![]() ![]() What initially started as a set of blades eventually turned into a mixed set with cavity-back long irons after Taylor and Kraul made a trip to see Langer in Houston during a Champions Tour event. Everything has to be perfect and fit their eye.” They won’t accept anything but the absolute best. ![]() “It’s rewarding to hear that because Bernhard is the ultimate guy to please, sort of like Tiger. “I remember him telling me how beautiful they were,” Kraul said. During a practice round at Augusta National the week of the 2018 Masters, Langer came over to inform Kraul that two irons had already made it in the bag. Once the set of muscleback blades was complete, it didn’t take Kraul long to get an update from Langer on the set. He’s played it for a long time, and if it’s not broke, then don’t go trying to fix it.” “It is a shaft that he’s very comfortable with. “I don’t remember how many years he said he played that shaft, but way longer than I’ve been in this business, and I’ve been doing this 31 years,” Taylor said. In addition to creating an iron head with the perfect amount of offset, Taylor had to locate a specific Hogan Apex shaft that Langer had been playing for more than 30 years, a tall task in an industry where older equipment tends to get lost in the shuffle of new-age tech. So between the needs to do the builds and the heads, we did some work for the man.” And we happened to have access to some of those. Of course, he’s still playing an Apex shaft, which was developed by the Ben Hogan Company a zillion years ago. We had blueprinted some of his (old clubs) and figured out where the specs were. “… I spent my whole career knocking offset out of golf clubs for these guys and trying to make them look less offset, and (Bernhard) wants a lot of offset. Those irons were heading in the right direction from when we bent them. When you start with a weak forging, and you bend it to a strong spec, you add offset. I just happened to have among a pile of old forgings here some irons that, because of the finish that they were, were very weak-lofted forgings. “And that’s one of the things that his eye is very keen to, is the offset that he likes. “You know, when you put his clubs down, if you held them, you’d see a lot of offset in those golf clubs,” Taylor told Andrew Tursky in 2018. During the documentation phase, one thing, in particular, stood out to Taylor - the amount of offset one of the greatest ball-strikers in the world preferred to see in his set. Kraul put Langer in touch with Taylor, who requested the two-time Masters champion send him his old irons to measure and document. “I told Bernhard, ‘There’s a guy I’m confident who can get you that look in your irons.'” “Bernhard had a very discerning look and continued to play the same Adams irons that have been well-publicized,” said Kraul, who currently manages Titleist’s Next Gen Technical Player program. With Langer refusing to budge, Kraul decided to give Taylor a call to see if there was anything he could do to assist. So how did Langer end up with a set of Artisan irons crafted by Woods’ longtime clubmaker? According to Scott Kraul, who worked with Taylor at Nike for nearly four years before moving into an independent role at now-defunct Adams Golf, Langer had been looking for a new set of irons for years but couldn’t find anything that could kick his ancient Adams set out of the bag. It was Taylor, in particular, who helped shape Tiger Woods’ irons and wedges during his time at Nike, making him somewhat of a cult hero in the equipment space.Īrtisan only creates custom putters and wedges for those who are lucky enough to get a spot on the waiting list, but Taylor is willing to make exceptions for former major winners who need a good set of irons. Back in 2016 when Nike Golf exited the hard-goods industry, club-making veterans Mike Taylor and John Hatfield decided to open up Artisan Golf out of the same R&D facility where Nike once resided. But let’s back up for a second and analyze one brand in the bag that stands out: Artisan. This is how the top-dog on the Champions Tour rolls. The set begins with cavity-back long irons (4-5) from Artisan, followed by an Adam’s Idea Pro Black 6-iron, three Artisan mid and short irons (7-9) and TaylorMade’s RSi pitching wedge. Bernhard Langer employs a “mixed iron” setup, but it’s the kind of equipment concoction that would drive anyone with OCD crazy. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |