Product Reviews

Jesse Ortiz a Winner with

Bobby Jones Hybrids

 

 

By BRUCE  VITTNER

It’s strange how you fill your golf bag with clubs and balls. Is it the advertising? Maybe it was a demo that you tried. Could it be what your buddies hit real well? Maybe it was a perceived good deal or sale. Could it be your favorite professional’s clubs that you saw on television?

In this reporter’s case, two of the favorite clubs in my bag are the result of playing with a guy from northern New Jersey in the World Amateur Tournament in Myrtle Beach and meeting Jesse Ortiz the next night. “I love this

Hybrid designer Jesse Ortiz        club,” said my playing partner from New

                                                        Jersey as I watched him hit long, high, straight shots with a hybrid club. “What is it?” I asked. “It’s called the Bobby Jones H13 and I bought it after watching an infomercial last month,” he answered.

I had seen the infomercial on The Golf Channel and was aware of the name, but had not given it serious consideration. Golf Digest had rated the hybrids as top performers in 2006 and 2007. I started thinking more and more about it as my partner kept lacing great shots and smiling. Bobby Jones, hey. Hadn’t he been dead for over 50 years? They didn’t have hybrids then.

One of the best features of the World Amateur is the fantastic 19th hole that has a great many manufacturers displaying their wares as well as the great food, drink and entertainment. I noticed that one of the manufacturer’s booths was Bobby Jones. I went over to demo a club, but there were no left-handed ones available. The rep told me that they would have one the next night and that Jesse Ortiz would be here to talk to the audience and be at the booth.

My reporter’s instincts took over, and the next night I used my press pass to enter the area before it opened with the hope of finding Jesse Ortiz for a short interview. Luckily he was there, and I showed him a copy of Ocean State Golf and asked if I could get a few comments from him for a story.

“Isn’t the Ocean State the nickname for Rhode Island?” he asked. I told him yes, and he told me that his son was going to Salve Regina University in Newport and he loved the area. Not a bad connection for starting the interview!

I told him about the fellow from New Jersey who loved his new hybrid. He smiled and said, “We are so proud of the clubs. We’ve gotten great reviews by most major golf publications and sales are going well.”

Ortiz told about the concept of his design. “We use a hardened steel alloy and make the center of gravity lower to allow for higher shots. These clubs are much easier to hit than low irons and have shorter shafts than fairway woods for accuracy and control,” he said.

I told him of how straight the guy from New Jersey hit the hybrids, although most of his other shots were errant. “The clubface is cupped slightly to allow for off-center hits to go straighter than most other clubs,” he added.

Ortiz, 54, has been in the club-making business for over 40 years. His father, Luis, started a club manufacturing business in 1960 in California. “I’ve always been around golf clubs, and I love designing them,” he added.

In the 1990’s the Ortiz’s made the Orlimar TriMetal club that was a huge success. Jesse Ortiz was the designer who bonded three metals together to make the Orlimar driver and fairway woods and the sales skyrocketed after running infomercials. Distribution and production difficulties caused severe problems, and Ortiz sold the company in the early 2000’s.

In 2003 he joined with CEO Walter Rosenthal in a company that had acquired the rights to Bobby Jones Golf, a subsidiary of Bobby Jones Golf Apparel that was started in 1989 by heirs of Bobby Jones, Jr. They were looking for a golf designer who had an excellent reputation and Jesse Ortiz was the man for the job.

“We’ll never be able to compete evenly against the giants of the golf manufacturing industry, but I think we can carve out an excellent niche with our clubs,” said the passionate Ortiz. The company paid $300,000 for production of the infomercial and has started a grassroots distribution process. Most of their sales are still done by direct order from their infomercial and website. “I want golfers to think of hybrids as a replacement system for their long irons just as most golfers have a set of wedges. It is so much easier to hit hybrids than long irons,” he added.

Bobby Jones by Jesse Ortiz hybrids come in four sizes for right-handers to replace the 2-5-irons and two sizes for lefties (3 and 4-iron). When he found out that I was a lefty, he said, “Send me an email and I’ll send you the two of them to try out.”

It took me a month to send the email, but once I did, he replied that he was heading to China for business and would have someone take care of it. The clubs came in three days and I’ve played with them twice as of this writing. Now I know why that golfer from New Jersey was smiling. I’m hitting both of them straight and high and can’t wait for Ortiz to start making the other two in left-handed so that I can get rid of all my long irons. The rounded sole design makes it very easy to hit balls from the rough and sand and even on hardpan.

You can contact the company at www.bobbyjonesgolf.net or 866-858-5522 and Ortiz even has a blog at www.JesseOrtizDesignStudio.com.