Savage Words: Honoring mom, launching a putter

I’ve often said this, but I’m fascinated by people who start their own business. It’s inspiring, and I can’t ever get my head around how people do it.

I write stories for a living. When I put the final period on those stories, I’m done. I’m able to clear my head, move on.

That’s not the case for people who start a business. There are oodles of things that need to be completed, need to be changed, and need to be financed.

Again, figuring all of that out is just simply not in my DNA and I 100 percent don’t have the bandwidth to pull something like that off.

That’s why last Friday was another inspiring moment for me, and one that even gave me a sense of pride, simply because some friends of mine started their own business, and what a venture it is.

Brothers Craig and Geoff Ellerbroek have recently launched The Medieval Golf Company, and Friday at the Brandon Golf Course, they unveiled their newest putter. 

Unveiled their newest putter. 

Think about that for a second. This isn’t Titleist, Callaway, Taylor Made, or Ping. This is a couple of brothers from Sioux Falls … and they unveiled their newest putter?

Amazing.

I’ve been friends with Craig for 10-plus years. He’s always full of ideas. Since I’ve known him, he’s tinkering with an idea, a new business.

He said he got the idea for this golf company last August. Specifically, he wanted to create a putter that was both functional and clever. His idea was to produce a putter that also looked like a medieval battle ax. 

Again, having the guts to start a business is – to me – tough enough. To launch a golf company whose first product is a putter that looks like a weapon from the Middle Ages? C’mon.

I get nervous ticks just thinking about it, and when I talked to Craig, I could feel the hair on the back of my neck come to life.

But not for him. He just keeps working the process.

He attended the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando in January. He said he wanted to make sure no one else was making a battle ax-looking putter. He was right, not surprising, no one else was.

The putters are manufactured in Harrisburg where the three owners – Craig, Geoff, and their friend Nick Henderson – are like mad scientists as they produce something that I truly think will take the industry by storm.

I asked Craig if he was scared or nervous, because I certainly would be.

“Not after Friday,” he said with a chuckle.

That’s because on Friday at the Brandon Golf Course, the Ellerbroek brothers hosted 112 golfers in a four-person scramble for the 20th straight year. They started the tournament in 2006 in honor of their mother, who died from a form of dementia in 2002. Proceeds from the tournament each year goes directly to the South Dakota Alzheimer’s Association.

There was a load of Medieval Golf Company merchandise in Brandon, and they sold a ton of it. Everything from hats, t-shirts, towels and ball markers – all with the really cool logo for the new company – were plastered about. 

There were only four prototype putters in Brandon on Friday as the group is putting the final touches on the product. They’ll be selling them soon, and Craig said he has a number of people who’ve said they’ll be making the battle-ax putter purchase once they’re available.

That’s pretty damn cool, and something I’ll never understand or have the capacity to do.

Admiration – that’s what I have for my two friends. 

Craig is 61 years old. He told me a couple of weeks ago that for the first time in his life, he wishes he were 10 years younger, just so he could enjoy this journey even more.

That sentence stayed with me.

I’ve written two books, and I’d really like to write another 

There have been some ideas on a topic for a new book that have rattled around in my head over the years. They all sort of fizzled out after I thought about it for a bit

But seeing, watching, and hearing about my friends and their new venture has me inspired to write another. I’m not certain if it’ll be any good, but I can assure you that in 10 years, I’m not going to wish I had done it.

I told Craig on Sunday that I’m sure his mother would have been proud of him and his brother last Friday in Brandon.

“I like to believe she was smiling down on us for having such a successful day,” Craig said.

No, I’ll take it a step further, Craig. I don’t know a lot, but I’m more than confident she was indeed smiling down on you.

Yours is a story of inspiration.

I should write a book about it.