Bettinardi

Before there was a putter there was a machine shop, cutting precision parts for defence and medical customers in Tinley Park, Illinois. Robert J. Bettinardi came up in his grandfather's shop, trained as an engineer, and in 1991 looked at how milled putters were being built and reckoned his own machines could do better. What came off them was a head and neck cut from one solid block, where the industry cast a head and welded on a neck. The golf company followed in 1998 and it's still family run, his son Sam alongside him.

Everything is milled in Tinley Park from 303 stainless or 6061 aluminium, and only the plating is done elsewhere. Honeycomb face milling has been the house mark from the start, joined by Mini Honeycomb on the Queen B line and the F.I.T. face, which cuts away half the material behind the strike. BB Series carries the blades, INOVAI the high-MOI mallets, Antidote the zero-torque models. Forged wedges arrived along the way, irons in 2024, and fitting is done at Studio B in Oak Brook, which also handles lessons and the refinishing of older heads. About fifty people work at the Graphics Drive plant, and the Bee Keeper Society is the membership club for the enthusiasts. Jim Furyk won his U.S. Open with a Bettinardi mallet he had chosen at the factory days beforehand.