Golf club maker looking forward to spring

The snow was falling one recent day outside the Argonne Road store where Mike Mengert makes and markets golf clubs, and he admitted to a telephoning customer, “I’m not exactly swamped.”

But like most golfers, Mengert is confident spring will arrive soon.

“Now is the time things start picking up,” he added optimistically.

Mengert has been producing his custom golf clubs for 16 years. His King of Clubs shop has been at the Argonne Road address for the past dozen years.

Despite the winter weather, recent months have not been totally idle. This shop has a net set up so golfers can check out their swings and test the sample clubs Mengert has on hand. And Mengert has had plenty of repair work plus Christmas gift orders to keep him busy.

“I have done some fittings for people and have had some orders,” he said.

One of the distinctive clubs he makes is a popular gift. It’s a driver with a large dark red head and a matching red shaft, and it’s labeled The Red Hot.

Mengert is part of a well-known Spokane family. His late grandfather, Otto “Pops” Mengert, was a beloved figure on the local golf scene for many years.

Otto Mengert owned Crescent Machine Works, a longtime business on North Monroe Street, and he was succeeded there by his son, Dick, now retired. Two of Mike’s brothers now operate that business.

Al Mengert, Mike’s uncle, was a nationally recognized junior golfer. He followed a fine amateur career as a noted professional and is now retired in Arizona.

“He got all the good golf genes,” Mike joked.

Mike Mengert, 38, attended Gonzaga Prep and Gonzaga University and worked in the pro shop at Indian Canyon during his college years. That’s where he became acquainted with Indian Canyon head pro Gary Lindeblad and absorbed Lindeblad’s interest in club making.

“I was thinking of being an assistant pro, but that’s when the light came on,” he said.

Eventually, Mengert was tested and certified by a national organization of club makers. Now he can’t even guess at how many sets of clubs he has made.

“I might make just a driver for a guy or maybe a starter set, or maybe reshaft a set of clubs, making them more appropriate. Or maybe just a partial set for a youngster,” he said.

And he doesn’t necessarily make full sets for individual customers.

“For somebody who wants to take up golf, maybe the four, six, eight and a wedge plus the three and five woods. They can spend that extra money on lessons and fill in the set later.”

Mengert tells of making one club each month for a woman customer.

“I think we started with a nine-iron and went from there,” he said. “I still see her all the time out practicing.”

It’s easy for him to add clubs since each customer’s profile is recorded and kept on file so that they can order new or replacement clubs easily.

He and associate Don Sullivan can fill customer demand quickly, he said.

“Very rarely would anybody have to wait more than a week,” he said, adding that he recalls reshafting a set of clubs for a golfer 7 feet tall in less than a week.

Although he doesn’t travel to trade shows during the winter, it’s easy to keep up on changing technology in golf clubs, he said.

“I can get plenty of information on the Internet and from shaft company reps,” he said.

Mengert said he feels most changes in club making will be in the shafts.

“That’s where the innovation will be,” he said. “They’ve gone about as far as they can go with club heads.”

When people start calling for tee times, Mengert will be busy at both the Valley shop and at Indian Canyon.

“During the golf season we’re going seven days a week,” he said.

And it seems he’s looking forward to it.