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diggBack in the swing
Renowned golf designer returns to fairways with premium club design
Jesse Ortiz' passion is not the game of golf.
"I enjoy playing it, but my passion is making something that improves the enjoyment of the game for others," says Ortiz, a nine-handicap who plays only six rounds a year.
His altruistic attitude towards this rewarding, yet frustrating, sport is something Ortiz and his father, Lou, have been practicing for more than 50 years combined. Together they have made some of the most popular clubs in the world of golf.
Lou Ortiz, founder of Orlimar Golf Co., made clubs in the 1960s and 70s that appealed to players like Ken Venturi and Johnny Miller. Jesse made a club in the late '90s that revolutionized the game. During a recent visit to Golf Discount of Arizona in Mesa, Ortiz showed off his latest creation, the Bobby Jones Players Series.
"I met with the Bobby Jones heirs and worked out an agreement to put out a new line," says Ortiz. "Because of the Bobby Jones name, it had to be something that is premium and high-end. I wanted to create something beautiful and first class."
SUCCESS POSED PROBLEMS
The new clubs are certain to create buzz. But attention is something Ortiz became accustomed to quickly seven years ago, when he designed the Orlimar Trimetals, considered to be the ultimate line of fairway woods.
"Me and my dad were convinced that a wood fairway wood was better than the wave of metal woods that were out there," says Ortiz. "But the world wasn't convinced, so we had to come out with something to stay in the game."
"We decided to make a metal wood that would equal the weight distribution of a (wooden) wood and used different metals to help the weight. It was meant for average golfers, but suddenly the best players in the world wanted it."
Golfers everywhere began playing the Trimetals. In less than a year, Orlimar Golf grew from being a one million dollar company to becoming a $100 million dollar powerhouse. However, for Ortiz, the success was too much, too fast.
"After a while, every investor wanted a say in how we did business," says Ortiz. "We had very little say in how things went and we were losing control. We had some good people working for us, but made some bad decisions as well. We had to stop and start over."
Revitalized after some time off, Ortiz is looking forward to thriving with Bobby Jones Golf Equipment Co., the same way his dad did as a golf club entrepreneur decades before.
AMONG ELITE PLAYERS
Lou Ortiz was a Spanish Basque immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1950. He worked as a machinist who, before creating clubs that PGA Tour professionals would swing, had never swung a golf club himself.
"We would drive around and my dad would poke fun at people who would wake up at five in the morning to go golfing," says Ortiz. "He'd say, 'Look at these guys chasing and hitting that ball around!' "
"I believe my dad was the only club maker in the history of golf not to play the game."
The elder Ortiz eventually took up the game and, while doing so, impressed his son.
"He would play golf with attorneys, politicians and doctors," recalls Ortiz. "Here he was, a first-generation immigrant machinist playing golf with people in a social strata higher than ours. Fifty years ago, it was a big deal to play at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, especially an immigrant."
His father is now retired and living in San Francisco. Jesse, on the other hand, is far from being done. His agreement with Bobby Jones means he will be creating new clubs for pros and weekend warriors for a long time to come. And while he and his father have succeeded in ways immigrants and minorities in general rarely do in the game of golf, he recognizes the difficulties in overcoming adversity.
"The venues to succeed and the opportunities (for minorities) are much easier today when it comes to golf," says Ortiz. "But the business end is much more difficult today. There's a lot more clutter and the environment is very different from when my dad started 50 years ago."
