A local company aims to make golf a bit easier for golfers taller than 6 feet.
Entrepreneur Nathan Fry launched Tall Man Golf, 4138 Lake Sherwood Ave. E., last November. The company makes and sells golf clubs that proportionally fit taller golfers.
As Business Report details in the latest Entrepreneur feature from its current issue, the origins of the business dates back to the era of pagers—when Fry, who is 6-foot-4-inches tall, worked at a golf course in Arizona.
An instructor at the course had invested in new video technology that allowed Fry to see his own swing for the first time.
“I was incredibly bent over,” he says. “Tall golfers learn to play that way.”
The instructor told Fry he could get his clubs lengthened, but that was about all he could do to fix the hunch. Fry bought clubs an inch and a half longer—the longest he could get. He was still hunched over.
“That’s when the seed was planted that I would make long clubs,” he says.
The seed would grow slowly. Fry would work an variety of jobs before his idea took off. He invented a toilet seat that lifted by itself and even practiced law while saving to pursue his Tall Man Golf idea.
Now, he sells full sets of golf clubs online, and people can pay to demo the clubs.
“Every dime that comes in is being set up to fund the next batch,” he says. “The company is growing organically, and that’s the way it should grow.”
Fry is also busy juggling a new idea—a golf alignment aid called The Divot Buddy. He’s filing a patent and producing his first batch of product.
“Every step I took along the way was a learning process and a necessary step to get to the next level,” he says.
Read the full Entrepreneur feature. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
