Hey PURE grippers,

If you’ve followed us over the past 1-2 years, you probably already know about our burgeoning relationship with the legendary Miura golf brand. However, I wanted to take this opportunity to formally introduce our great friends and business associates at Miura Golf and Miura Giken, and to give a little background on how this great partnership came about.

In my travels and business dealings, I’ve noticed that the Miura name is surrounded by a good deal of mystery, so I want to shine some light on the Miura brands, businesses and, most importantly, their golf equipment. I believe that my experiences and travels over the last couple of years are a perfect backdrop to introduce the Miura legacy and share my experience with their clubs.
 

In February 2011, I was able to attend the Japan Golf Fair in Tokyo. It was there that I met Herb Wakabayashi and Shinei Miura. While I had heard rumors of the Miura legacy in forging golf clubs, a lot of it honestly sounded like hype and conjecture.

Herb and Shinei were fantastic people, and their interest in PURE grips and Tapeless Installation was immediate. Shinei stated that they have industry leading tolerances for weights in their club heads and that having our +/- 1 gram weights in the grip would be a big improvement in their finished products. We left the Miura folks with a handshake and some samples and went on about our visit to the show, feeling optimistic about the potential partnership.

Apparently the samples were very well received at Miura, as we immediately began a series of conversations about PURE grips’ capabilities and received an invitation from the Miura team.  We were invited to do two amazing things: join the Miura family and team in China for an annual golf outing, and visit the Miura factory in Japan to learn about their company - all in an effort to flesh out Miura's interest in working with PURE grips to design a stock Miura grip. Sometimes I’m amazed at what I get to do for a living!  

Needless to say I was excited for my chance to better understand the mysterious Miura legend. Yes, “legend”.  I had heard that Miura-san could bend 2 ton steel beams with his index fingers, perfectly grind 1/1000 of a gram off of the sole of a wedge AND correctly determine the proper lie of a 6 iron being swung at 110 mph by a leading Japanese pro - SIMULTANEOUSLY!  I couldn’t wait to meet this man!  

In all seriousness though, there were a lot of things that were hard to figure out with Miura.  Who was in charge?  What brands did they make and market?  Why were their products so special?  My trip to China and Japan in May 2011 was my chance to figure it all out. 

Here’s what I learned:

Katsuhiro Miura is the legend, the man who created the Miura forging techniques and the most amazing clubs around.  When we met in May of 2011, he was refining his role in the family business, proudly passing on the tradition to his two apprentice sons, Shinei and Yoshitaka. Shinei is the business man and steel forging expert, and now heads the day-to-day business operations of company, while his brother Yoshitaka mans the grinding wheels and production facility as a master club maker. But right next to him is his father: Miura-san now has more time to focus on the part of the work he loves -- grinding, shaping, getting new ideas, and bringing the best of those ideas through the prototype stages to where they're ready for golfers. All to Miura standards, of course. Miura-san will be 70 in October, but he is extremely healthy and he simply doesn't understand the word "retirement."  

Up until this point I had been dealing exclusively with Shinei Miura from Miura Giken, but I was also noticing a lot of references to Miura Golf, and a few different logos running around.  When I finally got a chance to meet Adam Barr and Bill Holowaty from Miura Golf on my trip to China, I was finally able to sort it all out. Here is the distinction:

• Miura Giken is the manufacturer of forged golf clubs in Japan. They make a series of products that they market in Japan under the Miura, Miuraism, Passing Point and Hagane names.  
• Miura Golf is the sales and distribution partner to Miura Giken everywhere in the world outside of Japan. They market the Miura brand of clubs and accessories that are made by Miura Giken for the non-Japanese markets.  

What this means is that there are some subtle differences in both branding and club design that are required for Japan and North America.  It’s hard for me to say much about Japanese branding, but I can comment about the clubs since I have had the opportunity to play both brand options.  

Once I was able to clarify some of the questions that were on my mind, I was able to get down to serious business and play some golf! I played three rounds with the Miura team, each round with a different set of Miura clubs. Although this experience was helpful as an introduction, I would get much greater hands on experience with Miura clubs over the coming months.  At the end of the third round of golf the Miura family asked me to rate the clubs I had played and give them feedback.  Although I had liked each set a lot, I told them it was the third set that I liked the most.  This set had a very traditional blade that had the softest feel to me and almost no offset at all, something that helps me fight my persistent hook. 

After a lot of discussion, and much embarrassment on my part, the Miura family gave me this beautiful set of blades as a gift to cement the relationship between our companies.  I was speechless. These irons belonged to Yoshitaka personally. They had his name stamped on them and were painted in his customary pastel colors. They were one-of-a-kind. What an amazing gift!  

As you can see, I chose a Japanese brand in Miuraism. It turns out that the Japanese preferences suit me quite well in some regards.  I liked the soft feel of these blades, but all the Miura clubs had the same feel.  It was the lack of offset that I really liked, a design feature that is prevalent in Japanese clubs and common to all the Miura blade designs.  The Miuras took my clubs back to Japan, built me a matching 2 and 3 iron, added a driver, and sent it all to the US.

Now that I had my own set of Miura clubs, I was finally able to see firsthand what all the hype was about. The clubs amazed me more and more each time I played with them. After playing with them for a bit, it occurred to me that I was playing with a very rare and unique set of clubs, and I became quite afraid of damaging them. With the help of Bill and Adam at Miura Golf, I put the beautiful pink blades on display in my office, and put a set of Miura CB 501 irons in play. 

Having learned so much about the Miura brand and gotten the chance to try out their legendary clubs myself, I became convinced that this would be the start of a beautiful friendship.