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Dave Musty displays the six basic head designs he uses for his company's custom putters made of wood.
Dave Musty displays the six basic head designs he uses for his company’s custom putters made of wood.

If your putter is smoking one day – literally smoking – there’s a chance you have one of David Musty’s custom flat sticks. Among his many putters with their exotic wood heads, Musty designed one with a hollowed-out bowl that’s the right size for a toke on your favorite leafy product.

The peace pipe of putters, if you will, is also a perfect product for Musty, a craftsman, artist, scientist (mad?) and inveterate storyteller rolled into one.

From his workshop in an industrial park in Signal Hill indicated only by a faded sign in the shrubbery, Musty crafts about 8,000 putters a year, a number that has grown each year since David Musty Putters opened its doors in 1996. And whether it’s a walk-in customer, like Lori Davies, who came in on a recent Saturday morning, a Fortune 500 company or one of a growing list of celebrity clients, each is treated to Musty’s unique brand of customer service and craftsmanship.

Davies, who drove up from Santa Margarita to order a putter, found herself not only being fitted for a club but receiving a free putting lesson as well, complete with a sampling of Musty’s free-flowing monologue and opinions on everything from current events to social and political issues.

Musty’s putters come in six basic styles and are fashioned from 11 woods ranging from domestic maple to exotic imported ebony or snakewood. The woods, often alternately inlaid between light and dark to help users line up putts, can be crafted into almost any imaginable shape and wood combination.

There is also a virtual limitless supply of laser engravings one can add to personalize the putter, ranging from sports or company logos to personalized designs or a person’s name.

Pebble Beach Golf Links has become one of Musty’s larger clients, with the company ordering several putters made from a Monterey Pine from the course’s 18th fairway that had to be removed because of disease. Musty said he is also negotiating with Augusta National, which is trying to decide what to do with the famed Eisenhower Tree that had to be removed after it suffered storm damage.

Musty’s celebrity client list ranges from Bill Murray to Teri Hatcher and dozens more, and he also contracts with several tournaments and Fortune 500 companies. Prices for most putters range from $250 to $750 and can go up depending on the specialization of requests.

When asked whom his putters are for, Musty says, “Anyone who wants to compete with distinction and pride.”

For all the work put into creating the unique clubs that invariably attract attention, Musty says his creations are more than a pretty face. At the end of the day a putter that doesn’t put the ball in the hole isn’t worth much, in his estimation.

That’s why the admitted tinkerer, for whom “nothing was ever good enough,” has spent years refining his putters to give them the right weighting system, balance and sweet spot to ensure true rolls and controlled distances.

Musty has a patented “inertia-based weighting system” in which holes are drilled and weights are placed in the putter heads. The result, he says, is a raised center of gravity to “transfer energy to the equator of the ball, creating the consistent forward roll that is crucial for made putts.”

The wooden beater bar and aiming system provide a soft striking surface and larger sweet spot, he says, “and the more people win tournaments with these putters the more people want them.”

For all his immersion in the game, Musty, 60, wasn’t always a golf guy and only got into it when he gave up on baseball. But even then the successful builder of custom homes, furniture and spiral staircases didn’t think of making a profession of it. 

As Musty tells the story, he was fiddling with a steel putter one day when his wife, Jeanne, asked, “Does it have to be steel?”

It was a Eureka moment for the builder who had no shortage of wood for experimentation. He also started to visit exotic wood stores and fell in love with the look and feel of certain grains. After developing his floating weight system that corrected the problem of balls being hit too high or low on the face, Musty applied for a patent in 1993. One day while in Bishop, Calif., he and a friend decided to play a round of golf. When the man in the pro shop refused to rent him a putter for the round, Musty took his prototype on the course.

“I opened with eight consecutive one-putts,” Musty claims. “It was the first time I had ever done that.”

A player paired with Musty and his friend ordered a putter on the spot, and Musty was suddenly in the putter-making business. For several years he treated it as a hobby as his patent was pending. Then he received a corporate order for 280 putters and it became a full-time venture.

As for the smoking putter, it’s classic Musty. As the story goes, Musty’s grandfather enjoyed golf almost as much as a good smoke. But after suffering a stroke he found himself in the habit of dropping and losing pipes during the course of a round. At the suggestion of his brother, Musty bored a hole in Grandpa’s putter and the smoker was born. Musty has since improved the design but has the prototype in his office among his mementos.

Musty, who employs 10 full-time workers, spends a lot of his time traveling to trade shows, tournaments and charity functions where he golfs and hobnobs with celebrities and corporate bigwigs. It’s a lifestyle that seems to suit him.

As he shows a guest around the shop he stops at a picture of one of the houses he built.

“I want to say,” he said, “this is a lot more fun than busting my ass and breaking my back making those houses.”