PORTLAND, Ore. — There is no bigger stage in golf than the Masters Tournament, and thanks to that spotlight, a local company is receiving more attention after legend Jack Nicklaus displayed its handiwork on Sunday.
The six-time Masters winner was out at this year’s tournament with a gift he got from his grandson — a gift that was made right here in Portland.
“Last summer, we got a call from an ID on my phone that said S. Nicklaus and I wondered if there’s some affiliation with the family and it ended up being his grandson, Stevie,” said Matt Smith, co-founder of Flag Bag Golf Company, which he founded with his brother Josh in 2019. The two brothers grew up in Portland, and their company takes golf flags from customers or golf shops and turns them into carry bags.
Nicklaus's grandson wanted to find something special for his grandfather, so he reached out to Smith.
“The process worked so that he wanted to use major championship flags from major tournaments that were Jack’s favorite, so his grandson asked Jack some of his favorite Majors,” recalled Smith.
Once they received the order, they worked quickly to make Jack Nicklaus a bag, one that was on full display at the Masters.
The Smith brothers reached out to their old friends at MacDonald Leathergoods to see if they could help them with the manufacturing process.
“Everything is cut here; everything is stitched here or in the area,” said Todd Rohrer, one of MacDonald Leathergoods' founders.
He still can’t believe the success they’ve been seeing and hopes the success they see in the Portland area will continue to show at big tournaments.
And so far, people have been talking about them all over the place, from golf magazines to social media. Smith said they had more than a million views on Twitter and a few hundred thousand views on Instagram.
“It’s kind of surreal. Our world has kind of blown up in the last few days," Smith said. "I think the biggest thing was five years ago, this was just an idea, and we came together to try to make this work.”