Is It Worth It?

This year for the first time I have had some pangs of guilt related to leaving for Thanksgiving - because I had to slow down some club builds for good clients. All in all guess this is a good thing, because it means my business is building as I have planned - but I hate saying to people that I cannot their clubs built "right away."


Thinking of this reminded me of one of the really great clubfitters and clubmakers I know tells his clients - that they need to expect it will take at least two weeks to get their clubs built. Truthfully it usually takes me at least this long to build a set of clubs, and here are the typical things that happen when I do a build....

1. After the fitting I order the components - heads, shafts, sometimes grips and ferrules - and it usually takes at least 3 business days to get them from suppliers.

2. As a result of doing a fitting - say for irons - I identify a good match to the right shaft flex and club MOI/Swingweight for the customer.

3. When I get the shafts for the club build, I use a "zone profiling" procedure I learned from Keith Chatham (an AGCP Master). At this time I do a first test of shaft "FLO" - the shaft orientation where the shaft will oscillate in one single plane. When I have the shafts zone profiled, I know which of the shafts would best go in the longer irons and which would best go into the shorter irons.

4. Then I often build at least a test 6 iron - and sometimes also a test 9 iron - for the customer to test. This testing usually involves some final adjustments as needed to the club MOI/SW based on feel and performance.

5. Once I find the final MOI/SW and shaft flex from this testing, I am ready to start building the set to the best MOI/SW and shaft flex. This requires identifying what the right amount of additional headweight to add to the club - or in some cases how much weight to take out of the clubhead - so that the set can be matched for MOI/SW and flex. I do this using a neat trick I learned from Dana Upshaw (another AGCP Master) - club blueprinting. Using one sacrificial shaft I can identify the correct amount of headweight to add/subtract for each club to MOI match the set (I MOI match all sets now). This procedure usually takes a couple of hours to do, but it is a critical one to allow me to build a truly matched set.

6. Once I have identified all of the appropriate headweights, I can then builid the set. I tip each shaft so that it has the right final flex, then cut each shaft to length, then do final shaft FLO and orientation with the clubhead, and then epoxy all of the heads and shafts. I use 24 hour epoxy for most builds, though there are some excellent epoxies that will cure faster.

7. Then - after 24 hours - I sand and polish all ferrules, install grips, and do a final check of the MOI/SW for all clubs to ensure that I build them as I had planned.


So yes..............it does take time to build truly matched set of clubs. Time well spent!


Tony

Thanksgiving!

Some of my Giving Thanks areas this year related to clubfitting and clubmaking....


1. Getting to partner with Des Mahoney at Centenial. Des is a superb golf teacher, and advocate of my clubfitting efforts, and a great friend. Two years ago when I first had the opportunity to team with him at Centenial, I would not have imagined what a good team we would become.


2. The Association of Golf Clubfitting Professionals (AGCP). The best clubfitting group that there is. Every week I learn new things from these guys. No question to them is a dumb question.


3. My clients. I am busier right now than ever before, and I thank the folks who have asked me to help them play better golf by getting clubs that truly fit them.


4. My wife. The one who puts up with me almost every night building clubs in the basement of our house. Could NOT do it without her support.


Thanks to all of you.

Tony


PS.........and one more thing............way to go Scott Stallings getting to the Final Stage of Q School!!

56 Blog Posts?

Tonight before I started writing my weekly Monday post, I noted that I have now done this 56 times. It is hard for me to believe that I have been doing this blog for more than a year.


I am in Atlanta tonight but miss the fact that my new Scratch Wedge Demo Heads came in the mail today. You might want to get on the Scratch Golf site..... www.scratchgolf.com. They are making some of the best-selling new wedge heads in golf. Their niche is that their wedge heads are designed for different kinds of club swingers. They sell three different designs of wedge heads for different kinds of wedge shot swings.....you can answer three simple questions on their web site and determine of Digger/Driver, Driver/Slider, or Sweeper/Slider wedge head designs will best fit your game. They sell both forged heads and cast heads.....and the cast heads are very good, some are in play on the Nationwide Tour.


My plan is to build 4 demo sand wedge clubs - one each of the cast and one of the forged - and allow you folks to try them and see what you think. If you are interested, come to Centenial on a Saturday sometime after the Thanksgiving holiday and hit some balls with these wedges....I think you will be presently surprised!


Tony

The SHORT and LONG of it....

The SHORT.... I received one of the best testimonials ever this weekend from Scott Masters, a local PGA professional - here it is....

"Tony,

Thanks so much for the help with the Tour Lock Pro putter weighting system. It has certainly made a difference in my putting.

After about a couple of weeks practicing with the system, I went 3-0 in a match play tournament and was named MVP of the team and the next week won the Knoxville PGA Chapter Championship. The system really works and I recommend it to any skill level to help putting.

Thanks again Tony"

The Tour Lock "Opti Vibe" putting weights - you locate a weight down the butt end of the putter shaft and vary the distance down the shaft to optimize the putter feel - are in the putters of at least 30 players on the Senior Tour, and are the real deal! You can truly vary the feel if a putter by varying the location of the Opti Vibe weight down the shaft. Scott came by the Centenial golf club this Saturday to have a second set of weights put into another putter.



And the LONG.... For months now I have been thinking of becoming an Alpha Golf dealer. They offer some terrific driver heads - one of which, the C830.2 Plasma, was the head used by players who took 2nd and 3rd place at the REMAX long drive championships a few weeks ago. This past week I bit the bullet and ordered some of the Alpha products....in particular the C830.2 head (well, ordered two of these so I could build one for me to "test") and some great fairway wood head that they offer. I look forward to offering these heads as a new option to customers.


And......................for the future....................there is Scratch Golf wedges (but more on them later!).


Tony

It NEVER Gets Old!

At the end of a very long day-job day, it was wonderful today to get a phone call from my latest client. I finished building him a set of irons this weekend (with some delay due to a frustrating 2+ hour power outage in my neighborhood....). He said he absolutely loved the clubs. Hit them great. Good distance. Good feel.


As someone who takes a lot of pride in clubfitting and clubmaking, this is the kind of call I always hope for, and even to some extent expect - since I believe I have done a great job for the people I build clubs for. And STILL.........I am always a little nervous when I hand over a new set of clubs to someone and say "let me know how they work....."


To me, this is the ultimate in how professional clubfitting and clubmaking is different than buying clubs in a store. I guarantee what I do will work and provide great results. I do not really think that golfers get the same kind of guarantee - and most likely get no guarantee - when they buy clubs in a store.


Clubs that are truly made for you - how can that get any better!


Tony