CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. -- In a move that is sure to rattle the foundation of the golf industry, major up-and-comer Nickent Golf has signed one of the most famous golf club designers in the world to focus on product design and development.

Over the last twenty years, clubs covered by his patents have become some of the best sellers of all time. Those products include such breakthrough clubs such as the Tommy Armour® 845 iron, Titleist® DCI irons and TaylorMade® RAC irons and wedges. His keen sense of shape and technical curiosity has prompted the development of clubs carried by millions of golfers worldwide.

Some of the positions he has held in his 35 years of golf industry experience include: Senior Director of Product Marketing for Taylor Made-adidas Golf, Director of Golf Club Product Development for Titleist & FootJoy Worldwide and President of Liquidmetal Golf.

“John has been my mentor for 15 years,” said Nickent CEO and founder Michael Lee. ”He was already an icon when I first entered the industry and he is the biggest name there is in golf club design. To have the honor and the opportunity to work with him is a dream come true. I feel he will be the anchor of Nickent Golf and that we can take this company to the highest level under his direction.”

The Teacher
Known as “Hoefy” by his peers, Hoeflich served as a high school English teacher before joining the golf industry to spend more time around the game that he had loved since he was 10 years old. He spent 12 years as a rep selling Maxfli balls before moving on to PGA Golf, where he eventually became the Director of Marketing. His first two assignments were to help rename the company and to develop a new line of clubs to be marketed under the new name. In 1986 the company was re-launched as Tommy Armour Golf and the first club design was the 845, which has become one of the best selling irons of all time. It was that innovative product that established “Hoefy” as a leader in golf product development.

“I worked in a machine shop for my Dad as a boy right through college, which gave me engineering experience and the basics of golf club tooling,” said Hoeflich. “It also helped that I had been selling clubs and listening to PGA Tour players talk about them for 15 years, so I had a good feel for what shapes and transitions they wanted to see at the end of a shaft.”

“Hoefy” has been a teacher to many in the industry since he left to become a master designer. Nickent CEO Michael Lee is one of the leaders in the industry that considers himself to be from the “school of Hoefy.” With the addition of Hoeflich to the Nickent team, Lee says his golf career has come full circle. He added that the Hoeflich signing is a significant statement to the rest of the industry about where Nickent Golf is headed.

New Nickent/Hoeflich Products
Hoeflich is currently hard at work on new Nickent products that will debut in the fall of 2005. He has wasted no time in utilizing his peerless expertise to come up with clubs that will again change the landscape of the golf market. The products he is working on will feature his famous attention to detail, will embody the class and perfection of a Hoeflich product, and will employ technology never before seen in a golf club.

“These new products will all incorporate my design philosophy that great clubs are a perfect combination of art and technology,” said Hoeflich. “I think my shaping abilities combined with my endless pursuit of cutting-edge innovation is what has made the clubs I have designed so popular with the masses. I always look at golf club design in that regard.”

Media Contact:
Jon Claffey
Director of Marketing
1-888-NICKENT X 122
Cell: 626.320.4150
jclaffey@nickentgolf.com