Celebrating Camaraderie, Connection and Community - Chris Bishouty, Founder of Broken Tee Vodka
The ModGolf PodcastShow Notes
What happens when a lifelong golfer looks behind the bar at his club's 19th hole and realizes nothing there speaks to the community he loves?
For Chris Bishouty, that moment of noticing became the seed for Broken Tee Vodka - a premium corn vodka built not around celebrity endorsements or mass-market appeal, but around the camaraderie, storytelling and connection that define the game of golf. In this episode, host Colin Weston sits down with Chris to explore how a childhood spent watching his father putt into a coffee cup, an unconventional spirits education in 1970s Saudi Arabia, and a marketing career building consumer brands all converged into one authentic idea: a vodka that celebrates golf culture. From bottle-top ball markers designed to be collected to collaboration bottles with iconic courses like Panther National, Chris shares the bootstrapping playbook, the distribution strategy and the heartstring stories that keep him pushing forward.
3 Key Takeaways you'll discover:
1. Niche down before you scale up Rather than trying to take on the "600 pound gorilla, Kleenex of vodka" with a mass-market product, Chris built Broken Tee specifically for golfers which is a market with natural moats: brand loyalty, higher net worth, and a well-documented affinity for a post-round drink. Florida's 1,200+ courses and year-round play made it the perfect proof-of-concept market before expansion into states like North Carolina.
2. Direct-to-consumer relationships beat distributor middlemen. Shipping to 46 states and selling directly through BrokenTeeVodka.com keeps the brand's story and one-to-one connection with golfers intact, which is something a traditional distributor model strips away. The 19th Hole Series of course collaboration bottles (like the Panther National edition) extends that relationship-building to clubs themselves.
3. Avoid expensive mistakes by leaning on those who've been there. Chris's advice for aspiring spirits entrepreneurs: "find people with experience who can tell you which pitfalls to sidestep". Mistakes are inevitable and at the same time are the best teachers but they're expensive, so every one you can avoid is capital saved for growth in the product and company.
Are you more of a watcher than a listener? Then check out our extended bonus segment with Chris on The ModGolf YouTube channel. Click on this link or the image below to watch.
💬 **3 Inspiring Quotes from Chris Bishouty
"If you build something that you love, you never work a day in your life. That is how Broken Tee ended up becoming what it became . It was the solution to "how do I build the thing that I love so I don't feel like I'm working for the rest of my life."
"Golfers drink three times more than the average American. Golfers are generally higher net worth individuals, golfers are extremely brand loyal... We all spend a lot of time, money and effort on the hat, the clothes, the clubs, the bag. The idea behind Broken Tee was: we really should all be spending that time, money and care into what goes in our glass."
"We are a lifestyle brand that happens to sell vodka. Our whole thing is about bringing more awareness to the game, bringing people into the game, and really being a part of the fabric of the story of other people's lives and their lives in golf."
Episode Chapters
00:00 Welcome to the ModGolf Podcast / meet Chris Bishouty of Broken Tee Vodka
01:07 First golf memories: dad's living-room putting and the coffee-cup hole
04:29 The entrepreneur's "open building site" why vodka, why golf?
07:18 A unique spirits education: pot stills and moonshine in 1970s Saudi Arabia
09:27 Assembling the team: sourcing vs. building a distillery, and the value of mentors
14:28 Tasting notes and differentiators: corn-based, carbon-filtered, sustainable
17:41 Finding the market gap in a hyper-competitive spirits category
22:35 Distribution strategy: direct-to-consumer, Florida proof of concept, 46 states
26:44 The 19th Hole Series: collabora
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