Creating the Best Golf Club in the World

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In today’s video, we make the pilgrimage to one of the most legendary locations in the world of golf club manufacturing. Former home of the Ben Hogan Golf Company, Nike’s “The Oven”, and now Artisan Golf – creators of the best wedges in the world.

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[Music] I’ve worked every day of my career in Fort Worth in the golf business for about 35 years now I come from the farm and from a rural world where I didn’t know anything about golf clubs ma but I knew how to work today I’ve arrived on the outskirts of Fort Worth Texas at one of the most historic and unknown places in the game of golf this small unassuming Warehouse was once The Cutting Edge Of Golf Club technology a place where Tiger Woods Rory mroy Michelle Wei and every other great player on the Nike team made pilgrimage I’ve come to visit the oven okay cool thanks there you go you there boy I was fired up this morning my guys said y’all are timing today yeah and this shop looks like we worked in it they cleaned it up so good this is Mike Taylor co-founder of artisan golf of came to Fort Worth like I’m going to go get me a career started in Aerospace business I guess found some passion in the golf business and just kept at it 40 years ago Mike began working for the legendary ball Striker and major Champion Ben Hogan grinding Club heads by hand you’re seeing probably the greatest shop maker in the history of golf right here I want you to watch the way he handles those hands boy he looks like a machine in a lot of ways Hogan was the tiger of his era and the expectations were high you know he was pretty demanding of himself and so he expected a lot out of the equipment and on the people there in the team it was quite an operation when we were becoming these Master Craftsman we built a set of forgings we’ve always called these flatbacks these flatbacks were sketched by hand Something Mike still does today while the rest of the industry relies on computer modeling a lot of golf clubs in that bag are parented to that blank this 99 Apex come directly out of a set of these and we made them by hand and they looked exactly like this that was a good project that was that was some good stuff I’ve even made tour athletes sets out of these out of these blanks like that in 1993 the Ben Hogan company left Fort Worth for good but Mike stayed and he kept his tools some of these machines that I’ve worked on for so long I didn’t want anybody else to run them them are my girls I’m supposed to dance with them Mike joined forces with Master Club designer Tom Stites and putter Craftsman John Hatfield to form impact golf Technologies we were just guys that had some skills and talents as a team and Tom went out and found us some work so that we could do our thing and take care of our family 10 years later they got a call from Oregon Nike wanted to build golf clubs impact was no more Nike’s Global Center for golf research and development had a new name the oven he built a relationship with tiger and personally designed his tiger slam blades the set that won all four majors in the same year and we had some incredible years and and I saw some displays of ball striking that were just incredible just it’s hard to describe but it’s good what’s inside here Mike well in here these are kind of some of the things that we just there were a lot of things that were taken out of this facility there’s just old wedges that belong to a lot of the athletes that you know we made wedges far back in the day there’s some stuff some Rory wedges in here there’s some worn out tiger wedges that are still around uh can I see one of those just stuff that do you look at those and like what what goes through your head when you look at a a a what goes through your head when you look at that I’m pretty proud of what the brand and that particular athlete accomplished during that time I mean he’s he’s without question probably the greatest player I ever worked with then in 2016 everything changed it seems like there’s less L and less to cover with golf these days Adidas had already decided to pull out of its golf business and now we’re hearing Nike is doing it about 6 years ago so we’re looking at 2015 or 16 somewhere along there you know I knew something was going on but it was probably ended up being a little more a little more severe than what I thought in the golf world this is a this is a big shock if it wear an apparel just fits more with Nike’s overall business as a whole you know the idea that you’re going to have engine out there developing clubs developing bags developing balls is a whole different step away from the core Nike product it was a total move away from the hard Goods part of the business right then and there during that time is when John and I began to have conversations about Artisan we didn’t know it was going to be Artisan but we’re going to continue this path somehow or another and you know leveraged every relationship we could Mike and John invested $100,000 of their own money to lease the oven and its machinery for their new company Artisan golf it was the biggest gamble of their lives you know a lot of people come here they see the vision of artisan is that oh man this is the springboard for the next big brand or whatever I don’t want it to be a big brand I want it to be a nice small brand I want it to be something special for the people that come here I want them to experience what the athletes that have come here experien thewing shop what do we have here the wall of fame what does that say Mike what was it like did you work with George Straight I will tell you this about the day that guy was here he did not have a cowboy hat on until he was 5T away I had no idea who the dude was man that guy looks like George straight and I’m like dang it is George Straight what about uh Michael Jordan oh that was a fun day man what uh what’s his we made we made clubs for him multiple times uh course really upright in along and the grips on those things are just monstrous they’re huge fire H kid they used to do his grips would literally take the shafts home at night to wine tape on them we made wedges for Anthony Kim and Rory and tiger and of course we’ always been really proud of Abraham you know we worked with him since he was back in college and you know look what he accomplished over the years after learning about the history of this building I’m a little nervous I have some pretty big shoes to fill sorry to interrupt thank you so much for watching this video thanks for being a part of all of our community events and as a special thank you unicor whom we’ve recently partnered with random golf club is very proud to be partnered with unicorn if you don’t know what a launch monitor is it’s a game changer they’ve been around for 20 years and it basically takes pictures of the golf ball right as it takes off liar radar and photography totally wild and allows you to get better at golf faster which is what we want and as a celebration of our partnership what I’m really excited to announce is something pretty crazy we’ve never done a giveaway of this magnitude we’re going to give away the I mini see it over there it’s whining it’s saying take me home I’m thirsty you know so it’s going to come into your house if you’re lucky give it a glass of milk and then charge it up hit some golf Falls and see what’s really going on and you only have to do two things to get entered into the giveaway for the unicore IM mini you have to hit the link in our description and fill out the form but you probably want to do that after doing the first thing which is subscribe to our YouTube channel it’s not that hard guys it’s pretty easy and so is learning about your own golf game with the unicor IM mini is designed for players that are on the go and who want to practice a lot it’s designed to be an accessible entrance into the launch monitor Market that’s one of the reasons why I love it so much you’re going to love it so thanks random Golf Club Community and we’ll see you on the road for the Mad scramble the dates were just announced to those subscribed to our email list which you will be subscribed after you apply to win the unicor IM mini this is going on way too long back to the video I want to introduce you to my fitter hey wedge organizer Jamie pxs hey Jamie nice to meet you this is Jamie pipes Artisan golf’s Master Club fitter we measure what tools you’ve been playing okay okay cuz these babies have been training you whether you realize or not your computer upstairs adapts to what’s in your hands okay and we’re golfers are great adapters so I got the Gap and The Sand Wedge 2° apart it’s supposed to be 50 and 54 supposed to be wa next thing is the lengths all right oh wow they’re not even the same lengths you know most companies do it a quter inch all right so I brought the nine iron just to check the length of the pitch and wedge and the nine iron and they kind of flow like they’re supposed to and then these drop off a little shorter interesting we’d like to see that just a little bit smoother okay I’m so excited to fix all these problems be honest with you just can’t wait these we always call them the money grooves these grooves down here they make the money these up here don’t make the money you start using these they don’t make the money so regardless if you open the face or you start manipulating with the hands or different things you know we we what do we see when we put it down there right do we see confidence to get this ball from the turf I do not to here let’s fix this problem man let’s go Jamie just like that it’s time to hit golf balls this is mainly just to loosen up okay God there is something about hitting a bad shot in front of someone really smart standing behind you I make people nervous but I don’t bite Jamie mostly uses his eyes to measure my swing like a Texan version of Miran as you go down the wedges could be a little bit heavier okay and like Mike was alluding to the the weight in the wed shafts helps your Tempo really yeah yeah guys I feel like I’m in the hospital and I didn’t even know I was sick I’ve just never had a wedge fitting that focused on short game on the on the Finesse shots and it’s a total like mindblower for me to think about how the wedge is really the only Club in the bag that has like all these different ways of being utilized in a swing eight clubs yeah yards that’s a lot of clubs and then you get the wedge game and that’s the reason that wedge game has got to be balanced properly so that we don’t have holes in that part come on you need to score from that pitch and wedge end you need to be able to score man come on we need to be able to make it happen you do need to score we head to the short game area with a full bag of prototype wedges finally I get to hit an artisan wedge So Jamie was just saying he noticed that I had Aros on my clubs and he was saying that if I looked at the stats after the round I would notice that what you say 2third of my shots are inside 135 yeah yeah that’s crazy to me most of the golf happens inside a pitching wedge so first part we’re just going to let you hit through ours just kind of get to know the different grinds we’re testing the different grinds on the bottom it feels very different it’s shorter and heavier oh interesting what happened there you were committed wow you got speed got you to that point where you committed look at that hey it’s kind of like taking a nickel flipping it up in there you really it’s a seamless okay these yardages we we need to be seamless committed seamless committed consistent and delivering that face back to that ball right bang bang bang bang oh Jesus now you’re in the cockpit Jamie watch out there’s no Oxygen in here dude that’s a good one [Laughter] there that was a good ball strike that was nice this is a crazy looking Club just crazy looking club I’m seeing just a straight angle here there’s no there’s no bulge or or divot in here M what do you call this yeah what is that what do you call transition transition transition the Leading Edge junk huzzle transition to me that’s a craftsmanship thing that you see here in this shape here you know the hle looks like it’s in the right place ex it’s relative to the where the where we’re going to strike the ball yeah it is beautiful after testing a half a dozen or so heads and Lofts Jamie’s done it’s Mike’s turn now that good work that was fun thank you Jamie it that was really fun I feel like I learned a lot about just my own game we make a professional athlete a wedge the proc process is exactly the same the deliverable the antenna the deliverable is exactly the same according to Mike my wedges will be made exactly the same way as Rory’s were there’s a sense of Pride that people have when they’ve got something that they know is just theirs it’s a little ego and everybody I guess it’s like see this wedge you don’t have one like this Mike’s attention to detail is truly remarkable and it’s clear that every step of the process is car out with a Craftsman’s care it’s the effort you put in that determines the quality of your work and when you pour your heart and soul into something the results speak for themselves it’s special to see someone that walk in this door here that’s waited 6 or eight weeks for a set of wedges or a Putter and to watch them pull that head cover off of there and look at something that belongs to them they didn’t go down to the store and go hey I’ll take that one no this belongs to you this has been created for you the rich history of artisan is still felt in every corner of the building and the people who work here as I reflect on my time here one thing that stands out to me is the value of hard work especially when it comes to crafting something truly unique the past still exists here but it’s not something that anyone comes here to leverage that as far as what our future looks like now it’s about what we do and what we can do for our customer in those athletes but that that past it’s here that history is here I think as long as the people are here it’s still here Mike and John are more than just Club makers they are part of a lineage of skilled metal workers spanning thousands of years who armed Knights Shaw tournament horses and crafted works of art unparalleled in Beauty and form Mike has devoted his entire life to perfecting the intricacies of a single wedge and while the oven may have closed there is a new name for this Rarity in the world of commercial golf the forge a place where raw materials are transformed into masterpieces and where the fires of creativity and Excellence burn forever bright all right so that’s the end of the fitting here today we’re going to drive back to Austin and I’m going to do nothing for the next 6 to 8 weeks until the club Box about that big arrives and then I’m going to open it up and uh immediately go just live my best life basically so thanks for watching the first of two videos uh where we got fited Artis and for what do you call these the best wedges in the world yeah something like that best wedges in the [Music] world we used to think that golf was a game for stuffy old dudes with Argyle pants or that golf courses were were just a great place to make out but over the years we found that golf is actually an adventure whether you play in your backyard or thousands of miles away so when we set out to make a club we didn’t look around at what everyone else was doing we made it for us for everyone join random golf club for events tournaments and Golf Course benefits in your area