Today’s Forum Thread of the Day comes from Dr Rangelove who as a fan of club manufacturer Scratch Golf, wanted to know what had happened to the company. Our members filled Dr Rangelove in on the details that while Scratch Golf was no more, the owners Patrick Boyd and Jeff McCoy (with help from Don White) were back with their new golf business National Custom Works producing handmade irons and wedges for their diehard customers.

Scratch Golf founder Ari Techner, aka FairwayFred, popped into the thread to fill our members in on some of the details on what happened to Scratch Golf.

“I think the best way to tell the short version of the story is, it is VERY hard to compete with the big boys in the golf equipment industry.  I started Scratch with Jeff McCoy at 23 years old with a $10k investment in my garage, and we grew it to a multi-million dollar company that changed the way companies offer customization to their customers.” 

“We did a ton of things amazingly well but made a few mistakes along the way which as a small company without deep pockets you just can’t do.  In the end, the company was taken over by an investor who has done nothing with it that I know of.  I’m very proud of my work at Scratch and have very fond memories of all we did there.”

Our members have been reminiscing about the company’s clubs, as well as discussing the latest handmade irons and wedges on offer at National Custom Works. Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.

• mothon: “I remember not too long ago seeing scratch clubs in the bags of a ton of good players at the local courses, so I went out and bought two 8620 wedges which I still game to this day.   I don’t see Scratch clubs in any bags these days.”
• MtlJeff: “It’s crazy how time flies, and I have to remind myself that many new members might not remember Scratch Golf in their heyday. For those that don’t, Scratch was THE brand here for quite some time. They had 2-3 standard sets, but you could get the full tour experience and get a completely custom set for something like 2500$ (very reasonable). It was unfortunate becomes it seemed like the challenges started when the company was experiencing it’s most expansion and recognition, Hot list awards, LPGA and PGA staffers. I always wondered if that was the cause of the issues. Ari does not need to answer that I am just wondering aloud. I will say that some members were probably too hard on Scratch at the end (though backlash to popular niche brands is also common online) because at the end of the day I can’t imagine a company better-exemplifying everything that we are as a site. I wish Scratch was still around.”
• KMo23: “Scratch is back and better than ever! Those clubs were meant to be Uber premium and IMO not massed produced. Get your Don White custom grinds while he’s still doing them boys! Treat yourselves! Can’t wait to get mine! Had a set of DW blades back in scratch days and have been searching since!”

Entire Thread: “Whatever happened to Scratch Golf?”