By Alan Watson, President, GOLF+ Dothan, AL, and Panama City Beach, FL
I am not a perfectionist. Rather, I seek to get as close as is humanly possible. I obsess over it. I desire it. I strive for it. In my diet and exercise routine? No. In my quest to read a book every week and watch less TV? No. In my organization and cleanliness of my clothes closet? Absolutely not. No. The only place I work towards being close to perfect is in the build shop at my golf shop. That’s right. I want the clubs I’m working on to be dead on spec. Built just right. Correct in every way. It is my mission.
For thirty years, I have learned and worked towards the end goal of making my shop the best place for golfers to get their clubs fitted, repaired, and built. I tell all my team members that as we grip, shaft, and adjust clubs we should do so as if the club will end up in a tour player’s bag. My need for this level of competency is probably a little too much for some, but I feel that perfection or the pursuit of it is required when building anything. And the only thing I know how to build are golf clubs.
“Does it really matter?” some might say. Some golfers might not have the skill level to be able to discern whether or not the swing weight of an iron is D0 or D1 or D2. Many would not know the difference in a 55-gram shaft or a 60-gram shaft. How many golfers could tell the difference between a grip that is installed .25” too long versus just right? Regardless of these questions and many more, I decided long ago that if I did nothing else in life, I would have top notch, tour van quality repairs and builds come out of my shops. This level of quality sets us apart from many shops. Even if my customers never know the difference. I know. And I care.
Why does high-level golf club repair and building matter? Using the right components is important for fit and finish. The set needs to look complete and matched. If someone comes in with a broken shafted iron and we rebuild it but we don’t match the ferrule to the rest of the set, then it will be obvious to the golfer and particularly if he goes to sell them down the line, might be obvious to the buyer that the clubs have been worked on. If we don’t match swing weights as we build a set, then the clubs could all vary in spec, resulting in poor contact, bad yardages, and inconsistent shots due to the variance. The golfer might think that it is he or she that is the problem when all along it’s the clubs.
Even how we take clubs apart matters to me. We are careful to use the correct techniques and tools so as not to damage someone else’s property. It all matters to me. It should matter to you when choosing who you let work on your equipment.
Recently, I had a set of irons come in from a new-to-our-area golfer. He told us the the clubs were built in California. The shafts were not put in the correct heads, resulting in varying lengths that did not follow order correctly. We rebuilt them correctly, of course howeve,r the shame of it is that the customer had to spend time and money getting the clubs fixed when whoever built them could have easily just labeled the shafts before install and avoided the issue. That also shows that the shop that improperly built them didn’t double check their work after the process was finished. That’s a shame.
We aren’t perfect, unfortunately and sometimes mistakes happen. However due to our level of precision and attention we rarely have issues with club repair and club builds. And if we do make a mistake or have an issue we stand behind our work and fix it. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Fairways and Greens!
