Caddie Jeff King looking to rule the beef jerky trade

• Caddie began food business in his apartment
• Kingmade Jerky becoming a tour staple
• Classic%2C Buffalo Style%2C Sweet Chili Pepper are all available
• Rickie Fowler%2C Ai Miyazato%2C Michael Jordan%2C Ian Poulter%2C Tiger Woods all customers

Jeff King's bag is carrying one.

And, since 2011, making one.

The veteran looper, who is toting for Derek Ernst on the PGA Tour this season, is the most sought-after wingman in golf these days, thanks to the culinary skills he put to work in his small apartment in McKinney, Texas, 30 miles north of Dallas.

With his taste buds becoming raw from the beef jerky he craved during long rounds and longer drives from one tour stop to another, King bought a dehydrator three years back and started experimenting in his cramped kitchen.

The end result is Kingmade Jerky, which is sweeping the PGA Tour and making a huge dent in the LPGA tour and other tours around the world. And it's coming to a convenience store and supermarket near you.

"You can't make this stuff up. I'm a CEO. I'm making jerky that people want. I just wanted to make some good jerky so I could eat it," King said.

Although his first few batches were an "X" on the scorecard, King finally perfected his jerky — and his phone has been blowing up since as players plead for more and more jerky. Word of mouth — that is, when not full of jerky — is the talk of the tours.

The jerky comes in Classic, Buffalo Style and Sweet Chili Pepper. Crush bags — extra large helpings of the jerky — are as sought after as a long run of birdies.

"It is so good," LPGA star Ai Miyazato said. "It's almost too good. Sometimes I can't stop eating it."

Rickie Fowler never leaves the clubhouse without bags of the jerky in his golf bag. Davis Love III is pleading with King for some jerky tips. Tiger Woods has been seen devouring the jerky. Michael Jordan, too.

Ian Poulter is raving about the jerky to his 1.6million followers on Twitter, hoping to swap out the endorsements for an endless supply of the stuff.

And Matt Kuchar can't get enough of it.

"It's taking over the Tour," Kuchar said. "It's without a doubt the best."

King, 40, had no idea his jerky would ever take off, never intending to become an entrepreneur in the food industry when he started mixing and matching soy sauces, powders, sugars, peppers, spices and meat. When King opted to step up with his meat choice and started using flank steak instead of USDA-stamped top round that basically was a utility meat, he knew he was on to something.

In the spring of 2012, he took the jerky to an LPGA tour stop and sold 30 pounds at $40 a pop, just like that. When he went to the PGA Tour to carry for Luke List, the gathering spot on the driving range was wherever King was with the jerky.

That's when King went full time with his night job and one dehydrator became five and then 10.

He was buying 70-pound boxes of steak at a time; 3 pounds of steak make 1 pound of jerky.

"When I started, everybody was putting their two cents in on what flavors they wanted. 'Hey, can you make me a black peppercorn one? Can you make me a hot one? Can you make this and that?' And I was like, sure, let's go all trippy and all, I'll try it out," King said. "I'd run home, try it out and bring it out to them, and they'd be like, 'Dude, get me 2 pounds of that, that's awesome.'

"I was coming home, my weeks off, just literally doing nothing but making beef jerky," King said.

A chance meeting with an old friend kicked it up a notch. At Pebble Beach, he bumped into Adam Papazian, who works in the agriculture business. King told him about the jerky, and Papazian said he should go into business. A few weeks later, Papazian, now a partner with King, had arranged for some seed money.

They brought in Michael Cory for marketing. That's when Kingmade Jerky, with the bull on the cover of the package, came to be.

King's company has about 40 employees, with the jerky made in Diller, Neb., about 60 miles south of Lincoln, at C&C Processing. Slowly but surely, the jerky started selling nationally.

It's available in all 50 states and online.

A 1-pound bag is $54, a six-pack is $48, and a four-pack of assorted flavors is $32.

"I explained what was happening on the tours, and I said I didn't see any reason why it would be any different with the general public," King said. "Lo and behold, here we are months later, and it's doing exactly what it did at the start of PGA Tour. It's going in retail stores, it's going in golf courses and it's going in convenience stores.

"I've had inquiries from people in other countries who want to take it over. But we're not that big yet. Production-wise, we can do pretty much whatever. In terms of customs and transporting overnight, we're not there yet. But I've been contacted by people in Australia, Sweden, Canada, all over Asia, England.

"It is eye-opening, and it gives you the goose bumps."

King, who said he could make a pretty mean Chicago-style deep dish pizza and would stack his hot wings against anyone's, is still experimenting with new jerky flavors. Expansion — for the taste buds as well as for his company — is his next step.

"When I first started making it, I wanted to make something that was better than in the gas station," King said. "Anytime I stopped in a gas station and I saw a beef jerky I had never seen before, I bought it. And it was always the same — cardboard. It just wasn't good.

"So I tried to make a better quality of jerky."

Kingmade Jerky's fat content ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 grams a stick, calories from 50 to 70 and grams of protein from 6 to 8.

"And then once the numbers came back from the USDA, we were told it was extremely low in sodium (40 to 90 grams, or 160 for Buffalo Style) and it's the healthiest jerky out there," King said. "It's 100% steak and it's a higher quality meat, so it's going to be a little bit more expensive. I've had people thank me for saving beef jerky, so that's nice to hear."

And a good selling point. King said he wouldn't get ahead of himself and try and become the dominant seller on the market overnight.

When the time is right, he said, maybe they will pursue potential investors like those on Shark Tank.

"It's a quality product, it was born in Texas, and people are buying it and rebuying it, so we have a lot going for us," King said. "But we want to establish a track record. As we get bigger, then we can go to a Mark Cuban and go, 'Hey, we're in 3,000 stores, and here's our sales for over the period of a year,' and he can look at it and go, 'This is worth a conversation.'"

And even if his night job turns him into a millionaire, King said, he probably wouldn't quit his day job.

"It's the competition," King said. "All my life I've wanted to win, worked as hard as I could so I could win. Now I'm competing in the beef jerky world, too. And I do know it tastes great and it's better than anything out there, but whatever happens to it, I already know I've won.

"Out here, with a golf bag on my shoulder, it's a lifestyle I love. It's all I know. And while I can walk and I'm healthy and I can compete and I can watch the best golfers in the world and hang out with them, and they're eating your beef jerky, why would I quit?"

Follow national golf reporter Steve DiMeglio on Twitter at @Steve_DiMeglio.