Golf may have already given way to hockey season in Canada, but Bill Holowaty still has irons, wedges and putters on his mind. Expensive ones. So should you, he surmises.
Holowaty is the co-founder of Miura Golf, a high-end boutique clubmaker with its deepest roots in the samurai sword traditions of ancient Japan but also a strong connection to the year-round golf season on Canada's West Coast, thanks to its Vancouver-born chief operating officer.
And while skates and shin pads are never far from the mind of the University of British Columbia grad and college hockey standout, his career as a Thunderbird enshrined in UBC's Sports Hall of Fame, Holowaty is these days consumed by the gospel of premium hand-forged golf clubs.
Holowaty and Miura are part of an ongoing trend in the golf equipment industry towards higher-end gear that enthusiasts are willing to pay for, out of a combination of brand loyalty, demand for detailed custom fitting and a fervent belief that the premium pays dividends on the golf course.
Miura irons are designed and built by hand by the company's namesake, Katsuhiro Miura, and his sons Yoshitaka and Shinei. The company says that its proprietary forging technique, a product of its hands-on approach, results in steel with a finer grain and fewer imperfections, resulting in a unique feel at impact that devotees swear by.
"As parents in Canada, what we spend on our children for hockey — $250 hockey sticks, $600 for a new pair of skates, never mind the costs of travel and whatnot — there's an investment that is made for our kids that certainly should translate over to golf," he says.
"Somebody will pay $50 or $60 for a flat-brim hat, they'll have Oakley sunglasses on, top-designer shorts and shirts and shoes, and yet golf clubs were still sort of an enigma."
Holowaty's message has been gaining traction in recent years.
Companies like Miura, PXG, Honma Golf and Maruman Golf have for years been doggedly pursuing the tippy-top Donald Trump segment of the market — golfers willing to spend $3,000 and upwards for a premium set of irons, $1,000 for a driver and $500 for a putter.
Indeed, the golden driver Japan's prime minister gave the U.S. president when the pair met for the first time in 2016 was a Honma — list price $3,755 US, according to reports.
But while there are those who will pay top dollar simply for bragging rights, Holowaty argues that the premium is worth it when it comes to irons, a fixture of golf bags that often takes a back seat to the sexier sticks — the driver and the putter chief among them.
"There's an understanding now that there are differences in terms of quality as long as they are borne out in the performance," he says.
"That's where clubfitters really help us, because the performance of your irons when you're being fitted then allows you to feel the difference — to see that, 'I'm buying quality but I'm not sacrificing anything else.'"
Miura is also well-positioned to take advantage of the growth of the driving iron, an emerging trend among skilled players looking for a reliable go-to option off the tee for those narrow holes where hitting the fairway is more important than distance.
Not all better golfers are comfortable controlling a hybrid, a cross between a wood and an iron that was all the rage when it showed up on the scene about 15 years ago because of its ability to launch high, soft shots as far but far more easily than those difficult-to-hit 2- and 3-irons.
Hybrids can be hard to steer for some, especially those more comfortable looking down at an iron. Enter driving irons like Miura's ICL-601, which allow for the precision that comes with an iron without sacrificing the distance advantage of a lofted wood or a hybrid.
"When you look at what our core competency is, specifically with the irons, it's not a big step to move towards a driving iron," Holowaty says of the club, which features a low centre of gravity, a hotter face and a sleek design that cleverly conceals the bulk of the club's mass at address.
"It was a natural for us."
James McCarten, The Canadian Press
