Tom, Congratulations on your new business venture, and best of luck!!! I have always appreciated your honesty and openness in sharing information about the clubmaking business, when you were at GS and after you left. You were also extremely helpful to me personally on a couple of items I ordered from GS (prior to your departure), which went well above and beyond my expectations for such a large company. Finally, I'm just glad I decided NOT to build a new set of clubs this fall, after losing my GS Tour Cavity pitching wedge, as I am quite sure that I'll be playing a new set of Wishon irons this summer! Just let me as soon as I can get a catalog or check out a website.
Tedd -----Original Message----- From: tom wishon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 4:35 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: ShopTalk: Tom Wishon's New Company Dan, Bernie, John, Bruce, Arnie and especially you Al, If you don't mind a little noxious promotion on Shop Talk...................!!!!!!!!! This week when the new January issue of Golf Digest arrives in the mailbox, if you scan through the back section of ads you might see a new ad in there popping up at you. I am pleased to announce the introduction of Tom Wishon Golf Technology, aka my own component company! After 30yrs as a clubmaker, it was about time for me and Mary-Ellen to finally do this for ourselves! Mary-Ellen and I have located the company in Durango, Colorado. WHAT!!!?? Yes, Durango, Colorado!! For one, I am a native of Colorado, born in Denver and grew up through high school in this state. The mountains and this climate (beat the Texas summer heat!) are something I always missed over the many years since I left. Since the nature of this business is phone/mail/internet orders and all communication with clubmakers is done by catalog/newsletter/email we felt that we could be anywhere to build this business as long as there was adequate trucking in and UPS out, which Durango does have. Durango is in a unique location in that not only are there three UPS hubs within a couple hundred miles (Denver, Albuquerque, Grand Junction) but the climate here is really mild. Two of the 4 golf courses here stay open 12 months, the other two do not only because they are winter feeding grounds for thousands of elk who have no concept of the etiquette of staying off the greens!! Yet if you drive 30 mins north of Durango, you are litereally in the shadow of more 13,000-14,000 foot granite peaks than anywhere else in the country. If I was looking for inspiration from the surroundings to keep working on clubmaking technology, it is here!! The other reason we decided to launch our own company and locate here is partly personal - in the span of 4 months in 2001 I lost three very close friends in the golf business to tragic circumstances, who were all my age or younger. In short, the old adage of "life's too short" hit me like a 2X4 'tween the eyes in 2001 and made me realize it was time for me to get away and get back to work on just what I wanted to do with the rest of my working life in golf. So here we are, and I look forward to doing the best work of my entire career in the next several years. If you don't mind, I would like to tell you a little about what we are planning, because we are going to be a little different in terms of our product design offerings in some areas. Our catalog is in the final stages of creation and will mail on February 1, 2003, but here's a general overview of what we have planned. First of all, in 2003 you will see what I really feel is the best overall clubhead product line I have ever designed. Virtually all of the various materials imaginable plus a few new ones, and the various methods of manufacture from casting to forging, are included in the 8 sets of woodheads, 8 sets of irons, 4 models of stand-alone wedges and 3 separate models of putters I created for the opening catalog. The design tone is clean, solid, unpretentious but intended to stand toe to toe with ANY clubheads in the market, whether component or OEM. And there will be a very good representation in there for the left handers too! In the area of shafts and grips, this is where we are pursuing a little different direction in our design and product development. Our shaft and grip offerings are going to be 95% all of our own designs. I really feel that the years I have put in doing research on shafts, including the book I did in 1991 called The Modern Guide to Shaft Fitting, and all of the following testing and analysis that was published in various magazines/newsletters, etc., gave me a really solid foundation to design a very strong line of shafts. In addition, I am working closely on all of our shaft designs with Robin Arthur, the designer of the ProLite when he was at Grafalloy and now designer of all the Rifle graphites for Royal Precision, and the two of us really are convinced with his composites engineering experience and my testing and analysis and fitting experience, that we can make the best shafts on the planet. Because we know that some vendor branded shafts are always going to be in high demand, we are going to stock a few of the popular Grafalloy, True Temper Steel, UST and Aldila shafts, but only a few that we chose for their variety of playability for golfers. For example, we will stock the ProLite 35S and 45R, but not the 35R or 45S because I believe from my work that a shaft like the ProLite 35 is only suited for higher swing speed players, and a shaft like the 45 is only modeled for medium swing speed players. In the area of grips, we are offering a totally 100% proprietary line of our own grip designs. We will offer no other vendor's grips in our product line because I really had a fun time working with two of the biggest and best grip manufacturing companies in the world on different rubber compounds, molding techniques, and new styles and grip design features. The result is 6 different lines of grips from soft to firm molded compounds to simulated leather slip-ons. For example, the 2 different cord grips are really different in that they feature different populations of cord fiber with a much less harsh texture on the hands. Or for example, the rubber wrap style grips are made with a wider and different angled wrap design that feels better in both hands, or a bigger lower hand section as a standard feature. The Tools and Technology section is also going to show clubmakers a completely different approach in our product line. For one, we are not going to offer clubmaking tools for assembly or repair. Instead, we are going to focus on fitting tools/devices and technology items to help clubmakers learn more and do a better job of fitting and educating their customers. For example, our new putter fitting tool will fit all lengths from normal to Belly to Long and will do it all in a way that puts the golfer's eyes directly over the ball to ensure accuracy of the length/lie fit. There will also be a number of new software programs to help clubmakers learn more about how golf clubs work, and how to fit golfers more accurately. On the R&D side I have three of the BEST engineering/testing/analytical minds in golf helping me so that we can continue to keep helping clubmakers learn and educate their customers. That's a little tough on an opening year budget, but it was important to ensure we keep putting out the best tech information so I bit the bullet to do that right from the start. Right now we are all working our tails off here to get things up and running for the time of the catalog mailing. Our web site will go live around Jan 1, 2003 and I have finished a lot of new tech information but have a lot more I want to get ready to post before our site goes "live". We will also have a program for serious clubmakers to gain a 15-30% pricing advantage over the clubmakers who order less frequently that will be a little different program than anyone has tried in this industry so far. Mary-Ellen and I do not want to build this into a company that is as large as the current sales leaders or ever to try to do what they do. Our goal is to be the best in tech info, best in product, and just be here in Durango doing what we do best. We have plans to build our own testing range reasonably soon with all the bells and whistles, and to provide the golf equipment and advise on the instruction to make golf a permanent part of the P.E. curriculum of the Durango middle schools and high school, but we have to walk first before we can run, so that will be down the road a year or two. Anyway, sorry to run off at the mouth on this, but I am pretty pumped about this and now that our ad is about to appear, I wanted to share this with you. Oh, and the other reason we chose Durango is that at my age and with what I have already done for my own golf clubs over the years, the ONLY thing I can draw on to hit the ball farther myself is the 6500 feet elevation!!!!!!!!!! Of course I have also been told when we buy the land for our testing range, we have to buy more of it because 300 yards ain't going to be enough thanks to this air density up here!!! TOM WISHON Tom Wishon Golf Technology 695 County Road 233 Durango, Colorado 81301 Catalog request - 1-800-480-0017 (Catalog mails on February 1, 2003) Voice - 970-375-0411 Fax - 970-375-0412 Email - [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL - www.wishongolf.com (not until January 6, 2003) LEGAL NOTICE Unless expressly stated otherwise, this message is confidential and may be privileged. It is intended for the addressee(s) only. Access to this E-mail by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not an addressee, any disclosure or copying of the contents of this E-mail or any action taken (or not taken) in reliance on it is unauthorized and may be unlawful. If you are not an addressee, please inform the sender immediately.
