EDINA, Minnesota — Some of the world's top golfers teed off at the Paris Olympics on Thursday for Round 1 of the men's golf tournament.
To get to this point takes a lot of training and a Minnesota company is offering its own tools to help golfers reach their full potential. In fact, even Olympians have used their products.
"We didn't expect it to pick up the way it did but it just went crazy in the first year," said Luke Benoit, director of instruction at Interlachen Country Club and president and founder of RYP Golf.
RYP (Reach Your Potential) Golf was a pandemic project. As a golf coach, Benoit observed how "speed is always something that every good player needs. Reading up on the science of speed, I thought, 'Hey, let's take this opportunity to create something super cool to help kids and adults hit it farther.'"
To help with speed training, Benoit created the Rypstick which comes with three 30 gram weights that can be taken on and off.
"There's an existing product out there that had three sticks and we turned it into one stick. And you can change the weights on our product really, really quickly," Benoit said.
RYP Golf took off as golfers were stuck at home during the pandemic.
"We started to get out to some PGA Tour players and some of them loved it. Like Phil Mickelson uses it, swings it all the time," Benoit said.
As the company gained attention, Benoit brought on his childhood friend, Scott McDonald, to join the team.
Benoit first taught McDonald how to play golf in middle school while the pair was growing up in Faribault.
"I'm a teacher by trade... and then Scott's more a head pro by trade. So we have a really good matchup in that I like to do the creative side and he likes to finish my messes and... make it all work," Benoit said.
Both Benoit and McDonald are PGA members. McDonald now serves as the CEO and director of speed for RYP Golf.
"Almost every year since we've started, we've kind of doubled what our business is," McDonald said.
"If you want to win a PGA Tour event... if you're a short hitter, it's really hard to do. Now average golfers are realizing one of the fastest ways to lower scores is to hit the ball farther. So we're at the forefront of really what golf is going to be," Benoit said.
A golf ball rollback starts in 2028 that Benoit said, "Means that our product is even more important because the golf course will get essentially bigger because the ball goes shorter, the fairways get wider and you need even more distance to compete. So the way the game is going, distance is going to be even more the king."
But the company doesn't just focus on speed training.
"We started out as kind of a speed company and now we're more of a golf product company," McDonald said.
In May, RYP Golf launched the ButterBlade. The product looks like a normal iron but is actually smaller. The ButterBlade is used to help train golfers to hit the ball square in the center of the clubface for more precise shots.
Other products include the RypRadar, Rypboard and foam golf balls for practice.
RYP Golf can be found across the world and in more than 300 U.S. golf shops. Products are also sold online. They also have a training facility called Ryp Academy in Bloomington.