This week, L.A.B. Golf announced they are selling a majority stake in their company to an investment firm, valuing the company at $200 million.
If you don’t know them by name, you have probably seen their putters on the course or on your TV screen during a Tour event. They are similar to more traditional “mallet” putters, but they have a circle on the back, where a mallet is usually flat.
Bill Presse IV, the founder of L.A.B. Golf, started designing the putters after a meltdown he had on the golf course. Presse was convinced that face-balanced putters twist during the putting stroke and developed a product called the “Revealer”.
The Revealer led to the L.A.B. putter we know today. The Revealer indeed indicated there was twisting in traditional putters.
After the Revealer, Presse built his first torque-free design of a putter and launched the “Directed Force Putters." The product ended up flopping on the market, but one man found it to be extremely useful.
Sam Hahn, a wealthy businessman in the music industry in Oregon, found the putter online and it fixed his issues on the green. He tracked down Presse and they partnered to rebrand the putter company as L.A.B. Golf, standing for Lie, Angle, Balance.
After the rebrand, there were three major moments that skyrocketed the company to stardom. The first came at the 2019 Masters, when Adam Scott was seen using the putter and sparked the eyes of other players. The next came in 2020, when Rick Shiels and Peter Finch reviewed the putter on YouTube, and it tripled their sales overnight.
The final straw, which gave L.A.B. Golf, the opportunity to sell for nine figures, came when J.J. Spaun sank a 64-foot putt to win the U.S. Open using the L.A.B. putter.
Just a month later, L.A.B. announced their deal selling the majority of their shares to L Catterton. Both Presse and Hahn will remain involved in the company that they built from the ground up.
Watch the full breakdown of the L.A.B. putter's rise on the Dan’s Golf World Show clip above, and check out more from the show on SI Golf.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as This $200 Million Putter Company Started With a Meltdown on the Golf Course.