Ron Graham bending Harrington's wedge. Mitchell® Golf Equipment Company each year is invited to the Masters Tournament by Augusta National Golf Club to assist the Invitees with any club repair needs they may have. The following is a sampling of the work done for some high profile players.

Padraig Harrington
Padraig is always a frequent visitor to the Tour Workshop at the Masters each year. This year Ron Graham, Wilson Golf's tour representative, re-gripped 2 of his irons using a .620 ribbed green victory grip that Golf Pride keeps on hand just for him. What is more unique then the grip's core size is how the grip is aligned. Padraig likes the rib turned towards the right side of the shaft, which positions the grips V-markings extremely open. He obviously does not align his hands to the V-marking, but does this to place the rib in his fingers for better comfort and control. Each time a grip is replaced, it is done by eyeball and feel by Padraig. So, sometimes it takes more than one attempt to get it just right for him.

Paul Bessler grinding
sole on Harrington's wedge. Paul Bessler ground 11 degrees of bounce into a Wilson 60 degree wedge that had been lofted to 64 degrees for Padraig to use. The sole width was also reduced and the heel area was relieved to allow the club's leading edge to sit close to the turf when opened for flop shots. Padraig liked the results but did not put the wedge into play.

Tiger Woods
Rick Nichols, Nike's tour representative brought Tiger's putter into the workshop for fine-tuning. The putter head had become twisted to an open position in relationship to the hosel. Some how the plumber's neck of the putter got bent. Ed Mitchell locked the putter in the TourGauge® Putter Machine and using a putter-bending bar twisted the shaft socket portion of the hosel towards the face. Then using a crescent wrench, the lower portion of the hosel's vertical bar was twisted towards the face to align the hosel and face in a parallel and square relationship.

Steve Williams, Tiger's caddie reported back that Tiger approved the work and no further adjustments were needed. Ed asked Steve how the putter got misaligned and his comment was that him and Tiger were not sure. Keep in mind that the putter is milled from soft stainless steel and are subject to being bent out of spec very easily.

Tiger's putter specs are 35" length; 71-degree lie angle and 3.75 degrees of loft. He has used this putter for several years and amassed a marvelous record of victories and millions of dollars in prize money.

Ben Crenshaw

Ben Crenshaw with "Little Ben" putter
in TourGauge® Putter Machine. Ben is also a frequent visitor to the tour workshop at the Masters. This year he had his 48-degree Cleveland wedge adjusted ½ degree upright to 63 degrees. He also had the grip on his 1994 Wilson Staff sand wedge replaced. He uses a .580 round Golf Pride Tour Wrap grip.

The most exciting work performed for Ben was to rebuild his famous "Little Ben" Wilson 8802 putter. The shaft was not seated all the way down on the hosel. Repair work on the putter over the years had taken its toll. Due to many re-epoxy operations of the shaft, it had about 4 inches of cured epoxy up the shaft. The old epoxy was drilled out and completely removed. The hosel collar was also damaged from years of use and repair.
Paul Bessler removing
Crenshaw's putter head from shaft. This was repaired with a sanding belt and hand file. The shaft then matched up perfectly. After the epoxy cured, the putter was checked for loft and lie angles and adjusted to 71 ¼ degree lie angle and 3 degrees of loft.

Jim Furyk
Jim is always working on his putting, both his stroke and his putter. He brought his "gamer" and backup Odessey Two-Ball putters to the Tour Workshop for swing weighting. His "gamer" is a D-5 and the backup needed lead tape added to increase it 1.5 swing weight points to match.