The Back Nine: Buckle up!

Tinley Park-based Bettinardi, long known for its fine putters - has ventured into golf fashion by making belt buckles.

Owner Robert Bettinardi kind of fell into that business, and in the last six months the pieces have become his hottest seller.

"I decided to start making them for the country clubs - the Medinah's, the Butler's, the Rich Harvest Farm's," Bettinardi said. "So that was very unique because now I'm customizing all the belt buckles. There are probably 20 million golfers in the United States, say 15 million of them are men, but there are 50 million men in American and there are probably 50 million of that wear belts. So you're talking about a bigger demographic, a bigger base."

The buckles are custom made on the Bettinardi C&C Milling machines in their Tinley building, and can be hand painted to match any color scheme.

"Everybody wants silver, but silver is very expensive," he said. "Stainless steel is beautiful because it doesn't rust. You can do all kinds of stuff (to it)."

The buckles (& leather belt) retail at $175 each, but if you're into fashion and having something no one else in the world will own - it's worth picking one up.

"Our motif is 'you want something that's really nice? You want something that's going to really last a long time? You want something that's guaranteed to last a lifetime?' Go get yourself a Bettinardi - whether it's a belt buckle, a putter, a headcover - whatever it is," Bettinardi said. "Bettinardi is really high quality stuff. That's what we're all about. That's what I'm proud of. "

Winfield native & Wheaton Warrenville South alumnus Kevin Streelman is the first player to endorse the buckles. A second year PGA Tour pro, Streelman has about 15 buckles that he wears.

"It's been fun yo be able to have my own input on a couple buckles and they've done some custom things for me," he said. "I've gotten asked by a lot of people 'where'd you get this?'"

Streelman has taken advantage of Bettinardi's ability to customize the buckles, wearing different buckles for different tour stops.

"They did a killer whale like Shamu for San Diego, they did a really cool desert scene for the FBR in Phoenix," Streelman said. "They did 'Bettinardi' in like the Hollywood-sign (design) for Riviera. (My wife) Courtney and I will brainstorm and say 'hey, why don't you try this for this week?' He's been really responsive and able to do a lot of the custom stuff."