When Retief Goosen won the 2001 U.S. Open, he was swinging ions forged by Katsuhiro Miura, a craftsman from Himeji, Iapan, the home of the ancient art of samurai sword making. Miura, 64, had also made the irons that Ian Woosnam played to win the 1991 Masters, and the ones used by Jose Maria Olazabal three years later in his first victory at Augusta National. None of their tour bags bore the Miura name, but the manufacturers paying the players to use their clubs had commissioned Miura to give them that extra edge.

Miura has been making dubs for 47 years, and his company, Miura Giken, manufactures its own clubs in Japan, which are sold in North America Miura. With his sons Shinei and Yoshitaka, both master craftsmen themselves, Miura remains intimately involved in every detail - he still sits in the number 1 chair on the grinding line.

If few golfers are aware of his company it's only because Miura doesn't sponsor any tour professionals. As Bill Holowaty, Miura's Vancouver-based vice-president, puts it, "Mr. Miura believes that the good players will find him." When Tiger Woods was playing Titleist clubs, the company called on Miura to make limited-edition irons. Titleist brought its own dies and design; Miura's contribution was his 14-step manufacturing process.

A Miura club head begins as a cylindrical stick of steel, heated to 1200 C. It's then struck with a forging hammer to create the rough, round shape. Miura next trims the edges and strikes the head second,  further refining the shape and removing excess metal. At this point, most manufacturers begin to generate the final product, but Miura initiates a third forging to create a tighter molecular structure, or -grain flow," in the metal.
 

Miura is known for his elegant muscle back irons. The majority of amateurs play cavity backs-so-called because of the hollow behind the clubface-which are purportedly mare forgiving to off-center hits. But most tour pros believe there's nothing like the buttery feel of a ball hit with a muscle back (where most of the mass, or muscle, sits behind the club face).

Woods plays Nike blades (as they're often called because they look like knives or, for that matter, swords), and says there's little or no sensation of impact when the clubface collides with the ball. Some tour pros also find it easier to "work" the ball with muscle backs - to hit a greater variety of shots and exert more control over the flight of the ball. Davis Love III, who plays with Titleist muscle backs, says, "You get a better feel, and you can keep the ball down.

Miura makes both types of clubs, but his heart is in the muscle. He is convinced that amateurs won't suffer if they set their cavity backs aside. "The image I have of the club head is not only of it hitting the ball," he says, "but the feel of it hitting the ball. This is what I think about all the time. How can I improve the club head so that it will be as efficient as possible."

by Lorne Rubenstein, Toronto Globe and Mail