Forward Press: Jared Doerfler

Issue No. 113 | September 20, 2024

Hey,

Something slightly different today. One thing I don’t do enough of — that I would like to do more of — is reporting, interviewing, things of that nature.

I’m never going to be Adam Schefter, and frankly never aspire to be that anyway (it sounds miserable), but part of the value of this newsletter to you, the reader, should be that you get information here that you cannot get anywhere else.

In general, I love asking questions. Like, if you enter my home, we’re going to get steep and probably pretty quickly. My wife the other day said, “You know, some humans just like to sit in silence and enjoy one another’s company.”

But sometimes I have struggled with this same idea in the golf world because I don’t like bothering people, don’t want to push and prod folks who receive plenty of pushing and prodding. But I do love hearing about people’s lives and routines and why they do what they do. So I’m going to try and do a better job of bringing you that.

Today’s interview — edited for length — is with Jared Doerfler, who writes the Perfect Putt newsletter about the intersection of golf and business and recently started his own putter company. I know the ins and outs of the former, but I was curious about the latter so I asked him about what it means to be an entrepreneur in golf, where he got his love for the game and how his friendship with Tyler Johnson — of Charlie Golf Co. — has affected his life.

Hope you enjoy!

1. I know bits and pieces of this, but just your background getting into the golf world. You're in it now in terms of newsletter, company, all this stuff. But where did that start from when you were a kid?

Like a lot of people, grew up playing golf with my dad and my grandfather, and I loved golf as a junior. My dream was to play D1 golf, and I didn't really have the talent to do it.

I walked on at the University of Northern Iowa. Something that I'm proud of is that I just didn't walk on and fill a roster spot. I played. I think I played damn near every tournament of my career there.

Not a powerhouse by any means, a very mediocre and below average D1 program. But that really taught me a lot. Then I left the game. After I graduated I didn't really play for seven years. Just burnt out.

[Then] I had a buddy who didn't really play golf that much growing up. He played college baseball and he told me what he was shooting, and I'm like, ‘There's no way that he's better than me.’ It made me competitive again.

How I got into the golf space, I guess, was just the newsletter. I was finishing an MBA course, and the instructor told us it's really important to start a blog. I'm like, ‘Okay, why?’ And then he told us why. I'm like, ‘Oh, that's interesting.’

Writing is not going to be bad for you. It's only a good habit to pick up. So I started the Perfect Putt newsletter with nothing. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I really don't know now. So that just started with Twitter and the newsletter, and been on it for three years on that side. So that's, I guess, my life of golf.

2. What was the first time you wrote something and you got a response and you're like, I think other people might actually enjoy this and like reading it and receiving it?

So I was probably three months in, and I had maybe a hundred subscribers. [Massive golf executive whose name we will redact] signed up, and I was like, ‘Oh, shit. I know that name. That's interesting.’ And then Geoff Shackleford retweeted me a couple of times and sent me a really nice note.

Geoff, he's just been super kind to me. He's like, ‘Dude, you're doing a great job. No one's really talking about this. Just keep doing what you're doing, your writing will get better.’ He started doing that. Then people like you and then Ryan French will retweet, and then start to grow early on.

But I remember that Geoff Shackleford inflection point was three or four months in, and that really kept me going. I didn't really have anything. I picked up quite a few new readers from that. I remember that piece was on Callaway. Early on with Callaway, when they were hitting their stride with Top Golf, it must have been fall 2021.

And it was a good piece, I thought, but no one was really writing about it for a time. It did well. And that was the first, ‘Maybe I can actually write. Maybe I'm actually doing something that's decent.’

3. I'm curious about how that led to this equipment company that you've essentially started. What was the transition from the newsletter?

I've had the entrepreneurial bug for a while, and I think the newsletter was filling that void for me. It still is a lot of fun to write. It's certainly a challenge.

It's not necessarily a huge moneymaker that you can make a quit your job for.

Ed. note …

/end ed. note

I was looking for this putter. This is January of '22. I've been looking for [this] putter that I played college golf with because it was my coach’s, and I could never find it.

I just drew up a sketch one night and sent it to my brother-in-law who designed it in CAD me. Then I had a machine shop in your area in Texas. I thought that was a fun project. I gamed that putter for two years. That was fun.

Then my dad announced his retirement. I was like, ‘Okay, that was quick. Life went by way too quick.’ I'm like, ‘If I'm going to do something. It's never going to be the right time to do it, and I might as well just do it.’

I made that decision that I was going to try to do something, and then I wrote down a bunch of things to do. I had two requirements.

One, had to be in the golf space, and two, had to be something that I can make. And so golf putters, I went back to that [putter] project I did the year prior. I was like, ‘That was a lot of fun. Can I even do that? What does it look like to buy a CNC mill? Can I teach myself? Is that feasible? Is it a market that's even worth it? Will people buy them? Is it big enough to have a small business?’

So I just went through that and decided that was the route to go.

4. Have you found that the newsletter and your public persona have helped jump-start that business?

I think so because I've had a few people send me these messages that are like, ‘I trust you with your writing that I've been reading for whatever a year or two.’ And they're like, ‘I trust you, and so I'm going to buy one.’ I don't know if I would have that if I was just some company just starting with no presence online. And for me, bootstrapping this business and spending my own money, I can't really afford marketing. Having that tiny audience that I do have in the newsletter and on social media has been really important early on to sell those putters for sure.

5. I know that there's been just so much made of L.A.B. putters and all this other stuff in the modern game. What's your secret sauce, your differentiator?

L.A.B is doing a really good job of what their model and their patents are. So I would say the differentiator of a Hanna Golf putter is it's going to be milled out of 303 stainless steel in one piece. So there's no inserts. … There's not going to be bolts in them. There's not going to be any screws in them. So it's one piece.

That’s the differentiator from the product side.

Now on the company side, there's not too many companies anymore that are designing and making their own putters. They may design them and then outsource the manufacturing, or they may outsource both, or they may do both.

The more boutique you are, the more likely you are to design and make it yourself. I would say that's something you're going to get that's a little bit different with Hanna Golf versus somebody else.

6. What's been the most surprising part of the learning process?

There's a couple of surprising things, I guess. CNC milling is a lot like golf. This is like a normal sport reference, I guess. There's a million different golf swings that can be on the PGA Tour. If you look at a Furyk swing vs Tiger’s swing, totally different swings that both produce winning results on the PGA tour. Machining is a lot like a golf swing.

With the newsletter … the golf industry is such a good spot. There's so many good people in the golf industry, and it's such a small industry. Everyone knows everybody or you're once removed. The industry is not what you see on social media. I know you battle that, we battle that, but it's full of really good people, and 95 percent of people that play golf are not like social media.

Same thing with golf equipment. Just to give you a quick reference. My putters are going through the USGA conforming process. I don't know what the hell to do with that. Another golf equipment company walked me through that process, which is crazy to think about. Now, they don't sell putters, but it's still crazy that they were kind enough to walk me through that process.

Secondly on that is I've been having trouble with SuperStroke grips, finding how I buy those not retail. I just put a tweet out about it. Then I had a PGA player send me a DM, ‘Here's who you should call. Just call them right now and tell them that I sent you.’

That was done in three minutes, and the SuperStroke grip thing is now resolved.

People like that that are going out of their way to help me out is really, really kind and that's very humbling. I'm very grateful for that, those types of interactions. I get a lot of those.

7. That had to be a normal business moment, a PGA tour player sending you a DM about a SuperStroke grip.

You wouldn't be surprised who it is. He's a great guy, and he's been kind to me in the past and he's been kind to me now. It's very interesting that there's people like that out there that are just super normal, super chill people.

8. Where did this entrepreneurial aspiration come from?

So my grandpa grew up in Amarillo, and he grew up super poor. When he came back from World War II, he ended up starting his own sales business, and he worked his tail off. He had the entrepreneurial mindset.

Then my dad bought a company and toiled for years, and I mean decades at this company and finally made it decently successful, I would say, before he retired.

I love that grind, just being in the trenches. I've seen it with my dad and my grandfather, something that I have an affinity just to do.

9. Do you remember any good normal sport moments from playing college golf?

So it's 2010, spring break. We played a tournament in Las Vegas, and then we played one in Phoenix. Of course, we're too poor to fly from Phoenix back home so we have to drive back to Vegas.

We're on the putting green in Phoenix of the final round, and we get paired with KU that day. KU and UNI are playing basketball that night to go to the Sweet 16. And they're like, ‘Hey, good luck tonight.’ I would have the same swagger, too, if I was KU. So we're like, ‘Yeah, thanks.’

We get done with the round. Coaching staff is like, ‘All right, these are our options. We got to get on the road. We can stop at a restaurant on the way to watch the game, or we have both vans listen to it on satellite radio. What do you guys want to do?’ We're like, ‘We'll just play it by ear.’ The whole team falls asleep five minutes into the drive.

I wake up to one coach honking his horn, and I'm like, ‘What's going on? Are we going to die?’ No, Big Jordan Eglseder just made a three to start the game for the Panthers.

Fast forward, and everyone has their shirt off in both vans. They're flying out the windows. There's honking horns everywhere, driving through the desert. We don't see any cars. We decide not to stop at a restaurant. We just keep driving and trucking through. Then Ali Farokhmanesh hits the dagger to beat KU. Very normal sport, you know we're too poor to fly out so we drive and rent the vans [where we listen to the game].

We get to our hotel, not even in Vegas, because we're too poor to stay in Vegas. We stay in Primm, Nevada. You can look it up if you want. I think the hotel was $12 a night. The coaching staff came into the rooms and said, ‘No team official gear is to be worn tonight. We'll see you tomorrow.’ And so those of us that were 21 went and had some fun in the casino. That's a night that we'll always remember.

10. Probably some people that follow it closely know this, but you and Tyler, who started Charlie Golf Co. are pretty close. I'm just curious about how your relationship with him has benefited both of you guys?

Yeah, I think it makes each of us better. Yeah, I call Tyler my best friend in the world. Played golf together in college. We both moved to Kansas City after college. [We] moved back to Iowa, to Mason City, where we both live now. He's not from here.

I think just having somebody, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. He doesn't really know he's doing either. And so whenever there's a question for one of us to lean on, it's been really good to have him on board. And what a great human being he is. And yeah, it's been a ton of fun to build a company alongside of him.

He's a great dude, and he's helped me immensely with a lot to try to build this. So I really appreciate him. He's the man. He is truly the man.

11. What is your biggest challenge in building this putter company?

I think the challenge really is getting people to believe that they're not going to get ripped off by a guy on the internet.

Imagine you're buying a putter from a complete stranger that you've never met before. And a lot of the thank yous that I write people, I’m like, ‘Thanks for taking a chance on my complete stranger.’

They're not cheap. They're not the most expensive putter, but they're not cheap. And it's like, ‘Okay, I'm going to spend $295 on a putter. I don't know this guy. He's got no credentials of making anything.’

I think that's the biggest challenge for me right now is just getting people to believe that it's legit, and they're not going to get ripped off, and just to believe in the product.

Thank you for reading until the end.

You’re a sicko, and I’m grateful for it.

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