Our Tools
The centerpiece of the California Golf Technologies business is the collection of inventions for measuring and analyzing golf swings and ball flight. Golfers have become more willing to trust technology to help them understand their swings and their clubs.
Ten years ago, Strategic Shaft Technologies (SST) developed and patented a way to measure the physical properties of a golf shaft and a method for realigning the shaft to neutralize the effect of imperfections in manufacturing. SST PURE ® technology delivers more consistent feel and performance.
The Golf Lab was the first independent clubmaker to license SST technology in the State of California. That was 2002. Since then three new California licensees have joined the SST family. There are only 60 worldwide licensees of SST PURE ™ shaft alignment technology.
Since 2002, SST PURE ™ technology has become widely accepted on the PGA Tour and among the Long Drive Community. SST publishes a weekly newsletter that you can find on the Golf Lab website. The newsletter keeps track of PGA Tour usage and provides weekly insider PGA Tour news. Even the secretive Tiger Woods has been reported choosing SST PUREd ™ irons.
Launch monitors are ubiquitous for clubfitting. Unfortunately, no launch monitor has proven superior for all forms of measurement and analysis. The Golf Lab has three launch monitors, each the best example of the underlying technology: lasers, high speed photography and radar. Each one makes a unique contribution to precise swing analysis and clubfitting. No one launch monitor technology is totally reliable on its own.
As useful as launch monitors may be, they don't shed much light on the relationship between a player and his golf clubs. We cover that requirement with another invention: the Max Out Technologies Shaft Max. The Shaft Max was the brainchild of Mitch Voges, the 1991 US Amateur Champion and proprietor of Max Out Golf in Los Angeles. It is an instrumented club that measures tempo, shaft deflection and acceleration. Taken together, those readings tell us how a player "loads" the shaft. The Shaft Max permits us to make a much more reliable recommendation for shaft length, shaft weight, shaft weight and overall bend profile than swing speed alone.
Making a correct fitting recommendation is useless unless you can build the clubs that match the fit. Our assembly techniques incorporate all of the latest methods and standards endorsed by the Association of Golf Equipment Professionals (AGEP) and the Professional Clubmakers' Guild.
We are experienced with all current methods of frequency matching, sloping, and balancing by swing weight or moment of inertia (MOI) and determining the length and set makeup for your custom clubs. There is no "trial and error". We get it right the first time.
The Golf Lab workshop is the equal of any in the industry. All of our shop tools and equipment are Mitchell, the professional standard. We have the professional machines and gizmos to test, measure and adjust all of your clubs – from driver to putter. When it comes to "building the fit" the Golf Lab is equipped for the task.
Your custom clubs are delivered with complete documentation of weights, frequencies and components that not only pinpoint exactly what we built, but also enable precise replication of any club should that be necessary. You will find more information on the "buzzwords" and other jargon in our "Dictionary" section. Customers receive complete documentation – and we store a copy for future reference.
The final element is the skill and experience to do the job. Leith Anderson and Clint Smith combine for twenty years of full time experience fitting and building custom golf clubs. Talent, skill and experience are important on both ends of the equation.
Our Irons
Many golfers have emotional links with certain name brands. We never try to talk a player into divorcing a brand he has grown up loving. In the big picture, brands don't really matter. Every golf equipment manufacturer has a lineup that fills all the holes. With irons, all major equipment companies make a player's blade, a midsize cavity back, a game improvement and super game improvement model.
Our goal in fitting for iron heads is to make sure that the player chooses the right size, shape and weight to get the very best performance from his swing. When it comes to brands, we are "agnostic". We work with all brands. We have our "favorites". We like the smaller companies with dedicated long-term employees that make a very high quality product. You will detect which those companies are with a close reading of our website.
But OUR favorites don't really matter. Most of our business is rebuilding irons a player already owns. After analysis and testing, we modify club length, head weight, shaft weight, flex and balance. We swap shafts for feel and ball flight. We adjust lies and lofts. We try different grips. We know Mizuno, Taylor Made, Titleist, Ping, Nike and Adams intimately. Any set of irons can be a very good set, if they fit the player.
We never recommend a change unless we can verify by electronic testing that the change yields a MEASURABLE performance improvement. We assume that a higher ball speed will produce more distance. We know that a more consistent swing path and face angle at impact will produce more solid ball striking. We also know that a more consistent launch angle will produce better distance control. These are the factors that we can measure electronically and that we rely on to make our recommendations. If we can't measure an improvement in performance – our recommendation will always be to stick with what you have.
And you never have to take our recommendation at face value. You can take our test clubs to the range or your course to verify our test results.
Whatever Brand you favor, we can turn a set of clubs that came off of an assembly line into a truly customized set.
About those favorites. A few family-owned Japanese boutique foundries have survived through the years. Their heritage goes back to the ancient days of forging Samuri swords. Have a look at Miura and Vega. On a larger scale, Epon is not a family boutique but their irons are exceptionally good. On the American side, we favor Scratch which sources their forgings from another Japanese foundry – Ishihara. We keep faith with the American tradition of betting on the underdog. For forged irons, we would never forget Mizuno.
We also like the "classics". If you're thinking about playing a forged iron, you can't do better than the Taylor Made TPF from 1984. If you want a little forgiveness in a forged cavity back iron, find a set of Hogan GCD Tour Forged from 1993, install a set of modern shafts and never look back. If you grew up watching Palmer and Casper, try a set of Wilsons from the 1960's. Not so sure about playing a blade? No problem, Pick up a set of classic Ping Eye2's and rebuild them to modern specifications. If you love the classics, you should have fun exploring the Golf Lab website. We have quite a collection.