Be your own boss: A 22-year-old UNH graduate creates golf’s ‘greatest stress reliever’

If you golf, you know it can be a relaxing — and frustrating game at the same time. And if things aren’t going your way, it can be hard to keep your cool on the course. That’s where a 22-year-old former University of New Hampshire student’s new product comes into play.

Golf. It’s a beautiful game. But at times, even for the pros, it can get ugly.

“That’s the beautiful thing about golf,” said Steven Schnobrich, the co-founder and president of Bogey Bag, LLC. “It’s a constant work in progress.”

Golf has been a work in progress for Steven ever since his father gave him his first putter at eight years old. Steven played in high school and in college, but it was in 2018 when Steven and his uncle were having a horrible day on the course — they came up with an idea.

“We were just joking about how it would be nice to have a punching bag or something to take your anger out on the course,” said Schnobrich.

Steven and his uncle started coming up with prototypes.

“My uncle and I later that year took it out onto the golf course and to kind of our disbelief people really loved it we didn’t think that other people would take to it the way that they did,” said Schnobrich.

After years of development and learning at the University of New Hampshire’s Entrepreneurship Center, the Bogey Bag was born.

“Having the right mix between durability and functionality of the product was really important because I didn’t want to just have a product that was a gag gift,” said Schnobrich.

Not only is the Bogey Bag a good stress reliever, but Steven’s customers say it’s also saved them a lot of money.

“Hopefully protecting the golf course and saving your clubs so you don’t break them or snap them,” said Schnobrich.

There is a standard etiquette on the green that golfers are supposed to follow, and Steven doesn’t want his Bogey Bag to take away from that. But he also recognizes the game is changing, with more people getting into golf and not taking it so seriously.

“That’s really what the Bogey Bag is all about,” said Schnobrich. “It’s just having fun, relieving our stress and just enjoying ourselves with friends and family on the golf course.”

The driving success for this 22-year-old investment advisor was getting his product out on social media. It was shared and sold out in a month.

“My goal originally was just to sell a bogey bag,” said Schnobrich. “I was terrified when I was first starting off that no one would want to buy one and I would have this inventory stuck with me.”

Now he is restocked and looking to push his product into tournaments and charity events, reminding people, it’s ok if you don’t eagle or par, and in fact, it might be more fun to hit — and punch — a few bogeys.

“It’s just really cool to see people take interest in something that we took a lot of time to build and think of and create from scratch,” said Schnobrich.

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