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Thursday, May 17, 2012
Feature: May 2008
Club Fanatic
Shafts, heads and the men who love them
Story by Bob Burns
It’s cheaper for Steve Wanderer to purchase his golf clubs online. But during the time it takes for the package to land on his doorstep, his eyes invariably wander.
“You wait three months, and by then, a new model has come out,” Wanderer says. “New is relative in today’s game.”
Gone are the days when golfers played with the same set of clubs for years. Remember when metal woods rocked the golf industry — replacing woods that were, well, actually wood?
Today, oversized drivers have heads as big as tee markers. Hybrids are well on their way to making long irons obsolete. Putters cost as much as $300.
The technological revolution has prompted dramatic advances in club fitting. The nationally acclaimed Haggin Oaks Player Performance Studio features launch monitors, computerized fitting systems, loft and lie machines, video monitoring and a team of professionals who size up golfers of all stripes to match them with the right clubs.
“I’m going to say the average drive is 25 to 40 yards longer than it was 15 years ago,” says Ken Morton Sr., the owner of the Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop. “The innovation in golf club technology is profound.”
It takes more than deep pockets to keep step with these technological changes. It takes an insatiable curiosity. Comstock’s elicited the stories of five local businessmen who can’t keep their eyes — or hands — off their equipment.
The origin of bankers’ hours starts with a Ping 7-iron
As a bank consultant, Wayne Wallace spends considerable time on the road. He never leaves home without his Ping G2 7-iron. His idea of a rest stop is a driving range where he can stretch out the old golf muscles.
Dozens of golf balls decorate his home office in Citrus Heights, where The Golf Channel provides steady background noise.
At last count, Wallace owned three full sets of clubs. If he has an off day, Wallace benches the offending set and switches to another. “My friends laugh at me,” Wallace says. “I pull up to the course, and they say, ‘Which set is it today, Wayne?’”
When we last checked, Wallace was playing a TaylorMade Burner driver and rescue and R7 CGB max irons. He also owns a full set of Callaways.
“They’re very cutting edge,” Wallace says. “When you feel the ball on the end of the club, it feels like a marshmallow. The technology is there for a reason. It’s to make the game easier.”
Wallace, now 60, was a hard-core golfer until the early ’90s, when he realized that his business was suffering as a result. He broke 80 for the first time, then retired his clubs for 13 years.
But in 2005, while eating lunch with his wife at Poppy Hills, he looked out the window overlooking the scenic Monterey peninsula course and said, “Why did I ever give this up?”
He borrowed some demo clubs from the pro shop, hit some balls and immediately bought a new set of clubs. A golf pro told him he’d be better off putting his dollars into lessons. The advice went in one ear and out the other.
“I’m very much a technology guy,” Wallace says. “When I was a skier, I always had the latest type of skis and bindings.”
Toni Wallace’s 16 handicap trumps her husband’s 18. Far from being resentful, Wayne is proud of the way he recently talked her into replacing her old sticks with TaylorMade woods and Adams irons.
“The new technology is even more beneficial for women,” Wallace says.
A member of Sierra View Country Club in Roseville, Wallace says he now maintains a perfect balance between work and play. Rather than halt the interview and get back to work, however, he asked a question of his own.
“You know, we haven’t even talked about the golf ball,” he says. “Have you considered the ball? The spin rate on the new balls helps you hit it straighter.”
Sake, sushi and Taro’s Titleist driver
For Kotaro “Taro” Arai, golf and business mix like sake and sushi.
As the owner of six sushi restaurants, including Taro’s by Mikuni, the popular Arden Mall gathering spot, Arai receives entrée to some of the finest courses in the West. He never lacks for the latest gadgetry, either.
“I know all the Titleist reps,” Arai says. “They hook me up with the best equipment.”
Arai has raised more than $500,000 for Sutter’s Breast Cancer Navigator program through his Mikuni Summer Golf Classic. He mixes golf and business any chance he gets.
“Before I hire a manager, I do my first interview on the golf course,” Arai says. “You can learn a lot about someone on the golf course. But if they’re too good, I’m reluctant to hire them. I know they won’t work too hard. They’ll want to be out on the golf course.”
Arai is sold on the Titleist 907D2 driver he found while browsing through a golf shop in Granite Bay. The driver has a Proforce V2 shaft. “The shaft is everything,” he says. “I finally learned that. Before, I only paid attention to the club head and how it looks.”
His new driver helps him keep the ball lower off the tee. His wiry build produces long drives. “They call me a ricebagger, not a sandbagger,” he says. “I change a set of clubs every year. Someone told me that the time to change clubs is when you’re playing well.”
Arai moved with his family from their native Japan to the U.S. when he was 15. The Arais opened a Japanese restaurant in Fair Oaks in 1987. Mikuni has developed into one of the most successful restaurant chains in the area.
One recent Sunday morning, he stopped by Taro’s with three of his four children before heading up to Northstar-at-Tahoe. The kids snowboarded while their father tended to his newest restaurant.
Soon, he’ll be opening another restaurant in Denver. Already, his connections brought him a tee time at Castle Pines, the Jack Nicklaus course that served as the host site of the PGA Tour’s international event.
“I’m hooked up everywhere,” Arai says. “The power of sushi.”
The TaylorMade driver waiting for a hole-in-one
When he walks into a golf shop, John McPherson is the confident kid who did all his homework.
“I can tell immediately if I’m talking to someone who knows what he’s talking about or if he’s just regurgitating what he’s heard,” McPherson says.
McPherson can talk knowledgeably about swing weights and shafts for hours. For instance, he says the shafts produced by the big manufacturers are “junk. I’ve never bought a club intending to use the original shaft.
“It’s definitely a game within a game,” he says. “It’s trying to get the most out of your equipment.”
McPherson’s day job is at Cambridge Flooring in Cameron Park, where he works at the family business with his father, John Sr. The younger McPherson’s desk is back in the corner. It doesn’t take long to see that while flooring might be his livelihood, golf is his passion. Scorecards and pictures of smiling foursomes decorate the walls around his desk. Golf magazines are within easy reach, as is a putter.
“I did basketball, football and track at Oak Ridge High School, but I didn’t have any hobbies once I graduated,” McPherson says. “I was given a set of golf clubs, and boy, I got the bug bad. It gave me something to look forward to on weekends.”
He played upward of 100 rounds a year until his daughter was born. Now he’s down to about 40 or 50 rounds a year but still manages to play to a 3.8-handicap index. Meantime, 18-month-old Kayla has a T-shirt that reads, “I’m told I like golf.”
Her dad likes his new TaylorMade SuperQuad driver with a Proforce V2 shaft. McPherson used to hit a Callaway FT-5 driver, but that club put too much spin on the ball and produced rainbow drives. The SuperQuad produces a lower flight and gives him more roll.
But who knows whether he’ll be playing with the same club a few months from now. The pressure to upgrade is never-ending for a player of McPherson’s intensity.
“It’s a war out there,” he says. “You’re seeing new drivers every six months. You buy this brand-new driver, and six months later they’ve got one that goes 15 yards farther. They’re really going after the consumer.”
McPherson and his wife, Jennifer, teamed to win the Sacramento County mixed scotch foursome title. However, John Sr. has a hole-in-one while his son has none.
“I’m reminded of it every day,” McPherson says. “My dad taped the newspaper notice on the front door. Whenever a customer congratulates me on making a hole-in-one, I have to say, ‘No, that was my dad.’”
Retiring with a Cleveland HiBore XLS driver
Del Paso Country Club pro Mike Green appreciates the John Winkels of the world. In fact, when it comes to buying big-ticket items in Green’s golf shop, Winkel is one of a kind.
“I’ve probably bought more sets of clubs from Mike than anyone else over the years,” says Winkel, a Del Paso member since the late ’80s.
“John wants the newest equipment every year,” Green says. “He doesn’t want to think for a second that he’s being left behind.”
Winkel, who owns an outdoor advertising agency and is semiretired, splits time between Sacramento and Hawaii. He plays to a 10.8 index.
When he’s club shopping, Winkel is most interested in drivers and wedges. He recently purchased a Cleveland HiBore XLS driver that’s helping him make the longest drives of his life.
“I really don’t know what makes it so good for me,” he says. “A lot of my friends are hitting the new TaylorMade, but I love the way this club feels. It has a bigger sweet spot and is easy to hit. All I know is, I’m hitting the ball to places I’ve never been before.”
Winkel says he spends more on equipment than lessons, which may not be the best way to lower his score. But he enjoys the club hopping.
“I’m always a sucker for new clubs,” he says. “I don’t think you can buy a game, but it’s fun to try new stuff.”
Wandering around the green with Tour Edge irons
Steve Wanderer follows the latest trends and isn’t afraid to reach into his wallet for the newest driver or putter. But he sounds almost wistful as he talks about the old days.
“Before, a golf club was a golf club, and a golf ball was a golf ball,” Wanderer says, finishing off a bowl of soup while waiting for the weather to clear at Haggin Oaks. “Five years ago, golf really became a merchandising sport. It used to be you’d keep the same set of clubs for six years, like your car.
“It’s hard enough to believe you’ve spent $600 on a driver. But then you ask yourself, ‘Is the one that comes out six months later really any better?’”
A 52-year-old engineer with a 6 handicap, Wanderer plays golf about two times a week. He was playing to a 4.2 index when he switched from Adams irons to Tour Edge Exotics E-X3 irons.
“If you get to a point with your golf swing where you’re doing the same thing every time, equipment can help,” Wanderer says. “They can set you up to improve your play pretty dramatically. When you’re playing well, you try something specific. When you’re hitting it poorly, you can’t fix it with a new club.”
He says the improvements in club fitting are more significant than the advancements in club technology. Sometimes, though, he wonders whether he goes overboard with his equipment fetish.
“At some point, it almost takes the fun out of it,” Wanderer says. “I wouldn’t say it’s an obsession, but it does become part of your lifestyle.”
Wanderer gets a sheepish look when asked what’s the most he’s ever spent on a single club. “Seven hundred and forty-five dollars,” he says. “But I’m not married and don’t have kids.”
