Randy Henry started playing golf

Randy Henry started playing golf as a young child with his family, the strategy and nuances of the game naturally evolving as his skills and knowledge grew. Competition of any kind has always been his passion with his mind wrapping around inventive ways to improve a game.

It took a severe car accident in 1974 to set the stage for Randy to delve into all aspects of golf. He was working his first Head Pro job and was a passenger in a vehicle that was hit head-on by a drunken driver, killing the driver of Randy's car and leaving him with a back broken in nine places and his sciatic nerve nearly severed by the jagged bone fragments in eleven locations. The prognosis was paraplegia, after they mistakenly told his father to come identify the body.

Cutting edge surgeries were performed, long hospital stays endured, steel rods and pulleys inserted and a body that was taken down to skeletal proportions had to heal.

No one thought golf would be part of his future, except Randy. There was no way he was going to give up the game that was his passion; he healed and prevailed. Miraculous was what everyone said, but to Randy it was the only possible option. He married Randa (yes, her real name) in 1977 and took a Head Pro job at a Country Club in a small Oregon community.

He could play and he could swing, but the swing that had been like a second skin all his life was permanently gone. The frustration of a body that was now perpetually stiff and wracked with the exhausting pain of chronic sciatica developed into a scenario that required innovation and thousands of experiments. Randy used himself as the main subject and embarked on what became and still is his passion; making and fitting golf clubs that uniquely and best fit each individual player providing that player with their optimum golfing experience.

Randy discovered that by weakening the club he could strengthen the player's swing. All of his students were improving. Randy was putting clubs into the hands of a player they could actually hit so instead of hearing the classic "Well, I had to go back to my old style because I have a big game coming up, but I'll see ya' next week"

He was developing an evaluation system unique to that player's natural swing. Players could now begin to understand what made the ball go left, right, or straight. They could understand that it didn't depend on ball flight, but rather on their own evaluation system. They didn't have to ask Randy "Was that a good swing?", the player could now take ownership of his own game and chart his personal progress.

In the 1970's all clubs were "off the rack" as they had been for decades in the Pro Shop. Golf was considered a gentleman's game for short men. Women's clubs were shorter with a weaker shaft. An advertising blitz arrived about this time with the advent of discount houses who bought in huge bulk thus offering cut-rate prices. Golf Pros were very worried that they couldn't compete on price.

To Randy that was never a worry because he knew he didn't need to offer a discount. He had what no discount place could offer and that was his professional expertise.

There had been some early static attempt at club-fitting where measuring fingertips to the ground was thought to provide useful lie data. However, since it was usually static it only supported the standard measurements already in use.

Since Randy was pioneering dynamic club-fitting he could sell as many clubs as there was time and energy. Virtually no one knew what he was doing and less than a handful of people believed his innovation.

The only thing that Randy realized, while others were unwilling to accept his "crazy idea", was that golf clubs were just part of the equation of the golf swing, but the equipment does effect motion. This is such an easy and obvious concept in retrospect but in the 70's people still believed it was the shooter of the arrow, not the arrow that mattered. The concept of the shooter and the arrow being part of a whole was not considered.

Teachers felt they could make a player hit a good shot with a broomstick; the clubs being an insignificant part of the equation. The manufacturers had done a great job of building "one club fits all" which meant little variety, an anxious and buying mass market not knowledgeable about their own swing, with profits high, steady and predictable.

Whatever Jack or Arnold were using the average golfer thought should be just fine for him even though they realized that the Touring Pros were swinging at much higher swing speeds with skills an strength not comparable to a Sunday golfer.

The equipment was so strong that the everyday golfer couldn't possibly make a balanced swing. To get the ball airborne they would hit off of their back foot and hit up on his shots with a very weak swing because the equipment didn't match his swing.

A club Pro couldn't alter this situation with ill-fitting equipment. Randy realized he had a huge advantage because he knew all aspects of the equipment and had the skill to accurately evaluate any player's swing with great results. He didn't do anything magical, he simply had confidence in his knowledge and understanding of the swing so with clubs that fit the player they rapidly improved and he had a very satisfied customer.

Homesick for the Northwest and family Randy and Randa returned with two children and Henry's head buzzing with ideas. Randa joked at this time that the wheels cranking in Randy's head made her dizzy. Cousin Bruce Henry joined them living on Hayden Lake, Idaho and became Randy's running buddy.

Randy realized he needed a company that he could trust and one that would build exactly what he ordered in a reasonable amount of time for a nice profit and catered only to the green-grass professionals. Of course no such company existed. Randy took his ideas to his friend and fellow Golf pro, Jim Griffitts at Hayden Lake Country Club. Jim listened and believed; with a handshake Jim gave Randy his full support and they created Henry-Griffitts. They joked about headquartering a golf club manufacturing company in the dank dark basement of the Pro Shop in northern Idaho where the golf season barely lasts four months!

Both Randy and Jim wanted a small cottage industry where they could have total control without the angst of a corporate life. Their family values and long term goals meshed seamlessly.

In the beginning Randy designed, fit and sold the clubs; Jim handled ordering and provided the "factory" space; and Bruce Henry came on board building the clubs to Randy's precise specifications.

As Randy fit each player he told them to bring with them their best club which he would watch them hit demonstration clubs he had set-up until he had the precisely correct club in the person's hand. The fitting required evaluation of lie, loft, deflection point, stiffness shaft length; every aspect of a golf club. Randy never wanted to fit the player to what his swing was, but to what his swing was going to become.

It was unusual for a player to actually hit the clubs they would play before purchase. Everyone hit the correctly fit club better and , needless to say, the customer was very happy hitting balls with his new clubs and told other players what Randy had to offer.

Product quality & control were imperative with Bruce following the specifications as Randy presented them for each individual player, exactly; every measurement checked and double checked. When the clubs were completed Randy would re-check them and make certain they were perfect and the customer was happy. It is an extremely complicated process to fit a player with thousands of options, send those specifications to a company who must build the exact set of clubs that was ordered, in a timely manner with the fitter feeling absolutely confident that what he ordered is what he got. If the trust between the company and the fitting pro was ever compromised the process would not work. Henry-Griffitts found that they had to be much more precise than any other company, measuring every component to a gram.

The first two years of Henry-Griffitts found Randy travelling six months out of the year fitting clubs at golf courses in the warm south. This was a time of family sacrifice with four children (Margaret 5, Randall 3, and twins Nell & Jennie, newborn) for Randa to care for with Randy gone so much. They both knew that there was no other choice if this company was to succeed.

He would arrive around 6:00 a.m. at the golf course to find, daily, customers waiting in line. Those days often lasted until it became dark and he regularly sold seven-nine sets of clubs each day.

As the company grew and found increasingly larger spaces Bruce's brother, Ross Henry, came from Clarkston, Washington to handle management. At about the same time Grant Hobson joined to over-see the production of the hand-built clubs and the production staff. Bruce moved into managing customer service.

Randy began traveling extensively with the Senior Tour fitting players. The old club specifications came from the 1940' and 1950's but as Randy fit more and more people he realized that these old specs did not fit the newer generation of golfers.

Randy found that by adding length to the club for some players they could add distance with little loss of accuracy. The first Tour player to try this with Randy was Homero Blancas. In those days his new 45 inch club was considered an oddity, while now on Tour 45 degrees would be considered more standard and the 43-43 ½ degree clubs would be the oddity.

Homero's success on the Senior Tour allowed Henry-Griffitts to become one of the leading manufacturers of irons on that Tour; the golf industry took notice and now most all manufacturer's have followed Henry-Griffitts lead. Many have gone longer and more upright now for their standards than Henry-Griffitts.

Within five-seven years all companies were lengthening their clubs and the standard length driver is now Homer's old 45". Adjusting the lies on the golf club also allow the taller player to better play the game whereas before a tall person was actually handicapped by inadequate equipment.

If you hit someone in the head enough times they learn to duck and that is the mentality of many who compensate poorly for ill-fitting equipment that negatively affects motion. They do not realize that because a certain famous pro hits and endorses a certain club that they will not be able to perform like that pro. It would be like a man who wears a size 9 shoe changing to the size 10 and not figuring out why his foot slops out of the shoe; it is so obviously simple.

Most companies today are huge conglomerates and fit for the masses needing to sell many hundreds more clubs per day than Henry-Griffitts does. They have a limited combination of fitting options and by mere virtue of the lack of enough choices they are limited with how precise their fits can be.

In contrast, Henry-Griffitts, now celebrating it's twentieth year in business, has hundreds of thousands of options, the best fitters in the world and counts customer satisfaction as the most important reason to exist.

Staying small and personal Henry-Griffitts believes, as Randy always did, that only a professionally trained teacher can properly fit clubs. The training is not a short course, but something that takes years of experience and observation on the tee. It involves a relationship of trust between the fitter, the player and the company. This triangle of support does not end with the sell of a set of clubs. The player will return to their fitter for more support as their game evolves. As Randy, Jim and Bruce believed in the beginning Henry-Griffitts is about the love of the game of golf and the support of friendships that endure over the years.

Henry-Griffitts claims victories on all three major Tours on the LPGA, on the SPGA, use on the Ryder Cup, &, with True Temper, holds the patent on the interchangeable system and the lie board. If you have the best product word gets out and the players find you!