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MOSSEL BAY GOLF NEWS AND VIDEO - Mossel Bay's Charles Rich has always had a passion for golf but says he felt he did not have the ability to become a professional.
Therefore, he turned his love of the game into a career in which he provides custom built and fitted golf clubs to professionals internationally and locally. All this is done from his studio and workshop in Voorbaai in town.
Rich explains how his career started: "I was caddying for professionals and I realised they knew little about equipment. I started experimenting with clubs. I went to the United States and studied club fitting under various masters and finally finished my club fitting training with Ralph Maltby and in 2013 became a master club fitter."
Respected around the world, Maltby is an expert in designing and assessing golf equipment.
Watch a video below:
Club fitting centres
Rich, who is an entrepreneur, spent most of his life in the East Rand and came to Mossel Bay six years ago. "I started a few driving ranges and club fitting centres in Johannesburg."
He describes a club fitting centre as "a studio with all the equipment to analyse and assess a golfer's equipment and to rectify and fit it to the golfer's specifications".
Rich says: "It is highly technical and complicated to calculate and apply these specifications to a golf club. It is all done with computerised equipment to assist with all calculations and formulas."
The golfer hits the ball and various readings are done and videos are taken, providing data on the moment of inertia (MOI), and various other factors which will influence the golfer's swing.
Rich says: "There are critical factors involved to fit a golfer: 1. Swing weight, 2. Length, 3. Total weight, 4. Shaft flex, 5. Grip size, 6. MOI. We build one club completely and then clone the balance of the clubs to be the same."
Before playing the Sunshine Tour, top golfers visit Rich in Mossel Bay so he can custom build clubs for them.
'Nothing basic about golf'
"I sell a lot of Maltby's products," Rich says. "I assemble a lot of those clubs. They are built from a raw clubhead or shaft. There is nothing basic about golf," Rich notes.
"Every shaft has a purpose and character and it has to suit the player's swing. Once you analyse the player, you have to start matching the clubs to his swing pattern, height and strength.
"No two golfers can play with the same set of clubs. I always ask why people buy equipment off the shelf. A golfer's swing is not off the shelf. It is unique, so why buy equipment off the shelf?"
Rich uses golf club parts from all over the world. The United States is a major supplier, he says. The best shafts come from Japan and although designed in the United States, the heads are made in Taiwan, China and Japan. Clubs are made from stainless steel, aluminium and various alloys.
Rich has always been involved in sport, but especially golf and boxing. The boxer, Brian Mitchell, used to work for him and Rich has also had close ties with boxer Harold Volbrecht.
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