Winter 2023
The $50 Mistake
Nebraska winter. Broke college students, restless, playing too much Rocket League. I bought one of those viral indoor chipping games off TikTok. Fifty bucks. Velcro balls and cardboard turf.
It felt nothing like golf. Loud, flimsy, and basically a dartboard with a backswing. I threw it in the closet after a week.
"If this is what chipping practice looks like, someone needs to fix it."
Spring 2023
So We Grabbed Flower Pots
The second the ground thawed, I flipped a blue flower pot upside down in the backyard and started chipping at it with a real wedge and a real ball. My roommate Eamon grabbed another pot from the other end of the yard.
Ten minutes in we were talking trash and realizing it felt more like actual golf than anything we'd tried before. Friday night we made a scoring system: one point to hit the pot, three for the beer on top, five if you knock it off. The whole block wanted in. Someone jokingly called it Chip Beer. The name stuck for a while.
We played it everywhere that spring and summer. Friends' farms, tailgates, parks, beach trips. If there was open grass, we were chipping at something.
2023–2025
Two Years of Everywhere
For two years it was our thing. We were the guys who showed up to every function with wedges and flower pots. Friends' farms, lake houses, tailgates, driveways. If there was space, we were chipping.
We never intended to build a product. And then July 2025 happened.
Lake McConaughy — July 2025
The Moment We Knew
"We set it up on a hill above the water. Golfers, non-golfers, kids, and parents cycled in and out for hours, calling next shots and arguing over lies."
When non-golfers are still playing at sunset on a lake day, it's not a gimmick. It's a game.
We drove home and started taking it seriously. That week we formed an LLC, filed for provisional patent protection, and started sketching the build.
The Build
17+ Prototypes Later
We knew one thing going in: triangles don't lie. Simple, stable, and geometrically honest. We started cutting panels out of foam board, then polyurethane, then birch plywood. We tried every hinge in the Menards aisle. We dipped rubber, broke hinges, and started over.
Somewhere between Hobby Lobby and our third broken hinge, we realized it had to fold flat. Pack into a golf bag. Disappear into a trunk. Come out in four seconds anywhere.
"That was the oh-damn moment. It stopped being a backyard toy and started feeling like real hardware."
When we tested the first foldable version and heard that clean thunk off the face, Eamon just said: "Oh yeah. That'll do." We looked at each other and nodded. The provisional patent paperwork was in the following week.
From wood and hinges we pushed into 3D printing — and that's where everything locked in. In-house panels, rubber bumpers, full control over geometry, color, and quality. Every set printed and inspected by us in Omaha.
Why It Works
Golf in Its Truest Form
Miss = consequences.
Most golf games make you stand in one spot and hit into a net. That's darts with a backswing. It doesn't teach reading a lie, picking a landing zone, or trusting a wedge under pressure.
ChipShotz is built to feel like golf. It's 3D, dynamic, and portable. You can attack from any angle. Our favorite rule: play it where it lies. Off the slope, out of the mulch, behind a chair leg, whatever. That's golf.
We didn't build a training aid. We built a game so fun you don't realize you're getting 100 reps of short-game practice. After a week of backyard reps on the Chipyramid, our touch around real greens got sharper. Not because it's a drill — because it's genuinely worth playing.
For golfers, it's honest short-game pressure. For everyone else, it's controlled chaos with a scoring system.
"Bro, this could legit be the next beer pong or Spikeball."
Devin — first-time player at a farm party"Do you have these for sale? My kids want one."
Mom of two, Lake McConaughy"I want to start golfing now just to play this game."
Louie, our engineer"Even the non-golfers at the lake were obsessed."
From the college friend groupThe Founders
Two Guys from Omaha
We're Andrew Hoover and Eamon Sully from Omaha, Nebraska. We met playing high school soccer and later roomed together at Creighton. When business school ended we decided to take a swing at building something ourselves.
Andrew
14 hcpHandles CAD, prototyping, print runs, and most of the physical iteration behind ChipShotz. If something folds flatter, fits tighter, or survives getting thrown in a golf bag, there's a good chance he spent a week obsessing over it.
Eamon
18 hcpHandles content, visuals, testing, and most of the social side of ChipShotz. Usually the one turning random garage rounds and backyard clips into things people actually want to share.
ChipShotz is our first product. Every prototype, photo, and video started in garages, living rooms, and backyards with friends. If you get one of the first sets, you're backing two first-time founders who are fully in — with skin in the game and sawdust on the floor.
We still test everything ourselves.
Right Now
Batch 01 Is Live.
The fold system is patent pending. Batch 01 is available now — designed, printed, and inspected in-house in Omaha. Small run by design. Not a factory order. Every set built and checked by us before it ships.
Each ChipShotz set includes: two foldable Chipyramids, rubber bumpers, a canvas carry bag, and an insert card. Four-second setup. Full rules and game modes at chipshotzgolf.com/play.
"Get product out there. This is market ready."
Nathan Preheim — Director, Greisch Center for Enterprise Value, Creighton University