Sports buff keeps customers up to par with custom clubs

As co-owner of Mad Bear Fitness and Play It Again Sports, Jeff Newlin knows a thing or two about sports. But what many people might not know about Newlin is that he's a maker of custom golf clubs.

To learn his trade as a custom club maker, Newlin attended the Golfsmith custom club-building school, located in Austin, Texas, in 1991.

Newlin said he didn't put his skills to much use for two or three years after finishing school; instead, he focused on business at Play It Again Sports, located in the former Fremont Theater at 1300 E. Battlefield Road.

Now, his club-making business has grown considerably, and he's set up shop upstairs, in the space that used to house the movie theater's projectors.

Newlin noted that he does play some golf, but he said learning to make golf clubs was largely a business decision.

"I wanted to make sure that the products I was selling, (that) I knew as much as I could about them," Newlin said. "I didn't have that much knowledge about the golf clubs; so that's the main reason I went."

He estimated that 75 percent of the clubs for sale at Play It Again Sports are made by him and three staffers who help out in the club shop.

Customers who seek Newlin's custom clubs range from beginners to veterans.

Options

Newlin makes a variety of club sets drivers, irons and fairway woods and he also sells individual clubs.

Newlin's clubs are mainly component clubs, which means that customers can choose their heads, shafts and grips.

"They pick the head they like, and I'll give them the shaft options and grip options," Newlin said.

"Shafts are about 80 percent to 85 percent of the way a club's going to perform, so in order to get a shaft that really fits you, you have to have somebody knowledgeable watch you swing, talk about your trajectory, what you're trying to achieve, then give some options on shafts," Newlin said.

Technology and the shaft types available have made golf much easier in the last several years, he added. Customers can choose graphite, steel or titanium, though most of them are graphite and steel, Newlin said.

Grips can be rubber or leather.

Some of the trends Newlin has seen in golf club demand are larger driver heads and very low center-of-gravity irons, which make hitting easier.

Costs

Iron sets made by Newlin sell for $200 to $350. Titanium drivers sell for $100 to $300 each and fairway woods start at $60.

"People are starting to realize that they don't have to go out and spend $1,500 to get a good set of clubs," he said.

Newlin also does re-shafts for customers. Any time he does custom work, he watches customers swing in a test area. He takes appointments on fitting.

"I also do equipment analysis, where I will check the equipment they're playing with now and make sure it fits them. I do a lot of that and recommend adjustments," Newlin said.

Interest

Golf as a sport "has just exploded," Newlin said. "We've had golfers coming in that never would have even thought about playing golf."

"I think it's people that actually went out and started playing it, just went out and started having fun with it," he added.

As for his part in all that interest, Newlin said he expects to build about 8,000 clubs this year.