About
An insight into Bertie Boucher.
How did it all start?
It began with a friend's putter. He'd had an old one refurbished, and seeing it brought back to life set something off — with an engineering background and a workshop within reach, why not do the same to my own?
That first project took a stainless steel head and turned it completely black, with new text, the dings knocked out and the scratches worked away until it looked better than the day it left the factory.
The before-and-after photos went up on Instagram, and the messages started arriving. People wanted their own putters given the same treatment. It quickly became clear there was an appetite for something more permanent: a company making brand-new putters that golfers could specify themselves, start to finish, through an online configurator.
Why called Bertie Boucher?
While the business was still just an idea, my partner and I were expecting our first child. We decided not to find out the sex beforehand, so we settled on two names — and “Bertie” was the one we'd chosen for a boy.
We had a daughter. The name never got used, so it went above the door instead — and Bertie Boucher has been on every putter since.
Background information
Before any of this, there were more than ten years in aerospace engineering and metal treatment. It started with training in NDT — non-destructive testing — learning to find what the eye can't see in a finished component.
From there came time on manual milling machines during a combined business and engineering apprenticeship, then a move into the production office, progressing parts through every stage of manufacture and understanding exactly what it takes to get a component out of the door to spec.
Later came management, and with it KANBAN and a range of other process methodologies. Those same principles — tolerance, traceability, flow — are what keep this workshop running today.
About Tom
- Golf Club
- Parkstone Golf Club
- Handicap
- 3
- Years Playing
- 20+