On the latest episode of GOLF\u2019s Fully Equipped, Bobka recalled the story of crafting Woods\u2019 irons to co-host Johnny Wunder and dispelled the long-standing rumors that Woods\u2019 first Titleist irons were actually forged by legendary Japanese brand Miura, which was known to make irons for other brands.<\/p>\n
\u201c[They were] from Tennessee, Hoffman Forging,\u201d Bobka said. \u201cYeah, it was actually, it was actually two. We had some older models from Titleist. So it ended up being, his long irons were one forging model and the mid and the short irons were another model.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bobka originally wasn\u2019t supposed to work with Woods on his irons. Woods initially worked with Terry McCabe, the Titleist VP of R&D, on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, one day, I get a call from Wally Uihlein [then-CEO of the Acushnet Company], Bobka explained. \u201d He goes, \u2018Terry is going down to work with Tiger on a few prototypes that he made for him, and I want you to go down there too.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, you know, I don\u2019t want to step on anybody\u2019s toes and whatever,\u2019 but it\u2019s like, well, you know, Butch [Harmon] had kind of called Wally and said, \u2018Hey, you know, we kind of like to have the A team, we kind of like to have the best guy helping us out.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Bokba had a previous relationship with the Harmon family through Butch\u2019s older brother Dick. So Bobka went and met Woods and Harmon for breakfast before a range session at Isleworth with McCabe to get a better sense of what he wanted in his irons.<\/p>\n
After watching Woods hit balls for 90 minutes, Bobka had what he needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cButch goes, \u2018What do you think?’\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Well, I think I\u2019m going to fly back to California. And I\u2019m going to I\u2019m going to make him some golf clubs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
How Tiger Woods found his driver for the 2000 season | Fully Equipped<\/a><\/p>\n By:<\/p>\n Bobka asked Woods if he made him three identical sets of clubs, would he be able to play a set picked from his favorite 2-iron, 3-iron, 4-iron, etc., from each set.<\/p>\n Woods told him yes, and then Bobka pointed out that the lengths of his Mizuno set weren\u2019t progressive and he asked if Woods would want him to fix that.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, cool. That doesn\u2019t bother me,\u201d Woods said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know, I didn\u2019t even know my clubs were kind of messed up like that. So yeah, that would probably be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n For present-day Woods, you could never sneak a bubble in the tape underneath one of his grips by him, let alone the lengths of his clubs being off by 1\/16th of an inch. But for a young 22-year-old just beginning to take the golf world by storm, he was still learning.<\/p>\n Bobka went back to California and told Woods it would be a few weeks before he could get them made. But it wasn\u2019t long before Woods asked for something else.<\/p>\n Woods had been messing around with a set of Ben Hogan Apex irons. They weren\u2019t his spec, but he loved the way the irons interacted with the turf and he asked Bobka if they could incorporate the sole design into his irons. Woods sent them to Bobka to see for himself.<\/p>\n TaylorMade P7TW Custom Irons<\/p>\n MILLED GRIND SOLE DEBUT<\/p>\n Milled Grind eliminates variances in sole geometry from head to head and ensures precision in every iron set, while the CNC machined sole geometry and a precise leading edge promote consistent turf interaction.<\/p>\n TIGER\u2019S FINGERPRINT<\/p>\n Each iron has been meticulously shaped to meet Tiger\u2019s discerning eye\u2014longer blade length, thinner topline, progressive face height, and more.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n View Product<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey were actually the year that they, the only year when they tried to make a cast Apex in the 70s,\u201d Bobka said. \u201cBut it had a little bit more camber front to back, and it had a little bit more roll, heel to toe, and he goes, \u2018Can you put a little bit of that in my irons?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Yeah, of course I can.’\u201d<\/p>\n The Hogans inspired the pre-worn leading edges on Woods\u2019 eventual set of irons.<\/p>\n Woods loved the set manufactured by Hoffman, the Titleist 681Ts, but those irons were eventually used to make a template that would be manufactured by legendary Japanese forging house Endo Manufacturing. <\/p>\n It was a set made by Endo that Woods to go on his legendary Tiger-Slam run of 2000 and 2001, winning all four majors in a row.<\/p>\n For more from Bobka and Wunder, including how Bobka found Woods\u2019 Titleist 975D driver<\/a> and why Butch Harmon kept a set of the 681Ts for his students to hit,\u00a0listen to the full episode of GOLF\u2019s Fully Equipped here<\/a>, or watch it below.<\/p>\n Want to overhaul your bag in 2026?\u00a0Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n “><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods has become one of the most meticulous and demanding players when it comes to his equipment,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-371539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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