Equipment
New Miura Golf President says quality, pricing “will stay the same”
New Miura Golf President Hoyt McGarity confirmed to GolfWRX that a new group has made a significant investment in Miura Golf. True Spec Golf will now act as a management company that deals specifically with the worldwide sales and distribution of Miura products.
The news of Miura’s sale, which was first reported on GolfWRX, created a flurry of discussion about Miura’s future within the golf equipment world — both the Miura family’s role, and potential changes to Miura products.
“At the end of the day, I want to get across to people that Miura Golf clubs are going to continue to be made at the same factory in Himeji, Japan,” McGarity told GolfWRX. “Mr. Miura and his family will have control over everything that goes on with production and development of Miura clubs.”
McGarity also addressed questions about Miura’s quality and pricing, saying that the company’s tolerances “have always been tight, and they’re going to stay tight.” He also said prices of Miura clubs “will stay the same.”
“[Miura clubs] aren’t for the mass market and are never going to be,” he said. “We’re an ultra-premium brand, and we’re going to stay ultra-premium.”
McGarity, 33, is also the CEO of True Spec Golf, a custom club-fitting company that was founded in 2014 and has expanded to 10 physical locations under his leadership. The company takes what it calls a “brand-agnostic” approach to club fitting, helping golfers find the best golf clubs for their game. McGarity is also the CEO of True Spec Golf sister company Club Conex.
“True Spec will always be brand agnostic,” McGarity said. “If [another brand’s clubs] are better than Miura’s, that’s a Miura problem. We’re always going to sell the best-performing clubs to our customers.”
True Spec will act as a “fulfillment center” for Miura, McGarity said, specifically as “a shipping and storage place.”
McGarity stated that the real advantage for Miura’s partnership with True Spec is True Spec’s ownership of Club Conex, a company that sells patented components that allow golfers to try the same golf shaft in a variety of different golf club heads, regardless of club head manufacturer. Club Conex is used by the vast majority of premium club fitters, opening up important distribution channels for Miura.
“Club Conex is primed to help Miura with distribution,” McGarity said. “With Miura, you’re going to see a company that’s heavily consumer-focused and dealer-focused.”
McGarity also cited the importance of improving the appeal of the Miura brand internationally. “The brand and its appearance have to be the same quality as the clubs themselves,” McGarity said. “Because no one makes better forged irons than the Miura family.”
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- Steve Stricker WITB accurate as of the Zurich Classic. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Titleist TSR3 (9 degrees, C4 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Motore Speeder VC 7.2 X
3-wood: Titleist 915F (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX
Hybrid: Titleist 816 H1 (17 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Motore Speeder VC 9.2 X
Irons: Titleist T200 (3, 4), Titleist T100 (5-9)
Shafts: Project X 6.5
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM8 (46-10F @55), Titleist Vokey SM10 (54-10S @53), Titleist Vokey SM4 (60 @59)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 w/Sensicore
Putter: Odyssey White Hot No. 2
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Grip Rite
Check out more in-hand photos of Steve Stricker’s clubs here.
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- Alex Fitzpatrick what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.
Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 7 X
Hybrid: Ping G430 (19 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 TX
Irons: Ping iCrossover (2), Titleist T100 (4-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 9 TX (2), Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 X (4-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (50-12F, 56-12D, 60-08M)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 X
Putter: Bettinardi SS16 Dass
Grips: Golf Pride MCC
Check out more in-hand photos of Alex Fitzpatrick’s clubs here.
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In our forums, our members have been discussing Mini-Drivers and accompanying shafts. WRXer ‘JamesFisher1990’ is about to purchase a BRNR Mini and is torn on what shaft weight to use, and our members have been sharing their thoughts and set ups 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.
- PARETO: “New BRNR at 13.5. Took it over to TXG (Club Champ but TXG will always rule) in Calgary for a fit. Took the head down to 12, stuck in a Graphite Design AD at 3 wood length and 60g. Presto- numbers that rivaled my G430Max but with waaaaay tighter dispersion. Win.”
- driveandputtmachine: “Still playing a MIni 300. The head was only 208, so I ordered a heavier weight and play it at 3 wood length. I am playing a Ventus Red 70. I play 70 grams in my fairways. I use it mainly to hit draws off the tee. When I combine me, a driver, and trying to hit a draw it does not work out well most of the time. So the MIni is for that. As an aside, I have not hit the newest BRNR, but the previous model wasn’t great off the deck. The 300 Mini is very good off the deck.”
- JAM01: “Ok, just put the BRNR in the bag along side a QI10 max and a QI10 3 wood. A load of top end redundancy. But, I have several holes at my two home courses where the flight and accuracy of the mini driver helps immensely. Mine is stock Proforce 65 at 13.5, I could see a heavier shaft, but to normal flex, as a nice alternative.”
Entire Thread: “What’s the perfect Mini-Driver/Shaft combo? – GolfWRXers discuss”
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Steve Stricker WITB 2024 (April)
Steve Stricker WITB accurate as of the Zurich Classic. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist TSR3 (9 degrees, C4...
Alex Fitzpatrick WITB 2024 (April)
Alex Fitzpatrick what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic. Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees) Shaft: Fujikura...
Alejandro Tosti WITB 2024 (April)
Alejandro Tosti what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic. Driver: Srixon ZX5 Mk II LS (9.5 degrees...
Drew Brees WITB 2024 (April)
View this post on Instagram A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx) Driver: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (10.5 degrees)...
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Faking-it-with-blades
Jan 14, 2017 at 11:06 am
Anyone notice a particular iconic Miura iron NOT featured in the glamour shot above? Is the Baby Blade literally “out of the picture” going forward?
rex235
Jan 12, 2017 at 8:16 pm
“Miura will remain an ultra premium brand…”
When Miura makes a LH forged model of the 1957 Cavity Back they made for Jack Nicklaus…
ZJohnson
Jan 12, 2017 at 4:21 pm
Ok, now this makes sense. Cool Clubs did fulfillment for Miura this time last year as they started to sell their product in brick and mortar stores across the US. They built approx. 100 sets before having to stop so they didn’t fall behind with their own customers. Cool Clubs distributes for KBS now as it is much more time and cost effective for them. Unless True Spec hires two/three guys to do nothing but fulfill Miura’s orders, it’s going to be tough for them to keep up.
B. McKenna
Jan 16, 2017 at 7:31 pm
I watched this Hoyt guy try to bend a set of irons at Modern Golf and it was pretty bad. There are tons of industry guys with more knowledge than him. I’d give this relationship 6 months. If CC couldn’t pull it off with their facility, doubt Tour Spec will be able to handle it.
LD
Jan 12, 2017 at 9:36 am
Talk is cheap.
Tom C
Jan 12, 2017 at 9:29 am
Well, at least he’s an Irishman.
Those new irons are already a clear indicator of a different direction. I appreciate the new Presidents words, but I just don’t see how it will happen. I’m sure there will be a clear view of things that a new owner would want to do to make money, and some of the current operations are cost prohibitive in terms of manufacturing, but some of those things are what make them such quality clubs. It’s contradictory to say that “we want to increase the brand recognition world wide”, but we aren’t going to make it a mass selling brand.
The brand and it’s appearance are already as good as the clubs themselves, they just want to sell more and more of them, which I understand, as the market is becoming more and more competitive in this ultra-premium market. That being said, it’d be like saying Koenigsegg needs to market better because they sell 20 cars a year, when Ferrari sells 100. Koenigsegg’s are made in an old airplane hangar, and make the fastest cars in the world, and much like Miura, most people have no idea what they are, but for those that do, they’re all you’d ever want, and you wouldn’t want them to change.
This is like Mercedes releasing the “Under $30k” renditions of their cars. Yeah, it’s nice. Yeah, it says Mercedes, but is it really a Mercedes? Meh.
The only consolation I find in this is that the buy out isn’t from a direct competitor looking to buy out their market share (and avoid questioning over patents), so it’s not going to be an Adams-Taylormade ordeal.
Daniel
Jan 12, 2017 at 9:26 am
Wasn’t their PP-9005 Genesis clubs that GolfWRX just reviewed made in some other factory?
Zak Kozuchowski
Jan 12, 2017 at 9:34 am
The Genesis irons are made in Miura’s factory. That correction has been made in our review: http://www.golfwrx.com/419156/review-miura-neo-genesis-pp-9005-irons/
Adam
Jan 12, 2017 at 9:35 am
Absolutely correct:
Production country “China”
http://www.miuragiken.com/products/passing_point/pp-9005/index.html
Daniel
Jan 12, 2017 at 9:53 am
The sentence in that review article was too specific to have been a typo IMO. Something about the geometries being too hard for that facility.
Zak Kozuchowski
Jan 12, 2017 at 10:54 am
Thanks for the questions and comments, guys. This response is directly from Miura:
“All Miura irons start from a single billet of soft carbon Japanese steel at the Miura Giken factory in Himeji. (this is what will always distinguish Miura irons) The next step of the process is working with our partner in Taiwan to complete the manufacturing process (the 455 Carpenter Steel face) The clubs are then shipped back to the Miura factory for final inspection before making their way to market.”
“With reference to the Miura Giken website, technically the club is “finished in Taiwan (China) and thus you are not able to say Made it Japan, however, the Miura family is involved in the process, start to finish.”
gunmetal
Jan 12, 2017 at 2:08 pm
So the Japanese plant has lost capability to finish the heads? Or it’s just cheaper for them to ship them off to Taiwan/China, pay Taiwan/China labor rates, then ship them back to Japan or straight to True Spec or whoever than it is to just finish them in Japan?
I know this is partly semantics, but when you play the “Made/Forged in Japan” card so blatantly sometimes the details can be a little muddy, lol.
Mark
Jan 12, 2017 at 3:13 pm
I do not think this is about cheaper labour rates. Taiwanese companies are, collectively, the world’s biggest producers of golf equipment. They own all of the major production sites in China and many of them have kept their specialist production units located in Taiwan (driver heads which require intricate casting tend to be produced there). I think Miura have simply chosen a high quality Taiwanese supplier to do what they are unable to do. If I remember correctly, Tom Wishon has used Taiwan based facilities for his advanced materials designs.
Rich
Jan 12, 2017 at 8:55 am
There is no way Miura will not fall victim (to what degree is yet to be seen) to compromise when there has been significant investment. Whoever put the money in, will expect to see money back and that will not happen with significant change.
Adam
Jan 12, 2017 at 5:39 am
So has TSG bought or invested in Miura Golf (which is the North American and International Sales arm of Miura) or have they bought the parent company Miura Giken from Japan who produces all the clubs for Miura and Miura Giken. So far in 2 articles it is still not clear!
Zak Kozuchowski
Jan 12, 2017 at 7:34 am
Adam,
Miura offers slightly different products under the names Miura and Miura-Giken (Japan), but all products are designed and manufactured under one roof. The deal encompasses all of Miura.
S Hitty
Jan 12, 2017 at 12:29 pm
I don’t get why such information is so hard to obtain from their own website and why do you have to explain it all in the comments and not in the articles themselves.
Zak Kozuchowski
Jan 12, 2017 at 12:40 pm
We have added the detail to the body of the Genesis review for all future readers to understand and discuss.
Tom
Jan 11, 2017 at 8:58 pm
+1
Chunkiebuck
Jan 11, 2017 at 8:36 pm
Hey, are those rear tail lights or turn signals on the back? I’m guessing they flash left or right depending on ball flight direction. You know, in case you missed the flight of your ball, you can
take a quick peek at the back of these clubs for confirmation.