This quality comes at a price, with some of the Fujikura shafts, for example, retailing at $350 apiece.Īnother trend has helped these shaft makers – the proliferation of custom programs at the largest U.S. Insiders say the reason is simple: Both companies are obsessed with quality. In just a few years, Fujikura and Graphite Design have become major factors in the top-end graphite shaft market in America.

The plant, located in San Diego and constructed under the supervision of Graphite Design president Keisuke Yagi, opened in 1998. It was Dick Helmstetter, Callaway’s senior executive vice president of research and development, who first suggested to executives of Graphite Design that they build a U.S. Graphite Design is a name closely associated with Callaway, although several other golf club manufacturers offer Graphite Design shafts.

“The difficult thing for any graphite shaft company is to make shafts that perform the same from one shaft to another. “These guys are terrific,” said Jesse Ortiz, co-chairman of Orlimar Golf Co. Eventually it began to make shafts for other club manufacturers as well. After Fujikura helped TaylorMade develop its Bubble Shaft in Japan, the shaft maker decided to move here to work more closely with TaylorMade. Both have gained substantial popularity among touring pros and manufacturers of premium clubs.įujikura’s U.S. Nowhere in American golf, however, is the Japanese influence more visible today than it is in golf shafts.įujikura and Graphite Design, in particular, have emerged as the two new muscle boys of the U.S. operations and building manufacturing facilities in this country.īridgestone, with its Precept golf ball brand, has a long history in the United States, as do clubmakers Mizuno and Yonex. Now, more than ever, high-tech Japanese golf companies are establishing U.S. The notion that golf club manufacturers could woo consumers with technology was a concept developed and perfected in Japan. Japanese golf magazines are full of highly technical information. Japanese golfers can’t get enough technology. All of these innovations started in Japan. Irons with tungsten or other heavyweight materials embedded in the sole. Wild-looking shafts such as TaylorMade’s Bubble Shaft. Thin-faced drivers made of forged titanium. Golf products in the United States are affected significantly by what happens in Japanese golf – so much so that most recent trends in U.S.

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