The Irish Open 2008 – Derek Murray

I spent 4 busy days working with the maestro of club-making Iain (Clarkie) Clark. We arrived on the Sunday before the tournament and stayed until Wednesday. This was Cleveland Golf’s first event this year so we were quite busy. Srixon is the sister company of the new Cleveland Golf owners so both are operating from the one truck. I arranged the balls, gloves, towels and hats for the Srixon players and made sure they went out to the players prior to the Wednesday Pro-Am. We spent a lot of time building new wedges for the players and I got to do a bit of work for Jean van de Velde and my good South African friend Tommy Aitken. Clarkie spent a lot of time grinding the soles of wedges to suit the playing conditions at Adare with players such as Bradley Dredge, David Howell, Anthony Wall, Gary Orr and Michael Lorenzo-Vera dropping into the Cleveland trailer to get some new wedges sorted out. I was very impressed with Michael Lorenzo-Vera and would really like to see him do well. We had great craic with him, he’s a very talented, down to earth guy.

I met up with on old friend, Mike Perry. I first met Mike in 1993 at The European Open at The K Club when he worked for Apollo Shafts. He is one of the original club-makers and an expert in shaft technology and design. He advises many players on Tour and is a haven of information. He has worked with Grafalloy and True Temper for a long time and more recently joined up with Aldila shafts. He explained to me a new process of shaft construction that makes up VOODOO. This shaft has a very distinctive manufacturing process that has revolutionised the ever present pursuit of weight reduction with playability and strength. This is a really HOT product and expect to see it reviewed in an upcoming issue of Golf Digest Ireland.

Taylor Made Golf’s spanking new tour truck rolled into Adare Manor and I had a chance to have a quick peep around the inside. Two huge pods slide out to expand the trailer into a huge workspace. It also has an office and the most concise and organised storage for balls, hats, shafts and heads. Taylor Made have one of the largest stable of players on Tour so they will need every inch of this massive truck to service their players. I suspect Sean, Daz and the boys will be very busy this year and with a truck of that size I hope all their "drives" are straight ahead.

It was all action on the range, I was called for an interview by RTE Radio, to give my insight into club building for the pros. It went out on RTE Radio 1’s Des Cahill’s Drivetime Sport on the Tuesday of The Irish Open. During my interview there was a piece from Padraig Harrington saying how important the tour service guys are to the players, which I thought was nice. Sometimes weeks go by without a sign of appreciation so it was good to hear our efforts acknowledged. I love working on the tour but surrounded with such immense pressure, I am always glad to get back to the Fore Golf HQ in Naas for a sharp, welcomed dose of reality. (You can click the above link to hear the show from RTE's podcast).

Theres a new grip from Lamkin, which is co-produced with technology from Good-Year the tyre company. The exterior has grooves and cuts on it very like a tyre tread to help with grip. I guess the knowledge behind it makes sense, we use it every day to keep our cars solid so why not on a golf grip. It has a logo of the Michelin man on it so it will be easily recognisable.

Peter Lawrie won a few weeks ago and in doing so brought to my attention a new steel shaft called The FST. I immediately ordered some for testing and I will report back my findings in a future blog. Peter reckons they feel great and have a very consistent flex and ball flight. We will see, but you can be sure if he has them in the bag I will be ordering some very soon.