JL Workshop Blog September 2013

Hello and welcome to the John Letters Workshop Blog.

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.



Danny & Eorl with their new JL clubs

Initial Testing

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.










Woburn Senior Masters

Despite dramatically changing weather patterns at Woburn during the past two Pro-Am days, John Letters putting & short game specialist, Andy Gorman was again kept busy exhibiting wedges & putters from the world famous brand. He had his busiest tournament too, providing putting stroke analysis and coaching to many of the leading European Senior Tour Players.

Feedback from Juan Quiros, Angel Franco, Bobby Lincoln, commended the quality of finish and feel to the MasterModel prototype putters and were keen to see the production models in order to put them into tournament play. Tour winners Mark Mouland, Dennis Sullivan, Phil Golding and several others including leading amateur Charley Hull trialled Andy's prototype and soon to be launched T-Stroke putting trainer and discussed his putting principles and thoughts on improving their own strokes. "Its been a great week of player interaction and assistance! I grew up watching many of these players and I often need to remind myself I'm not the 16 year old kid that worked at the Belfry from 1985-89 witnessing two Ryder Cups and several Tour events where so many of these great players showcased their talents. I knew then how privileged I was watching great players like Seve, Pinero, Lyle, Faldo, Torrance & co and hoped to play alongside them at some point. But today 25+ years later I'm helping them to continue competing in their Senior years on Tour!

Working with John Letters allows me to fulfil some of my childhood ambitions and I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity now."

Welsh Seniors Open

This week on the Seniors tour there is a welcome return to picturesque Conwy Golf Club. Although heavy rain was predicted thankfully so far there has been sun and a fair wind.

The John Letters Tour vechicles have a fantastic location on the practice ground right next to the first tee. This enables the rarity of watching our product in action direct from the tour truck!

Our position next to the 1st tee

 

Most of the work this week has been tweaking loft/lies, regripping and advice on shafts. A very pleasing aspect is that this week there are no fewer than 8 sets of irons in play, 40 wedges and numerous woods and hybrids. We are seeing a great knock on effect of our staff players showing off their Master Model irons to fellow pros who in turn come to us to test the clubs and request custom builds to test. Australian Pro Graham Banister had a set built to his specs and played them in the first round to an excellent two under score.

 

 

 

Although the public can not access the truck at this event we have been innundated with interest from caddies, marshalls and officials showing interest in our product. There is a real buzz around John Letters product this week and the amount of bags, caps and towels around the course is a real pleasure to see.

 

JL players have started strongly after the first round and we look forward to seeing how they progress over the weekend and helping the guys with tweks and technical advise. Good luck to all playing John Letters!



Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles

Despite changeable weather, the practice range and putting green were consistently busy during practice days at this year’s Johnnie Walker Championship @Gleneagles; starting today 23^rd Aug. Players were very focused, getting back into tournament mode after a three week lay-off and with the final Ryder Cup places being decided over the next few days, on the venue for 2014, players are keen to create the right impression to El Captain Jose Maria Olazabal. Andy Gorman was on hand with John Letters products including: Golden Goose Putters, MasterModel Putters & wedges and Tour Black & TPS wedges. Many players pass by during the practice days to see what’s new and this was the first time Andy had introduced the TPS wedges on the European Tour. Players & coaches alike liked the shape and playability of the wedges, suggesting the bounce made the club very easy to use for all golfers and the milled face would assist in spinning the ball for better control on partial shots. Andy has been personally using these wedges in recent weeks and confirms the spin and flight of these wedges is first class with the bounce and feel of the club comparing to clubs twice the price......

Custom Paint Infill

At John Letters we are passionate about fitting clubs to the individual golfer. We are firm believers that your clubs should be altered to suit your swing, never alter your swing to fit your clubs. Aswell as offering numerous shaft and grip combinations on iron models we can even offer custom paint infill.

Custom paint infill is available in our Master Model Satin and Black iron heads. This addition makes your set unique to you and quite possibly the only set in the world! We have requests for specs such as football team colours and national flag colours. There are four parts of the clubhead that can be painted with anything from bright yellow to British Racing Green. Some examples that our Master Craftsmen have produced for customers can be seen below:







British Par 3 Championship

Day two and three of the British Par 3 Championship are tournament days. Aswell as celebrities there are the likes of some serious players like Graeme Storm, Gary Wolstenholme and Ian Woosnam.

As we have excellent relations with the Senior Tour players this tournament is a chance to catch up on any adjustment or tweaks that are needed. John Letters player Paul Wesselingh visited the truck for a new T9+ #2 hybrid. Paul is looking for a lower flight club with more distance to fill a yardage gap problem that he currently has. We will catch up with Paul next week at the Scottish Seniors tournament for feedback.

Andrew Sherbourne starts his round

With the competition coming to a close the John Letters tour truck has been busy with regripping, loft/lie checks and also sharing our technical knowledge. Members of the public are invited onto the truck for a look around and to field any questions they have about Pros, clubfitting and life on tour. At a usual tour event the public can not gain acces to the tour vechicles and so this is a rare oppurtunity to come onboard and watch our technicians at work.

Sky Sports presenter Alan McInally is a regular visitor to the tour vechicle. Alan came on board whilst we built him a Master Model Tour Black driver to compliment his bag of Master Model irons and Black Tour wedges. These clubs came to good effect recently when he won the Footballers Classic event held at La Manga in Spain, our congratulations to Alan.

Strictly Come Dancing star Len Goodman was so impressed with our Master Model wedges that he bought one and put it straight into the bag for tournament play.

With the sun blazing down on the final day of competition at the Cromwell Course our attentions now turn to the Scottish Seniors event at the Fairmont course in St Andrews next week. This is the first of three Seniors events on the bounce with visits to Conwy in Wales and then onto Woburn. With a short turnaround period between events our technicians are busy today assesing what component clubheads, shafts grips etc are required aswell as glue, grip tape and all other consumables.

The entrance to the British Par 3 Championship

British Par 3 Championship 2012

A welcome return to this event held at the superb Nailcote Hall near Coventry. This is John Letters 3rd year supporting this event and it offers us a different challenge to our usual tour events. Whilst there are European Tour, Senior Tour and golfing legends present we are also able to spend time directly with the public showcasing our product, give tours of our support vehicles and also sharing our technical knowledge (when asked!).

The first day of the tournament included celebrities playing with a mixture of Pros and amatuers. Famous faces to pop into the truck were Alan McAnally of Sky Sports and legendary West Indies cricketer Gordon Greenidge who had a full set regrip.

The defending champion Andrew Sherbourne spent time on the truck as we built a back up Master Model Black driver ready for a tough six week straight schedule on the European Senior Tour. Andrew took the oppurtunity to take a brand new Torrance stand bag, one of the first in the country!

The Sam Torrance Chipping Challenge

Aswell as the tour side of operations we also like to add a bit of fun where possible. The Sam Torrance chipping challenge provides competitors with a chance to win a JL Tour Black Wedge for the highest points scorer of the day. All winners have there wedge adjusted correctly for them by a European Tour Technician on the tour truck. Congratulations to the winners!