Yeah, agreed. I read the article on Longform, before it blew up, and my first thought was, "If she'd just gone with the facts, this putter would probably have been more marketable."

The golf-equipment sector does close to $10 billion annually - it's a seriously large global business prone to its share of shady shenanigans, including open-ended efforts to influence journalists, regulators etc. (And indeed, the article even alludes to potential espionage via break-in attempts at Dr V's HQ.)