Loop Links, no. 5
Mitten Made
I’m not a gear head, and I don’t think I ever will be. When the golf Slack group starts going down the gear rabbit hole, my eyes usually glaze over as I skim past. Occasionally something catches my eye, though, as did a cool stainless steel ball marker that I received during the 2022 First Tee of Greater Detroit golf marathon. It was a unique, colorful design that I hadn’t seen before, had good weight, and more surprisingly, it was from Mitten Golf Supply, a company I hadn’t heard of before but was clearly operating within Michigan.
Even as I continually try to casually ignore the gear chat, I nevertheless have started to pick up on other local operators who are producing cool stuff. Most seem to be small operations, but are competing against the likes of Foot Joy and Scotty Cameron while most certainly holding their own. Perhaps not in quantity, but most definitely in quality. They are a big part of the Michigan golf scene, and they more than deserve your attention. So here is the first Mitten Made feature, hopefully the first of many.
Mitten Golf Supply
Jake VanDyke started making custom hand-stamped markers for friends and family in the Grand Rapids area back in 2015. As a creative person who enjoyed working with his hands, and as an avid golfer, it had naturally seemed like a thing that he could figure out. He recalls, “I said to myself, that looks fun and I can do that! Since then it’s just been trial and error and learning as I go. Pretty quickly I knew I wanted to get a fiber laser so I could make some creative pieces with the designs I create in my design software. I am self taught with CAD programming, CNC machines, and multiple laser types for engraving.”
In communicating with Jake, I quickly learned that I know next to nothing about this process. Please bear with me as I google what a CNC machine is. Your floor, wikipedia: “Computer numerical control (CNC) is a manufacturing method that automates the control, movement and precision of machine tools through the use of preprogrammed computer software, which is embedded inside the tools.”
Got it. Carry on Jake: “I actually started out with a wood carving CNC and wood laser engravers over 10 years ago,” he says. “Then I just moved up from there. There’s still so much to learn and I’m excited to continue learning as the business grows.”
Before Jake really gets into the weeds, I want to take a look at how the MGS business has grown. It started out as a side gig, more of a creative outlet, a far departure from his day job as a registered nurse working in an operating room. Then in 2021, more free time presented itself in the form of a work promotion for Jake’s wife, allowing him to transition to part time work. “I was staying home with the kids (5 and 3 at that time),” he says, “but also able to work on the golf stuff more because of the extra time I had. Not being on call nights and weekends helped! I also do freelance graphic design so I was creating logos and helping companies rebrand at this time as well.” This arrangement lasted until 2023, when Jake decided to walk away from his nursing job, for now. He still keeps his nursing license renewed, but he has decided to focus on his side gig as his full time job, which allows him the flexibility to work from home and spend more time with family.
So what changed in 2023? “ I decided to push it a little more,” he says. “I started advertising on social media and Etsy, got some traction, and was swamped with orders the second half of the year. The most challenging part so far is trying to keep up with the order load as a one man show. I try to keep custom orders to 2 week lead time, but I’ve been struggling to meet that. I’ve also turned down dozens and dozens of orders because some customers need something sooner.”
Even before this uptick, however, Jake had his hands full trying to keep his family well-stocked with custom gear, a thing that can happen when you marry into a family full of golfers. “My father-in-law is a member at Alpine Golf Club in Comstock Park,” he says, “and I tend to play there a lot. My 6-year-old is a natural so we are joining Alpine this year, as well.” Next is his brother-in-law, who happens to be the head groundskeeper at Diamond Springs, a course that Jake lists as one of his area favorites. And not to be outdone, he has another family connection he has yet to explore. “Greywalls is on the list for this year. My aunt and uncle are members and they have been trying to get us to come play with them - Going to get up there this summer finally!”
Jake keeps it humble when it comes to his connections and the golf he’s played, but he’s got the west side and some of the heavy hitters in Northern Michigan covered, listing some of his favorites as Stoatin Brae, Stonegate, Arcadia Bluffs, Forest Dunes, Boyne, The Bear, and Harbor Shores. “We hold an annual outing at the Mines,” he adds, “and I enjoy that course, too. There are just so many great courses in Michigan, but I really haven’t played enough courses outside a 45 minute drive from me. I really need to start checking more off the list! I haven’t even played on the east side of the state yet!”
Keep your eyes open for Jake’s work this summer as you are checking in at your favorite pro shops in the state, as he has partnered with several courses in the state on various projects of all types. “I have done on-site events for some courses around Grand Rapids,” he says. “I have made perpetual trophies for Kent CC and Kingsley Club, and I also made special tee box markers for KCC last year. I do more than just markers and tools! I love working on those type of projects with the courses. This coming season I will have products in pro shops in 19 states and 3 countries other than the USA!”
As I promised, you’ll want to see these things in person once you get into the weeds of how they are made. Here is Jake on his process:
I design and create a lot of the products in house. The hand hammered items, the slim stick tools, and some of my older style two prong tools are all cut, forged, and hand finished in my backyard workshop.
Brass, copper, and Stainless steel are the metals I use mainly. I have a friend in town that owns a machine shop and we have been collaborating on the CNC style blanks and tools the last few years. I come up with a lot of the styles and he does the programming and running the machine. Solid 12 foot bars are used in the CNC lathe to mill the ball marker blanks. 1” and 1.25” blanks are the two sizes that I stock regularly.
I then take those blanks and engrave them with the laser and offer multiple finish options for them as well. I’m proud to say that all the raw materials are USA products, and the milling/engraving/finishing are all done in Grand Rapids. Keeping as much local as I can is important to me.
If you would like to see more products from Mitten Golf Supply, or reach out to Jake to place a custom order, check out his website, Instagram, and shoot him an e-mail:
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MittenGolfSupply
Instagram: mitten_golf_supply
E-mail: MittenGolfSupply@gmail.com
Carl E. Rose
I lived near Carl’s Golfland for a period of time, it becoming my most frequent place to hit balls back before Trackman was a thing. I would browse the store occasionally, maybe try a driver or two, but I never really had the funds at that stage of my life to be a serious customer. That name, Carl’s Golfland, though, was such a hometown type of thing, it just felt like the local golf shop.
I knew nothing about the origins of Carl’s (started in 1958 near Pontiac by Carl F. Rose, or Carl Sr., and ownership passed to Carl Jr. in 2000, so there are actually two Carls), and most of my thoughts on the place were dominated by the local TV ads, some of which were memorable, but maybe not in a good way (“take a walk through the woods…. andtheironsandtheputtersandthewedgesandthe…”).
Despite my lack of awareness, news of Carl E. Rose’s passing was all over my social media in mid-January, along with mentions in various golf publications that I follow. I knew nothing of Mr. Rose or his impact on golf. I had no idea that the local golf shop was actually a heavy hitter in global online distribution of golf equipment, or that it was one of the first to partner with Trackman. Maybe most importantly, I wasn’t aware of his countless contributions in the community. So it was worth it to me to pick out some of the more interesting coverage of his passing that I found.
This article from Hour Magazine talks about his generosity during the pandemic. The Carl’s Golfland Annual Magazine relates a story from COO Casey Baker about Carl donating new supplies to a Detroit car wash, prompted only by a story he read about their recent burglary. Along with an obituary for Carl, here is Baker talking about Rose’s First Club for Kids program. Plenty of quotes and background on the Carl’s origin story are available in this Detroit News article.
This, of course, is only skimming the surface. Based on Carl’s reach, many of you may have met him, or at least knew the Carl’s story much better than I did. But if you are like me and just knew about the range and the commercials, definitely take a moment to learn a little more about the history of Carl’s. I will be interested to see what the future looks like for both the stores and the brand.
With that, I leave you with this joint 2017 interview with both Carl Jr. and Carl Sr. (who passed in 2020):
I Say a Nice Thing About Ohio
This has nothing to do with golf, but I’m going to do a rare thing and say something nice about Ohio. My family and I drove to Cleveland recently, and on the drive there and back we counted 26 bald eagles spotted in the area between Toledo and Sandusky. It gets more dorky from here, so if that didn’t hook you, then thanks for stopping by, I’ll see you next week!
My wife is obsessed with bald eagles, and I openly admire them, as well. They are incredibly impressive birds, so we keep an eye out for them whenever we are traveling. We don’t get many in Ann Arbor (one family lives near the Huron River), but we are constantly looking when we are near Lake Michigan. We saw one near Suttons Bay a few years ago, and we say one flying over I-196 somewhere on the Southwest side recently, and that’s it. Then we saw 26 in the span of about 2 hours of driving in Ohio, including two right over the highway in Toledo!
I asked my wife as we were driving, “why does Ohio get this? They don’t deserve it!” I guess Lake Erie is good for something other than catching on fire after all.
From my brief research, bald eagles have made a pretty strong comeback from the brink of extinction a few decades ago, and this stretch along Lake Erie is one of the hot spots for seeing them in the Midwest. Located in this area are the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, which we have targeted for a return day trip during spring break to get a better view.
Not bad Ohio. Maybe you’ll shed that (the) Worst State Ever ranking someday.