"Anybody can do it the other way - we thought you would want the real story"
"More than you have ever wanted to know about Dan Bennett"
"I've known Dennis a long time - he is OK to work with… most of the time"
"Never play a dollar-a-hole with "Coach" Harold Riley - he only looks easy!

"Anybody can do it the other way -
we thought you would want the real story"

You have seen those "About Us" web pages. Everybody tells about themselves. That's fine.

But Dan and I thought you ought to get more. So we are going to tell about each other.

"More than you have ever wanted to know about Dan Bennett"

by Dennis Burkey

First off - Dan is a nut case! He really is an absolute certified golf nut. Plus, I'm not too sure he is generally normal in other regards too. I have proof - you will see in a minute or two.

I have known him for over twenty years.

He thinks we work here for the fun of it. New clubs come in and all of A sudden, Dan becomes Mr. Tester! He takes clubs apart, constantly experiments with different shaft flexes, changes grips just about every other day. He spends hours at the driving range "testing" new clubs.

His main job is to make certain every club that we either buy - no matter from which company - and every component for clubs we build ourselves, is up to specs. He makes sure that every club we build is perfect.

I will say he knows clubs. He knows components like nobody! When he - or any of our builders - builds a club it is 100% right. It has to be. Dan will take it apart or just toss it if it isn't. He is picky about club making. He is a fanatic when it comes to clubs being right.

Nobody experiments like Dan. He was the one who said four years ago that the Big Dollar Companies - or just "the BDC'S as he calls them - were selling everybody a bunch of malarkey with these 6, 7, 8 and 9 degree drivers. I remember Dan saying (well, actually, Dan didn't say it - he gets excited and yells every now and again), "Four hundred bucks for a driver nobody can hit, those guys ought to be ashamed of themselves!"

Only this year have the major golf magazines set up real tests with "normal person" swing speeds - and guess what - Dan was absolutely right! Unless you have a really fast swing you should not go below 10 and a half or 11 degrees on your driver. Most of us really should use 12 degrees.

When that study was published in Golf Digest, Dan came in to the office and of course wouldn't let us hear the end of it for about a week. Oh sure, he knew all along. All they had to do was ask him. It was OK to hear about it for a day or two but Dan really needed to put a cork in it after the fifth day!

Now he is working on a theory that everybody can almost instantly improve their game simply by practicing mental expectation. He says that if you continuously expect to hit good shots, you will. You have to understand that there will be those shots you wish you did not hit but that your percentage of good shots will go up. I'll let you know.

But for all his quirks - and he has a bushel of them - I could not imagine working with anybody else. He will put in the long hours when we need it. He is very strict about quality which is a must in this business. He is honest as the day is long. In over twenty years I have known him he has always been 100% loyal to his family, to me, those of who work with him and to our customers.

Oh yes, I said I had proof that Dan has enough quirks to be considered over the edge. Here is only one example: I came in about six in the morning one day a couple of months ago. I hear the chop saw in the shop. Dan comes in. "What are up to Dan?"

"Nothing," says Dan. "Well, you're doing something, I hear the chop saw."

"I'm just making a few divot tools." Dan finally admits.

Did you get that? He is making divot tools. Using a chop saw to make them. Now, Dan loses divot tools constantly. He must leave a trail of them every time he plays! But who makes divot tools? And with a chop saw no less. Click this link to see Dan's divot tool invention (says he got them at a thrift store, they are not from home). After you check them out - you tell me if he's a normal person!

Yes, his divot tools work - work pretty well in fact. But the point is - who in the world other than Dan would do that to make a divot tool!

Next --->