My JDM Story

By K2_2

Vincent van Goh said “I am not an adventurer by choice, but by fate.” One
could say the same about the small adventure that introduced me to Japanese
golf gear. During a long winter I was working with my friend and golf
instructor Tom, to prepare for the next high school season. One morning he
said the time had come for me to switch to a new set of irons!

As I still do today, I pored myself into the pursuit of the most wonderful
implements with which the game could be played. However, more than a decade
ago, online golf forums and company websites were in their infancy. So I
turned to old issues of Golf Digest, Golf World, and the bags of top players
around town. Then one afternoon, I headed off to the beach, but not for a
swim, as it was cool and rainy - the kind of weather I cherished for golf,
as the wide open courses let me drift away from the Florida coast to imagine
myself traversing the links I longed to visit in Scotland.

With dreams of trans-Atlantic golfing glory dancing through my head, I went
to buy a set of Titleist DCI’s or perhaps something more challenging, such
as a forged Titleist blade. However, after arriving at my favorite shop, I
found that the demo set for the DCI’s was out for the day. Giddy as I was, I
could not part hands with months of earnings for a set of irons that I
hadn’t been able to try out. Just as I was about to depart – and planning
another trip the following week - one of the gentleman in the store took me
over to a corner of the shop where some clubs were languishing almost out of
site. He asked me to take a set back home for a week, to try the clubs out
with an open mind, and to let him know what I thought.

Those Maruman Conductor blades were the last thing I expected to leave with,
as I had never heard of the company before that day. They were not from
Mizuno – the only Japanese golf company with which I was familiar - and
they weren’t in the hands of my heroes of the day, Fred Couples, Davis Love,
and Jim Dent. Over the years though, fate has often lead me down a different
path, and so it was to be with golf implements as well.

My parents took me out to a nearby course, and I proceeded to play a game
with which I was utterly unfamiliar. Never had I been so consistent from
club to club! Nor had I been able to make such wonderful contact from tight
lies, deep rough, and dry bunkers along those windswept fairways. And in a
rare moment of presence for someone of my age at the time, I realized what a
joy it was to play such a round. For a few weeks I did not plan to storm the
amateur circuit, to head off to a college team, or to try my hand at a
Monday qualifier for one of the smaller tours of the day. I simply enjoyed
playing golf, with good friends, and a wonderful set of clubs.

As fate would have it, a few weeks later I wound up with an injury that took
me away from the game for several years. However, my appreciation of
something unique, something viewed with casual regard by most of my peers,
would stay with me for years to come. Just as the fate which Van Goh spoke
of led to my first adventure into the world of Japanese golf equipment, it
later led me not to the links of Scotland but across the Pacific to work in
Japan.

After many years away from the game, I found myself working long but happy
hours surrounded by car enthusiasts and the odd Judo champ. At first I gave
little thought to golf when I arrived in Japan. Then on a warm summer
evening my friends and I raced from the lab to our favorite izakaya only to
find it closed for the evening. Enlivened by the opportunity to try
something different, we made our way to a new restaurant across town.
However, my friend Miyamoto-san was not quite ready for us all of us to have
dinner. He wanted to take us out to a nearby driving range, as someone had
embellished my golfing prowess to heights I never dreamed of. I had one of
the many surprises that continue to arise when one visits and works in
Japan; just as my friends loved to listen to American music and dreamed of a
Corvette to park alongside the Supra pinned up on our office wall, so to did
they have a fascination with American golf clubs.

As luck would have it though, we happened upon a gentleman with an
appreciation for Japanese golf gear, much the same as my friend many years
and miles removed from the shores of Shikoku. Before we could leave, he
would insist that I try some out some new irons, lest my friends and I
depart without sampling Japan’s finest offerings of the day. And so, almost
a decade after my first round with a set of Japanese irons, I was led back
to the world of Japanese clubs and golf. It would be some time before
another set of those Tourstage irons or the Marumans from years gone by
would land in my bag, but the wait, and the small adventures that ensued
made for some fond memories indeed.