HAYDEN, Idaho - Henry-Griffitts, maker of the world's finest custom-fitted golf equipment, has introduced its first new set of irons in five years. The premium-performance RDH3 series are now available through the company's nationwide network of HG-Certified Teachers.
Five years is a lifetime in today's club-manufacturing world, where a cadre of industry giants have bullied each other into offering new and "improved" product every six months. Henry-Griffitts, which pioneered dynamic club fitting in 1983, has never played by these rules.
"As a company, we believe that in order to justify the introduction of new product, we must offer golfers measurable improvements over the current state-of-the-art," explains HG CEO Jim Hofmeister. "The RDH3 Series delivers exactly that, side by side with the proven, performance-enhancing benefits of custom fitting. Of course the technological advances are there: The innovative backcut design of RDH3 irons, combined with the insertion of two tungsten/copper sole plugs [10 grams each], effectively lower the clubhead's center of gravity. The result is higher ball flight and increased stability through impact.
"But it's the custom-fitted aspect - and the relationship all our customers have with individual HG-Certified Teachers - that will deliver RDH3 players the improvements in their ball flight and consistency."
Henry-Griffitts refuses to sell it clubs off the rack. Every iron, fairway metal and driver is custom fit to individual customers according to 14 different component specifications, including lie angle, loft, club weight, shaft length and flex. HG then custom manufacturers each club according to these detailed individual specifications, shipping new sets within 48 hours of receiving the order.
"We know that custom fitting, on its own, improves performance by strengthening the swing. Clubs that fit outperform clubs that don't - our competitors acknowledge this by fitting their Tour clients. We do it for all our clients," explains HG founder Randy Henry, the creative force behind the RDH3 series. "It's the fitting aspect that lays the groundwork for everything - you can't effectively learn and improve at this game, over the long-term, without it. Golfers can't take advantage of new-generation technology if their equipment doesn't fit.
"We've been studying iron design for the last five years and the RDH3 is the next generation. The technical innovations behind this iron series create a new, higher standard for ball flight. It's the equal of any club on the market today - but its performance is superior, to anything out there, because we insist on custom fitting our sets to individuals. Trotting out new irons just for the sake of offering new product is not a Henry-Griffitts core value. There has to be an improvement in the performance or we don't do it."
Suggested retail for each RDH3 iron $120 with a steel shaft, $162 with a graphite shaft. The RDH3 series is available 2-9 iron plus pitching wedge, target wedge, sand wedge and lob wedge. Henry-Griffitts fits and sells its clubs exclusively through its nationwide network HG-Certified teaching professionals. To locate the one nearest you, call 800-446-0036 or visit www.henry-griffitts.com.
Cast from the softest stainless steel available and hand-crafted to customer specs, RDH3 Series irons (named for their creator, Randall David Henry) break new ground in function and form.
"The graphics on the golf club are superb, the best cosmetics we've ever done," Henry says. "The green and gold make it an extremely sharp looking golf club, especially with the matching green graphite shafts. The score lines on the clubface itself look great - while performing an important function: dispersing grass and water from the ball for more consistent contact and maximum forgiveness on off-center hits."
On its new RDH3 series irons, Henry-Griffitts uses only the most respected name in shafts, True Temper. As a licensee of SST PURE, Henry-Griffitts will (upon request) "PURE" each shaft in the set using proprietary computer software and sensitive data-acquisition sensors. The SST PURE process analyzes the structural irregularities that exist to some degree in every golf shaft; it pinpoints the shaft's most stable orientation. Because Henry-Griffitts takes the care to hand-assemble each club - with the shaft in its PURE orientation - off-line bending and twisting are minimized and impact repeatability on the center of the clubface is greatly enhanced.
Henry-Griffitts is the only golf club manufacturer in the U.S. that makes the SST PURE process available for every driver, fairway wood, iron and putter it fits and sells. As Henry explains, "Pure and simple, the PUREing process creates a better performing golf club - which creates better performing golfers. At Henry-Griffitts, that's what we're about. We're teachers and craftsmen. We leave volume, hype and six-month product cycles to other folks."
Senior management at Henry-Griffitts is, in fact, comprised entirely of teaching professionals: CEO Hofmeister is a Class A PGA professional since 1979 and 20 years a club fitter; Director of Field Operations Jim Mapother is 31 years a PGA professional, 18 a club fitter; Randy Henry, who's been teaching the golf swing for 40 years, founded HG in 1983 with another lifelong PGA member, Jim Griffitts, who died in 1993.
In a golf manufacturing world dominated by multi-national corporations, Henry-Griffitts stands apart and remains faithful to its core purpose. Its particular brand of leadership informs the way HG develops new products. Case in point: RDH3 Series irons, which grew out of the company's GLII series irons, released in 2000.
"Our GLIIs remain extremely popular; they're great clubs. But the RDH3s are a clear improvement," Hofmeister explains. "Our mass-market competitors tend to slap a different name and new coat of paint on last year's models and attempt to drown each other out with claims of miracle improvements. Obviously, we don't buy into this approach. If even a quarter of these claims were true, half the players in America would be playing off single-digit handicaps.
"In fact, the opposite is true. Over the last 10 years, play has decreased; golf is losing more players than it gains; and average handicaps have not gone down. Technology hasn't improved anyone's game. 'Limiting technology' doesn't hurt average golfers. It simply makes it more difficult for OEMs to come out with new and improved product every six months!
"It's no coincidence that, based on returned customer surveys, more than 80 percent of HG club buyers show a decrease in handicap during the first few months of playing with their new clubs. What's more," Hofmeister continues, "HG-Certified Teachers - the gifted golf professionals we've trained to fit and sell our clubs - report that their students show improvement AND return to them for more lessons and services. This is truly growing and fostering the game.
"Technology is important - the RDH3 Series is state of the art. But it's the custom fitting and the relationships our customers forge with HG-Certified Teachers that deliver confidence and improved performance."
For more information on Henry-Griffitts, call 800-446-0036 or visit www.henry-griffitts.com
Contact: Hal Phillips
Phillips Golf Media
207-926-3700
onintwo@maine.rr.com
