Blade Runner
Renaissance man David Edel does more than craft custom putters.
It takes a concerted effort to find the workshop—an airplane hangar, actually—in which former golf professional David Edel builds his line of custom putters.
Edel likes it that way, because it is this remote piece of land in the northeast corner of Burnet County—about 15 minutes from the Austin suburb of Liberty Hill—that brought him to Texas. It was far from his home on the Oregon coast and a continent removed from the country that provided Edel his greatest measure of notoriety.
Edel’s line of custom flatsticks—of which there are more than 272 million possible combinations of heads, hosels, inserts, shaft lengths and whatnot—are built on the belief that an instrument of golf should be crafted for an individual, not the masses. That places the emphasis on fitting a putter to the stroke of the player buying it, rather than asking a player to fit his stroke to the club.
He cast his first putter from sterling silver in a mold of carving wax in 1996. Edel keeps that silver club as a symbol of his desire to cater to the individual. He fashions no more putters out of precious metals, but the notion behind that first effort drives his dreams as well as the future of his firm.
Ironically, it was Edel’s own putting flaws that brought him to where he is today. He had dreams of making a living playing competitive golf, but mediocre putting held him back. Subsequently, he began teaching the game. Over the years, he studied swing mechanics, philosophy and club fitting with renowned instructors and tournament players, including Ben Doyle, Chuck Cook and PGA Hall of Famer Roberto DeVincenzo.
Edel’s fitting system is based in a simple idea: Even elite players such as tour professionals can be off by as much as a foot from 10 feet away. “Tour pros are not robots; they’re just people,” he says. “Being at the top of the game’s food chain doesn't mean they aim better.” So he uses a laser, reflected from the putter face to the target, to indicate a player's true aim. Then using different heads, lofts, hosels, weights and shaft lengths in a process of elimination, Edel whittles down the bad aim until it is true to the line.
Then Edel’s crew goes to work, fashioning each putter from a billet of 303-grade stainless steel to build a tool for the greens that can be considered a work of art as much as a conqueror of putting surfaces both slow and fast. “It’s one less thing that a golfer has to worry about,” he says.
Edel Golf has four full-time employees; they can build and deliver as many as 80 putters a month, all milled and assembled by hand, each with the definitive Edel Golf winged logo. The putters can take weeks to complete and they cost a lot more than the typical off-the-rack, mass-produced retail putter you’ll find at the golf shop or big-box retailer. Edel putters range from $375 for the basic version to $800 and more for putters with variable-loft faces, including fitting.
“Nothing is more important in golf than having the right putter,” Edel says. “You use a putter twice as often as any other club; it is the one club that can have the most impact on your game. The driver leads the way, but the putter closes the deal. There is a huge difference between an adequate putter and one that you actually develop a relationship with.”
Edel is trying to propagate his business into an international operation, with fitters in every state and in several foreign countries. At the end of January, Edel brought his lasers, mirrors, computers and ever-present cart of putters with hand-stamped monograms and interchangeable faces to the massive PGA Merchandise Show in Florida. Last year’s show netted 50 new accounts—including trained fitters to work with customers at the likes of Pebble Beach Golf Links and the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.
Some players on the various PGA Tours have carried Edel Golf’s putters, but because of his limited advertising budget Edel cannot afford to pay players to use his equipment. “We hope those that have been here will spread the word and our putters can catch a swell of enthusiasm,” Edel says. n