Interview with Scratch Golf CEO - Ari Techner

If you're a golf club nut, chances are you've heard of Scratch Golf. They've been making the highest quality custom wedges and irons since 2003 and this past year made news with Ryan Moore becoming a part owner of the company, along with longtime club making legend Don White joining the Scratch family. The designs of their clubs, in their simplicity, are absolutely beautiful. Their commitment to customer service is unparalled. Where else do you have access to a company's CEO to inquire about an order or a product question? They've made a name for themselves with grassroots marketing and advertising and have a huge underground following because of their efforts in the blogosphere and social media. I just recently purchased a new 56 degree wedge through Scratch, and when I had questions about the product, Ari and his brother Chad (COO) were more than accessible and made it a great experience. Recently I had a chance to interview Ari to talk about how Scratch has managed to become so successful, and about some of their future plans for the company.

You started the company in 2003, how did you guys get started in the business? The golf industry seems like an extremely tough racket to break in to.

Ari Techner: We started Scratch Golf mostly because of a big hole we saw in the wedge category at the time.  There was nobody that was actually fitting the sole of the wedge to the player who is using them's swing.  Custom fitting at the time was huge in golf but nobody was fitting wedges.  We felt strongly that custom fitting was as important to wedge fitting as any other club and set out to come up with an innovative fitting system that made sure that the sole of the wedge, the part of the club that actually comes in contact with the ground, was fit to the players swing.  We were in a unique position to take advantage of this hole in the market because of the unique talent that Chief Design Engineer Jeff McCoy has hand grinding golf clubs.  He is one of a very few in the world that can do what he does to a golf club.  Without him and his unique talent we could have never started Scratch. 

Just starting out, making a name for yourself among the other big manufacturers must have seemed daunting, as I’m sure it continues to.  At what points did you celebrate small victories in your growing company?

Ari Techner: At the beginning we were excited by pretty much every  big order and especially when we got better players or Tour players to try and use our clubs.  During those first few years of growth it was really exciting to hear people talk about our company and the quality product that we were making.  We still get excited by some small victories but these types of things have become much more commonplace.

Because you don’t pay players to use your clubs, I think many casual fans may have never heard of Scratch, possibly until just recently with the relationship with Ryan Moore. Talk a little bit about how you guys have used  a totally unique and youthful way to market your brand to the point where you could add a player like Ryan.

Ari Techner: We have always been different in the ways we market our company.  We decided early on that traditional print advertising was not for us.  Instead we have concentrated on a grass roots marketing campaign where we have concentrated more on individual players and also some of the internet forums and blogs to help get our name out there.  We also concentrated hard on the Nationwide Tour and other smaller Tours to get our clubs in the hands of the better players out there.  As a result we were the #1 Forged Wedge on the Nationwide Tour in 2006 and got 2 wins on the Nationwide Tour in 2007.  Ryan was playing without a sponsorship and we sent him some clubs to try and he just fell in love with them.  The rest as they say is history.

Famous club maker Don White just came onboard at Scratch. After 38 years at MacGregor and making clubs for Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, what made adding such a legend  appealing to both the company and for him as well?

Ari Techner: Adding Don to our team was just huge for us.  He has worked with all of the best players in the game during his time at MacGregor and is just an incredible craftsman.  Don fits in perfectly here at Scratch as we are the only company that actually grinds clubs for specific individuals which is what Don has always done.  He had offers from pretty much every company but wanted to work for a company that allowed him to make specific clubs for specific individuals like he had always done.  He did not want to be an assembly line, making 3 irons on Monday, 4 irons on Tuesday, 5 irons on Wednesday etc.  Instead he wants to know the name of the person he is making clubs for and know that the clubs he is making will really be appreciated by the person he is making them for.  Scratch was the only company that offered him that ability.  It could not have worked out better for either one of us.  Its amazing having an industry legend like Don in the shop every day.

Scratch has a pretty sophisticated custom fitting process. You’ve broken it down to 3 types of ball strikers. I’m a Digger/Driver. What does that actually mean? Can you talk a little bit about the 3 different categories  and why you felt it was such a core piece of the company’s strategy to fit players to the clubs their using?

Ari Techner: Going back to the early days of Scratch we always felt that fitting has been ignored in the wedge industry.  We did over a year of testing and determined that there were 3 main swing types that people use when hitting a wedge.  The Digger/Driver is someone who is extremely steep and aggressive and takes a big divot.  This person's main mishit is fat.  The Digger/Driver sole grind is setup to avoid digging and make sure that this type of player can be steep and aggressive and have the wedge work with their swing instead of against it.

Congratulations on making it in to Golf Digest’s Hot list  That is obviously a huge accomplishment that I don’t want to diminish in any way, but Golf Digest seemed to suggest some lower lofted wedges were needed.

Ari Techner: We are planning to add a 50* to the 8620 cast line and the 1018 forged line.

Obviously you guys have taken Scratch from a small start-up company to a serious force in the golf industry.  However, do you think that with all this growth and success, you will be able to continue to be as open and public with your fans, something that has been a very attractive feature of the company?

Ari Techner: I plan to always be open and accessible to our fans and the public.  It is really something that I believe in strongly and feel is very important for Scratch. It will be a challenge for us moving forward as we see more and more growth but I plan to make it a big priority.

What do you have planned for Scratch in the upcoming year and beyond?

Ari Techner: Right now we are looking at trying to move all of our production to the USA and out of Asia.  This will be a huge move for us as it will allow us to keep on top of our ordering and inventory much better than before as well as support what is a struggling economy here in the USA.  I also believe that we can make a superior product by working with American manufacturing compared to the people we have been working with in Asia.  In terms of other clubs, we are working on adding Scratch putters to the line and expect to have something ready at the 2011 PGA Show.  Other than that I would not expect to see us move into drivers or fairway woods at all.  We like to concentrate on products that we can make by hand here in our shop.

To learn more about Scratch Golf, visit their website at: www.scratchgolf.com.