OUR STORY
Philip Ortez and Isaac Davis met playing Little League. A fast friendship developed as the two played travel baseball and basketball together, all the way through high school. Their friendship continued when both went pro, despite drafts and trades to different teams and on different continents. In the off season they trained together and continually challenged each other to play better.
Following retirement from their respective leagues, neither Ortez nor Davis was quite ready to dedicate themselves to playing golf all day. Instead, they decided to innovate and elevate the golf apparel and accessories market (and play golf!), designing athletic equipment by athletes for athletes.
Determined to create an alternative to inexpensive and ineffective golf gloves that tear easily and crack from being crumpled up for fast stowing while wet, Ortez and Davis spent years of trial and error perfecting the design for what would eventually become the Philip Isaac golf glove. Their persistence paid off with a unique glove that bridges the worlds of baseball and golf, featuring PI’s patented Ride-N-Dri™ technology.
PHILIP ORTEZ
Scottsdale, Arizona native, Phil Ortez was picked by the Detroit Tigers in the 2006 amateur draft but opted instead to attend NCAA Division California Polytechnic State University. In 2010 he played for the Victoria Seals in British Columbia before heading to Europe in 2011 to play for the Sollingen Alligators, a team in the elite Baseball-Bundesliga in Germany. There, he took home the 2011 Best Hitter Award in the European Cup.
In 2012, Ortez moved to the Dutch Hoofdklasse (Dutch Major League Baseball) where he played for the ADO Lakers, the Utrecht Club UVV and the Vaessen Pioniers where he was named All-Star Game MVP 2013. Ortez finished out his European career with the Corendon Kinheim baseball club in Haarlem in 2015. An outfielder and switch hitter, Ortez played on two All-Star Teams with the Hoofdklasse.
ISAAC DAVIS
Also hailing from the Valley of the Sun, and a graduate of Arizona State University where he was ranked the #2 freshman in the nation, Ike Davis was drafted in 2005 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays but elected not to sign at that time. He waited until the 2008 draft when he was chosen 18th overall in the first round by the New York Mets.
In 2010, Davis was called up to the majors where he set the Mets rookie record for total bases and tied the rookie records for bases on balls and extra-base hits. He excelled due to his power bat and gifted fielding as defensive first baseman. Davis was named the first baseman on Baseball America’s 2010 All-Rookie Team.
In April 2014 he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates where he became the first player ever to hit two grand slams against the same team on two different teams in the month of April. 2015 saw Davis traded to the Oakland As, and in 2016 he signed with the minor league Texas Rangers as a free agent before agreeing to a major league contract with the New York Yankees. Davis played in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and spent his final season on a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.