Equipment
LA Golf Shafts hires John Oldenburg, former Aldila head of engineering, to lead product development
John Oldenburg, former head of engineering at Aldila, is joining LA Golf Shafts as Chief Product Officer.
As a refresher, LA Golf Partners — headed by Reed Dickens of Marucci fame — purchased Matrix Shafts in March and renamed it LA Golf Shafts. Dickens and company present LA Golf Shafts as a unique quantity in the shaft space: Tour pros will have equity stakes in the company and direct involvement in product development. The same shafts the pros play will then be available to consumers.
Read more on the specifics of LA Golf Shafts here
Of course, all this is premised on having a capable hand to lead design…hence Oldenburg’s hiring.
Oldenburg spent 20 years as the head of Aldila engineering and product development. Most recently, he had stepped away from golf to work in other arenas, but was lured back and “feels LA Golf Shafts releases the shackles on his innovation and creativity allowing him to design shafts that will be disruptive in the market,” according to a press release.
“Throughout my shaft design career, I often felt true shaft innovation has been restricted by the economic realities of doing business in golf’s OEM world. Since we are truly player driven and oriented to the aftermarket, I have new and unprecedented freedom to pursue truly unique, innovative and state of the art concepts in golf shaft design,” said Oldenburg.
“The freedom to select and incorporate advanced and exotic materials based solely on technical and performance criteria rather than purely economic considerations significantly expands our design window and heightens my team’s ability to design and innovate groundbreaking products. Having these design shackles taken off is great for me, but the true winners will be our partners and the recreational players who end up with our innovative new shafts in their bags. Producing all our products here in the USA is another huge plus.”
He indicated he relished the opportunity to have an office right next to the production floor, rather than working with manufacturers overseas.
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At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.
It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.
Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a set of Mizuno 245 irons.
From the seller: (@JB_007): “1. Mizuno Pro 245 – $1000 –> 950/obo
- Purchased brand new – they have 36 holes on them, with probably 10 premium range balls. Great set of irons, I just am looking to go another way right now.
- 5-PW –> stock L/L/L
- Project X LS 6.5
- Stock MCC Mizuno Grips.”
To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Mizuno 245 irons
This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules
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- Peter Kuest what’s in the bag accurate as of CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Driver: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X
5-wood: TaylorMade SIM Titanium (19 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 85 6.5
Irons: Srixon ZX U (2), Srixon Z-Forged II (3-PW)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3
Wedges: Cleveland RTX6 ZipCore Tour Rack (52-MID 10, 56-MID 10, 60-FULL 9)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
Check out more in-hand photos of Peter Kuest’s clubs here.
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- Kelly Kraft’s what’s in the bag accurate as of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Red 60 TX
3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X Denali White 70 TX
Hybrid: Callaway Apex UW (21 degrees)
Shaft: Aldila Synergy Blue
Irons: Srixon ZX U Mk II (23 degrees), Callaway X Forged Star (5-PW)
Shaft: Project X IO 6.0
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-08M, 60-08M)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Odyssey Versa 2-Ball Prototype
Grip: Odyssey Garsen Quad Tour
Grips: Golf Pride ZGrip Cord
Check out more in-hand photos of Kraft’s equipment here.
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steve
Aug 28, 2018 at 2:57 pm
“…I often felt true shaft innovation has been restricted by the economic realities of doing business in golf’s OEM world.”
Please ask Mr. Oldenburg if he intends to cure his shafts in a high pressure autoclave… instead of pizza oven curing at atmospheric pressures.
lance
Aug 30, 2018 at 11:17 am
Graphite tennis rackets are autoclave cured and reasonably priced compared to oven cured graphite golf shafts. Eli Callaway of Big Bertha fame said he could buy a graphite shaft for $2 from China. Since then the price has gone up to $4.
Chris
Aug 30, 2018 at 7:00 pm
Most modern Studies show that there is no net change in stiffness or failure rates between autoclave and other methods. They also show that autoclave pieces tend to delaminate more. Most aerospace and military have been moving away from autoclave since 2009 because of this. I’d be happy to share the studies if you like.