Co-founder: Dave Phillips

Where passion meets experience, you get Dave Phillips.

A leader of the golfing world and a visionary thinker, Dave is devoted to helping others better themselves.

This has manifested in Dave's two key areas of expertise: golf and coffee. 

A performance coach of almost 30 years (including 2023 Masters champion Jon Rahm), Dave Phillips co-founded the Titleist Performance Institute, the industry's largest golf, health, and fitness organization.

You might have seen him on the Golf Channel, writing for Men's Health, Sports Illustrated, Golf Magazine, or in Golf Magazine's Top 100 teachers in America and Golf Digest's Top 50.

Safe to say, he's a busy man (hence the coffee!).

But, what does a performance pro know about wellness? And why the obsession with coffee?

How it all began (in Dave's words)

I'm a self-professed coffee snob whose love for a quality roast started with my childhood in Kenya.

As it’s one of the world's coffee capitals, I grew up surrounded by coffee.

From age six, my father would wake me at dawn on a Saturday, and we'd head out to a nearby game park and set up camp by a watering hole.

We would sit there, usually build a fire, and watch the animals come to drink. It was kind of surreal, like a movie.

Members of a local Maasai tribe would come along and sell coffee to me and my father by brewing it in a tin can over our fire.

We'd then sit back and watch the sunrise, and my dad would say, "Don't tell your mother you're drinking coffee, but this is the best thing you'll ever put in your body."

You can understand why he didn't want my mom to realize I was jumping off the wall when I got home!

A Lifelong Passion Ignites

My expertise comes from decades of experience. 

I know what's good because I've been there. I've tried it, I've tasted it. I put in the time to discover.

For years, visiting coffee plantations in far corners of the globe has been one of my favorite things to do.

From the highlands of New Guinea to Hawaii, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Costa Rica, and so many more incredible places, I've been lucky to learn everything I know about coffee straight from the source.

An Idea Starts to Brew

As the Titleist Performance Institute grew, my two passions, coffee and performance coaching, began to merge.

Over the past 20 years, TPI has assessed thousands of athletes, from golfers to baseball players to football players and more.

Through this and our extended reach into the professional sporting realm, my For Wellness co-founder Phil Mickelson and I have an incredible behind-the-scenes view of what athletes do to prepare and perform right.

And it's not just the athletes themselves; I have regular exposure to their teams, coaching staff, medical fitness trainers, nutritionists - you name it.

Through these relationships, I am constantly learning about new ingredients, even over-the-counter ingredients, and how they benefit the human body.

When I hear about something really impressive, I start thinking— can we source that? Can we create something for the athletes but also for everybody?

I also started studying more about coffee and talking to athletes and runners, and they'd say, 'Hey, I love the caffeine kick.' 

I soon learned caffeine can have some incredible effects on the human body. And it's a regular habit: most people start their day with a cup of coffee. So, if I can connect something to your habit, there's a better chance you'll take it.

That's what the whole goal is: using coffee as a vehicle to get great stuff in your body.

Then my buddy Phil Mickelson started having trouble with his health, and I got him onto drinking coffee and I started mixing together what would eventually become The Good Stuff™ in my kitchen.

You can read more about that story here.

We ended up seeing such incredible results from Phil, we knew we had to share The Good Stuff™ and the benefits of drinking coffee with the world, so we founded For Wellness.

Go Froth and Conquer

Whether swapping creamer for The Good Stuff™ or doing stretches while your coffee boils, attaching new habits to existing ones is the way to make them stick.

My mission through For Wellness is to empower people to take control of their health through small, manageable changes, day in, day out.

These days, you'll find me coaching at the Titleist Performance Institute in San Diego, brainstorming new products with the For Wellness team, or trekking through a remote coffee farm, who knows where!

My Coffee Routine

Truth be told, I like to make coffee in a ton of ways.

However, my at-home Good Stuff method involves adding ground coffee (Phil's blend) to a filter, pouring The Good Stuff™ on top, and letting the coffee filter through to his mug.

Get a step-by-step run-through here.