Dean Klatt is driving success for Seed Golf from his base in Ireland.
AS the son of a club pro in Queensland, a career in the golf industry always appeared to be in Dean Klatt’s future.
However, that said, it’s the journey he’s taken, and where he is now, that makes Klatt’s story interesting and unique.
With Greg Norman and Wayne Grady friends of dad John, for 42 years at the Virginia Golf Club, Klatt had visions of a career in professional golf. When that didn’t eventuate, he worked in wholesale, brand management, developing his own products, amongst them Retco and Redback, while marketing, distributing and selling products for companies such as Nicklaus, Cleveland, Bridgestone, Super Stroke putter grips and Sun Mountain golf bags.
Life would take a few twists and turns, circumstances saw Klatt move on from the above-mentioned products and their distribution, before heading to the northern hemisphere in 2009 with his Irish wife and three children.
After a period of six years living and working in Ireland, Klatt would then take on perhaps his most ambitious project of all, developing a golf ball to challenge the industry’s heaviest of hitters.
Seed Golf, with a home base in Ireland, is indeed taking on not only the most well-known golf ball brands, but also the way they are consumed by golfers the world over.
“I get asked a lot, ‘Why did you think you could take on the might of Titleist and all these billion-dollar companies’?” Klatt began.
“I grew up caddying for Dad on the Troppo Tour in the early ’80s, and guys like Baker-Finch and Peter Senior were establishing themselves as players around the same time. Getting to meet guys like that, who are very down-to-earth and normal guys, and seeing them go on to achieve amazing things as players was an interesting grounding.
“It’s that old saying… if you can see it, you can imagine it. That experience gave me the belief that the world is a small place and anything is possible, even from Australia.
“Norman and Grades were also junior members at Virginia and I remember them being around the house for BBQs and the like, so as a young kid, my thinking was well, if my Dad’s mates could do it, then I probably could too.
“The more experience and knowledge I gained on this side of the industry combined with that belief, led me to take on a challenge like this.”
Klatt and Seed Golf have certainly taken up the challenge and are managing to make a mark as an emerging player on the global golf ball market.
“The genesis of the idea was in 2015, then it took two years to develop and to put it all together,” Klatt recalled. “It wasn’t unusual for me to develop a golf brand. It almost seemed very natural for me to end up here. It’s what I’ve always done.”
Before Seed golf balls were even a thing, Klatt was working for OGIO golf bags and it was here when some valuable lessons were learnt.
“My role was to set up their Irish and UK wholesale distribution and online retail distribution throughout Europe. We quickly found we were selling more online than we were offline in pro shops and retail stores, and I found that interesting” he said.
“What we saw online was the consumer responding to more choice, and being very open to new products and brands and also comfortable buying through a new channel.
“I also had access to industry market data, which at the time was showing the number of rounds played increasing. When we dug into that data, we discovered the game was growing because more women were coming into the game, more beginners, more juniors and more millennials.
“If you marry those things together, along with changing buying patterns, changing demographics, younger people more open to buying stuff on line, then the potential is for a business to evolve in that space and the idea of a digital native, direct to consumer, golf brand was formed.”
While a great business strategy, Klatt and his partners had to work out what they were going to sell.
“In the northern hemisphere there is definitely a winter, so you needed a product that was going to sell all year round, not just in the summer,” Klatt reasoned.
“While they are very hardy souls and they play all year round, they aren’t going to buy hardware in winter, but they are going to buy golf balls. We needed a consumable product that we could build a business around.”
And the ‘seed’ was planted so to speak.
Klatt received support from a trade body, Enterprise Ireland, which funds and supports emerging businesses with global potential, a partnership which proved crucial in the development of Seed and the quality of balls they were able to design and produce.
“Ireland is a small country, only five million people, so for businesses to succeed you have to go abroad and sell internationally. They liked the idea (of Seed) and sent me to SETU, the South Eastern Technical University.
“When I got down there were all these resources I had access to, the department of aerospace design, chemical engineers, plastics engineers, aeronautics engineers, wind tunnels. I remember saying, ‘so I can use all this’?”
The question then arose, as positive as the testing was and as good as the ball may have been, how would they bring it to the attention of golfers world-wide.
“Enterprise Ireland drummed three things into us. Was the story believable, could this company from the midlands in Ireland develop a golf ball that played as well as the market leading products?” Klatt said.
“If it could, would they buy a brand they’ve never heard of? And thirdly, the most important thing for me, would they share that story?
“Once we started getting yes answers to those three questions, we knew we were on the right track.”
The first three years Seed wasn’t advertised at all, very different from the normal golf brands who spend a huge amount on marketing to make their products popular.
“We didn’t do any of that. We relied solely on organic, word of mouth, referral.”
The turning point may have come for Seed when a review by influencer Peter Finch compared their balls to the market leaders. His verdict? They more than held their own.
“I remember waking up the next morning, orders flying in, and saying to my wife, ‘We might just be okay’.”
The validation from a respected voice in the golf community cemented Seed’s reputation as a brand on the rise, with his endorsement carrying significant weight and introducing the ball to a vast audience.
Since then, Seed has grown exponentially, to where it today operates warehouses in Ireland, the UK, in the US in Texas, and now Brisbane, enhancing distribution efficiency and reducing shipping times for customers.
With the Seed balls available online and through the website, orders taken today will more than likely arrive on the doorstep, if not tomorrow, certainly the day after that.
As for the move to open a Brisbane warehouse, it was more than just business for Klatt, it was about reconnecting with his roots and sharing Seed’s vision with golfers back home.
“What’s been most rewarding is the feedback,” he said. “People appreciate the high performance without the high price. It feels good to be the ‘good guys’ in the industry,” Klatt said.
From social media buzz to word-of-mouth recommendations, the brand’s loyal following continues to grow. And with a business model committed to innovation, Seed Golf is proving that you don’t need to be a billion-dollar company to make a big impact.
“Sometimes, the best ideas come from just believing you can do it.”
Whether a seasoned player or a weekend warrior, Seed’s products promise to deliver exceptional performance with something of a personal touch, delivered by a man who has had skin in the game since a handful of Aussie legends made him believe international success was certainly possible.
For more on Seed Golf and the balls in their range, go to the website at www.seedgolf.com.au
An amateur standout, winning the NSW Amateur and Australian Medal in 1988, before going down in the final of the 1990 Australian Amateur Championship, Rob Willis turned professional in 1992, playing the Australasian and Asian Tours, with his highlight being his victory in the 1995 Dubai Creek Open and third placing at the European Tour's Dubai Dessert Classic. A former Editor of Golf Australia Magazine, Willis, who ventured away from golf for a period to be the media manager for the NRL's Cronulla Sharks, has been a contributor to PGA Australia's PGA Magazine for over a decade and for Inside Golf since its first edition back in 2005. 
