Columnist Victoria Sun: For serious golfers, these clubs are worth the price

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1999 | 9:13 a.m.

Victoria Sun's golf column appears Wednesday. Reach her at 259-4078 or victoria @vegas.com

The price tag attached to a set of the Andrews & Aberdeen Match Straight Shot System custom-made golf clubs is not for the meek or the cheap.

Then again, neither are the clubs.

"Our target market is anybody who is serious about improving their golf game through our equipment and through our instruction," said William Bolton, co-founder of Andrews & Aberdeen Laboratories. "We know we're not for everybody."

Not at $7,000 for a full set.

But if you've got the bucks to spend and are still searching for a Christmas gift to suit an avid golfer on your list, the clubs are an ideal gift.

The AAMSSS clubs are built to meet detailed specifications including how far customers hit the ball, how far they hit different clubs and their handicap.

According to Bolton, the clubs, which are assembled in Las Vegas, are more costly for several reasons.

For one, all the parts from the head to the shaft are made in the U.S.

Bolton says it takes eight times longer than normal to manufacture the Andrews & Aberdeen clubs because each club in a set is guaranteed to perform identically.

Every club is also frozen at minus 319 degrees to rid the materials used to make the clubs of imperfections by shrinking the molecules, then bringing them back to room temperature. The result, Bolton says, is a product that's stronger, more durable and impervious to wear.

The graphite shafts of Bolton's brainchild are made in a mold, so that they aren't exposed to anything that could taint them. As Bolton says, "They're perfect."

"In my years of testing other companies' products and clubs, I never found a set of clubs that matched," Bolton said. "Not one.

"I wondered what the reason was so I went in and I decided to tear them apart, and find out what caused these problems."

His findings were startling.

"I found that the shafts were inconsistent," Bolton said. "The heads inconsistent, materials inconsistent, grips were incorrect and the assembly was incorrect.

"I also found that companies would get a cheap shaft, then dress it up cosmetically to make it look like it was made with the best materials. It's like taking a Mercedes and putting a Volkswagen engine in it. It wouldn't perform as well."

Bolton, a former Canadian PGA Tour player, spent many years in Asia seeing how cheaply the clubs were made by big name manufacturers. And he was fed up.

So he and partner Bob Morrow decided to design and manufacture their own line of clubs.

Andrews & Aberdeen Laboratories began selling their clubs a year ago, and Bolton estimates that the company has made $5 million.

Every club comes with a lifetime guarantee. If it is broken under normal playing conditions, it will be replaced.

For those who don't have $7,000 to spend at one time, Bolton suggests buying a club at a time.

"We're the only company that will let you buy one club," he said. "We actually recommend that you buy one, then see how you like it.

"We don't want you to spend $7,000 and then not like it. Plus there is a 60-day money back guarantee.

"The clubs we sell to customers are the same ones I play with. The clubs that other manufacturers sell to their customers are nowhere near the ones they make for their pros."

Bolton and Morrow also offer a set of instructional videos called "The Effortless Power Golf System" that Bolton guarantees will improve any player's game.

To order a set of clubs or videos or for more information, call 798-8555 in Las Vegas and (877) 798-8555 outside of Las Vegas.

* TOTALLY TIGER: For those who can't get enough of 1999 PGA Tour Player of the Year Tiger Woods, tune into the Golf Channel on Dec. 30. Woods will celebrate his 24th birthday on that day and the Golf Channel will honor him with "24 Hours of Tiger" programming starting at 3 a.m. Woods, an eight-time winner this year and member of the United States' Ryder Cup team, also won the Vardon Trophy and The Arnold Palmer Award. The lineup will feature highlights from his 1997 Masters victory, highlights from the 1999 PGA Championship and the 1999 Deutsche Bank-Sap Open.

* PUFFED PURSE: The LPGA and European LPGA Tour and the Evian Masters Sponsor Club announced that the 2000 Evian Masters scheduled for June 14-17 will be added to the official LPGA Tour schedule. The $1.8 million in prize money for the Evian Masters will be the largest purse in women's professional golf.