An Interview With Terry Koehler, President of Eidolon Golf

My Roots In Golf

I don't remember life before golf. Our small South Texas town had a 9-hole golf course that was a focus of our family's life. My earliest golf memory is riding on the ball pocket of Dad's big old Burton golf bag, on a Bag Boy pull cart. I later 'graduated' to pulling that cart for what I remember was $2.00 per round, $3 if I cleaned and polished the clubs and his Allen Edmond shoes.

My Dad was a good amateur player. And the Thursday, Saturday and Sunday games were important to us, watching good players tee it up and go at it. In the summer, each little town had their annual "Barbecue Circuit" tournament; 2-man better ball. To us kids, that was the 'real' Tour, the one we could relate to. There'd be a hundred people around the final green watching the Championship flight finish.

The golf shop at our little course was a magical place. The best thing was hanging around the pro shop on Saturday mornings listening to the men talk golf. And, of course, getting to admire all those beautiful forged irons and persimmon woods.

Beating my Dad was an early goal for my older brother and me. I think Dad was prouder of those two days than any other. But he always played hardest to keep it from happening, I think. He wanted us to earn it.

My Early Days In The Golf Industry

I designed my first golf club -- a putter -- in the mid-1980s. Already engaged in the marketing side of the industry, I was inspired by my own putting frustrations. I decided to make putters and putting a special study of mine. I read everything I could absorb, and developed some rather simple, but unconventional ideas about putting. I shared those with a number of players, all of whom agreed I had stumbled onto something different and effective.

I was always fascinated with the way things work. So I applied that curiosity to putters. My first was called the 'Destiny', and it combined rather radical weighting into a reasonably conventional size and shape, with a long hosel made it face balanced. A couple of dozen PGA players used it in 1988-89, but my financial partner didn't come through with the money he promised, so it fizzled. I learned a lot from that experience.

So my golf career expanded, from marketing to product design. I designed putters and wedges for Merit Golf for a couple of years, and then was contracted by Ben Hogan Company to develop a line of putters for them. They were in the transition of new ownership and the move from Fort Worth to Richmond, VA at the time, so the 'Sure In' line of putters really didn't get enough attention. The putters were good, but they kind of got lost in the shuffle.

What I thought would be my dream job. In mid-1994, I was asked to take on the Director of Marketing post at Hogan. I returned the company's message to its real roots - the inspiration of Mr. Hogan - and directed the creation of a complete campaign built around some incredible photography of Mr. Hogan that was taken by Jules Alexander at the 1959 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. The company still maintains that relationship with Jules, for which I'm happy.

On The Game And Industry Today

I'm concerned about the game. I mean, where does technology go from here? We can't keep making golf courses longer and tougher. It costs too much to build them that way. Do we need to roll back the ball, the equipment? I don't know, but all this technology isn't really making the average golfer better. They score just as bad on the 7,000-yard monsters today as they did on the 6,500-yard championship courses 20 years ago. Maybe they should practice their short games?

Does the game really need to grow? The industry is pushing for growth, because survival, as they define it, is hanging in the balance. But until someone figures out how to make the game easier to learn, I don't see how growth can happen. Golfers say time and money keeps them from playing more, but the real reason is that they don't get better! And most golfers, while they're crawling through another five hour round, don't see growth of the game as something in their own best interest.

On The Start Of A New Company

Wedges got left behind. It's funny that technology has totally changed nearly everything in the game - metal woods and irons . . shafts, for sure . . the ball is extraordinary. Putters, the spikes on our shoes, even tees . . . but the bulk of wedges on the market are not much different from what we played 40 years ago. I thought that needed attention, so I developed the V-SOLE design and received a patent on it.

We have no delusions of challenging the giants. Titleist™ and Cleveland™ have created an effective duopoly with PGA Tour players, and they dominate advertising and retail placement. We can't beat them at their own game, so we just build better wedges. Titleist and Cleveland don't have this technology, so they can't build wedges this good. I believe that from the bottom of my heart.

Yes, it's a strange name. It's pronounced "eye-do-lon", and the dictionary defines it as "the image of an ideal". One media reviewer wrote that his readers should "give those wedges with the funny name a closer look." I liked that.

Necessity is the mother of invention. I developed this sole design for wedges because I was frustrated. The courses I played most often had turf that was pretty firm and tight, so high-bounce sand wedges were not functional. But if you carried a low bounce wedge, it just didn't work from sand and rough or when it was wet. So I tinkered around, welding and grinding on dozens of wedges until I had developed the V-SOLE concept. Two bounce angles, working together, to let you "dial in' just the bounce you need for each shot you face. It really does what we claim.

Our customers love these wedges. When we started Eidolon as a customer-direct company, we knew we'd have to have a money back guarantee. Our research told us to plan for a return rate of 7-12%. For over four years now, our return rate is less than 1%! And our customers own an average of more than two Eidolon V-SOLE wedges. That tells us we're doing the right thing. We still back up every claim we make with the strongest Money Back Guarantee in the business - If it doesn't do what we claim, we'll give you a full refund, even the shipping charges.

On Wedge Play

The short game is fascinating to me. I recommend that you spend 2/3 of your practice time and range balls hitting shots of 100 yards or less. Other golfers will look at you like you're crazy, hitting your range balls barely to the front of the tee line, like you're "wasting" your money or something. But I like the challenge of hitting short shots a given distance, on a given trajectory, from all kinds of lies. And it pays off on the course. Hitting a creative pitch shot from a tough lie is more gratifying to me than a great drive or approach. And in competition, a great short game totally demoralizes an opponent.

Our goal is to help golfers score better. We committed to make the short game our only game. Our focus is on building wedges that help golfers exorcise the demons - those shots that ruin good rounds and lead to the most frustrations. You can't expect to hit even half the fairways and greens, but any golfer can have a short game that allows you to score in spite of that. We build wedges that help build confidence, because they are versatile enough to handle any lie you encounter.

Spin wins. The one thing you want your wedge to do is spin the ball so that you can make it stop where you want it to. The only way to achieve that is to do everything the USGA allows with groove geometry. We CNC-mill our faces perfectly flat, and then cut each groove individually to the edge of USGA specifications. Most wedges from the major companies still have grooves cast in place or stamped in after forging. By the time they polish the face to reasonable flatness, you might end up with only 65-75% of the groove volume the USGA says you could have. That's like playing persimmon woods in today's game.

Wedge shafts are overlooked. So is custom fitting. Nearly every wedge on the market has the same shaft -- one flex for all golfers -- can you imagine? We began by turning to the acclaimed Rifle™ Spinner™, which is a wonderful product developed specifically for wedges. Sure, it costs more, but we think our customers' short games are worth it. And then we developed our own SCoR™ graphite shaft for those golfers playing graphite or lightweight steel in their irons. This shaft provides unbelievable feel and control.

Most golfers have bad wedge technique. But anyone can learn to hit good shots of 80 yards or less. Watch the tour players there. They all squat a little lower, and keep their hands low - right across their thighs - through impact. And they rotate their body core rather than flip their hands. Low hands maintains the angle formed by the arms and shaft - don't let your arms and the shaft form a straight line - so that the sole of the wedge returns to the ball like it was at address. People don't realize that most Tour players even have their wedges bent a degree or two flatter than their irons to help them accommodate this proper club position at impact.

The body core is key. If you are a 'handsy' wedge player, you'll never develop consistent skills. A good short game relies on quiet hands, and a rotation of the upper body, back and through impact. If you work on keeping the club in front of the chest, with the hands quiet and low, and create swing speed with the your body core rotation, you will make dramatic improvements in your wedge play.

"Don't decelerate" is overused advice. Golfers are afraid of violating this too-oft-repeated advice, so their wedge technique is too quick and jerky. I like to think of a chip or pitch like a long putt - rhythmic back and through, with the core of the body driving the swing. And I think S-L-O-W. You should almost feel like gravity is dropping the club into the ball from the end of the backswing.

The Last Word

The last word? This industry has always been led by upstart companies that challenge the status quo. Ping was one of the earliest, then TaylorMade . . . Callaway was tiny when they developed the Big Bertha. The list goes on and on. The big companies get so wrapped up in fighting for market share that they forget to innovate. And they certainly don't have a monopoly on good ideas. Corporate America has never been really gung ho on stimulating creativity.