Hello!  My name is Don Thompson and thanks for visiting my Owner’s Corner.

I started this company in the fall of 2009 the result of frustration on my part finding the 304 stainless steel components I desired for my own irons. I searched everywhere until I discovered Sun Valley Golf only then it was more frustration in dealing with the outlet I tried doing business with. Because I was nearing retirement and have been a club builder for more than 20 years it was exactly then I decided to develop a web site and build a business around golf irons made from soft 304 stainless steel material.

As I have continued to develop Tempo Golf Components I have tried to select supporting component products that offer the greatest value without sacrificing performance. I could offer just about every shaft and grip product out there as most of my competitors do but that really serves no one’s best interest.

I have chosen a different business model and only offer a limited selection of shafts and grips that support my personal knowledge of exactly what it takes to build a quality performance based golf club at a price we all can afford.

I have so much information and passion about this endeavor and industry that I desire to share with folks looking for the satisfaction of building their own clubs or choosing the route of playing with game improvement custom clubs built by someone else that I have chosen this forum, my “Owner’s Corner”, as a way to pass some much needed information on to the public; along with a little editorial free of charge. 

I sincerely hope you find all these entries of value.  

1/8/2012:  I just added what I consider to be a really outstanding iron component this past week in the Silver Diamond RX-Tour head from Alpha Golf.  It has been designated as a Tour head because of its strong lofts.  I have checked all the weights, bounce numbers, lofts and offsets and they are all exactly as listed by the manufacturer which in itself is unusual.  I personally have found many component importers haven’t a clue as to what the real specs are of their heads and this includes a couple of my sources on occasion.  Nearly all golf heads today unfortunately come from China and it seems an iron’s bounce is one of the more difficult measurements for them to make and accurately represent.  The sport of golf is so foreign to most folks in China I’m not surprised they don’t understand the significance of bounce and how it is measured.  It’s not hard provided one has a protractor and a few math skills but it takes a little time. 

Back to the RX Tour iron; while it’s not made in the soft 304 stainless steel that I prefer and have built my small business around I do concede there are plenty of high quality heads available in the harder 431 stainless just so long as you don’t require any loft/lie adjustments in access of 1° to 2° to be made.  The graphics, colors, top line width, sole width and overall design of this head are perfect and it’s not finished with that proclaimed durable black finish that has been so popular the last couple of years that really isn’t very durable.  Take a look at any of the black coated heads, regardless of the make, after a year of heavy play you’ll see a beat up looking head.  I never liked these black heads from the beginning and I think we are already seeing a decline from the trend setting major manufacturers in their offering of black heads.  I hope this is the case and maybe the white driver heads will disappear along with them?

I have shafted my #4 through PW set of RX-Tour irons with Apollo’s new CWS (constant weight steel) shafts with tapered tips.  The hosels of the irons are .370” inside diameter and these taper tipped shafts are .355” so one needs to insert a little brass shim specifically made for adapting a taper shaft to parallel hosel.  I stock these and can provide with the purchase of the shafts at no charge so it’s no big deal for a professional assembly.  I also can provide a single #6 or #7 demo head if anyone is interested in checking out this fantastic iron head offering.

12/24/2011:   It’s time to set the record straight about what many shaft manufacturers refer to as  “flex point” or “bend point” in your shaft.  While a shaft may indeed have such a point it really means very little and has minimal effect on the flight or trajectory of your ball.  Exhaustive testing of shafts has shown that a shaft with a high bend point only lowers the balls trajectory 1° over a shaft with a low bend point.  That’s correct; a low kick point vs. a high kick point only amounts to a 1° differential in loft between the two shafts.

So what could possibly affect the trajectory of your golf shot other than the loft of the club face?  Three things:  Shaft profile, location of the vertical cog (center of gravity) within the club head and to a lesser degree but still important, torque.  All heads, both irons and woods have both a horizontal center of gravity (HG) and a vertical center of gravity (VG).  The intersection of these two points will be the true center of gravity.  This point can also be referred to as the “sweet spot”.  Lowering the placement of the vertical center of gravity (VG) can increase the trajectory of your shot but this means making changes in the distribution of the mass within the club head which is not a very efficient means of raising and lowering trajectory.  Instead, the “sweet spot” has been placed pretty much in the center of most club faces or slightly below and trajectory is controlled much more efficiently by changing the loft of the club face or profile of the shaft.

Every shaft has a profile but this information is seldom shared by the manufacturer.  Most share the torque value and some share what is referred to as butt frequency in CPM (cycles per minute) but very few if any share the entire profile of their shaft.  Butt frequency is the composite frequency of the entire shaft and is essentially the same thing as labeling a shaft’s flex or stiffness as L, A, R, S, X or whatever.  Unfortunately, there is no standard within the shaft industry for how torque and frequency are measured so it is nearly impossible to compare the numbers that are shared with regard to torque and butt frequency from one manufacturer to another.  A couple examples of these differences between shaft manufacturers that I have discovered are:  Company ABC measures torque by clamping the butt end of the shaft which is the strongest end and measuring the shafts resistance to rotation at the tip end while Company XYZ clamps the tip end and measures the resistance to rotation of the butt end.  The results will be quite different.  Company ABC measures butt frequency using a 5” butt clamp starting at the end of the butt but the raw shaft length is 48” so the frequency measured is that of a 43” shaft.  Company XYZ uses a 5” butt clamp also but the raw shaft length is only 46” so the frequency measured is that of a 41” shaft below the clamped 5” butt section.  The two companies also hang slightly different weights on the tips when making their butt frequency measurements.  How do you accurately compare these two shafts?   It’s very difficult.  Why can’t all the shaft manufacturers get together and establish a true standard of measurement for their industry?

Back to the shaft profile for contributing to ball trajectory; I take every shaft that comes into Tempo Golf and first measure the torque with my equipment.  I don’t really care what the shaft manufacturer says it is.  If I measure every shaft the same way, than I can compare one shaft against another regardless of the manufacturer.  Now, if someone comes to me and says he wants the lowest torque shaft available from my inventory I can easily pull it up without being concerned about how this measurement was made.  Torque does affect trajectory.  The lower the shaft’s torque the lower the trajectory produced.  I have found that very few recreational golfers are well served by a shaft with a torque less than 3°.  Most of us do best with a torque value between 3.2° and 5.0°.

I now take every shaft and use a 5” butt clamp starting at 46”.  This allows me to measure all driver shafts without regard to raw length making all shafts equal.  Probably 85% of all driver shafts have a raw length of 46” anyway.  I hang a 454g weight on the tip and now measure the shaft’s frequency at 41”, 36”, 31” 26”, 21” 16” and 11”.  This gives me a nice frequency profile with a measurement every 5” and I can represent it in an Excel spreadsheet and also graph it for a true visual picture of one shaft vs. another.  Typically it is the tip section, the last 11” and 16” that really determines how stout a shaft plays.  The higher the frequency of these sections the lower the trajectory.  I have shafts designated as S flex shafts by their respective makers with tip section frequencies ranging from 712 CPM to 970 CPM.  This is quite a range and there are very few of us out there that could play a shaft with a tip section measuring at nearly 1000 CPM.

With the combination of understanding the concepts of torque, face angle, and shaft profile in relationship to swing speed, load factor and face angle at impact a professional club builder can far better fit any player than if he/she was to select their clubs off the rack.  Of everything I have discussed in this brief written entry in my Owner’s Corner it is the shaft that makes the single most difference in one’s ability to hit the golf ball long, straight and with the right trajectory provided one started with the proper driver loft to begin with.
 
12/05/2011:  Graman shafts have been around for many years but back in what I would consider to be their best years the shaft that got all the attention was the Ultimate G Series which became known as the "Limey" because of its outrageous Lime color.  Somewhere around 2005 the Graman partners sold out to a raw material graphite company in Asia.  It wasn't too long after the sale that the end of the Ultimate G Series arrived replaced by the Professional Series in a Silver color with Lime logo/text and the Signature Series in Black with Copper logo/text.  These two new series of shafts were presented as being improvements in specification and performance but the identity called "Limey" was lost in the process.  Now, here we are, six years later, and I just found out the Limey shaft are again available and I am anxious to place my stock order.  Do not misunderstand, the current Graman line-up of shafts is comparable to any offering out there with regard to precision, performance, uniformity and any other way one wants to compare shafts and this is especially true with the Signature Series but none of these made the statement that the "Limey" made when you stepped up on the tee box.  They are priced fantastic so don't miss out on this opportunity.
 
11/06/2011:  As a club builder I have grown to dislike super light weight shafts, shafts below 50g in weight.  To be perfectly honest, I really see little advantage to any shaft weighing less than 50g and to me the ideal shaft weight for nearly all weekend players is a shaft weighing between 55g and 70g in its raw weight.   The only exception might be for ladies.  So what's the problem with the light weights?  Breakage.  Breakage during shipping, breakage during my testing of torque and frequency and mostly breakage by the golfer.  The walls of these shafts are thin.  Just lean on your shaft up on the tee and you'll likely break it.  When I clamp down my 205g tip weight for checking the butt frequency I need to be very careful I don't crush the tip and if I perform a frequency profile I need to be especially careful when trying to measure the tip section because the shaft will snap easily.  So what does a light weight shaft do for the player?  Nothing in my opinion.  Is anyone really so nieve to think swinging a driver with a shaft weighing 45g is going to increase one's distance over a shaft weighing 55g?  The same can be said for some of the new driver heads weighing 175g instead of the standard 200g.  Come on?  The secret to maximizing your drive distance is finding the shaft with the correct profile for your swing so it loads properly under your individually unique swing.

10/20/2011:  How does one really know if the shaft he/she purchases truly has the torque, bend point, frequency etc as stated in the shaft specification?  More and more shafts are coming from China and I can guarantee the OEM shafts being used by the"bigs" do not meet up to their stated specs.  AccuFLEX, a highly respected shaft name went out of business a couple years ago but recently Integra Golf picked up the marketing rights to the AccuFLEX trade name and is now again selling the same exact shafts that AccuFLEX sold a few years ago.  Are we sure they are the same exact shafts?  Through my personal testing which includes checking for torque, butt frequency along with zone profiling I am able to check for consistency and accuracy to the shaft specification as stated by the manufacturer.  I have already removed for sale the AccuFLEX AccuLAUNCH Hybrid shaft and the AccuFLEX Assassin II because of misrepresentation of torque and inconsistent frequencies.  So far the AccuFLEX Evolution and Creation 65 & 80 shafts have checked out wonderfully and I am well satisfied they are being manufactured to the original AccuFLEX specs. 

I have recently started the process of frequency profiling along with measuring the individual torque of each and every AccuFLEX shaft coming into my inventory along with building a frequency profile of all other shafts offered for sale by Tempo Golf Components.  All this data is going to go into an Excel spreadsheet so one shaft can be compared against any other with regard to profile.  Each shaft will be broken down into (6) zones so we will have an accurate measurement of the tip section, butt section and sections in between.  I plan on making this information available to all customers of Tempo Golf to assist in selecting the right shaft producing the desired results.  To request the profile of any particular shaft just shoot me an email and I will provide the information requested if already tested or run the profile of your request within a day or two.  

I have now measured enough shafts to say without any question that many manufacturers fudge the stated torque values of their shafts.  I had been told this by other reputible club builders but until recently having spent several hundred dollars on the necessary analyzers I had no way to confirm this.  Now I know for myself.  One company, Alpha Golf,  had the torque values stated in their spec sheets nearly dead nuts on with what I measured and it was with their Alpha Luxe 85 shaft for irons.  Stated torque is 2.2° and I measured the torque of three shafts and found all to be 2.3°.  No other shafts measured this close to spec.  Coudos to Alpha Golf!
 
10/8/2011:  Alpha RSP Launch discussion:  I think it's fair to say the majority of amateur golfers hit a fade or slice especially with their driver and longer clubs.  I personally am a single digit hdcp and I fight a fade but with the correct shaft I can hit a nice little draw most of the time.  My #1 goal off the tee is to take the right side of the fairway out of play and if I know I can hit a slight draw consistently I can aim down the right side of the fairway and double my chances of hitting every fairway.  A few months ago I shafted up a used Adams SpeedFast Draw 12.5° driver head with my Harrison 55g Eclipse shaft in S flex and 4.0° torque.  Immediately I started hitting a draw/hook.  The trajectory was also too high.  This certainly wasn't going to work.  I pulled the shaft and installed an SK Fiber Corsair in R flex, 74g and 3.2° torque.  What a difference this made especially with the SK Fiber having a high bend point and much stiffer tip section and an overall higher butt frequency even though this is an R flex and the Eclipse was an S flex.  Remember, the letter flex designation doesn't mean a thing when comparing one shaft to another.  Since the Corsair I have also played a Harrison Saga 65g R flex shaft and SK Fiber Quantum ST R flex shaft in this head.  As long as I play a low torque, stiff tip, heavier shaft I can hit the nice draw with lower trajectory nearly every time and long.  Now, just a couple weeks ago I shafted up the new Alpha RSP Launch 13° driver head with an AccuFlex Creation 80 shaft that has even a stiffer tip section, lower torque at 2.9°, high bend point and this shaft is heavy but WOW, it's even longer and feels so solid.  The head has a 2° closed face and with 13° loft one might think, no way.  But, by using the right shaft to compliment the head design I have offset the closed face and the high loft and found the most awesome driver/shaft combo I have ever played.  Is there a lesson here?  Absolutely!  Do not be hesitant to increase the loft of your driver, it will help you control the ball better.  Get with your local club builder to select the right shaft to meet your desired results based on your unique individual swing profile or give me a call so we can discuss your needs.  I offer a complete shaft profile for many of my offered shafts.  
 
10/5/2011:   I get very little negative feedback on any of the components I offer for sale but occasionally when it does come in I take it very serious and almost personal.  I try to play as many of my components as possible and I offer advise based on my experience with these components but it's just not possible to play them all so I do rely on feedback from customers.  Today I received feedback regarding the lack of playability of the SVG-3051S irons from a very unhappy customer.  This is the first negative report received on this iron so I'm not sure what to make of it but it does concern me.  The SVG-3051S is very close in appearance to the TaylorMade 2.0 and all feedback regarding this component head has been nothing but very positive until now.  I can say this is not my favorite iron but then I'm not excited by any of the black coated irons or white painted drivers.  The way I see it, the major golf manufacturers just have no where to go with design anymore so in order to keep selling this years new models they have resorted to colored heads and started playing with the lofts.  The TaylorMade head mentioned above has the lofts so strong compared to what I consider to be a standard loft it's no wonder the golf club hits it longer but is it more accurate?  My SVG-3051S heads are lofted the same as the TM so we didn't even offer a #3 iron.  The #4 iron is lofted at 21° which is a typical 3 iron loft.  It's all just a big game.

So, is there really a huge difference from one iron head to the next?  In my opinion, not really.  Obviously, comparing a blade to a game improvement head is not a fair comparison but if we compare one manufacturers game improvement head against anothers the differences are minimal.  There might be slight differences in head size, in offset, in sole width and so on but they are all designed to increase one's success in hitting the "sweetspot" and making the game more fun.

I play several different sets of irons and I can honestly say I have a personal preference to an iron with a thinner topline and a narrow sole width.  I just love my ProFire head but many golfers might not like it because it's too clean or plain looking.  It certainly doesn't look like the new black heads with the bright colored inserts on the back of the head.  It almost looks like a blade to be perfectly honest.  I also play my SVG-3031S heads which compares very favorably to the Ping G5 but this head has a thick topline and a much wider sole but I will play it just as well, it just doesn't look as good to me at setup.

The one thing all of my irons do have in common is the right shaft for my game and this is where I do most of my experimenting.  It has taken me quite a long time to understand how a shaft works and how it relates to a golfer's swing profile but I can say with 100% conviction, your shaft matters more than anything in your equipment.  I dislike light weight steel shafts and I dislike most of the new light weight graphite shafts.  The new 175g driver heads are garbage as they create all sorts of swing weighting issues and one manufacturer has even suggested golfers play their driver at 47" so it can be swing weighted properly.  A 47" driver will not increase your driving distance, it will only help you hit less fairways and add strokes to your game.

Here are some tips regarding the shafts you play in your clubs.  Most golfers play too stiff a shaft and too low a torque.  Play a driver shaft around 65g with a torque around 3.5° to 4.5°.  If you want to play a more lofted driver then lower the torque a little and play a shaft with a stiffer tip section and higher bend point.  I play a driver (Alpha RSP) with an offset only because in order to find a driver with a 1° to 2° closed face most likely it will include offset.  Offset has nothing to do with contributing to a draw, this is a myth.

I play R flex Harrison Professional or KBS Pro steel shafts or S flex Alpha Luxe 85 graphite shafts soft tipped mainly because S flex graphite shafts usually but not always are a little heavier than R flex graphite and I prefer a heavier shaft in my irons.
In my hybrids am playing the UST AXIVCore Blue hybrid shaft in an R flex.  Love it!
 
7/19/2011:  A little background on the Harrison Sports Shotmaker:   It’s not very often that a new golf product comes along that is truly worthy of taking a strong look at.  Michael Cheng, President of Harrison Sports, has been working on the development of this break-through shaft stabilization insert for over seven years.  During this period of development Mr. Cheng has applied for and received four U.S. patents regarding the Shotmaker.  Recently in April the USGA finally ruled the Shotmaker does conform to the rules of golf and issued their letter of conformance.   It is the first ever USGA rules conforming accuracy boosting device of its kind. The insert is very light. It weighs only 4 grams. The most vulnerable section of a golf shaft is its tip section. When club head impacts golf ball, this is the area that vibrates and deforms the most. It is common knowledge among golf shaft designers that stable tip section improves accuracy dramatically. As a solution, shaft makers offer tip stiff shafts for better tip stability. However, tip stiff shafts are less responsiveness in play, and golfers in general have shunned away from them. With the Shotmaker insert, Harrison Sports has now introduced a revolutionary tool to stabilize the tip section. Because it is a removable insert and is not glued to the golf shaft, it does not generate a proportional increase in stiffness as compared to conventional tip stiff shafts. The Shotmaker is locked inside the golf shaft at one point only. Therefore, it allows the golf shaft to flex and twist freely with the insert wedged inside. Most accuracy enhancement devices augment accuracy indirectly. However, the Shotmaker directly improves accuracy by improving shaft stability, eliminating deformation and lowering impact vibrations.  It is so effective that accuracy improves up to 40% and spin rate decreases up to 10% at repeated independent robot and player tests. 

The Shotmaker is available in several different flexes but it’s not just swing speed that determines which flex will work best in one’s shaft.  Also to be considered is the way the shaft is loaded along with angular verocity.   So far Harrison has released for sale flexes C, D, E, F & G with C, LD & LX to be available soon.  Flex G handles swing speeds up to 130 MPH so we have most golfers covered.  Several “Long Drive” competitors are already using the Shotmaker with great success in assisting their drives to stay within the grids.

I personally have chosen to stock the Shotmaker Insert along with the insertion tool.  Together these have an MSRP of $139.95 along with a 4g counter-weight to insert in the butt end to offset the 4g Shotmaker weight.  I have not initially placed into inventory the grip cap cutter and grip lock mainly because I find it just as simple to replace the grip after installation.  Better yet, switch to my PURE Grips and remove the grip, insert the Shotmaker, and re-install the grip with just a quick shot of compressed air.

For those of you whom have read to this point and would like even more information please give me a call or send me an email and I will send you a 10 page white paper that goes into much detail on the Shotmaker.

6/20/2011:  Finally a shaft company that understands what torque does in a shaft.   Just take a look at the lineup Graphite Design offers.   These shafts are made for not only the pros but also for the weekend “hacker”.  Just look at the torque numbers on their shafts.  I doubt one can find a single shaft with a torque below the 3.0° threshold.  Golfers, torque in your shaft is a good thing.  You need it to assist in getting your ball airborne and at target.   I look at shafts like the Aldila RIP hybrid shaft with a torque of 2.2° in R flex and I need to wonder “just who the heck with a R flex swing speed could possibly hit this shaft”.  It’s like a 42” piece of rebar in your clubhead.  As a club builder I re-shaft club after club with softer flexes and higher torques not to mention replacing low lofted driver heads with higher lofted driver heads.  Take a look on Ebay at all the “nearly new” drivers with lofts of 7.5° – 8.5° shafted with super low torque shafts.  It takes a very special player to find success with this type of club.  Please golfers, stop reading in Golf Digest about what this week’s Tour winner plays in his bag.  We are not on Tour and we play a different game than they do.