Whilst at art college studying design at Coventy University, UK, I did a placement at a Formula One racing car team called Arrows. Their technical director, who also had a background in product design, used to design kitchens. Sadly, Arrows no longer exist, and they have the record of being the most unsuccessful team in the history of Formula One.
I soon realised it was unlikely that I would find my vocation designing racing cars, however, spending time in a wind-tunnel, watching talented engineers design and test aerodynamic components led me to think about a 'sports' related project for my final year at college.
My initial thoughts of golf clubs, in particular drivers, were of a brick attached to the end of a stick. Surely, I could design something that looked as if it moved through the air. With the knowledge that golfers swing their drivers at speeds of over 100 mph, I set about designing a low drag, ultra-aerodynamic driver. A prototype of my final design was built at Arrows, using off-cuts of their expensive high strength, low weight carbon fibre material.
That summer, The Open Championship was being held at St. Andrews, Scotland. With my prototype in hand, I walked around the tented village to see what other manufactures had to offer. A guy with an American accent stopped to ask me what I was carrying. He, introduced himself as Scotty Cameron, and invited me to meet his boss. I can recall sitting in a motorhome, with Scotty and Wally. Wally turned out to be Mr Wally Uihlein, CEO of Acushnet. He asked me, 'What do you want'? I just hadn't thought about what I wanted to do. And simply replied, 'I don't know'. Wally passed me his business card and asked me to let him know. The next day, I knocked on the door of his motorhome, to be informed that he had already left for USA.
John Daly won The Open that year.
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