Each month this blog will give an insight into the daily workings of our custom assembly workshop. This will be an exclusive look behind the scenes of how our custom product is assembled at our technical facility in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Along the way we will give sneak peeks of prototype JL products and catch up with our tour players as they visit us for testing and tweaks.
We hope that you enjoy the blog, thanks for reading.
New John Letters Sporting Ambassadors on board
Recently the John Letters brand decided to broaden our appeal into a different sporting arena.....that of rugby league. The Rugby League World Cup is held in England and Wales this Autumn and many of the Huddersfield Giants team that is local to our technical facility are internationals and world class players.
As with many professional sports teams a lot of the players play golf to a good standard and we are now delighted to have on board England international Eorl Crabtree and Scotland International Danny Brough as JL Sporting Ambassadors. Our brief with the two players was to fully kit them out with customised golf clubs and help them to lower their handicaps through technical and instructional support. The guys will play our brand and help with publicity through local and national media particularly the golf and rugby league sectors.
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| Danny & Eorl with their new JL clubs |
Eorl and Danny had a full testing and fitting session with our new TR47 range as well as Tour Black wedges at our teaching academy which is coincidentally next to the stadium where the guys play. Readings were taken on our Flightscope launch monitor and specifications were taken on shaft flex, shaft length, and loft and lie angles.
Club Assembly
Completed specification sheets were passed onto the workshop where our team of technicians interpreted data taken and decided on the best set make up.
Eorl's specs were particularly challenging as he is 6"6" tall and has huge hands. We had to make the most use of the shaft and the energy created through his swing. At 1.75" longer this used the full length of the uncut shaft available to us in his irons. As club lengths are made longer the overall club weight increases and the balance of weight (swingweight) increases in the club head. For many people this would mean a struggle to keep the club head square at impact and also result in a loss of swing speed and therefore distance. In Eorl's case though he is a big strong man and we expect to see more distance as he fully loads the shaft with power creating maximum energy transfer at impact. Five extra wraps of tape were added to his grips to help fatten the grip into his hands. A big saying for club technicians is that a golfer should have their clubs altered to suit their swing not the other way around, this was particularly true in Eorl's case.
We fitted Eorl into a mallet shaped head putter which would give more forgiveness on putts. He had spent years leaning over his putter to get his hands on the grip so we decided to extend the shaft 2" longer with four extra layers of tape under the grip. Lead tape was then added to the putter head as some feel and control will have been lost with the extra length.
Danny had pretty much standard spec clubs. This means John Letters standard, be aware that in the golf industry there are no 'standards' throughout, each manufacturer has their own lengths, lofts, lies etc. Danny is a good fluid ball striker and he was fitted into our Master Model irons enabling him to have more precision and control over his shots. He will also play TR47 woods and a Golden Goose putter.
Both players had their names and squad numbers stamped on to their Tour Black wedges as well as a one off custom gold finish. Custom stamping is something that we offer to all customers buying the Tour Black or MM Grind wedges.Danny and Eorl were presented with all custom fitted clubs and other John Letters equipment on the pitch at the John Smiths Stadium. Its fair to say that they were delighted with the outcome and couldn't wait to get on the course to test the clubs out.
We look forward to hearing feedback from the guys and helping them to lower their handicaps over the coming months. They will also have the opportunity to test some of our prototype products as we seek feedback from regular golfers.
Congratulations
John Letters Golf would like to pass on our huge congratulations to Danny and Eorl for their pivotal roles in helping the Huddersfield Giants come top of the league for the first time in 81 years. This is some achievement and was made even sweeter when both players were named in the '2013 Dream Team' which awards the best players in their position throughout the season. Well done to both!
On the back of this achievement we were privileged to be able to show the League Leaders shield around our technical facility. All the best to Danny and Eorl as they now look forward to the play offs.
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