Equipment
GolfWRX Interivew – Miura Golf Part 1
GolfWRX, your all inclusive internet golf headquarters is proud to present an interview with Miura Golf and Bill Holowaty.
0:23 – Bill Holowaty: Sure can. I guess the passion for me like all of us grabbed me at a young age. I played, my dad was a golfer, and I played from the time I was probably eight or nine years old. I’m from, there’s a town or a city in Canada called Regina, Saskatchewan, where my dad was a member at the Regina Golf and Country Club and that is where I first got exposed to golf. Just has basically been something that has always been my summer passion if you will from that time forward. I had played hockey, minor hockey up through university and then professionally in
04:26 – GolfWRX: Now, I‘ve heard it’s true that Mr. Miura still has a position on the forging line and grinding line, is that true?
12:17 – Bill Holowaty: And again Kiran, and I don’t mean to jump in here, but as we talk about the forging process that’s what is responsible for getting the grain structure as tight as it is.
15:06 – GolfWRX: Now I know you touched on this briefly but we were wondering if you could go into a little more detail about exactly what sort of impact metallurgy has on forging. There are so many different carbon steels on the market, 8620, 1020, 1030, 1025, how do you know which one is the best for golf clubs and is there a best?
17:17 – Bill Holowaty: This is always a delicate subject when talking about this and delicate only from the stand point of I absolutely want to make certain that everyone knows it’s not meant for us to be secretive at all. In fact, we would love, or I would love to make known what Mr. Miura has done on the behalf of others, because many have probably been exposed, seen, or hit irons made at the Miura factory in the past but just didn’t know it, they had another name on them. The reason that there is a little bit of a cloud of secrecy has everything to do with the integrity of Mr. Miura and nothing else. He has gone into agreements with these manufactures over the years and worked on behalf of them and his belief is that if they want to make known where they had the clubs made that’s fine. But he won’t speak specifically about it with the exception of one company and that company would be Maruman. Mr. Miura had a relationship with the President of Maruman back in the early 90s and he has no problem talking to and about that. With respect to other OEM companies, it is most secret and common knowledge that Mr. Miura has worked with the top equipment companies at some time or another over the past fifteen to twenty years and those companies would include Maruman, PRGR, Taylormade, Titleist, Nike, Hogan, MacGregor, Armour, the list goes on. This is common knowledge, I’m not talking out of school, so to speak, but the relationship that was or is with OEM companies stopped in 2004. He still does and produces some OEM stuff on a very limited basis just for Japanese markets. In 2004 was the last work that he did on behalf of Taylormade and again that is something they made mention of on their website at that time. That their true preferred models were forged at the Miura factory but that ended in 2004. To date we can say that he does do some specific work on behalf of some PGA professionals and Japanese professionals and European professionals. He does on a one and two off basis for those individuals on the behalf of equipment companies but again that is usually one or two sets at a time and nothing in the production numbers.
0:10 – GolfWRX: We have a couple of big Miura fans on our board, and one of them asked, "Are all U.S. Miura irons and wedges forged and manufactured in Japan, or is the rumor true that Miura has started to forge and finish some of it’s product in Taiwan and China?"
0:30 – Bill Holowaty: Well, again, I will say to everyone on your board that there is only one Miura factory. That Miura factory is in Himeji, Japan. It is a family business, as I said. The process of producing clubs doesn’t lend itself to mass production, so the only place that Miura clubs come from is Himeji, Japan. Unfortunately, part of becoming more well known is there are people out there who will go out and try to make counterfeits and knock offs to try and take advantage of what has happened. With forgings, it is difficult to do that. One of the reasons we began to put genuine on the back of our hosels was so that we could make difficult, the attempt to counterfeit or copy our irons. We do know there are a couple of companies or individuals manufacturing clubs they say are Miura. They have an awkward or unusual logo which in no way resembled ours, but in terms of genuine Miura product, there is only one factory and that is the one located in Himeji, Japan.
2:11 – GolfWRX: Thank you for clearing that up for us. Can you describe the design process for Miura clubs? I know you guys don’t have the extensive design teams of some of the larger OEM’s, but you are still able to produce some beautiful looking clubs that play wonderfully. How are you guys able to do this?
2:30 – Bill Holowaty: Again, Mr. Miura has had the benefit of working with top equipment companies over the years, so obviously there is a connection there. Mr. Miura’s mind, I would say to you is very unique. We often talk in golf about begin a feel player. I would say that he is a look and feel designer. What I mean by that is in working with professionals, you can see him squatting down on his haunches, just outside the ball on the turf and listening for hte sound and watching the ball come off the club face, literally being inches away from the golf ball. Listening to the sound, observing divots, observing ball flights. So in this say and age when we look ot modern technology – launch monitors, ball flight monitors, robots – Mr. Miura still relies a great deal on what he sees and what he feels. Now having said that, one of the advantages of a forged golf club is it’s really impossible to redesign the wheel. Our Tournament Blade is our Tournament Blade, and out side of some cosmetics, you really aren’t going to be able to reinvent that. So, there is some small tweaking that goes on, you can change profiles, top lines, and leading edges but the overall design of the club is pretty solid. You can look at all manufacturers and the shapes of their blades. We often hear comments, "This reminds me of an old MacGregor, or this reminds me of my old Titleists," and you can see that’s been the case. I can you the example of Mr. Miura’s old blades he sells in Japan. It is in fact been in his line in Japan for seven years. That’s unheard of in terms of having one product and not reintroducing something every year. Having said that he feels there isn’t much to do to that and it will be in there. His designing now is changing a little bit. Again, with his sons involved and certainly a keener and more current eye for design, there is the use of computer and robot at the Miura facility that the sons are championing. In terms of the actual design, I think it’s very much a connection with tradition and history, understanding how golf clubs have evolved in the past fifty years. When we understand or know how Mr. Miura has been involved in producing golf clubs for that time, I think you will find he has a very good understanding of all the designs that are out there and has been able to incorporate them into our current one.
6:16 – GolfWRX: Once you have that design, can you walk us through exactly how they’re manufactured. I know you said there are 14 steps, so can you give us a brief run-down of what happens once you get the metal?
6:33 – Bill Holowaty: Step one, you have your billets of steel. Basically, if you can imagine a little bit larger than a roll of quarters – that is heated up and put into the die. That becomes literally the shape of the club head. When I first went to look and travel to Japan to see the process, I was expecting something that was a little bit higher tech than what it originally appeared to be. But that being said, it has to start somewhere. So, once it’s heated and struck, it takes the shape of the club head and design. One of the things that is a little bit unique is recognizing that the dies that are needed to produce the heads is quite an extensive process in itself. Producing the amount of dies that are needed to produce the heads is a little bit surprising to most because at every step along the way, there has to be a five iron die, six iron die, seven iron die. etc. Once that original shape is made, the club head is transferred. Again, it is heated and placed in another die where again, due to a precise force, the metal is again shaped and manipulated. We suggest on our web site that the third and final strike which is responsible for defining the molecular structure or stabilizing the molecular structure in the head. Ultimately at this time, there is another strike that produces another smooth, and really makes the club appear it could go to finishing at that stage. It really does present the extra step, the basis for what eventually will become the best feeling iron we feel in the industry. Just prior to that, the process begins with keeping a really tight eye on tolerances with that club. All along the fourteen steps with that club, the tolerances are continually measured to maintain the tolerances along the way. As you move along with initial grinding of the faces and taking off the rough edges prior to getting to the finishing side, they have to maintain their head weights along the way. That eventually results in Miura having the tightest tolerances in the industry at plus or minus half a gram. It starts early in the process. You may find that club head has to lose – depending on the model and depending on the finish – a number of grams of head weight. Each step along the way, those tolerances are maintained. You can step in before scoring lines are pressed into the club face and measure the head weights of all those clubs and find that they are going to be within plus or minus half a gram, even at that early process. Once the name and score lines are pressed into the head, it comes time again to put the hosel onto the club. Again, the reason Mr. Miura does this is to get the grain structure to the tightness he felt his clubs deserved. The other component was to produce a hosel that was absolutely perfect. he felt along the way that had a lot to do with how his club was going to perform, or how his club was going to play. I think in many respects that is the most fascinating part of the whole Miura process. When the hosel is spun weld onto the club head. Each one of the hosels starts out as a small cylinder. Each one is milled and pre-drilled using a CNC milling machine so the hosel itself is drilled to an exact and precise depth. Every one is identical, every weight is identical. You can be sure that the hosel is dead center and again as i mention to the exact depth. So when everyone is attached to the hosel, the spin welding process there are no material is added. It is done by friction on a proprietary piece of machinery Mr. Miura has designed. The club head is held in place in the die. The club head is held in place in another die. The hosel is brought to the club head by high RPM’s and is held in place by high friction and heat. We are sure the hosel is attached at a precise angle. The loft we are sure is consistent on every one that comes off the production. You can be sure again the tolerance for weight is very tight. It is a very unique process, that part of it is probably the most labor intensive and takes the longest in the production process. People often ask how many clubs can be produced in the Miura factory in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year – really you’re only as fast as the most labor intensive or slowest part of the process. That is the part of the process that takes the most time.
Again, if I could just summarize, the two piece hosel with head first and foremost ensures the hosel is exactly centered. That’s very important to have the shaft in the exact middle in order to deliver the type of performance the golfer deserves. Forging the head separately allows the grain structure to be the tightest in the industry. It allows for a more consistent strike and specific heat to be applied. During that process, if you weren’t to do it, you would really have to take care of the hosel. Ultimately, that would cause, Mr. Miura believes, that hosel to become a little bit weaker. That’s why using a two piece system as he does, the hosel is stronger and ultimately that will make a stronger club. Finally, attaching the hosel allows for really specific loft, lie and offset. For those three things to be consistent and precise at that point in the manufacturing process means that at the end of the process and finishing process you basically deliver a club head that is as perfect as can be. Whether you buy a seven iron from a dealer in California, or a seven iron two years later from a dealer in Florida, the weight of those heads, the hosel depth on those heads, the offset of those heads, the lie of those heads, assuming they both came off standard would be identical. That’s pretty uniqueto have the confidence to say a seven iron is a seven iron is a seven iron no matter where or when you purchase it. That part of the process again is the most labor intensive and takes the most time. Grinders then take over. They’re making the final adjustments to the weight, finish, and design using polishing techniques they’ve honed over the years. There is an interesting process that again is unique to the Miura factory. There is a machine called the profiler Mr. Miura has developed that ensures the toe profile on every club is consistent and is as close to identical as you cant get. I think sometimes we forget that forged clubs are hand made clubs in the literal sense of the word, the finishing of the clubs is done by hand – there is a human element to every club. As tight as the Miura processes are along the way, you’re only as good as the guys who are grinding the clubs. Mr. Miura has developed a unique setup for the grinders. You’ll see some factory grinders will be standing up. The master grinders Mr. Miura has sit down when they’re grinding. He has a technique where they rest the clubs on their knees. He believed a long time ago when he was doing it another way, once the grinders got tired while grinding with their arms, their technique suffered and the consistency wasn’t there. It’s an old school mentality, but because there’s a human element involved, he wanted to take the chances for all variables out of it. The grinding process is the final – as I said grinding design and adjustments to weight. Mr. Miura believed a golfer could feel the difference in a club weight as small as one gram. So the ability to keep the weight tolerances in the process just made sure he was going to the best possible club. The polishing process is next. One of the things that can’t be done by hand is perfect polishing. He uses a polishing barrel like most companies. This is done by different techniques including vibration, centrifugal, and dry barrel polishing. Those are pretty consistent and Mr. Miura will often receive comments about the look of his clubs. Miura satin finish appears to be something special – again, it starts with the forging process, but the finishing helps. To help give what Mr. Miura feels is a perfect feel, he uses nickel chrome, or W nickel which is satin plating on the face of the club and the finish of the rest of the club. Copper is added to the club. Mr. Miura has a proprietary plating technique and that has resulted in the ability to produce a raw face in some of our older models. It may show itself again. We hae a wedge that’s a grindable wedge that comes out a little heavier when it’s produced. It allows custom club fitters to put a special grind on the club. It can be done in a totally raw state because of the consistency of the Miura finsih. That’s something that may show itself a little more in the future, but right now we only have the wedge offering. The club is then masked and taped in the sandblasting process. That’s where grit is blasted into the face to help give it a little bit of additional gripping action on the ball. One of the unique sides of this is you can often find Mrs. Miura in the finishing room taping off heads pre-sandblast. That in itself is pretty amazing, you really get a feel for the family business side of it. Mr. Miura would tell the story that early on Mrs. Miura would walk into the finishing room and go through clubs that were destined for stores or individuals and pick out the ones she felt were not up to standard and go back to Mr. Miura and say, "You can’t send these out." He tells the story that many years he gave up trying to argue with her and worry about what was or wasn’t acceptable, he just changed the system so everything has to be perfect and everyone bought into that. Finally, if I’m right, color and final painting is added to finish off the club, making sure there are no imperfections in the club. That being the case they’re then ready to be assembled.
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Whats in the Bag
Russell Henley WITB 2024 (March)
- Russell Henley WITB accurate as of the Cognizant Classic.
Driver: Titleist TSi3 (10 degrees, B1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 70 6.5 TX
3-wood: Titleist TS3 (16.5 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 80 TX
Hybrid: Titleist TSi2 (21 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi MMT Hybrid 100 TX
Irons: Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT (4-6), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (7-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 50-08F @51, 54-10S, @55, 60-04T)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Scotty Cameron T5 Prototype
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
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Whats in the Bag
Vince Carter WITB 2024 (March)
- The NBA legend was teeing it up in the Arnold Palmer Invitational Pro-Am.
Driver: Ping G430 Max 10K (9 degrees)
3-wood: Ping G430 Max (15 degrees)
7-wood: Ping G430 Max (21 degrees)
Irons: Ping i230 (4-PW)
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 54, 58)
Putter: Ping
Ball: Renegade Mbu
Check out more photos of Vince Carter’s WITB here.
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Equipment
From the Forums: I need more forgiveness in my irons – Looking for recommendations
In our forums, our members have been discussing the most forgiving irons currently on the market. WRXer ‘TheShark1’ is on the hunt for a new set of irons, saying:
“Currently gaming the Mizuno Pro 225’s but think I need more forgiveness in my irons. My well struck shots are real nice, but my mishits are not performing as good as I had hoped anymore. I really like hollow body irons so if I could find something more forgiving in a hollow body iron that would be great.
Open to any and all recommendations other than Ping. Can’t hit Ping irons at all.”
And our members have been sharing their best suggestions in our forum.
Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.
- AvidSwampThing66: “Another vote for the super forgiving and fast Paradym irons. They look really good for being a GI iron.”
- bobfoster: “I just went from MP20 MMCs to the new 245s in my scoring irons (just played my first round with them today). If you have a chance to try them, you might find them worth a serious look.”
- vman: “Shoot me down, but spend the money on lessons.”
- J_Tizzle: “i525s are great off the heel in my opinion.”
Entire Thread: “From the Forums: I need more forgiveness in my irons – Looking for recommendations”
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Alberto M Lozoya
Mar 11, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I’ve spoken to Bob on the phone about when the new left handed blades will come out. He was very helpful and informative. I just can’t wait to order my first set of Miura’s. Keep up the great job.
Greg (clnconcpts)
Nov 4, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Being an owner of miura irons,this was an awsome article for me to read.Also being a lefty golfer and knowing how hard it is to find a good set of irons to play,this are the best..I am on my second set of miura blades due to wearing the face out on my previous set.These by far are the best blades avil on the market today..Nothing will ever replace these except another set of miura’s..Thanks for the best set of irons, i have ever owned..
Rob (rankoutsider)
Nov 1, 2007 at 12:15 pm
i’ve spoken to Bill a couple of times on the phone about the left handed blades. you won’t find a more genuine and helpful person anywhere. he is simply a fantastic guy.
Claus
Oct 29, 2007 at 4:01 am
Great ! Looking forward to part 2 Kiran 🙂