that and going to like the Ultra highend where I’m doing artwork on Putters I’m doing like crazy bird scenes I’m doing um you know just
Finished one where a guy got his like dogs hanging out on the front of his boat and I graved like that onto his putter I’ve got that one over there um so yeah it’s been a lot of figuring out where I am and then also figuring out
Life you know with uh my son he ended up in um the hospital for a month with kidney failure so had to drop everything and figure that out uh Co was crazy I um I’m engineer first so the local hospital system needed help building out their supply chain locally because we couldn’t
Get anything so I helped them with that so that was crazy um and then you know a bunch of volunteer stuff too because you know I’m the community guy so uh trying to figure out where all that fits within and then my wife’s busy and three kids
And so yeah it’s been uh seven years of figuring out um my lifestyle first and then fitting the business into that kind of so that’s that’s kind of how I got to where I am now and heading back to the PGA show going to reconnect with some
Friends but and still you know making 10ish Putters a month um and they’re just crazy special story Putters did you have any woodworking background before you started doing this or no just uh a little bit um so I actually have like scars on my legs my dad used to make
These like really high-end uh special boxes that he sold like Christmas time just for extra cash for us and um so I would like steal his xacto knives and stuff and then I would like drop them on my legs and then go hide because I’m bleeding everywhere and wasn’t supposed
To be playing with them and anyways um so yeah I whittling and stuff I love small things but like when it comes to building houses and stuff I don’t do that I like the smaller more intricate the better so yeah and that’s exactly what I do now is just small intricate
Fine details so we we say this all the time but I’m going to link the page in the show notes below so it’s it’s one of those like if you’re a golfer and you’re kind of looking to get buried in Rabbit Hole I said this to you Bradley the we
Talked like we talked like a couple months ago and I was like man we got to we got to like we got to reconnect and you said yeah and then time flies you go through Christmas and stuff like that and then I was just like the other day
I’m like deep in a rabbit hole of like I don’t know four years five years deep of looking at Putters and stuff like that so I would encourage you to do the same right now go down the show notes give it a follow if you haven’t already they’re
Pretty they’re pretty incredible but um when you when you kind of started I remember you know way back when we were talking about it you were working on different things you were starting to work in epoxies and stuff like that the intricacies of different things so where are you at with like your
Development of the putters like is there something new that you’re starting to work on um have you like really hon like the Woodcraft working on it like a lot of them pretty much all of them have some kind of epoxy on them in some sense and you’re you’re working in like a
Piece that somebody’s maybe given you like I would love to go through like how that process works but where abouts are you where abouts are you with I guess the design of of the putters right now yeah yeah I mean the area that is most
Fun and I can be most creative is doing the artwork on the bottom so right um yeah let me grab one of these real quick actually so um so when people want one of my Putters they um they want something special they want a story uh they want a showstopper
That people are going to like ask questions about and then when they look at it it’s it’s very art forward U like you just notice the beauty of it but then there’s story uh behind it and so I had a guy who is from uh like Long
Island area and used to bird hunting but then switch over to more just you know loves loves Birds just in general um has a has his own company so we wanted to incorporate that logo as like maybe the alignment line um but on the bottom he
Wanted to have a bunch of the birds from Long Island that he just you know he’ loved the chance like if someone sees us on the bottom of his poter he could talk about birding and stuff and you know they can just connect on that but it’s
Also just a really cool artistic piece that he can uh show off so let me flip this camera around there it is all right uh so this right here is a long island scene where there’s like a Shack on it it’s got like a bunch different like all
The birds you got a great blue heron you’ve got uh like buffal heads and stuff um hor sweet man there’s and so like the sunset has a ton of depth to it I mean you almost need a microscope to fully appreciate it um this isn’t glossed yet so it’s still it’s a little
Rough but uh it’s got his logo on the top of it but yeah I mean that is about as like artsy as it gets and is the rest of my shop there um so yeah I that’s where I’m having the most fun like you can what’s crazy is like each um each
Area I have to engrave out using my laser and Graber and then I fill each area like I use you know little vials with the UV resin that I had to figure out how to make this because like what I normally use they don’t add color to it
And they told me that wouldn’t work so I had to figure out how to make it work and then um down to like I have to use uh diabetes needles to um to like lay out the acrylic exactly right so when you can see like how fine that tip is
Even that is sometimes too large for what I’m working on um so yeah that that’s been crazy and then I do a lot of like 3D printing and embedding stuff so like right now I’m working on a putter where a guy wanted like lava uh like he
Wanted H great was flowing lava and then um 223 bullets on top of it and then a katana sword and um so that’s where like this one is currently like I’m still I’m working on waiting it up and figuring that out but you got bullets you’ve got
Lava you’ve got a sword like and then you know I 3D printed the sword hand painted um just ridiculous show stoer stuff and then I’m working with the client like every step of the way they are seeing the pictures they’re fully involved they know know exactly what
It’s looking like uh so it’s almost like they’re doing it but on their hands so it’s not you know put in money and you know a couple months later out pops a putter it’s like they’re following along every step of the way um yeah that’s
Been fun just to go back to the wood or the painting part of it um you know how when they paint fill like normal Putters they can just slap it on and kind of wipe it off and it kind of sits in there does that work with the wood or will the
Wood soak it up you have to be very precise correct yeah so it stabilized wood first and then um depending on the wood a sometimes I have to like lay a clear acrylic first and then uh that’ll seep into it and then do the the color
But then I have to get the like I have fluorescent lights in here that are you know straight lines and I use that to get the meniscus on top like just right like I can’t have it be too concave too convex um and then have to sand it down
Because then we use I use an automotive clear coat to gloss it so that it becomes nice and shiny and and pop so like I’ve got one here that has the gloss on it and so this one is a got a cougar on it um so you can kind of see
That’s sweet glossy but yeah but yeah so this has the that that gloss on it that just makes the wood absolutely pop so that’s what you’re saying about those needles sometimes you need something very very fine to get those minor Minor Details right right and
Then yeah um and you have to get all that stuff right otherwise it just looks like a blob so every different area like Sunset I’ll engrave out a whole area for the sunset using my laser and then I have to go in and I’ll put eight different colors in there and then I
Have to swirl it to get it kind of a van go effect uh but then you know sunsets I usually like to swirl them but then the water I have to go like more horizontal lines to get um you know it to look more
Like water so and then you want it to be like Popp and bright enough so that like you can you know when you’re showing it out in in the world it you know it pops and it’s not just too subtle um so yeah I mean that that took me all
Day just uh even the grass like I have to lay each color um like I inra I I cut out the whole area for the grass but then I have to like lay a little like a tiny little dot of green cure it then a tiny little dot of brown and cure that
To add depth because otherwise it’s just flatten and boring so and it’s gone really heavy into the art aspect of it um as opposed to just you know I there’s very few Putters that I do that are just wood and acrylic it’s mostly wood acrylic embed something crazy and then
Do a crazy engraving on it uh and that’s the stuff that it’s fun for me like it’s always there’s very few times that I’m like oh I know exactly I’m GNA do that putter when I take the order it’s often like I I know it’s GNA look sick once
It’s done but I don’t know how I’m going to do that yet yeah so like art is all about like creation and self-creation and whatnot like did you have a background Bryce asked a background like did you have a woodworking background did you have any background in art at
All uh so actually like kind of so in engineering I did a lot of finite element analysis for vibrational Dynamic so like I had to build models of things and then um and then you know you do the analysis on that model you’ve built in
There so like a lot of what I was doing isn’t necessarily math it’s the art side of it where you take this shape how can you model that as efficiently as possible but still capture all the details of it so like a lot of that skill for the computer transferred over
And then you I’m left-handed so that part of my brain’s just always kind of been there um I’m not a great artist but I like painting I like other stuff and then this has just kind of been born out of necessity like people just keep asking my favorite Putters are the ones
Where someone’s like I don’t know if this is possible but could you and then it’s something crazy and then I have to figure out it’s like you know in the past I said yeah I won’t do faces but now yeah I’d do a face because I know
How to blend I know how to get the shading right that kind of stuff like I’m feeling more comfortable with it and then even looking back on you know I always like I’m always making the coolest putter possible like so that the putter I’m making Now is better than the
Putter I made a week ago but then that means like I’ll look at a putter I did two years ago and be like oh man I did that so much better now but that’s like every single putter is that much better like it’s just always progressing uh
Which is fun it just makes it like like there’s some Putters I love to get another stab at to you know try something again hey there’s episodes too like way back that brys and I don’t want to listen to either I’m sure it’s the same type of thing man there’s like an
Advancement in everything right but I guess Bradley would you consider yourself like a Creator I guess there’s got to be an aspect or an element to that oh within you that’s like like you said each butter you’re trying to develop further and further along and kind of challenge yourself I guess right
So it’s rewarding when you see how much the customer or the client likes it but at the same time like that’s got to be refreshing for you to be able to constantly be creating something better than the last right you said you doing around 10ish a month was that about
Right yeah yeah is um depends on like some Putters are just stupidly complex you will take me I mean I’ve got you know 10 to 20 Putters in the works usually any one time it’s just how many can actually finish because there’s so many steps to everything and and you
Know drying the wood initially could take you know uh a week to a month depending on how wet it is and then if I go too fast it’ll crack which sometimes I want because I want to fill that um but then I have to uh stabilize the wood
That will take a couple days do the acrylic pore that takes a couple days to cure and everything um and then uh doing all the artwork A lot of times that just sits in noodles like there’s a lot of times that I have to just like let my
Brain figure out how I’m going to do it and then I’ll wake up in the middle of night like that’s how I’ll do that and then it turns out amazing um but what’s funny is like because I’m working so closely with every client it’s not like
I’m just pulling ideas out of thin air and just making stuff up it’s I’m getting to know people about a half hour phone call each time and either talking to the person I’m making it for or very often I’m talking to the person that I
Am um GNA be like uh that’s getting a putter as a gift and so I’m getting to know like their the relationship and then I have to design a Putter and come up with ideas that lead to stories that they want to be told it’s always um this
Putter is going to ask it’s going to B some questions on the course people are going to see it by now a lot of them will know it’s a Bradley putter uh but they’ll want to know what’s the story behind it and we start with that what
Stories do you want to tell and then collaboratively we come up with how do we beg those questions in a sick putter that is going to you know look so cool that someone can’t help but ask about it so you um you like kind of get an idea
From them on the phone like you’ll go through a conversation get an idea um I remember you kind of explaining this process a little bit before gather the information like you just talked about then and you you kind of like select their block I guess that they want or
Whatever it may be do you like take a photo with that show them that piece and then do you like move on to the next step from that and and as you go they’re they’re kind of along for the ride yeah so iess so um show you my wood room so yeah
Uh I built the software I use software called Trello but every step of the way um I’m taking pictures like every putter has its own box the QR code on it um so I’ve got you know Putters there I’ve got Putters there and then I’ve got more
Putters in there uh but I will you know take a piece of wood and take a picture send it to them like do you like this wood and they’re like yeah it’s great or no I want darker lighter change it up and then I’ll pour the acrylic do you
Like that um every step of the way they’re getting pictures because there’s just so many ways to skin a cat like it’s uh it’s I it doesn’t work well when I just make something and send it to somebody um I want to give them the chance to uh yeah it and provide input
Because like it’s so much easier to just make a change on the fly like right now I’m working on a putter where it’s GNA be a flip this around um so I am doing this um Porsche putter where the wood’s going to be red and have white and
Actually we we might be switching out the blue to a black um and then we’re doing like I’m I’m working on this like coffee cup design and I’m sending pictures back and forth with the client based on this um but we might switch the be like that so we might switch that
White to black and just kind of see how that goes um so yeah I mean that’s real time happening like you know the last 20 minutes I was chatting with those brothers who were getting it for their dad and um and making changes to the
Plan that we had so what I usually try to do is get like 90% of the way on the phone but then I tell people it’s so like I can visualize what putter is going to look like because I’ve made thousands of these but the the average
Person cannot and so a lot of times they’re like oh can you do a rendering can you do this or that it’s like not really but I’ll make it for you and then if you don’t like it we’ll tweak it um so it’s just show them every step of the
Way do you like it yes or no and then we proceed and I guarantee that they love it so like if they get it in hand and they’re like oh this is awesome but it’s too short and the grips wrong like I got one right here where it was a gift for a
Guy um and loves it it’s you know sick putter but it’s two and a half inches too short for him and he wants a fat so grip on it so fatel grip comes in on Monday and I will lengthen this put that grip on send it out and done so um know
Easy easy enough but I would much rather have someone send it back to me make an easy fix and then they use it they game it they tell their friends you know rather than just being a paper weight on their desk right now obviously as a Creator you don’t necessarily prefer the
Idea of somebody just saying uh this is kind of what I’m into like you go for it you ever get that that you’re more like I don’t want to say closed off but it it just leaves too much sounds like you maybe have too much imagination almost
Too right you might you might do something that they might not be interested in or whatever it is so that you’re trying to keep them along for the the ride the whole way like it just seems to work out better well so what I tell them is um I am because I’ve done
This so many times I’m really good at coming up with new ideas um and people humans in general are not like you’re not good at coming with new but everybody is really good at making that ideas better and so my job on the call is to throw out as many ideas as
Possible until they get excited about something and then as I’m making it because we’re you know on the phone call I’m building it in my brain but a lot of people just can’t do that they’re going to see some words and stuff but it’s it’s they can get excited about it
Because I’m excited about it and we connect on it but until they see it they’re not going to know whether they like it or not so that’s why I use that software where as soon as I take a picture they didn’t get into get a notification on their phone that I
Did something cool they hop on check it out if they like it we proceed if they don’t then I can change it really quick right there you know if I go past that step and do some more glue do some more epoxy whatever and then later they
Decide they want to change it then I have undoing stuff is very costly and and you know timec consuming but just changing it at the point of doing it that’s super easy so I if they change something after it’s already built it involves like standing down stripping
Paint or starting over right like it’s yeah but yeah it’s kind of set in stone once pain and stuff’s on wood I assume right just about literally yeah it’s it’s very set and so again like um because I’m making people Putters that have never existed before like these
Aren’t just widgets sitting on a shelf I will tell them like even if I make it and you see it and you think you like it but you get it in hand you’re like actually I hate this I will recreate like I’ll make a new one for you like I
Just I don’t spend money on Advertising ing I just take really good care of my client so I mean that almost never happens like I can count on one hand the number of times that has happened in seven years but I would rather do that for someone and maintain my you know
Straight five star ratings than screw somebody over for you know save a couple hundred bucks well I think you’ve kind of set yourself up for that with keeping customers so involved and and showing them every step of the process I think you’re doing that the right way because
That’s how you prevent people from getting Putters in their hand and not liking it essentially yeah I mean they they’ll have had every chance possible to see exact what it’s looking like you know sometimes they don’t want to be like they’ll see pictures but they don’t want to be super involved that’s totally
Fine like a lot of people are very trusting of me because I’ve done this so much but for people like you know the guy that’s I’m working on this uh bullet and uh sword one he might be he’s one of the top 10 pickiest customers ever but that’s totally fine because we’re
Working on it together I have there’s a lot of ways I could go with that I have a lot of questions for him and he knows exactly what he wants so it’s that’s easier I prefer that than someone’s like ah yeah just make make me a sick putter
Like no I’m I’m not going to do that because you are like the few times I’ve done that they come back like oh actually could you make the wood a little bit darker you’re like bro yeah yeah that’s just annoying I’m definitely more that guy however I’m always like genuinely happy with the
Surprise of things like I’ve never I I feel like I’ve always been that type of person and I’m always just like wow like I’m I’m that guy or Bryce the other hand is the opposite Bryce likes to be like heavily involved like Bryce likes to have his like input on all of those
Things too so it sounds like he’d be a dream client so Bryce also still searching for the the putter that uh that works for his game the best yeah it’s uh Bradley I did want to ask you because last time we were talking you were kind of like just working on that
UV resin so this sounds like um not really an analogy but so when I remember my sister telling me about when she was getting like her fingernails done they stick their hands under this light and that essentially yeah it cures it cures it is it some is it somewhere around
That same process very similar yeah so yeah so yeah yeah like I’m just thinking so as you’re talking about like you’re using the needle to kind of paint fill a spot swirl whatever you need to do to fill that part and then would you have to like you’re not just letting that dry
Like you have to cure that piece before you layer anything on top of it right yeah yeah so I cure that so I’ll get everything exactly how I want it as soon as it’s perfect I cure it um let it cure for 10 minutes or so and then go to the
Next one and the the trick is I have to line everything up perfectly in the laser so I’ve developed this little process where I can like drill a tiny little microscopic hole in a a piece of domed black and clear acrylic and then when I line my laser back up with a
Little red laser I can see exactly where I’m at um because know doing that bird one took a dozen different ingred where everything had to be lined up exactly perfect where I just put it back in the laser and press run again just when it goes back home it gets off enough that
The entire thing would have been messed up so I’ve got to do that so it’s literally down to like submillimeter precision and you’re realigning every 12 times you have to go in for a separate engraving after you’ve painted the previous one correct yep yeah every single time it’s got to be realigned and
Then I had to develop like how to get it to register the exact like every time you do an engraving things can move around on your computer itself so like how the the process is that I have to get exactly right between printing certain things and having the outlines
Exactly right so that it does the right stuff in the right spot and then there’s times where I’ll mess something up and it’ll kick off a little bit that you’re just like shoot me it’s so annoying but uh yeah most of the time I do it right but there’s just so many different
Things that have to go exactly right that uh it it happens where I have to like just start over sometimes after spending a ton of time on an Engraving is that that’s got to be the hardest point in the build like that design yeah um well depending it is
Right yeah if we’re talk yeah if we’re talking about that one that you just showed us though like having to like that’s got like that’s a a piece of art in itself cell like that’s a painting on the bottom of a putter right that’s that’s like all the wood and stuff like
That would be extremely difficult to to fill all of it but I feel like that would that could take days that could take weeks like it yeah it does um just depending on like and then all the different steps of you know whether I like sometimes I’ll use AI just to build
A background and then um and then I have to find different pieces I want that I’ll put on top and then I have to trace certain things and move stuff around and you know I’ve got all sorts of art set up to do it all and then I have to
Figure out the process like all the way through before I even start to make sure that um you know I got got engraved like back to front to give it the right depth and then I’ve got to engrave like big to small and uh and then I have to make
Sure that like I can engrave multiple colors at the same time as long as they’re not touching um so yeah there’s a ton of things that have to go right and you know it’s not like as long as I don’t mess something up like I can always engrave again um just like oh
That messed up that detail I’ll go back and engrave that later a lot of it’s just there’s ways to be more efficient that I think of every like I’ve got based on that bird one I’ve got new ideas for how many next one um but it’s
It’s just it’s created a toolkit for me to do just about anything like whatever you know someone got a I’ve done Putters for people that have gotten hole in ones on like seven different holes so I took all those different holes like I found them on satellite two of them were for
Course that didn’t even exist anymore so I had to go back in history on Google Maps to find it and then took the outlines of those and then once I had the outlines of all those different holes I had to figure out a seven layout course that made sense with water in the
Right place that had the right layout uh that matched like yeah that fit uh so that one took weeks of just noodling you know it’s not like I’m not I’m not sitting there eight hours a day for weeks it’s try this as soon as I run into roadblock
Now I got to try something else then I work on some other project until I feel excited enough to go back to that pain project and uh but yeah then it’s once it’s done it’s just like that’s freaking awesome and it’s just very excited about
How it turns out but Inc built up skill set my head hurts just thinking about I love that you just described like laying out or building a par three pretty much nine seven hole par three golf course on a putter that’s pretty for a putter yeah it was only seven holes but
Seven figure out right layout and you only have so much room on the bottom of a putter head you know yeah you’re not wrong like I mean it is about I’ve got like on these ones that I do it’s about 3 inch by 3 inch so I mean that crazy
Scene is like not even close like it’s half as big as my head but if you pull out a microscope like the birds all have feathers and stuff like it’s um that’s wild incredible it’s detailed so Bradley when I H give you a call when we’re kind of building the putter what’s the
Obviously it’s going to be different depending on what type and intricacies and stuff that you need to do the design but what would be about the rough turnaround that somebody be looking at um dep yeah depends on a lot of stuff safe is like two months is um yeah
There’s always something happening like you know it the crazy complex ones can be up to like six um if someone says I want something as crazy as possible and I don’t care how long it takes then I’ll noodle for a while I’ll try something if that doesn’t work I’ll noodle again uh
Those ones turn out insane but like I mean this one here um he wasn’t the bullet and sword one he wasn’t in a huge rush for it so this one is about three months old I think right now um but then other ones people need something you
Know they’ve got hey got a birthday coming up at the end of the month can you make it happen and if I don’t have trips planned then I can bust FNS and do it like the nice thing about only working on about a dozen Putters at a
Time um is most people aren’t in a huge rush for it they just want something really special they’re willing to wait for it and uh gives me time to make someone sick yeah you found it at this one this is wild this is wild that’s so cool Bradley that’s really cool man that
You can make that we’re like a big I don’t know we love talking hole in ones I got one a little while ago bry’s got one we’ve only one each but um well I got one I got one I was like 12 but we’ve talked about a couple and they’ve
Kind of come into existence with people where they’ve like we had people message us like the next week like we were talking about a whole one last week and we got one like just today or whatever it is so ho of ones are something special man and be able to put that on
The bottom of a putter uh definitely signifies that but imagine he makes another one and comes back to you and like can we on the side yeah yeah maybe we can sand on the side of it and put on the side or something like that that’s
Not a bad idea but um you’re not working with metal anymore no I did so I had a guy um who wanted to be like a partner at one point and wanted to like make a giant golf business and um make it something that just the company wasn’t and so he wanted
To do metal he wanted to this other stuff and you know I’m an engineer making a metal putter wasn’t hard um but I don’t have like a CNC shop so I had to uh farm that out you know still made in the US but I had like I had a guy on the
East Coast doing it and then I had a guy here um in southern Oregon doing it and it ultimately came down to I can’t be nearly as custom like and when I say custom like I mean something different than what most people mean when they say
A custom putter like you can’t buy one of my custom Putters off the shelf like it’s not it doesn’t have your story in it like you know people literally put like their parents ashes sometimes in my Putters like you can’t buy that off the shelf whereas oh yeah it’s a it’s a
Custom Scotty Cameron like oh do you work with Scotty on that no but it’s a custom Scotty like well that’s not really custom but if that works for you um so yeah it’s it’s it’s different I mean yeah um I think most people like looking at your page and that are interested
Understand the difference like they’re they’re they’re here for a reason right like we’re we’re here to look at you know obviously if you like wood or if you’re looking for like a custom putter that’s how we found you like I I think anyway right like it’s yeah it just
Wouldn’t it wouldn’t be I don’t know it kind of wouldn’t be the same if you were I also think people realize it’s like you almost can’t achieve that amount of art on a metal putter right no I think it’s almost impossible with waiting and stuff I I don’t it just it doesn’t it
Lacks the warmth like the wood the natural aspect of it is just it’s warmer um yeah I mean I I’ve built a canvas that I can do some crazy stuff with that just doesn’t make sense on metal and you know what’s cool about mine is you take
The coolest uh lamb putter you take the coolest Scotty pretty much any metal putter out there and the average person playing with you will not ask about it they will not you could be playing a circle te you could be playing anything and if it’s a metal putter have no idea
They don’t they won’t ask no idea you pull out the most basic one of my Putters and they’re like that’s different yeah that makes sense yeah I like that so it’s you know people looking for my Putters are not usually like oh I just want a wood putter
Because it performers better it’s like yeah mine do like people shoot underpower with mine all the time they’re great Putters but they’re not people coming to me usually aren’t seeking the performance they’re usually surprised by the performance they’re not like seeking oh I just want like a wood
Putter it’s like I want a special gift I want something that’s art like Ry I want something that is going to be a showstopper I want something that you know what do I give to the CEO of Intel what do I give to Ben Baller as a gift
Like that’s going to make him actually pay attention to it that’s when people reach out to me and we create a story and we make something that is a like actual show stoer look at this it’s a slice of pizza Bry this is so cool yeah
I’ve already it’s got It’s got Legos on the front so so like the the face of it has Lego pie like it looks like Legos because the guy originally wanted like a Lego design for the whole thing but it just wasn’t going to work well like I
Tried it and we didn’t like it um but yeah he owns a pizza shop and he wanted a pizza putter like yeah let’s make you a pizza putter it was uh that was and I had to like 3D print the molds for the um all the different veggies and stuff
On there and the pepperon like I 3D printed molds and then I used my UV resin and like layered up to make the pepperoni like look like pepperoni um that was nuts that was fun one I feel like I remember you going through the story with that that was a couple years
Ago now but Bryce can you do a cheesecake piece of cheesecake we gotta get you a piece of cheesecake on there Bryce Bryce is like the guy keeps the Cheesecake Factory in Detroit Michigan you know he keeps it or wherever you are he keeps it uh in business this guy so
We got cheesecake that’s sweet Stu I’ve done Donuts I’ve done I’ve done a lot of food ones um the doughnut ones were fun I’ve done like round doughnut holes I’ve done like a doughnut with a bite out of it I’ve done a doughnut box where it’s a
Bunch of miniature Donuts in there so like like a dozen yeah where it’s like you’ve got maple bars and round ones and like you know hand painted just like you know a centimeter across but round donut um yeah that it’s like every time I post something they’re like oh could you do
Like now that I’ve seen Donuts could you do this and it’s always leads to Builds on other ideas right yeah well that’s kind of the the cool thing about like looking at art like when you’re looking at art you’re like generally inspired to you know your brain would work to kind
Of try and develop something or have a thought process to create something for yourself or or whatever yeah well everyone’s different right they’re like oh that looks great but I would do this or I would do yeah people like very rarely like people will post on my
Instagram like oh I hate the way that one looks I mean it’s like rare but when it happens like cool like it’s not yours exactly person that got it loves it and wants it and I can make one that you would think is look sick because I can
Make literally anything um but yeah I’m there’s too many possibilities for me to like you know make oh this is a a certain line of Putters like you can just go on website and buy that one like there’s too many possibilities and have too much fun building like solving the
Problem of building a specific one for a specific person that like having stock that someone might like just doesn’t make sense doesn’t work for how unique these can be yeah any uh any problems Bradley you feel like you haven’t been able to solve or something you’ve kind
Of like run into that’s just it’s still been keeping you up at night um just business side of stuff like the putters in the art it’s that that’s the fun easy stuff it’s the the challenge of like you know fitting life in with business and being like I don’t
Want to be too busy and I don’t want to be not busy enough and so it’s always that mix of like um how much do I get out there and show my stuff off but then get too busy to be able to coach my kids soccer teams like that’s honestly the
Hardest part about running a small business is it’s you know on one hand like like in the early days it was way more than a 9o5 like I would work you know 20 hour days but that wasn’t good for the family and so now it’s between volunteering and between like it’s it’s
Finding that balance it’s more of like a 20 to 30 hour a week job that then I’m you know can pick up kids from school and uh can help with stuff in the mornings and help my wife out with her things and then volunteer it I’m the
Chairman of the board for the local YMCA I’m on a couple government committees like there’s life outside of business and so that’s the biggest challenge is you know I’ve got a eight-year-old a six-year-old and a two-year-old and I don’t want want to get to their weddings
And be like wait who are you like that’s not fun so this is honestly the latest I’ve stayed at work I I’ve got to do some stuff for PGA shows so that’s kind of why but like this is the latest I’ve stayed at work in a long time like even
Christmas I shut off orders before December just because I’d rather you know rather than cut it in a fat hog I’d rather finish up on time and have time to go caring with my family yeah know that that’s the stuff that I’m going to remember that’s stuff that’s going to
Matter uh in the long run well I think too like that’s I don’t know something they’ll appreciate about it tooo like obviously they’re going to be able to you know one day say like my dad’s the guy behind Bradley Putters which is pretty insane right I’ve I’ve had a I
Was lucky enough to I’m not sure if you’ve met Tyler Loy or spoken with Tyler Loy at all U from l so um you know these two like I genuinely believe you two might be the most the two most like talented individuals in the putter space like it’s like Bryce we’ve been lucky
Enough to talk to like I genuinely mean that he’s he’s hand Milling Putters it’s it’s insane yeah saw that podcast I thought that was same guy yeah yeah so and and like you’re creating like wooden art masterpieces like you’re you’re kind of he’s doing it’s a different scale but
It’s on the metal side and and you know putting dozens and dozens of hours into one piece for somebody and creating something that is like unbelievable right so having your kids be able to like grow up and be able to go through these Pages go through all these things
And then they’re going to be out on a golf course man and they’re going to see somebody and they’re going to be rolling one of their d Putters which is going to be pretty cool that’s got to be a pretty cool experience have you run into that
Yet Bradley have you run into like somebody who you didn’t know maybe has purchased a putter from you and you’ve seen them out on the course or something or out in public somewhere oh yeah yeah oh yeah often um yeah first time it happened I think well yeah walking on
The PGA show is always fun because people just recognize me and stop me so that’s always fun um and then headed back from the PGA show one time I like was stopped randomly in the airport like are you right that was weird and then yeah most golf courses I go to someone
Will recognize me uh or they’ll like see on my Instagram story and want to meet up and then um yeah I’ve been uh I was at Bandon Dunes once and guy saw I was there he’s like hey I’ve got one of your Putters here I’m with my dad that you
Made the putter for him can we meet up on the 18th and like get a picture so that stuff’s always cool like I’ve told my wife like I’m the exact right amount of famous like I’m well known in town just because I’m born and raised here so
People know me but like so you know I have no anonymity here like I can’t go do something stupid like someone’s going to know me or my dad whatever um but I can go anywhere else in the world and if I’m not near a golf course no one knows
Who I am or cares but if I want to like go to if I go to a golf course either someone in the Pro Shop or someone on the course knows me or follows me um and then I know all like the b-l golf celebrities so like you know not the
Pros but like all the YouTube people all the um Instagram people like they friends of mine which is cool so it’s on yeah I mean it’s I I don’t want to be any more famous than this like do you know a couple podcasts here and there
And um you know I’ve got Rick Shield’s phone number there we go that’s about all I need that’s cool man Bradley we really appreciate you taking the time man I know you’re out the shop late later than you’ve been later than you normally are so I appreciate you making
Time for us man this is great my pleasure um before we let you go what what number are we at you keep track do you know what number you’re at for Putters uh yeah I’ve got like the spreadsheet it’s so like I made a lot of
Like stock Putters early on uh made a lot of like demo Putters a lot of test Putters so it’s not like they’re you know the high dollar crazy ones but I think I’m over 2,000 um wow so yeah seven years but now yeah but now I’m
Down and that was you know I had employees like crank and Putters and stuff and yeah now the number I like is about 10 a month like is right um that’s that’s a good number like I don’t want to do more than that don’t want to do
Less than that cranking about 10 a month is and so yeah it’s it’s not I’m not going to get to 3,000 anytime soon doing this it’s but I figured all my problems out I figured out what works and what I like to do and uh so yeah now it’s just
Kind of settling into that can we uh can we touch on a rough cost I know there’s going to be so many different things that go into two grandish yeah so just gives plus or minus 500ish um yeah I mean my Putters are like if you’re a baller on a budget
There’s Putters out there for you but there um if you want something really special that uh is kind of you know I few people collect mine but most people it’s you know that want in a lifetime purchase like my dad’s tur 70 want to get him something crazy a this person’s
Retiring they’ve been working for you know 30 years at this one place want to get him something special um you know anniversary present for husband wife whatever uh this isn’t just like oh yeah I think I want a new putter I guess I go to Bradley it’s like no this is
Something special like don’t just get one for getting one like let’s do something epic well and I think too like Bryce and I both pick picked up on that throughout the chat like you want that as well like you want that story you want to be able to build that story for
Somebody too that’s kind of what what kind of keeps you going for 2,000 3,000 wherever we’re at right it’s that’s Brad that’s incredible man do you still have the Sim in the shop I do I’ve got a guy it’s one of my buddies um you know I built a sweet man
Cave and it’s epic uh he liked it so much but he’s also a real private dude he’s like hey can I just rent that whole Space out and just like have it be for myself I’m like sure cover my rent and it’s yours so it’s still there I’ve got
It but yeah he covers my rent and he gets to you know sole access to do whatever he wants back there so I can still hop on the Sim every now and then but I’m busy making Putters or with family or out golfing at the course
Anyway so uh yeah it’s still there but uh it’s private now so works works for me that’s great man um all right so this face here if you’re watching over on YouTube if you see at the PJ show go talk to him man you’re like do it man
You’re one of the most interesting guys in golf I love this such a good chat I don’t know about that I I uh yeah I had a lot of fun made a lot of cool things made met some cool people and um I like
People so that was my my old job I only worked with government drones and that wasn’t fun and so now I uh I meet really cool people with really interesting stories um I get to do half hour phone calls with them but when I get to meet people in person that’s where it’s
Really fun so I’m excited for that I’m going to be carrying my bag I’ll have like half dozen Putters or so just walking around the show like not doing a booth not doing any of that um I’m might like hang out at a couple boo but for
The most part I’ll just be walking around and people want to stop me and see one they can do that that’s awesome man um we’re going to link everything down in the show notes below as usual go check out the page give yourself half an hour or so because
You’re gonna you’re you’re going to be deep into it there’s a lot of them too yeah and if you have any questions yeah yeah they’re definitely you can scroll for a while it’s always impressive like going back through like someone’s like oh that one red putter I’m like oh shoot
Like give me a date like yeah it’s just I I used to post a ton now I’m posting like you know couple times a month trying to post a little bit more but uh yeah there there’s a lot on there you can yeah you almost need like a time
Stamp to go with these but Bradley this was great man hopefully Bryce and I can make it to that PJ show sometime in the near future yeah come come and say hello to you man because uh I mean it man you like you know no knock on any of the
Other putter Builders we love them we love everybody we chat with but man yourself and Tyler low you guys got to be the two most talented individuals in the sport man this is it’s cool man we’re lucky to be able to chat with you guys it’s an honor man really cool
Putters than hopefully we can uh hopefully we can catch up and do it again sometime we won’t keep you so late absolutely yeah no you’re good congrats on 170 and uh here’s to 170 more all right buddy thank you so much is out in my ball and a course I te
Up I lose the ball and I re up I miss a fairway I probably end up in the ocean or maybe the beach and I’m on a five and I’m F to go reach it second was blind I see it feel like it might be scenario
1 Comment
Wooohoooo!!!!