I’ve been in the golf industry since 1991. That was the year that myself and 2 partners took over a small, struggling shaft company in El Cajon, Ca. called Grafalloy. Grafalloy had sales at the time around $250k, no real technical expertise and zero marketing capabilities. My main responsibility was to give us a solid R&D foundation, and eventually to run the factory. We all shared the marketing and sales tasks.

It didn’t take me long to realize that most of the marketing in golf, especially for golf shafts, was NOT based on true empirical or scientific data, but on whatever “story” the different companies’ sales and marketing departments invented. I was tasked with coming up with something new - a new product that really was different and did have an empirical performance basis. After 2 years of different designs and testing, that shaft was named the ProLite - the first lightweight shaft that was embraced by practically the entire PGA and Senior Tours. It’s truly was my “Pro V1 story” - Titleist’s ball that when it was released took the Tours by storm because of its technical superiority to all the other golf balls being played.

When we released the ProLite, because it was new, different and whose performance was based on real technology, we charged a premium for it - at that time a retail cost of $65 - which made it the most expensive shaft on the market. So how does one compete with the most popular shaft out on Tour? Well...how about copying the shaft and saying “because of this new technology our shaft goes for $100”. Then another would do something similar and then say... “this new technology is truly a breakthrough....our shaft costs $200”. Get the picture?

After 8 years and 70+ hours a week, sales at almost $20M, and almost 300 Tour wins with the ProLite and its derivatives (The Blue, etc.) I left Grafalloy to do charity work in Vietnam for a year. When I returned I consulted with Royal Precision and developed their Rifle and Saber lines, then started my own little company doing most of the private label shafts for component companies like The Golfworks, Wishon Golf and Golfsmith.

About that time the cost of golf shafts really started to get out of line - $500, $1000, now even $2500 in Japan. For what? In blind testing, I could NOT find any real performance advantages of any of these shafts over the new, premium designs I had in player testing. So I decided to start a new shaft company whose Mission Statement is simply:
To tell the truth to the golfing community about golf shaft design as it relates to performance and cost. Further, to provide golfers of all abilities innovative golf shaft products of the highest quality that provide optimal performance and are PGA Tour validated at fair and reasonable prices. Look at it this way. You have 2 premium, well-designed shafts. Its not like the one selling at $50 is say a Volkswagen engine while the one selling at $500 is a NASCAR engine. In all practicality, they’re THE SAME ENGINE. Of course there are differences in mechanical properties like stiffness, weight and torque and the way they are distributed along the shaft but you know what? The material costs on both shafts are within a few dollars of each other. So what makes one worth $50 and the other $500? When I asked, one of my competitors at the PGA Show put it best when he said...“hell, when someone pays $500....”. Put another way, if they can sell it at $500, good for them. I cannot in good faith do so. THAT’S why I put my name on a company, created the XCalibers...to simply TELL THE TRUTH!!!

Once Upon A Time....a long time ago, a bunch of knights sat around a large, round table and spoke of things like honor, valor, and truth. To me.... ONCE UPON A TIME.... IS NOW!!!!