Golf Club Maker Above Par

It never occurred to me that you could make your own golf clubs, until I met Robert Allen, vice president of operations at Amano Pioneer-Eclipse Corp., a Sparta, N.C., manufacturer.

Robert started making custom golf clubs when his son George graduated from college.

“I wanted to give George a unique gift,” Robert said. “He was interested in golf, so I learned how to assemble custom golf clubs and made a set for him.”

That was 14 years ago. He’s made at least 32 sets since then.

A golf club has three basic pieces: the head, shaft and grip. Robert makes complete sets of clubs, including woods, irons and a putter. Making golf clubs is an art that depends on craftsmanship, observation and intuition. It is not a case of just putting the pieces together.

“I have a doctorate in analytical chemistry, so I’ve been trained to observe,” said Robert.

To use a cliché, Robert looks at both “the forest and the trees” and then correlates the information. He said he would not make a set of clubs for someone unless he’s seen them golf.

“Before I make a set of clubs, I’ll first play golf with the person to observe about 30 different traits, including how they swing a club, what their strength level is, how upright they stand, the speed of their swing, the golfer’s level of aggression and other individual tendencies,” said Robert. “I get an intuitive feel for a lot of these things by simply watching someone swing a club. I also take four or five different measurements, including hand size and the distance from the golfer’s wrist to the ground.”

Once he has observed and measured the golfer, Robert then selects the clubs. Club selection depends on personal taste, the look of the clubs and the price. It also depends on the golfer’s skill level.

While a set of custom-built golf clubs sounds like it would be expensive, Robert, who makes the clubs in his basement, said that you actually save money when you build your own clubs.

“I can assemble a good set of clubs for one-half or one-third of the price it would cost to buy the clubs already made,” he said.

When Robert started working at Pioneer-Eclipse, the company president at the time was an avid golfer. He and Robert golfed together, and the president made comments about the lack of distance he was hitting the golf ball. Robert suggested that the president’s clubs were not ideal for his game, and Robert ended up building him a set of clubs. People in the company told Robert they thought he was taking a big risk to build golf clubs for the company’s president.

As it turned out, Robert’s custom-made clubs caused the company president to experience an interesting —and perhaps unexpected — challenge. He told Robert that he had a problem — that he was hitting the ball too far and had to re-learn how to play golf.

“Because I made more flexible, lighter-weight clubs for him, it enabled him to hit the ball farther,” said Robert.

To me, it sounds like the ideal kind of golfing problem to have.

Gretchen Roufs, an 18-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns a marketing and public relations company in San Antonio. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “Freetime,” contact her at GretchenRoufs@aol.com.