Rory Mcilroy marking his ball with one of his handmade markers.
PGA Tour
Everyone seemed to have a hobby during the Covid years: knitting, painting, pellation twice a day.
Jon Milman invested in Anvils, Stamps and Scrap, and learned himself how to do golf. Milman, a financial planner and self-described golf jungle by PlainView, NY, in Long Island, had no previous experience of metal works, but the more he blocked, the better he got. His signs of the early edition-many adorned with soft tongue-were a hit among Millman’s golf friends in his local hanging, Bethpage State ParkSo he started selling them online.
A lot of time, Beme richThe 2002 PGA winner who now comments on Sky Sports in the UK, revealed Milman’s new business. Bemer was such a fan of markers, he began to distribute them to his TV players and analysts at the Tour World DP. In the PGA 2021 championship in Kiawah IslandBeem borrowed his lucky marker against Tommy Fleetwood, who needed an incentive after a 75 opening. The next day, Fleetwood shot 63, and the Beem borrower became a keeper. (Golfists are prejudiced like him.) The word of craft markers spread, and soon Millman found himself personalizing small laminate copper discs for home work for a great list of players involving the lead winner Rory Mcilroy.
Beem was the Millman’s main promoter and distributor (an Appleseed Johnny of species), but often Millman could not be sure if his markers actually settled in the pockets of the players. Such was the case with Mcilroy, who Milman sent markers by friend and childhood friend of Mcilroy, Harry Diamondwith whom Milman was linked to social media. Among the first markers Milman sent Diamond were models stamped with “Manchester United” (a fan of Mcilroy) and “Poppy” (Mcilroy’s daughter’s name).
“He didn’t use them for at least one year-plus,” Milman, who is 51, told me by phone on Tuesday morning. “And then, from nowhere, my phone is blowing. They’re like,” boy, Rory is using a marker. “”
This was in March 2023, during the week of Dell Technologies Match in Austin. When Telekasti cut off in a close mcilroy blow by approximating his ball, Millman’s friends noticed the poppy marker. Since then, Milman said, “I just send Harry Markers whenever I feel like her.” With a caveat: Diamond and Milman agreed that Milman should send tournaments on a tour only if Mcilroy has already won that event. (There is again that superstition thing.)
Justin Leonard uses Millman’s markers. Likewise it does Anthony kim in the liv tour. Beem, Milman said, even received some custom markers in the hands of Tiger and Charlie Woods, including a copper copy of a quarter (Tiger’s choice). At the Shriners event in Las Vegas a couple of years ago, Paul Tesori, who is Tom Kim’s Caddy, managed to find out that he would have forgotten to arm his boss’s bag with markers. Tesor sent a frantic message to Milman, who joined to FedEx.
Also among Milman’s rules is Darren Clarke, who enjoys donating notes of hit Tour Pars stamped with rating R. Clarke, Milman has submitted samples of Millman Jack Nicklaus markers and even President Trump. “Darren literally is like,” Jon, I want you to make one that says 45/47 on the one hand, and dt on the other, “said Millman. So, I did it, like seven, and he is like, ‘He loved Him’. “
Milman does not charge the benefits for his services (he sells markers on his site – copper models are $ 49/each – and estimates that he produces about 200 per month). “Whenever they say, how much? I’m like, it’s zero. I don’t want money. I’ll get a book in the yards. I’ll get an old wedge.” Most often, Milman said, the good will send him a signed flag.
When Mcilroy won masters In April, providing Grand Slam career, Milman’s markers were together for travel. One of them was sealed with a beloved citation by Poppy: “You already know how to play Golf”, which Rory explained later was what Poppy told him one day when she learned that he was working with a golf instructor.
After Rory made history, Milman was largely ready to commemorate the moment. He had already ordered stamps describing the sketches of each of the main trophies and had experimented with models. Still, when Diamond put it on Wednesday evening in Zurich Classic – it was about 10 days after Sunday masters – and said Mcilroy was looking for Grand Slam markers for his Thursday with Shane Lowry, Milman had to be mobilized quickly. “To me, sending Rory emergency markers because he really wanted one – now we are closed,” Milman said.
The gesture did not be lost in Mcilroy. Last week, Milman received a message on Instagram from Diamond. Mcilroy was aiming to send Milman a signed flag of masters, and Diamond wanted to know if Milman wanted a specific message in it.
“I’m like, holy cow,” Milman recalled. “So now I’m composing – it takes me as three minutes to understand. He turns to me, and he is, like,” You have 10 seconds, dad. I am like, ‘ok, ok. And with that, he is like,’ Ok very late ‘. He couldn’t wait anymore. “
Jon, thanks for all the ball markers over the years!
One or two days later, the flag arrived at Millman’s house, in a package from Rory Mcilroy Inc.
Milman has retained his growing collection of flags signed in his workshop in the backyard. But now that a Mcilroy memeno has joined in the mix, Milman has reviewed where to display them.
“Someone gets this, I would be fascinated,” he said. “I’m thinking of moving them home. They worth a lot to me. They aren’t worth a lot for someone else but they are for me.”
Basic alan
Golfit.com editor
As Golf.com executive editor, Bastable is responsible for running the editorial and voice of one of the most respected and trafficked places of the game and many trafficked games. He wears many hats – editing, writing, designing, developing, dreaming of a day breaking 80 – and feels privileged to work with such a talented group and workers of writers, editors and manufacturers. Before catching the reins on Golf.com, he was the editor of the features in the Golf magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia Journalism School, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and four times children.
;)
;)
