The Best Golf Club Designs – You Have Never Seen

 

Changed my Career Forever 

A couple days ago I started what will become an ongoing part of MyGolfSpy.com….. Japanese Golf Club Designs.  Today I am going to give you some more insight into the industry.

I remember when I first got started designing clubs for companies, I literally read and researched anything and everything I could get my hands on.  During this period of time I learned from many different sources.  I would cut designs out of magazines from years past and file them in to their respected categories.  I would print off every golf club from the web I could from the past to get inspired. I even studied other industries to get a different angle on design itself.  The Detroit Auto Show gave me great ideas on more then one occasion.  I also befriended arguably one of the best designers in the world, Dick De La Cruz he taught me many invaluable lessons.  BUT…..there was one thing that helped me more then all of these. 

The First Time I Saw Their Clubs

And that was the day I had flown to Orlando and met with a design firm from Japan.  These engineers had brought some Japanese designs with them, and from this exact moment forward my design career would be changed forever!  They showed me one in particular that made me immediately ask why I had never seen this club before. They laughed and said, “It came out about three years ago over in Japan but it was not that popular maybe that was why.”  I would figure out later, that was not why at all but I could not believe that I had never heard of it.  I wondered why in the world was this not the best selling driver in the United States.  I asked them if there was anyway they could show me more of these types of designs, and in less then 10 minutes 25 more were in my lap!  I don’t think I slept for 2 days….  I am dead serious.  These were the most beautiful clubs I had ever seen.  The craftsmanship of the clubs were astonishing, the lines flowed perfectly in and around the head.  The paint was like a $3K job you would see on a show car.  The polish on the club was so perfect you could use it to shave in.  I was blown away!  At the time I was working on a design of my own though, so I had to pull myself together and focus on the task at hand.  I was new in this game and did not want to seem like this was my first camping trip.

The Differences US vs. Japan 

As soon as I arrived back from the trip I immediately began a mission to become an expert on the industry as a whole not just the US market.  Day in and day out I was stunned by the differences of the two industries.  I quickly found out that the reason for the differences lied in the cultures of the two countries themselves.  And it started to make sense why our products would not work well over there and why their products would not work well over here.  We want quick, fast and cheap.  Where they choose meticulous, calculated and elite.  And also they are willing to pay for these features and many Americans are not.  The average driver cost around $270 in the US where in Japan the average cost of a new wood is between $800-900, that is a substantial difference.  This means there is so much more that can be done in regards to design, materials, technology and manufacturing. 

The easiest way for me to analogize this is to compare it to a McDonald’s vs.  Home Cooking.  One is made by a mass production system and looks at bottom line profits at the end of every day.  The other is more concerned with the health and well being of their family and also taste.  The mass produced product is going to try to find a way to put a good product out at the cheapest price where the home cooked meal is just about trying to put the best product on the table.

So where we cast they forge.  When we forge they forge better.  Where we use three coats of paint they use seven.  Where they use machines like plasma welders or brazing techniques we use arc welders.  Where we use reverse engineering they use real engineers.  The reason for this is simple though we (Americans) just are not willing to pay for the quality that they demand of their products in Japan.