322: Shaping the Future of Women's Golf Equipment w/ Katie Calderon

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to Private Club Radio. Your guide to excellence in club management and hospitality are all about the arts of running private golf and country clubs. I'm your host, Denny Corby. Welcome. Whether you're a consummate club professional or brand new to the industry, you are in the right place. We go over anything and everything private club related, and when I say private club, it's all the clubs Country clubs, golf clubs, city clubs, yacht clubs, athletic clubs, military clubs, all the clubs and we go into all sorts of details, from hospitality, food and beverage management, leadership, health and wellness, marketing, communications. We cover it all, bringing you the best and the brightest in the industry. This episode I am ecstatic for this is so good. You might recognize her as Club Girl Katie on Instagram or Club Girl Katie on TikTok. She has about 330,000 followers on TikTok, about 100,000, some 1,000 on Instagram. She is a pro long driver. She's a retired athlete at like early 20s. She kills me. She's a pro long driver. She's the CEO of her own golf company. She is a Texas A&M engineering student. If you follow her on social media, you know what I'm talking about. She has accomplished so much and has so much ahead of her and I am stoked to have her on because she is doing amazing, amazing things in the club world. She's going to tell you all about it. She makes her own golf clubs. She makes her own clubs. She's done interns at Callaway. She, you know, it's one of those. I could sit here and explain it. I won't do it justice. I'll let her do it. She explains who she is, where she gets her start. She started golfing at six and became obsessed with engineering as well, which led her to starting to create and build her own clubs while she was still in high school. Who does that? She does, but she has had some tremendous support in the industry and I am so excited to have her on and even more excited to see what she accomplishes and what she does in the future, because it's going to be nothing but greatness and cool things. So I'm so excited. Let's just get right to it. Have a club radio, Please welcome Katie Cole-Laron. Yeah they met in.

Speaker 2: 2:54

San Francisco. She's a Californian born and raised and they met in college up in San Francisco.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Oh, that's cool and they're still up in San Fran and that where you grew up.

Speaker 2: 3:07

So I ended up growing up in LA because my grandfather ran the family business down in LA. So once my parents were old enough and he asked them to come down right after I was born, so pretty much spent my whole life in LA.

Speaker 1: 3:22

And what's the family business? If you don't mind me asking.

Speaker 2: 3:25

It was. They used to do hair care stuff, so nothing even close to golf, but it was. It was pretty cool. They made hair dye, shampoo, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Oh, no way. Yeah, that's neat. I was kind of hoping like, oh, it's going to be this crazy cool golf thing. I was like okay.

Speaker 2: 3:40

No, I wish I was like a golf done. I'm building my own golf dynasty. That's what my kids will say, but for right now it's yeah, I come from the hair care, yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:50

So then, how did you get so? How do you go from hair care to golf was where you go, like where you were a golf family. What was so? Was that right?

Speaker 2: 3:58

I think my family is a lot more artsy. I was really, you know my brother didn't play sports. I love sports. I played just about every sport in the book. But when I was four we were out playing golf or we were out on vacation and my mom was pregnant with my little brother at the time we were out in Hawaii and she's like I need to go to Gnap, and my dad had to find something to do with little me and the hotel we were staying at, a Puepe Bay. They had the Puepe Bay course right there that had the free golf lessons for anyone staying at the hotel. So we went and I was hooked. I didn't want to drop a club. I made my dad take me like every day. And then when we got back the second we landed, I was like okay, when can we go back so that I can play golf? He's like, oh, you can do that here too. And from then I never put a club down.

Speaker 1: 4:42

And you were how old at that point.

Speaker 2: 4:44

Four years old yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Okay, so I've been playing basically my whole life.

Speaker 2: 4:48

Yeah, 19 years of playing. I was never that. I was never a tiger good, but I was really competitive my whole life.

Speaker 1: 4:54

So I don't know. I've seen you hit. It's impressive.

Speaker 2: 4:59

No, thank you, I appreciate it yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:02

I can, I will send you a video of my hit that from a couple of days ago. It was horrible. I was on a family trip in Puerto Rico and my brother likes to golf. He's like you want to go with me? I'm like, okay, and I was like I'll just watch they. Oh, I was so bad. It was so bad. I think I lost way more than six balls. It was a lot. It was a lot. Yeah, I feel that.

Speaker 2: 5:27

So you just have those rounds sometimes. It's not too crazy, oh no, it's. I just can't hit that ball. It's not on every time, that's fair.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Yes, that's fair. I'm not involved. I am in the club community. I cannot golf, that's okay. My brother said there is hope, but I think that's just because I was his ride back on the golf cart. So yeah, so so were you always interested in the engineering as well, because that's your. Your social media is so engaging. There's so much cool stuff that you're doing, so you make. So let's say you're, you're a long drive champ.

Speaker 2: 6:03

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:04

What is that and what does that mean, and how many people do you compete against?

Speaker 2: 6:09

So I'm retired now, which is so weird to say. I know it's really fun. It's really fun when you're in class and you're like, yeah, like I just tell anyone in general and they ask me like, oh yeah, did you like, did you? Why didn't you play in college? I was like, oh, like I went pro instead, Right. And they're like, what? And yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'm a retired professional long driver. So that was pretty fun. Yeah, I'm 23 and I'm a retired athlete, which is just so weird. But I, I did that for a few years. I right, like, right when the pandemic hit. You know, I was coming out of high school a little bit before that and, yeah, I had offers to play at a lot of different colleges, but I figured I was like you know what I'm going to go to school for, what I want to go to school for, and I will find a way to stay competitive with golf Because I've competed my whole life. I was team captain of my middle school, team captain of my high school for three years. I was always trying to be or was always most of the time, number one on the team, just doing really well and trying to do my best, and was competing and putting up really good scores, but I always hit the ball really far and so I would out drive it by like 30, 40 yards to all the girls that I was playing with, which was a lot. It was a lot and I always had the furthest ball and the other coaches at the other schools would laugh because they're like they would go to watch me tee off. Like anytime my name got called, everyone would wanna see me tee off because I just hit it far, and so I was like you know what, Like I can hit it far, I might as well try long drive, Cause I watched it growing up, like at 16, I worked in a golf shop and that's kind of where I fell in love with the club making side. But while working at the golf shop they always had on the golf channel, so it was either like two golf movies or world long drive reruns in the mornings when we're working on a weekday or you know over break or whenever, whenever there wasn't golf on, that's what was on. And I fell in love with the long drive and I was like you know what, I'm gonna just try it. And I signed up for a pro event and it got shut down for COVID and so I was like training and doing all this fun stuff during COVID for it. And then another league opened up cause world long drive got shut down. So I did that for a few years while in school and then at the time I'm in school for engineering, cause my whole goal was I wanted to build golf clubs, but it was a pretty fun way to stay competitive.

Speaker 1: 8:36

So when were you always into engineering? Like, were you always like tinkering with things and trying to open up stuff? Like so, okay, so when did you start opening up golf balls?

Speaker 2: 8:46

Fair enough, I didn't even know that was a thing.

Speaker 1: 8:48

I just saw your device. I was like what?

Speaker 2: 8:51

Yeah. So for me, what happened was I always loved playing, but I wanted to. Like, you know, I was 16 and I wanted new clubs and I wanted, you know, new balls and I wanted to play more. And so I got. I was like, okay, I'm gonna get a job at our golf shop, cause then I get a golf discount, which is awesome. So I got a job at our local golf shop and I, you know, worked the front desk for like a hot minute. And then they're like oh, actually, like do you want to learn how to do repairs? And I was like, yeah, I want to learn how to repair clubs. So I started, you know, front counter, probably for a couple months. Then they moved me back into repairs and so, like I'm 16, I'm re-gripping people's clubs, reshafting, doing all the fun stuff, which was awesome. But I got really into like how to fix them and I was like, okay, this is really cool. And I was like started messing with like you know all of these different parts of it to see how I could change clubs, cause you know you'd check the swing weight and stuff. So just messing around with it in my free time at work when we weren't busy, and then you know they saw me do that and they're like okay, let's, let's get you into club fitting. So then I learned how to fit clubs and like how specialized clubs can get for people swings, like I was doing just for fun. And in doing that, like when it came time for me to go to college, I was like, okay, I want to do something that I will enjoy. And I realized I was like, oh, like I want to build golf clubs. I think that'd be so fun to be on the back end of it where I'm actually the one making the clubs that people are, then, you know, playing with versus fixing them. So I kind of just started reaching out to people in industry asking them hey, how did you get here? Like, how did you become a club designer? And everyone's like, oh, you have to go to school for engineering, you have to become an engineer, and that this is an engineering job. You work in R and D and I had no idea what that was at the time. So then I, when I applied to colleges, I was like okay, I want to be a golf club designer, I need to be an engineer. So that's kind of how I ended up at Texas A&M.

Speaker 1: 10:46

So when did you start then? Because you make your own clubs now, right, or is it your own club heads?

Speaker 2: 10:55

So I make my own.

Speaker 1: 10:56

The whole Jam take my time.

Speaker 2: 10:58

So, for what I'm doing right now, I, when I got to school, I took my first engineering class and your first engineering class they ask you. They're like well, what do you want to do with your engineering degree? Why do you want to be an engineer? And you know, you hear everyone going on the room oh, I want to work in tech. Oh, I want to work for NASA, I want to do space stuff. Oh, I want to build apps, whatever. And then I kind of my teacher got thrown back at my answer because I was like oh, I want to build golf clubs. And she was like what. Wait, which is very valid. You hear someone say I want to work at NASA and you hear someone go I want to work at Apple and someone go I want to work at Tesla. And I'm like, oh, I want to build golf clubs. Like it was shocking. And she's like she's like you want to do what I was like I want to build golf clubs and she goes I feel like that's something that you could just do. She's like, have you tried to just do it? And I was like, no, but that's a good idea. So I downloaded like the most basic CAD program that I could and designed the first putter. And at the time I had, you know, done tick tock a little bit. Before that I had built like a table out of golf balls and posted it on tick tock just for fun, because I thought it was cool and it ended up blowing up. So at this point I had like a very small following. I think I only had like 10,000 followers just from that one video and a couple others that had gone viral, and so I posted it and overnight just took off. I think that video got like a few million views and a lot of industries attention, which was really cool. And then I had people in industry commenting like oh, like you want to make sure you do this and you want to make sure you do that, because all I did was 3d print the most basic looking little putter to see if it's something that I could design. And then they're like oh, you know, make sure you add the loft of the face and you have to add you know, like you know, and they're like you got to add somewhere to put in the shaft, you got to add this and that. And I was like, okay, and so I started taking that and reworking it and reworking it, and then it just kind of exploded from there. So I started making all of these different designs and posting about them and just like fun ones. Like I made a little Spider-Man one when, like, one of the Spider-Man movies came out. I made a Batman one when the Batman movie came out, and then I was like, okay, these are cute, but like they're so lightweight because they're just a little plastic, I'm like I want to play with something that I made. So then I started trying to make one that I could actually play with, and so I figured I was like, okay, plastic is too light. So I went to Home Depot and I bought these like steel rods and I chopped them up in pieces and I made slots in the back of the putter that I could hammer these rods into to make it make weight until I had like a fully working 3d printed putter. So that took a little bit, which was really cool. And that also exploded online, which was awesome to see. And at that point I think I had grown to like 150, 200,000 followers around there just from doing that, which was awesome. And then I was like well, I want to make real ones. And at this point I had caught the attention of some industry people who I then got offered an internship with. So I spent a summer at one of the big golf companies working in their putter R&D department, where I really learned like how you really do this.

Speaker 1: 14:16

It was Caloing Golf. It was trying to be humble.

Speaker 2: 14:20

No, fair enough. So it was really cool to work with them and to do all of this design stuff and learn how these big companies do it, and that was life changing and it for sure reaffirmed for me like I'm exactly where I want to be. This is exactly what I want to do. But on the side, you know, I've been working on building my own putters and doing my own stuff and you know I, from working as a fitter, have always had like I myself and you know through my fitting experience, have realized like women have a hard time with clubs. Just naturally, it's a really hard time just finding clubs that fit because there's so many limited options and nothing ever feels right and every single woman that I have fit for clubs has had to spend more money just to get them to feel okay. So when I came back and when I really just honed in on what do I want to do, you know I know I want to build golf clubs, but I want to do something that's going to shake up the industry a little bit, and so I was like I want to make women specific clubs. So I completely focused on how women swing and how we hit and what our needs were, and that's kind of what I've been working on in the background and, and I've been doing all of this but I still wanted to keep my audience engaged and keep people learning about clubs. So that's when I started cutting golf balls, because I could not share anymore what I was working on because it would become a little IP issue. So I started cutting up into golf balls to show people like, hey, like here's what's best for you. That way everyone could, because the whole goal of my channel is for people to be able to find equipment that works perfectly for them. And so you know, I might cut open a Pro V1 and I might cut open like a top flight, and one ball is going to work great for one guy but be terrible for the guy that the top flight is going to be great for. So it's really just all about helping people find the right equipment.

Speaker 1: 16:14

That's crazy. I, I, that is what. So how many clubs have you made to date?

Speaker 2: 16:25

Um, probably in the four hundreds. Yeah, probably in the four hundreds. Just putters too, which is crazy.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Just putters.

Speaker 2: 16:35

Yeah, so you have. I probably did in the four hundreds Others we had.

Speaker 1: 16:41

You made other ones too. It's in the future.

Speaker 2: 16:43

So yeah, so. So right now I'm working on the putter. So I started my own company club, girl golf, and you know we're making women specific golf clubs. We're starting with putters because that's what I'm trained in. But as soon as we launch the putters, like, there are plans for every single other club to be made also and kind of ideas, and so, like my um, I've got a patent on a putter. Right now we're waiting to to launch it, but probably in the next few weeks there will be a lot more information out about exactly what I've been working on the last few years yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:11

What was it like? So Callaway came in approach to you and said hey, we would love to have you come in. Come in intern, yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:19

So I had connected with their head of of putter R and D um back when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and he's been a mentor to me for years. And so, you know, one day I got an email from him and he was like hey, Katie, I've seen all your stuff. Like, you're ready? He's like, let's do an interview. And, you know, let's, let's talk about it. And so when I interviewed with him, you know, I showed up with all of these models and he was just blown away, you know, and it was like, okay, yeah, you're ready, let's, let's do this thing. And so that's when I got my, my first internship, and that was amazing.

Speaker 1: 17:54

You must have blew them away when show who shows up with their own models.

Speaker 2: 17:59

That's why that was a fun one. That was kind of crazy to be like oh yeah, this. So this is one that I did, and from this I learned what I need to do. So then, you know, I threw a face pattern on it, but since I can't mill anything, this was the pattern I came up with that kind of stuff, and it was just he loved it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:15

And how long was that internship?

Speaker 2: 18:18

That one was for a full summer, so like three months yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:22

What were some of the biggest takeaways or biggest point you think you walked away from that experience?

Speaker 2: 18:30

for me it was like learning how the industry works because, like I've seen it from every step as being a player, I've seen it from you know, being a fitter from trying to sell clubs. Like I've seen it Everywhere except from where the ideas come from. So to see how they go about, you know, making clubs that work for their customer and how they try and be innovative was amazing because it's like a completely different way of thinking about it. There's so much that goes into making a club before it even hits the market that I wouldn't have even Realized was a thing, and so it was just awesome to learn from them and they were so helpful and everyone there was like, yeah, if you, if you want to spend a day with us, spend a day with us. So, like you know, I spent days with the manufacturing people and I spent days with the materials people just because they were happy that someone wanted to learn. So it was really nice to like learn all of that and there's so much in so many people Working behind the scenes just to get you know you would hate a good drive or for you to make a pot, like it's insane.

Speaker 1: 19:35

That is nuts what I think I there's so many directions I want to go right now. No, you can oh, you mentioned the Callaway person being a mentor. That's been Like come up in in conversations. It's because become like a theme and in certain and a lot of conversations that I've been having with people here on the On the show as well as Justin conversations, can you go into that a little bit? So like when you what does, I should say what does a mentor mean to you when you say he, it was, he, she, them, they?

Speaker 2: 20:11

who yeah you?

Speaker 1: 20:15

It was one of those. I wasn't sure if you said, if you said like a name, yet or what, what was that? What was that mentorship like? So how did that relationship start? And how did that? And you say, because that started back when you first got into school, right, so you were 19 years old or college.

Speaker 2: 20:33

Yeah, I was like 18 and so I, you know, I knew, because I was like, okay, I want to design golf clubs, right, like this is, yeah, kind of what I want to do, but I need to learn how to do it and I need to know, like, what to do to do it. So I called every rep that I knew and was like, hey, do you like, do you know anyone who does this and can you put me in contact with them? Because this is what I want to do and I have some questions. And no one did. I. I reached out to every company, every rep that we had. No one did. I even reached out to like other stores in my chain of stores like, hey, do you guys have any industry contacts in this? And no one, no one did. And so I kind of shot in the dark. I shot DM to. I followed Anthony I'll plug him on on Instagram and he does the wedge designs for Callaway, does the really cool wedge artwork. His stuff is amazing and I had been following him for a long time and so I shot him a DM and I was like, hey, like I know, this is a long shot, I you know. I want to be in yeah, literally, I want to work in club design. I was like, do you know anyone who does this? Because I'd love to ask them a couple questions, as I'm, you know, getting ready for college. And he's the one who got back to me and he's like, yeah, he's like, I played golf with the head of putters, you know, every week. He's like, let me, let me shoot you his contact info. He's like I'll make the connection and from there on out, it was, you know, he. They were my go-to people. Anytime I need anything, you know, I would call up and you know he acted as my mentor. He told me, you know, what classes would be good to take, what major would be good to get into. Like, I'm Like mechanical engineering is the main part of it, for a lot of the club engineers you'll meet are mechanical engineers. But I really wanted to learn, since, you know, I'm working my own company now, I was like I need to learn how to manufacture. I want to understand what I'm talking to manufacturers, exactly what I'm saying. So I ended up, you know, dual program, mechanical manufacturing, a, and I'm has like a combined program. So that's, that's what I'm majoring in now. And he, you know he acted for me as a mentor anytime I had questions about design stuff or questions about you know industry stuff or you know interview that kind of thing. He was my go to guy and he's always been super helpful.

Speaker 1: 22:55

So I love that and that's another common theme and thread that I love about the industry is it's such an open and welcoming industry. The people in it, if you really have a passion for it, like they're willing to, you know help and step out and help as many people as they can.

Speaker 2: 23:15

So, oh, that's just so cool to hear.

Speaker 1: 23:17

I love that. So where can people find you? Because you said you have some new. You know the clubs might be coming out soon. Yes, so it's you said so. I'll put all the links in the show notes. But you are at Club Girl Kate on TikTok or is that?

Speaker 2: 23:34

Yeah, at Club Girl Katie on TikTok and Instagram Both of them.

Speaker 1: 23:36

So.

Speaker 2: 23:37

I've got TikTok and Instagram going at Club Girl Katie and then my company is at Club Girl Golf TikTok, instagram, same one. So you can also find me on YouTube. I'm just starting YouTube. It's it's in a work in progress, but I've also got a. Youtube channel Say Matt yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:53

Got you Anything else you want to plug?

Speaker 2: 23:57

Um, just to stay tuned for the next couple weeks. I'm going to the PGA show this weekend, which will be fun, so if anyone's gonna be at the PGA show, you can say hi, Um. But yeah, there's a lot of really fun stuff coming with the company soon and we've got a lot of fun product testing. So if anyone wants to be a product tester, please feel free to reach out or, like you know, if anyone needs help with anything golf industry related, I'm also happy to help. I know I've. I've got a lot of people help me in my career and I'm so grateful for it and would be happy to do it for anyone else also.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Thank you so much no thank you, katie. Thank you so so so much for coming on. Hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did Like I'm. I'm super excited to see what she accomplishes what she does and just to watch her career, not just over this next year but over just many years to come. It's going to be so cool to see what she accomplishes, more than she already has, if you don't follow her all already at Club Girl Katie on TikTok, instagram, also her golf company, club Girl Golf Katie. Thanks again, hope you all enjoyed that. Appreciate all of you listeners. Thank you all so much. As always, any support is always appreciated. A like, share, subscribe. Nothing in means the world. I'm your host, denny Corby. Until next time, catch y'all on the flippity flip.