Review: MannKrafted Divot Tools
April 28, 2013
Last year, for the first time in our relatively short blog history, LG celebrated the turning of the year of PF awesomeness with a gift for himself and for me, Stanley Mayhem scorecard and yardage book wallets, which he reviewed in detail here: https://thepowerfade.com/2012/11/15/review-leather-scorecard-wallets/. After fully agreeing with LG’s analysis, it became apparent that this should be a yearly exercise for the PF–not only to review excellent equipment, but to support the artisans who make them.
This year, I stumbled upon a tremendous offering from a friend of the PF, LaMont Mann. I’ve known LaMont Mann since he lovingly crafted my putter, which is reviewed here: https://thepowerfade.com/2011/05/02/review-sunset-beach-golf/. LaMont is one of the kindest and most humble people you will ever meet, but he is also one of the most talented in crafting putters. His custom and hand work has become a springboard for a great business. LaMont is capable of making things in the golf world that few can, and he offers his services at a reasonable price to those lucky enough to find him in a world where marketing often wins out over true craft.
I’d recently noticed LaMont’s postings on his Facebook page about some new divot repair tools. His initial offerings were single-prong tools. While those appeared to be well-crafted and of tremendous quality, they did not pique my interest for the simple reason that I never have liked to use single-prong tools. I’m sure someone was in his ear telling him “you have to make these in a two-prong shape.” Well, he did.
Coinciding with LG’s birthday, LaMont released his two-prong version. The moment I saw it, I knew this had to be the PF equipment of the year. I purchased one for LG’s birthday and one for myself. I asked for LG’s to be stainless steel and torched, while my tool is carbon steel and torched. LaMont not only sent me pictures of them in process, he returned my request to produce LG’s especially quickly knowing he had a birthday upcoming. The beautiful results are shown below:
>
As you can see, these tools are custom milled, torched to perfection, and hand paint filled by LaMont himself. The cost was $86 for both tools with shipping included–certainly not inexpensive, but not as much as I would have expected for custom-made equipment.
So, any downsides? Well, the answer to that is a “sort of.” These tools are really, really cool items–especially for someone who knows custom equipment and/or knows who LaMont is. For the casual golfer, the reaction might be “why did you pay so much for something that nice clubs give away for free?” Or “I bought one of those at the Tour Championship for $36 and it had the Tour Championship logo on it! That’s an absurd price!” I understand where those people are coming from. I think these are tremendous. The personal craftsmanship is there. They are milled steel, paint filled, and made just like I wanted. On the other hand, these are not performance golf tools; they are being used to fix pitch marks in the green. They don’t have to be perfectly balanced to strike a ball correctly or milled to tight tolerances to avoid defects. However, when I use my custom tool by LaMont, I’ll know that I have exactly what I want in my hands and that it is as good of a tool as I could’ve gotten. That alone will give me confidence not to think of the wrong things on the course.
Cost: 6
Quality: 9
Customization: 10
Speed of Production: 10
Customer Service: 10
Overall: 8 (and it’s 8 only because it’s not required for everyone, but for those that do get it, it’s a 10 all the way)
Review: Club Covers by DelilaH
December 7, 2011
Today’s review focuses on a niche in the golf industry: customization. In this case, custom club covers.
That’s right, I said custom golf club covers. Although it sounds over the top, many golfers like to customize their bag. Your clubs should fit you like a glove–lofts, lies, grips, shafts, and more. Customizing the appearance of your clubs is an extra step many golfers take to stand out and to put their own personal stamps on the game they love. For example, looking at LG’s bag, he even has his own custom ferrules (see https://thepowerfade.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/whats-in-the-bag-lg-edition/ for LG’s custom blue ferrules, seen best on the photo of his wedges). And, would Tiger really have been as great without his notable friend, Frank?
Personally, I haven’t ever believed that I had a good enough game to customize my own bag–and, quite frankly, I didn’t have a good enough bank account. However, this year, I’ve settled into my equipment, and, as a Christmas gift to myself, I decided it was time to customize my golf bag. Having just had my second child, a custom club cover dedicated to my two children was what I wanted.
The first thing I needed to do was find someone who could make it. For that, I can tell you–look no further than DelilaH at GirlyGolfer (http://www.girlygolfer.com/CLUB%20COVERS%20MEN.html).
I emailed the contact information on the website stating I had an idea and wanted to make a cover dedicated to my children. Delila responded in no less than a week–starting with an apology for how long it had taken to get back to me!
Delila (the H is for her last name) contacted me asking whether I had a specific idea, which I did not. I pointed out a few things I thought would be important for a personal cover: (a) I wanted yellow to match my bag, which is generally yellow in honor of my alma mater, Georgia Tech; and (b) I wanted an elephant and a giraffe somewhere on the cover because those animals signify my two children. Maybe I would add my initials, but it wasn’t required. Within two days, Delila was back to me with three different design options with various pricing. After about a day of deliberation, I picked one of the options and offered a few tweaks.
Delila sent me an invoice which I paid the following morning. By the evening, I received the following picture of my completed club cover:
She boxed it for shipping that night, and I had it two days later.
Soup to nuts, from the “hey, I think I’ll get a custom club cover” to having the finished product in my hand it took Delila 10 days, and she was apologetic that it took as long as it did!
All of my reviews have a drawbacks section to highlight at least one thing I did not like about the process, the course, the application, whatever. The only thing I can say was a drawback was cost. As with any customization, the cost will not be a bargain. The custom cover shown above was $70 shipped ($64 for the cover + $6 shipping). However, Delila did an excellent job conceiving the design, making it, and putting it together, and it is an extremely high quality cover. I cannot complain about $70 for all of that work that she did. Some of the seams are not 100% straight and aligned, but I expected some variation as the covers are sewn, not mass-produced, and the small “imperfections” that might bother some purchasers give it the custom-made look that I prefer.
Altogether, I got EXACTLY what I wanted: a custom-made cover that is exactly my style and is the perfect accent to my golf bag (look for it in my upcoming What’s In The Bag post). The process was unbelievable, quick, and I could not envision it running any smoother than it did. Thanks, Delila!
Turnaround: 9
Design(s): 10
Quality: 9
Communication: 10
Price: 7
Customization: 10
Overall: 9
The Power Fade Golf Blog 