I Quit My Job: Introducing Hanna Golf
Every Monday, I write a newsletter breaking down the business in golf. Welcome to the 22 new Perfect Putt members who have joined us since our last newsletter. Join 10,213 intelligent and curious golfers by subscribing below.
Read Time: 5 minutes.
Hey Golfers —
Last summer, I quit my job. My wife and I emptied our savings account, and I bought two CNC mills to build Hanna Golf — a putter company.
So, last July, I got to work. But there was a small problem. I had never seen a CNC mill before, let alone operate one. So, I spent the better part of eight months learning CAD, CAM, and how to operate a CNC mill.
It’s been hard. The last year has been the most challenging year of my professional career. If someone were to call me in March or April and offered me a job — I probably would’ve taken it.
But I pushed through — I kept grinding to learn and get better.
This whole newsletter started as an accident — a challenge from an MBA instructor. I was a nobody, an outsider in the golf media landscape. I was a VP of Sales at a manufacturing company in Iowa when I started to write Perfect Putt three years ago.
But we started to grow Perfect Putt. I enjoyed the hell out of researching the golf industry every week, and I not only started to fall in love with golf again, but I also fell in love with the golf industry.
I have had the opportunity to chat and meet with hundreds of business leaders in the industry. And I have had two main takeaways.
The entrepreneurship is palpable.
I love writing about it, but I want to be in it
Arriving at the idea of a putter company came organically.
A week after I walked on at the University of Northern Iowa, my coaches put me in the putting lab. I was putting with a blade putter with a traditional grip.
My coach went to his office and dusted off a prototype mallet putter he scooped up at a PGA Championship he played in a decade or so earlier. It had an original SuperStroke grip. He also moved me to a cross-hand grip.
My putting improved dramatically.
After I graduated, I gave the putter back to him. For the next ten years, I searched for it everywhere — eBay, Facebook, Craiglist, you name it — but I could never find it.
So, I sketched a putter design on a cold winter night in Iowa. Then, I sent it to my brother-in-law to draw in CAD. And then I sent it to a buddy who found a machine shop in Texas to mill it for me.
The first one came back way too heavy—425 grams. The second one was 370 grams. It was good enough to put in play, although my friends thought I was crazy. It wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at.
I loved the process of designing and creating that original putter. I even posted photos on Reddit — I was proud of the little project.
Then, I had a crucible moment in 2023.
My dad announced his retirement. It felt like yesterday I was throwing the baseball with him in the backyard. Time goes by so damn fast.
And in 2012, my dad was diagnosed with MS. It’s been debilitating for him. He used to love to ski, bike, and play golf. He can no longer do any of those except for a few golf holes.
Life is fragile, life is short. We are only on this spinning rock one time. We never know when something will be taken from us.
I had the bug to start a business. I realized it would never be the perfect time. The most important thing was to start.
I had two prerequisites to starting a business.
It had to be golf-related
It had to be something I could make
So, I circled back to the putter project I had done a year earlier, and that is how Hanna Golf was born.
Is a putter business a big business? No, not really.
It is estimated that 2.5 million putters are sold annually, and the putter industry is going to grow at 4% per year for the next decade. It is not a huge industry, but it is big enough to build a small business in. And that is exactly what I intend to do with Hanna Golf.
I started with three designs — all milled out of 303 stainless steel. And have a fourth design prototyped. I am confident in the putters I have designed and built. And they will continue to get better. My wife continually tells me the first iPhone doesn’t look like the one we use now.
I have been an underdog my whole life. It motivates me; I embrace it. And that is what Hanna Golf is: an underdog. It’s gritty. It’s built by an underdog for the underdog.
We will take any support we can get. I would love it if you followed our journey on social media.
If you don’t have social media, that's cool — share this post with a friend who might be interested in following a small golf brand’s journey.
And if you are interested in learning more about Hanna Golf — feel free to email me directly at jared@hannagolf.com.
Back to regular scheduled programming next week. The newsletter isn’t going anywhere. I have too much fun researching and writing about golf.
I appreciate your support. I am proud to be a part of the golf community.
Have a great Monday. We will talk to you next week!
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Why is it called Hanna Golf? My wife's name is Hannah, so just curious.
Congratulations on the new venture. I look forward to seeing how it develops. Although we’ve never met, I know your parents as they’re good friends/neighbors with my parents. When my father passed away a few years ago, your dad sent a letter to us, recalling some fond memories they shared. I’ll never forget the laughter it brought to a sad day. It was appreciated by all. In fact, my kids still make comments about it.