Behind the scenes of the custom built ForeGolf Wedges
Last month we announced the ForeGolf Hakusa Wedges, read about the launch of the new wedges
This is how we custom built wedges for John
Handicap 1
Playing Location Augusta National
Playing Characteristic John is a great ball striker and can hit the ball quite high. We needed a 120 yard wedge so we made the White 50* to handle this distance, accuracy is key at Augusta so this wedge is geared around that exact yardage with lots of check spin. The Black wedge is bent to 58* and has a special grind that we do by hand where the back of the wedge is ground away and the front edge is made sharper. The heel of the wedge is also flattened out and the bounce is lowered to allow John to slide the club under the ball and float the shot from the approaches and bunkers onto the very fast greens of Augusta National.
Custom Fit Technician Dave Williams
Club Builder Derek Murray
- Once we finish the fitting, I pick the best two heads to suit the course and John's angle of attack for each of the wedge shots and yardages he wants.
- I grind the sole and heel of the 58* to allow him to slide the club under the ball and allow him to float the ball softly onto the greens at Augusta National.
- You have to keep checking the “flow” of the sole to make sure the grind is consistent and true.
- The 51* gets a little off the toe, heel and front edge to allow John to get more aggressive with the strike and hit the ball earlier for increased spin.
- I pick a True Temper Spinner shaft for more kick in the tip, a better weight balance and a truer feel throughout the swing. More feel = closer pitch shots.
- The shaft tip is prepped by scoring it on the belt sander strip and rub off the chrome finish so as I can get a good solid bond with the glue.
- The ferrule is fitted onto the shaft and check the hosel for the right depth and depth.
- The club is measured on our club ruler to customize the length of the clubs, which is relative to how far they will go and is matched his iron setup. Check twice and cut once!!
- The shaft is cut to the precise length
- The end burrs are rubbed off to help avoid and sharp edges once the grip goes on and to double check the exact length.
- The exact amount of glue is mixed up from a part A and part B shaft epoxy and glue to shaft to the head. This takes 24 hours to set in a special heat controlled gluing room.
- The Lie of the club is matched to John's irons and individually bent by hand to the correct loft settings of 51* and 58* so the ball will go the required 120 yards and 50 yards.
- We then put on the grip to match his irons and clean down the clubs and the two ForeGolf custom wedges are ready to go.
Prices start at €155 per wedge - completely custom made to suit you.
- If you're an existing customer, we can build them using your notes on file (in most cases)
- A 30 minute custom fitting analysis (wedges) costs €50
- A 1 hour full bag custom fitting analysis (every club) costs €100
Phone 045 430660 to book your appointment or
send an email to order your ForeGolf Wedges (if you've already been to see us)
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Meet Patrick and see how we gave him consistency and an extra 40 yards
If you want to be a better golfer then you need clubs that are not only custom fitted but also built by ForeGolf to exact measurements in our WorkShop - just like Patrick
You might have seen our TV advert, made with the help of AIB. We took four golfers and fitted them the exact same way Derek and Dave do everyday, except in front of a full camera crew. All the golfers used a test club during the session (just like a normal customer) then by the following week they got clubs that were hand built in our workshop.
We wanted to show the full story behind the TV advert so here's why Patrick wanted to be involved, what difficulty he had with his current clubs, what he hoped to achieve and how we made him a better golfer.
What happened during his session
Patrick had driver trouble, big driver trouble.
The shaft he had in his old Titleist driver was an Aldila VS Proto 65 and has a very high torque (the tip is very soft, made the head unstable at impact leaving the strikes in the face very inconsistent and mostly heel side).This meant he struggled with accuracy off the tee and his driver always put him into trouble. Patrick could swing it quite well with plenty of energy. His swing speed was high but the old club wasted all this speed by turning over when he hit the ball and all his shots went low, mostly left and in the rough.
What we built him to make him a better golfer
So we needed to fix his accuracy off the tee and build him a club to help him hit more fairways.
First we needed to stabilize the head so we tested a few much stiffer tipped shafts. The results were instant with him hitting the ball in the centre of the club more and the ball stopped hooking immediately. We grabbed the new Titleist 910 D3 head and screwed in a Miyazaki Kusala Black X Flex shaft with a much lower torque and stiffer tip to keep the head even more stable. We also wanted to maximise his speed so a lightweight 61 gram shaft was used, when the shaft is lightweight we can go to X Flex to get explosive distance off the driver.
Once we got the ball flight more consistent off the face and with the shaft managing the swing energy more efficiently we started to see quite an big increase in distance.
He hit it on average 40 yards longer and now arrow straight.
We'll be sharing the full story of each of the golfers over the coming weeks.
- If you missed the advert on TV, you can watch it here
- Want to see the full story of other golfers from the tv advert
- Interested in the behind the scenes footage and how the advert made with the help of AIB
- Thanks again AIB and everyone who had a hand in making our ForeGolf mini-documentary
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Review of Cleveland Classic Driver and CG Black Driver
As you know Derek Murray from ForeGolf is the Equipment Editor for Golf Digest Magazine, Irelands only monthly golf magazine.
It combines the best all that is golf from around the world and Ireland. Packed with tuition from the best in the game, feature interviews with our favourite players, tournament previews, overseas travel and equipment reviews. We promised to give you the inside story, so here's Derek's equipment article just for you.
Read Derek's review of Cleveland Classic Driver and Cleveland CG Black Driver
Got an iPhone ? Now get an Otterbox for it
There are a few things we couldn't live without, our iPhones are one of them. From the appointment diary, reminder lists for orders, tweeting the workshop build schedule and checking emails, our phones are never far from us. Now with the great people over at Otterbox, keeping them safe from harm in the workshop is a thing of the past.
One of the eagle eyed Otterbox crew spotted us taking photos and tweeting from the workshop and reckoned we were in need of a cover to keep our phones safe from the knocks and tumbles of club building. They sent us an email asking what type of iPhone we used and sent us a selection of their iPhone covers.
The have a full range of different iPhone covers, like the Commuter, the Reflex, the Impact and for serious protection the Defender Series.
We'd like to share the love and since we only need one, we'd like to offer the rest to our ForeGolf friends.We have a range of covers to give away in a range of colours.
Fill in the form below so we can stick your name in the hat, dont forget to tell us what iphone cover you would like.
If you want to take a photo of your ForeGolf clubs and show them off on the ForeGolf Facebook page or Tweet them to @foregolfcustom we'd like that too.
Improve your short game with custom built wedges by ForeGolf Hakusa
Some of the most commonly asked questions asked at our custom fitting sessions ... relates to wedges.
Q Why are there so many lofts like 48*, 50*, 52*, 54*, etc.?
Q I'm confused, how far my wedges should go?
Q How can I play different shots with the same wedge?
Q What is the best make of wedge for me?
Q Can I get a wedge that feels soft, stops quick and is easy to hit?
It was time to try and give our clients an easier way to develop their short game. Derek, Dave and Don spent countless lunch-hours and tea breaks mashing together their ideas. We all agreed that there are a lot of “grey areas” when it came to wedge choice so here is what we believe is the answer to all those questions ... The ForeGolf Wedges
Our customers said that different lofts that relate to how far they hit the ball are too hard to remember. We also found golfers had too many wedges, making distance control more confusing, so we took the numbers off the club heads. Instead we went with two colours on the back of the head.
A Black Wedge that goes short
A White Wedge that goes long
- Its simple, we bend the wedge loft to suit how far you want it to go and you end up with two circles of distance.
- The smaller circle is for the Black Wedge where you use it to chip with, flick it out of the bunkers and hit crisp, soft, flop shots around the green.
- The larger outer circle is where you hit the White Wedge and becomes your full chip shot with added control as you know exactly how far it goes. It's also great for chip and run shots and thanks to special grooves it gets great spin from every lie.
We then custom grind the sole to suit exactly the way you hit the ground and for the courses you are likely to play on. We can also adapt the grind to allow you to play shots with more spin or with lower bounce to allow you links golfers to slide the club cleanly under the ball.
We wanted the wedges to be the best you can get steel wise to make them feel really soft. We looked around at every type of steel and how wedges were made. We eventually got talking to the famous Japanese club manufacturer Hakusa who agreed to help us make the softest, most consistent wedges in the world. Hand forged with a single piece of the purest S25C Carbon steel, these heads are the best quality available.
We then tested every wedge shaft on the market, picked the best of the best and have a number of different shaft options again to suit the different golfers style, shot and spin requirements.
Available now, prices start at €155 per wedge, completely custom made to suit you.
Phone 045 430660 to order your wedges
or to book a custom fitting analysis
- If you've already been custom fitted at ForeGolf we can build them using your notes on file (in most cases)
- A 30 minute custom fitting analysis (wedges only) costs €50
- A 1 hour full bag custom fitting analysis (every club) costs €100
When it comes to the ForeGolf Wedges, there are no grey areas in your short game.
It's simply Black and White
UPDATE
Want to see exactly how we custom build the ForeGolf Hakusa Wedges, read this step by step article of custom built ForeGolf Wedges for John
Feedback of our new wedges from some customers. First up, Tadhg Harrington
Probably one of the best golfing experiences I have had
John travelled overseas to visit ForeGolf and had some feedback about his time with us
Hi Derek,
It was great to meet you too. I had a wonderful experience at ForeGolf, probably one of the best golfing experiences I have had. I learned loads about equipment and even more about my golf swing (that was an added bonus). I should also mention it was wonderful to get the warm Irish welcome from your Mum at the reception. She really put me at my ease which mean I was nice and relaxed when it came to the testing and hitting balls.
Fair play Derek you are one of the good guys and you have a great business in ForeGolf. Looking forward to the delivery and to a great summer of golf. I'll keep you posted.
Kind Regards,
John C
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Don’t let the difference between custom fitted and custom built clubs cost you your game.
We recently got an email from Darren M and he gave the best piece of advice we could give people who book a custom fitting analysis.
“ Just a quick email to say thank you. I am now hitting the ball straighter and longer and after this wonderful experience in your top of the range facility I have vowed never to buy a golf club from a retail outlet ”
Wise words that unfortunately don't feature is another customer’s story ....
Two months ago, we had a nice guy come see us for a full bag custom fitting analysis. He’s a good solid 12 handicapper. We assessed him and recommended Mizuno Irons with Nippon 950GH Stiff shafts. He went away to think about it and managed to get what he thought was the same Mizuno Irons with Nippon shafts, for a really low price (€95 less). In theory the shafts and heads were the same as we had recommended so he bought them.
Skip forward two months and we got a fairly irate phone call from the same guy who had himself all up in a bunch, he couldn’t hit the clubs. Although we had recommended we would build them for him, he had bought them elsewhere. We asked him to come back to see if we could we help him. We found that although he bought the correct club heads and shafts, they were not built and balanced to suit him.
Problem No 1
The irons were not balanced or swing-weighted correctly. They were too light in head weight which meant the swingweight was C9 and should have been D2. He felt no rhythm with the clubs and struggled to get any “hit” from them.
What it means:
The golfer could not feel the head and struggled to play half shots. The balance of the club is also linked to the golfers rhythm. The spin on the ball was too low as the shaft was not loading or flexing correctly as the head was light. The golfer struggled with 8, 9 and PW especially as the shaft felt too stiff or “dead “when hit with a head that was too light.
Problem No 2
The loft and lie angles had not been specified so were too weak and too flat. He was hitting them shorter in distance and missing to the right.
What it means:
The loft was 2 degrees too weak which meant the ball flight had too much spin from the head so it spun up towards the end of the flight leaving each iron shot short in distance and with no penetration.The lie angle was out 2 degrees and was too flat which meant the toe of the club hit the ground first at impact and made the ball fly right of target. For every degree the lie is out and away from centre the ball will miss the target by approx. 8 yards.
So, don’t be confused with the terms custom fitted and custom built. It is important to remember if you are going to be custom fitted by us, you have to follow through and get the clubs hand built in our WorkShop so we can match what we have measured you for.
It’s not enough to pick a set up and assume that the measurements are right or even “standard” because a website says so or a guy behind the counter says so. The clubs have to be built with zero tolerances by hand in the ForeGolf WorkShop.
PS He got his clubs rebuilt, he’s had two months of awful golf and he had to pay for the work to fix what he thought was a great idea at the time.
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Meet Vinny and watch his ForeGolf custom fitting analysis
You might have seen our new TV advert recently, made with the help of AIB
We took four golfers and fitted them the exact same way we do everyday, except in front of a full camera crew. No one had a script, the film crew stood back and filmed what Derek and Dave do every day. The only sequence shortened is the length of time it takes to hand build the club in our workshop. All the people were fitted using a test clubs, then we built them an exact performing replica the following week .
We wanted to show the full story behind the TV advert so here's why Vinny wanted to be involved, what difficulty he had with his current clubs, what he hoped to achieve and how we made him a better golfer.
If you want to be a better golfer then you need clubs that are not only custom fitted
but also built by ForeGolf to exact measurements in our WorkShop - just like Vinny
What happened during his session
When Vinny stood up to hit the ball it was easy to spot that his posture was crouched and uncomfortable. His current clubs were just too short and too flexible for him. The short club made him hit the ball with a steep swing angle causing big divots and high, short ball flight.The regular flex also made it impossible for Vinny to keep it consistently straight.
What we built him to make him a better golfer
We built him longer clubs with lighter, stiffer Nippon steel shafts which allowed him to stand taller with much better posture. He then stayed tall and turned his shoulders instead of picking the club up because he could. He then hit the ball cleaner, straighter and further.
Longer clubs with lighter stiffer steel shafts for Vinny = much better golf.
Sorted.
We'll be sharing the full story of each of the golfers from the TV advert over the coming weeks.
- If you missed the advert on TV, you can watch it here
- Take a look at the behind the scenes footage of our advert made with the help of AIB
- Thanks again AIB and everyone who had a hand in making our ForeGolf mini-documentary
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Recent Posts
- Behind the scenes of the custom built ForeGolf Wedges
- Meet Patrick and see how we gave him consistency and an extra 40 yards
- Review of Cleveland Classic Driver and CG Black Driver
- Got an iPhone ? Now get an Otterbox for it
- Improve your short game with custom built wedges by ForeGolf Hakusa
- Probably one of the best golfing experiences I have had
- Don’t let the difference between custom fitted and custom built clubs cost you your game.
- Meet Vinny and watch his ForeGolf custom fitting analysis
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