Don Sharron learned to regrip golf clubs when he was a 10-12 months-previous caddie at Enjoyable Valley Place Club, and extra than 60 many years later on, he’s even now at it.
Sharron, 71, operates his regripping, reshafting, fixing, fitting and personalized-making golfing club organization, “Grip & Rip It Golf,” out of his stroll-in basement at his dwelling in Boylston that he shares with his spouse, Joan.
You might say that the activity of golf gripped him very long ago and under no circumstances permit go.
“The most satisfaction I get is when I do a restore,” he explained, “or assistance with the golfer’s equipment, and they connect with me in a number of days to thank me for the function done and that their game has enhanced.”
When he caddied at PV, he also washed the members’ clubs and set them away. One particular working day, he saw an assistant pro regripping golf equipment and requested if he could demonstrate him how to do it. Before long afterward, he was regripping golf equipment for PV customers, himself and his buddies.
Sharron began his golf company 25 several years in the past as a passion, and he began executing it entire time 5 years back following he retired as a salesman for Lew Horton Distributing Firm, a wholesale distributor of firearms. In 1998, he attended a Golfsmith university in Austin, Texas, to master how to mend and develop golf equipment and how to in good shape people today for clubs.
Sharron preferred the audio of the title of John Daly’s 1993 golfing guide, “Grip It and Rip It,” so he named his enterprise, “Grip & Rip It Golf Operates.” Daly under no circumstances contacted him about copyright infringement, but GolfWorks, a golf machines company, did. So Sharron modified the name of his small business to “Grip & Rip It Golfing.”
Performs a fine video game, enjoys memorabilia
Sharron’s enjoy of golf stretches over and above his company. He golfs at Cyprian Keyes GC in Boylston at least 4 instances a week and carries a handicap of 9.7. He also worked as a marshal on the 18th hole for each individual PGA Tour event at TPC Boston in Norton. In 2014 at TPC Boston, he had Rory McIlroy autograph a pin flag from the PGA Championship that he gained that year.
A number of pin flags from the Masters, U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup and the Players Championship protect his shop’s ceiling. Yet another one particular that is signed, the 2021 Masters flag by champion Hideki Matsuyama, hangs on the refrigerator in Sharron’s store that he stocks with water, soda and beer for his shoppers.
The freezer is crammed with venison and wild turkey. Previously in the day of the job interview for this column, Sharron shot a 24-pound turkey with a bow and arrow in Millbury the place he grew up. The head of a 10-point deer that he shot in his backyard hangs on the wall of his shop in close proximity to the fridge.
His store also has a huge display Tv to look at sports activities.
His son, Jonathan, operates for Topgolf, a driving vary activity with electronically tracked golfing balls, and formerly worked for the Golf Channel, NBC and other sporting activities networks. So he attended several PGA Tour and LPGA Tour situations and collected the flags for his father.
His youngest son, Patrick, is an assistant professional at The Haven CC in Boylston. His oldest son, Jason, functions in the film field in Hollywood.
In addition to persons, Sharron regrips and repairs golf equipment for Eco-friendly Hill Municipal Golf Study course, Cyprian Keyes, Juniper Hill, Worcester Country Club, Holden Hills and New England Indoor Golfing in Auburn. Golf instructor Jim Fenner also sends his students to Sharron.
COVID provided business enterprise a improve
Sharron does not market, but he experienced a constant small business until eventually the pandemic strike in 2020. Then his organization cash flow multiplied by 4 or five times.
“New folks preferred to play golfing,” he reported. “Families came going for walks as a result of the doorway, ‘I want golfing clubs produced for me, my wife, my children,’ that type of things. It exploded. It’s continue to that way proper now.”
Sharron made use of to personalized develop 30 to 40 sets of clubs each yr, but throughout the pandemic, he has designed much more than 100 sets for every yr, all at a price tag of properly underneath what you would pay back for the major manufacturer n
ames. He can develop a established of irons for about $500 and a driver for $200 to $250.
“It all depends on the shaft,” he stated. “A driver shaft can run from $10 to $450.”
Each individual a few decades, Sharron fits himself for a new established of golf equipment and builds them.
He does not make knockoffs, which mimic the top rated brand names. GolfWorks, the machines corporation that experienced him change the identify of his company, is his main supplier of club heads.
“A large amount of golfers want Titleist, TaylorMade or Mizuno,” he explained, “but they really don’t know about these.”
Hybrids and wedges are the most requested clubs.
Sharron explained he can’t believe that some big golf corporations charge $349 for a large-end iron and $1,300 for a established of irons.
“They’re way out of line,” he stated. “I know how significantly a club head fees.”
In contrast to the significant club producers, Sharron does not pay back PGA Tour golfers to perform with his clubs, so he can charge significantly much less. He tends to make most of his clubs for inexperienced persons.
Jay Doyle, 75, of Worcester plays in a league that Sharron operates at Cyprian Keyes.
Doyle (no relation to this columnist) has experienced Sharron regrip his clubs for a lot more than 15 several years.
“He does a excellent occupation, and he’s acquired a fantastic range of grips,” Doyle stated.
Bruce Chansky, 74, of Worcester umpired slow-pitch softball with Sharron and has experienced him construct, adjust and regrip clubs for him.
“Just a incredibly down to earth dude who will not take you to the cleaners for repairs or purchases,” Chansky claimed. “Backs everything up.”
Lots of grips to be had
Sharron stated there was only one grip when he caddied at PV. Now there are extra than 400 sorts, and he has far more than 150 in his store.
Shoppers have experienced Sharron restore shafts that snapped and left graphite splinters in their fingers.
“I guess a ton of people don’t recognize,” Sharron claimed, “how uncomplicated it is to break a golfing club by hitting a twig or hitting a rock or by hitting a mat. The head breaks off or the head will loosen and occur off, but most of it is a damaged shaft.”
Sharron matches golf equipment and checks their loft and lie angles at an outdoor hitting region to the aspect of his home. He documents clients hitting golf balls off a mat and into the trees in his yard with a demo iron and a equipment spits out the calculations he needs to tailor made fit golf equipment for them.
Sharron erected a short net between the hitting place and his dwelling, but he admitted that wayward shots have damaged a window extra than at the time. But he does not mind.
Saws, screw motorists, pliers, wrenches adorn the wall higher than his do the job bench in his shop.
Sharron utilizes a shaft puller and a warmth gun to take out heads from shafts. He also has devices to transform the lofts and lies of clubs, slice shafts, polish clubs and refinish ferrules, the black piece found just earlier mentioned the club head’s hosel.
“In get for a person to do the get the job done like I do, this is what you need,” he reported, “and if you do not have it, you truly can not do a professional work.”
He can shorten or lengthen shafts or set up new kinds.
“There are a lot of golfers out there who haven’t a clue about what goes into generating a golfing club,” he mentioned. “The stiffness of the shaft, the bend level of shafts, the swing weights, the lie angles, the loft angles, they really don’t know that. They really do not know that there are five distinct measurement grips out there.”
The most unconventional club Sharron at any time made was for a 2-iron, but not the sort you’d assume.
About 15 yrs back, a shopper requested him if he could make a 2-iron, Sharron said he could, but the buyer claimed he wanted a club with two 2-iron heads to give to a close friend as a joke.
“So I took a couple of golfing golf equipment and drilled holes all the way through the hosels, and I put two golf clubs on one shaft,” Sharron reported. “They liked it when they saw it.”
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This article initially appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Boylston’s Don Sharron has thriving custom made-generating golfing club business enterprise