Custom Golf Club Maker In The Swing

Maybe it’s not you. You’ve fought hooks and slices and off-balance finishes. If, in your frustration, you’ve blamed your golf clubs, you might be right.

Randy Henry had a similar problem 20-odd years ago. He was a tremendous young Coeur d’Alene golfer until a head-on car crash nearly crippled him. Two years and nine fusions later, he was working as a club pro, but his game was suffering.

Randy had read about an idea to fit clubs to players and decided to rebuild a set to fit his new, stiffer body. He dissected a complimentary set a manufacturer had sent him and studied the pieces in relation to his size, strength and movements.

What he developed eventually led to Henry-Griffitts Inc., a Hayden-based custom golf-club fitting company with a worldwide following.

“They’re right here in Idaho?” says a die-hard Coeur d’Alene golfer, as if the company’s presence marks the area with a golden tee.

“The typical golf pro tries to teach students how to use standard clubs,” says Jim Hofmeister, a former golf pro with Avondale Country Club. Jim left Avondale to help Henry-Griffitts develop its equipment and is one of the company’s most enthusiastic spokesmen.

“Randy looked at the (students’) weird motions and figured people were making them to get the golf balls to go where they wanted them to go,” he said.

Randy ordered parts - heads, steel and graphite shafts, grips - and built clubs to fit his students’ heights, flexibility, strength. The golf pro at Hayden Lake Country Club, Jim Griffitts, was so taken with the concept that he sold Randy’s clubs to his students, then became Randy’s partner.

At first, some pros and manufacturers slammed Henry-Griffitts for building equipment that encouraged lousy swings.

But as well-known golf names such as Titleist began custom fitting, specialized clubs became the trend of the ‘90s. By 1995, the method won a full-color spread in PGA Magazine with player endorsements for Henry-Griffitts as well as other customfitting companies.

“I played for a lot of years without winning,” says pro golfer Carolyn Hill. “I was fitted for HGs in 1995. Three weeks later, I won the Bank of Boston Classic.”

Now, Henry-Griffitts teaches classes in club fitting and offers golfers 2,000 club combinations to fit their swings. It sells clubs, which are all built in Hayden, through 500 pros throughout the world and is popular with every level of golfer willing to pay the $1,000 to $1,800 price for a full set.

All because Randy wouldn’t give up golf.

Musical interlude

I asked for your favorite Panhandle musical groups and you sang out loudly. Harpist Leslie Stratton Norris is her husband’s favorite musician, but he’s not alone. She was a “Close to Home” subject a while ago because she’s such an impressive performer.

According to Tim Gresbeck, we should listen to Cafe Blue, a “tight and energetic rhythm and blues sensation.” Alan and Pamela Bohn can’t decide which group is better - the Atomic Blues or Beth and Cynde, but Sandpoint’s Virginia Simmons knows she’s sold on Beth and Cynde.

Give it up

Accidents of all sorts have drained Coeur d’Alene’s supply of Type A blood, and Type O is always in demand.

The Bloodmobile will collect Sunday, 9 a.m. to noon, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church; Prairieview Elementary in Post Falls, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday; Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Rathdrum, 2-6 p.m. Tuesday; and North Idaho College, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

How has your blood helped someone? Tell the tale to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo