Equipment
LA Golf Shafts hires John Oldenburg, former Aldila head of engineering, to lead product development
John Oldenburg, former head of engineering at Aldila, is joining LA Golf Shafts as Chief Product Officer.
As a refresher, LA Golf Partners — headed by Reed Dickens of Marucci fame — purchased Matrix Shafts in March and renamed it LA Golf Shafts. Dickens and company present LA Golf Shafts as a unique quantity in the shaft space: Tour pros will have equity stakes in the company and direct involvement in product development. The same shafts the pros play will then be available to consumers.
Read more on the specifics of LA Golf Shafts here
Of course, all this is premised on having a capable hand to lead design…hence Oldenburg’s hiring.
Oldenburg spent 20 years as the head of Aldila engineering and product development. Most recently, he had stepped away from golf to work in other arenas, but was lured back and “feels LA Golf Shafts releases the shackles on his innovation and creativity allowing him to design shafts that will be disruptive in the market,” according to a press release.
“Throughout my shaft design career, I often felt true shaft innovation has been restricted by the economic realities of doing business in golf’s OEM world. Since we are truly player driven and oriented to the aftermarket, I have new and unprecedented freedom to pursue truly unique, innovative and state of the art concepts in golf shaft design,” said Oldenburg.
“The freedom to select and incorporate advanced and exotic materials based solely on technical and performance criteria rather than purely economic considerations significantly expands our design window and heightens my team’s ability to design and innovate groundbreaking products. Having these design shackles taken off is great for me, but the true winners will be our partners and the recreational players who end up with our innovative new shafts in their bags. Producing all our products here in the USA is another huge plus.”
He indicated he relished the opportunity to have an office right next to the production floor, rather than working with manufacturers overseas.
Neal Shipley was the first to admit that he enjoyed his food while in college. But since his days at Ohio State, he’s slimmed down and earned a PGA Tour Card.
That hasn’t stopped him from having fun with his wedge stampings, though it’s led to some misunderstandings.
On the 54 (degree), we have ‘Big Fudge,'” Shipley told GolfWRX. “It was supposed to be ‘Big Fridge,’ so this happened a little while ago. ‘Big Fridge’ was a nickname between my college teammates and I, with ‘fridge’ meaning stomach, a big stomach.
“We told the Ping guys to put … ‘Big Fridge’ on it, and I think maybe some bad cell service or something, and they thought I said ‘fudge,’ so they put fudge on it.”
On Shipley’s 50-degree he also continues the food theme, this time with his go-to order at the “Golden Arches,” and his stamping “DONS 7.”
“The number 7 meal, the two cheeseburger meal, that was my McDonald’s order, back when I would have McDonald’s frequently,” Shipley shared.
At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.
It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.
Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @raw10628 has a L.A.B. DF3 putter and Masters putter cover up for grabs.
From the listing: “Some great items here today, time to thin out and make room for next set of gear. All prices include shipping.
LAB DF3 Purple 33.5” 68° lie with TPT – $725. LAB Masters release DF3 cover – $150.”
To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules
Driver: Ping G440 LST (9 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 5-M4
3-wood: Ping G440 Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 6-M4
5-wood: Ping G440 Max (19 degrees @18)
Shaft: Accra TourZ Green 6-M4
Hybrid: Ping G440 (23 degrees)
Shaft: Oban Isawa Red Hybrid Shaft 04 Flex 70 Gms
Irons: Srixon ZXi7 (5-P)
Shafts: Aerotech SteelFiber Private Reserve i80
Wedges: Cleveland RTZ (50-MID, 54-FULL, 58-MID)
Shafts: Aerotech SteelFiber Private Reserve i105
Putter: L.A.B. Golf OZ.1i
Shaft: ACCRA Putter Shaft
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
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Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D (10.5 degrees) Shaft: Project X Titan Yellow 60 TX 3-wood: TaylorMade Qi4D Tour (15 degrees) Shaft: Project...
steve
Aug 28, 2018 at 2:57 pm
“…I often felt true shaft innovation has been restricted by the economic realities of doing business in golf’s OEM world.”
Please ask Mr. Oldenburg if he intends to cure his shafts in a high pressure autoclave… instead of pizza oven curing at atmospheric pressures.
lance
Aug 30, 2018 at 11:17 am
Graphite tennis rackets are autoclave cured and reasonably priced compared to oven cured graphite golf shafts. Eli Callaway of Big Bertha fame said he could buy a graphite shaft for $2 from China. Since then the price has gone up to $4.
Chris
Aug 30, 2018 at 7:00 pm
Most modern Studies show that there is no net change in stiffness or failure rates between autoclave and other methods. They also show that autoclave pieces tend to delaminate more. Most aerospace and military have been moving away from autoclave since 2009 because of this. I’d be happy to share the studies if you like.