Equipment

Talking with Cut Golf, purveyors of the “best damn golf balls” under 20 bucks

Published

6 years ago

Mar 8, 2018

“The best damn golf balls under 20 bucks.” That’s the tagline that accompanies direct-to-consumer upstart Cut Golf’s wares.

What seems at first like an extremely bold claim really isn’t, as co-founder and CEO, Sam Uisprapassorn explains, the company produces the only 4-piece urethane ball that retails for under $20/dozen–in addition to three-piece and two-piece offerings, which technically fall under the “best damn” umbrella.

Thus, in bringing to market a four-piece urethane ball for markedly less than competitors, they are assuredly selling the highest quality and most sophisticated golf ball for under 20 bucks per dozen.

Founded out of Uisprapassorn’s frustration at losing pricey golf balls, Cut Golf is built on the principle that top-quality golf balls don’t have to be expensive.

I spoke with Uisprapassorn and Dennis Chang (co-founder and COO) about the company’s journey, unique value proposition, product offerings, and what’s ahead.

Uisprapassorn and Chang (Photo: JROJAS MEDIA)

BA: So take me back to the beginning. What’s inspired you to get into the golf ball business?

SU: Well. we’re avid golfers, so golf was a passion first. Other manufacturers have done a great job marketing their great products, but I thought there was room to do something different…to take a simpler approach to how we message our product benefits. But we got started right about the time Nike was exiting the golf equipment market. I was very loyal to Nike golf equipment, maybe to a fault, but I had to start looking for another golf ball. I eventually started looking at the folks in the direct-to-consumer space, and I didn’t see a value proposition in their pricing.

I was actually in the process of learning to hit a cut, and I was losing so many golf balls, that I thought, “There’s no point in this, there has to be a more cost efficient way to get the ball to the consumer.” So we started looking around for the right manufacturing partner, we found one, and then our business was born.

BA: Tell me about R&D and getting from concept to reality…

SU: To start with, we looked at multiple manufacturing options. And it was a process of looking at what the product was…understanding how the product would perform on the course and for a variety of different players.

There were a lot of designs we threw out and a lot of factories that didn’t work for us. We developed a ball that performed very well against “the other guys.” We got a baseline of what it was doing on the TrackMan and what it was doing on the course, so it was something we were confident in taking to market.

BA: Can you talk a little at selling your four-piece ball at the $19.99/dozen price point and how you’re able to do that…

Dennis Chang: Sam and I scrubbed the business model of everything we could in getting the ball from Point A to Point B. We don’t do big dollar spend at the PGA Show or pay tour pros. Ultimately the consumer pays for all of that. We manage our overhead efficiently, and we’ve grown a lot faster than expected.

(Photo: JROJAS MEDIA)

BA: Can you talk about demand and what the response has been like?

DC: I think the biggest way we’ve been able to drive sustainable growth without spending more money is awesome customer service and a great product. Word of mouth is obviously big for us. We get a lot of referrals. So we think that means that golfers are looking for a high-quality product at a very good value.

BA: How does your value proposition relate to competitors in the direct-to-consumer space?

SU: You can lump all of the competitors together. We have a four-piece urethane ball for $19.95 per dozen. The closest competitor offers a four-piece ball for $24.95, and I think that’s only with a bulk order of five dozen. With us, you don’t need to do a bulk buy to feel the savings.

BA: OK. Run through the golf ball lineup for us.

SU: We have Cut Blue and Cut Gray, which are both on the premium, urethane ball side. Cut Blue is a 90 compression 4-piece construction performance ball. Cut Grey is the softer compression performance ball with a 3-piece construction. Cut White is a 3-piece ball with a Surlyn cover ($14.95/dozen). 2-piece Cut Red is the lowest-compression ball. You can call it a “distance ball.” We’ve been asked to release some matte colors like you’re seeing in the market right now, so we’re deciding on colors. That’ll be $14.95/dozen with a 3-piece Surlyn cover. We’re leaning toward yellow and orange, and those will be out end of spring.

But we stay away from a lot of the golfballspeak. Look at how golf balls are communicated, everyone has some sort of value proposition. We have a no-nonsense approach: It’s core, mantle, urethane cover. If you want to get into dimple counts, we can get into dimple counts…but we don’t claim our golf ball is more dynamic than anyone else’s or that it’s going to fly farther than anyone else’s.

DC: Because there are so many options right now, golf ball preferences are pretty subjective among consumers. And one of the reason we’ve had such great adoption rates is we push for trial sleeves with our sample packs. So at a very low barrier to entry, without making a $20 or $40 investment, you can try our product.

(Photo: JROJAS MEDIA)

BA: Cool. Anything in the immediate future you’d like the readership to know about?

SU: We have the Cut Golf Club, which will be a middle-spring to end-of-spring launch. Back when we launched, we thought this would be a subscription service, but I knew that we needed some adoption before we could gain traction with any subscription service. We made that decision early on, but we never lost sight of the idea. So, April-or-May timeframe, folks will be able to set up a subscription/auto-ship to say, “I need golf balls every month,” or “I need them every other month.”

BA: So that’ll all be based on customer preference, not on tiers or plans?

SU: Right. We want to make sure we’re still offering top-notch service. We don’t want to be sending a monthly golf ball order to a guy in Fargo, North Dakota, in the middle of winter.

Check out Cut Golf on the web at cutgolf.co.

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Equipment

A shocking Backstryke putter appearance + 7 interesting gear photos from the Zurich Classic

Published

42 mins ago

Apr 25, 2024

Andrew Tursky

Welcome to New Orleans, where TPC Louisiana plays host to the 2024 Zurich Classic. In between breakfast beignets and nightly Creole feasts, PGA Tour players are also competing in the unique two-man format at the Zurich this week.

Although the vibes in Nawlins are a bit lighter-fare than the recent back-to-back competitions the Masters and the RBC Heritage signature event), the gear news was no less serious this week.

We spotted some recent changes from Rory McIlroy, a very rare Odyssey Backstryke putter, dove into the bag of legendary New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, and spotted Patrick Cantlay continuing to test new equipment.

Get your beads out and crack your crawfish, because it’s time for an equipment rundown from The Big Easy (meaning New Orleans, of course, not Ernie Els).

See all of our photos from the Zurich Classic here

Rory’s on-and-off lob wedge

Since the end of 2023, Rory McIlroy has had an on-again, off-again relationship with a Titleist Vokey K-Grind lob wedge. In his last start, it was on, and the wedge is back in the bag again this week. We got a great look at the complicated grind that McIlroy uses.

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A full look into McIlroy’s bag above also shows that he switched out of the TaylorMade BRNR Mini Copper that he used at the RBC Heritage, and he’s back into the Qi10 core 3-wood. As we discussed last week, McIlroy will likely keep the BRNR around as a course-specific club, trading it in and out for the 3-wood.

See Rory McIlroy’s full 2024 WITB from the Zurich here

Turning Back the clock

Unless Tommy Gainey is in the field, it’s unlikely you’ll ever see Odyssey’s Backstryke technology make an appearance on the PGA Tour.

But then, when you least expect it, Russ Cochran shows up.

For more than a decade – since the 2013 Sony Open in Hawai’i – Cochran has been stuck on 599 PGA Tour starts. This week will be his 600th.

Cochran is in the field at the Zurich this week playing alongside Eric Cole, whose regular caddie is Reed Cochran, Russ’s son.

The Backstryke putter was first released back in 2010, and its unique design helps shift the axis point of the putter closer to the CG of the head. And, the putter is getting a nod this week at the Zurich Classic, thanks to Cochran’s 600th career PGA Tour start.

The putter is certainly awesome, but don’t forget to check out Cochran’s full WITB from this week.

Drew Brees with a Super Bowl winning Scotty Cameron putter

Drew Brees, a legendary retired quarterback for the hometown New Orleans Saints, made an appearance at the Zurich’s Wednesday Pro-Am, playing alongside Zach Johnson, Ryan Palmer, and current Saints QB Derek Carr.

Brees’ bag included a TaylorMade Stealth2 Plus driver, a BRNR Mini 13.5-degree, a Stealth 5-wood, a mixed set of P-790 and P-760 irons, Milled Grind Hi-Toe wedges, and a custom Scotty Cameron “New Orleans Saints” putter, which Scotty made for Brees following his Super Bowl MVP-winning performance in 2010.

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It should also be noted that Brees has his Venmo QR code as a bag tag.

If you’re gambling with Brees on the course, just know that not having cash won’t work as an excuse.

Brilliant.

See Drew Brees’ full WITB from the Zurich here

Stricker’s unrecognizable putter

Steve Stricker has made numerous upgrades to his bag recently, including a new TSR3 driver and T100 irons, but his longtime Odyssey White Hot No. 2 putter is still going strong. It’s the most recognizable unrecognizable putter ever.

Here’s a better look at Stricker’s flatstick, which he started using back in 2007.

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Patrick Cantlay has opened the equipment-switching floodgates

Over on the PGA Tour’s Equipment Report this week, we covered Cantlay’s recent switch into Ping Blueprint S irons, and a Titleist TSR2 driver.

Cantlay hadn’t switched irons for about seven years, so the iron switch he made at The 2024 Masters came as a shock to the norm. He simply isn’t one to change gear very often, so anytime Cantlay makes a switch, it’s news.

It seems the floodgates of equipment testing have opened up a bit for Cantlay, who was also spotted testing a custom Scotty Cameron blade putter on Tuesday this week. By Wednesday, Cantlay was back practicing with his familiar Scotty Cameron T5 Proto mallet, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on going forward.

Daniel Berger’s custom Jailbird site lines

Berger, who’s currently using Odyssey’s Ai-One Mini Jailbird mallet putter, has a unique 3-dot, 2-line alignment on the crown of his navy-white-navy-white mallet putter. Looking down at the putter, it’s easy to see why this alignment system would help; it just seems impossible to set up to the ball off-center, or misaligned to the target.

Also, for anyone worried, you can rest easy. Yes, he’s still playing the 2013 TaylorMade TP MC irons, which we highlighted in our recent “Modern Classics: Old vs. New” video testing series.

FitzMagic teams back up

Brothers Matthew and Alex Fitzpatrick are teaming up once again at the Zurich this year, and Bettinardi Golf hooked them up with some festive “FitzMagic” headcovers to match this week.

See what else is in Alex Fitzpatrick’s WITB here

And, with that, we say goodbye to the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. Don’t forget to check out all of our photos from this week, including 30 unique photo galleries full of equipment photos.

We’ll see you next week in Texas for the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson!

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