Killer Clubs

He’s got a killer desire to succeed.

In 2013, at the ripe young age of 28, Shamik Patel‘s love of golf led him to do what most people would never do: Trade in a cushy engineering career in the semiconductor industry, along with a six-figure salary, to work for $10 an hour as a bagboy on the golf course.

“Only the absolute crazy ones would give up the type of job I had to carry golf bags for $10 hourly,” Patel said with a laugh.

And what he learned was worth the tradeoff.

Today, as the founder and CEO of Boise-based Killer Golf, Patel is the driving force behind the operation aiming to change the golf world with its revolutionary modular putter platform system in which the blade adapts to the golfer.

Launched August 2025, the Artifact line offers two models, the Wing and the Blade, while the Modulators, anchors and equilibrium components, allow players to fully adjust the club’s weight, shape and alignment in multiple configurations on any day for any round on the greens before beginning play.

Plus, by relying on both local labor and suppliers, Killer Golf exemplifies “Made in the USA.” Each club is designed, machined, assembled and finished entirely in Idaho.

According to Patel, reviews of the new club have been mostly positive, though there have been a few bogeys, with some negative feedback regarding the club’s aesthetics. “But our response,” he said, “is that if it works and will help people sink more putts, than the aesthetics become a secondary priority.”

Some might call it substance over style.

“At the end of the day, substance should matter, but I do understand that golf is a very aesthetically driven industry from the clothes you wear to the irons you look at,” Patel said. “There is definitely a lot of aesthetic appeal that goes with golf.”

Traditionally, putters have been built around what is known as the “Anser-style,” a heel-toe weighted design created by Karsten Solheim for Ping in 1966. The concept is considered the most copied putter design in golf history.

“True, but the core function is that putters deserve to be as modular as any other club in the bag,” he said.

Patel’s killer instincts to produce a new product for a game he remains over-the-top passionate about have led him to assemble a team to help bypass some of the patents or “roadblocks” he considers attached to traditional putters.

“We have figured out a way around it. In our case, we are a category-defining putter,” he said. “What we are doing is using modularity to impact three to four different parameters of putting: Gravity, inertia, balance and weight. We’re saying we can bring players the same performance without having to change the shaft.”

As director of product for the company, former collegiate golfer and Idaho native Philip Kennedy has played a vital role in the club’s design and development, classifying it nothing short of a “gamechanger” in terms of style and design.

“Most putters are designed to do one thing, so for the most part they are all like a one-trick pony,” Kennedy said. “Ours on the other hand, offer 25 or more configurations.”

And as most serious golfers know, fitting clubs goes hand-in-hand with each individual player.

“It’s a putter that can be configured differently each day or month according to the player, no matter whether the feel changes drastically or slightly,” he said.

“The equilibrium we offer is the fin-shaped looking part,” Patel said. “The beauty of the configuration is the rotation with seven different positions you can use to rotate the fin with three different heights.

“We’re bringing that aspect to each golfer and saying, ‘here is a tool that if you spend 30 minutes or so with, you can better understand how it works,’ and as long as you have this putter you will be able to fit yourself.”

While shaft length and grip size are common options industry-wide, Killer Golf offers four weights to choose from, allowing that easy transition from blade to mallet.

“The location of the weight is the critical aspect,” Patel said. “Current products put weights on the heel and the toe. When you put weights on the side or back of your putter, you will produce a more forgiving putter.”

From both a marketing perspective and a playing option, it’s a win-win for Victoria Cardwell, who manages the company’s e-commerce operations.

“I think a lot of people are shocked and surprised, but in a good way, when they get the product in their hands,” Cardwell said. “It’s the kind of product that people need to feel to understand. That is what we are trying to push right now.”

And Patel possesses the kind of championship drive that makes him unafraid to push.

Describing himself as a “visionary and idea guy,” Patel felt the time had arrived for players worldwide to reach into their bag for a different type of putter to help enhance their game.

“We are bringing a modular putter to the market but there is not just one way to do this,” he said. “There are hundreds of ways. This is the first way, but it doesn’t mean it’s the only way and the last way to do it.”

Unconventional, maybe, but the label might also describe Patel’s journey to Boise and his path leading to developing golf products.

Including his bagging days, his career scorecard is highlighted by impressive precision engineering positions involving semiconductors and R&D, including posts with Micron in Boise and Samsung in South Korea.

The proud son of an industrial designer, he eventually purchased his own CNC machine shop in Anaheim, California. Driven by a wealth of ideas, and fully intent on building products for the game of golf, he dropped $300,000 of his hard-earned money into the hole to relocate the outfit, and to be near family in Boise in 2020.

But before officially teeing off, there was also the challenge of naming the company.

The result was a blending of his wife’s maiden name, Killa, interpreted and changed phonetically to Killer by a Canadian immigration official when her grandfather emigrated from Fiji to Canada, and compounded by motivational Nike advertisements branding the killer-style of competitiveness Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods each displayed at the height of their careers.

“The word killer obviously has many different meanings,” he said. “But growing up I had always been a huge fan of Michael and Tiger with Nike a big part of my upbringing. Their branding has always resonated with me.

“The word killer embodies a lot of this branding. A lot of people told us we can’t use the word because it’s too aggressive and that opening the brand in Korea would not work.”

Having already chipped 50 to 60 other potential names into the bunker, Patel said Killer, now the middle name of each of his children, was exactly what he was swinging for.

“There were some trademark challenges, but I don’t care. This name resonates with what I want to bring to the market. It stuck and this is what we are doing.”

And for a golf junkie such as Kennedy, who prefers “building clubs rather than selling” them,” the size of the local golf market has significantly helped him in his key role. “The equipment space for golf is not considered a big one in Boise. But it certainly gives me more opportunities to be on the engineering and development side of things.”

Including teaming with LPGA standout Mi Hyang Lee, who is now endorsing and using the Killer Golf product on tour. Kennedy, the “backbone of product development” as Patel calls him, has visited Lee numerous times to help her test a variety of putter models at her home course in Dallas.

“She is now using a putter that he hand-carved,” Patel said. “He has literally taken it through the grinding wheel multiple times for what she wants.”

Not a bad round for a guy who was rejected for numerous Killer Golf job openings before finally landing squarely on the green in the company’s development department.

“Being able to create something for what we might call ‘super-picky players’ is so satisfying from a development perspective,” Kennedy said.

Likewise, Patel knows the branding value of a player with Lee’s talents using his product.

“For someone of her caliber to ditch her putter and go with ours is the absolute highest level of credibility we can achieve,” he said. “For a brand like ours to nab the best putter on tour, we’re ecstatic that she chose us and our product.”

Excitement that extends to his decision to base Killer Golf in southern Idaho. “Boise is the place with the people and the resources to do this. And I most certainly want this city to be on the map when it comes to golf,” Patel said.