Jake Medlen started building his own clubs 25 years ago as a college competitor. After giving up elite golf and working in the corporate world for 17 years, he went all in on doing what he loves most. Under the name Stripe Show Club Fitters, Medlen Frankensteins clubs using high-tech analytics, a good grasp on physics, and gear-tweaking tools to help golfers hit longer and straighter. But you can’t buy your game, he says.
You went to the PGA show in January. Is there a particular club that caught your eye? I’m truly agnostic. For my own personal golf bag, I test everything that goes into it, and whatever numbers are the best and whatever helps me achieve my goals is what goes in my golf bag. I have five different brands of clubs in there. It’s all about performance. So I approach every single person that walks in that way.
I hear you’ve had quite a few Dallas National members in your warehouse. Word got out amongst a few members, and it just spread like wildfire. So I have like 20 to 30 guys from over there. I have probably 15 to 25 Brook Hollow customers, several Dallas Athletic Club, a couple of Northwood. And then just the general public have seen me on YouTube. [YouTubers Micah Morris, who has almost 500,000 subscribers, and Thomas “Bubbie” Broders with around 250,000, have both used Stripe Show’s services.]
So your customer is pretty serious about performance. Listen, I’m a straight shooter. The reality is I have about 20 percent of the customers that come in think they can buy their game, and that’s just not going to happen. Period. So we can put the right tools in the golfers’ hands to put them in the best position to perform. But if they’re not doing anything to get better, and they’re just going out and playing and expecting Jake from Stripe Show to give them a magic bullet, I tell them, straight up, there is no magic bullet. You have to practice. That’s how you get better at golf.
A full bag fitting takes two hours and runs $300 (not including the equipment you purchase). Want to start small? Medlen suggests building your golf bag around your iron set. Iron fittings cost $150 for 1.5 hours. 7411 Hines Place, Ste. 209. 214-454-4749
The Swing Coach Who Charges $1,000 Per Hour
Tiger Woods sought out Dallas-based trainer Chris Como in 2014 for a specific reason. The golf great was suffering from back injuries, and Como’s approach is rooted in biomechanics, helping each golfer adjust movement types and patterns. Como, now ranked as the nation’s No. 2 instructor per Golf Digest, went on to train Bryson DeChambeau and recently helped Jason Day shoot back to the top of the leader board.
This story originally appeared in the April issue of D Magazine. Write to [email protected].
