Anyone who has invested in bespoke clothing can tell you it’s well worth the investment. Clothing that is crafted just for you fits like a glove. One Fort Worth maker thought the same should be true of your golf clubs. Christopher Griffin thought the idea of crafting bespoke golf irons was so promising that he left his job at Microsoft Corporation in 2012, where he was working in business development for start-ups, to found P53.

Now, the company is well on its way to achieving its unique goal ― crafting an American-made golf club once again.

Fort Worth is a country club town and a golfing mecca, thanks to golf legends like Ben Hogan, who founded Ben Hogan Golf Equipment in 1953. The company is still headquartered in Fort Worth.

We’ve also benefitted from legendary advocates of the sport, like Marvin Leonard ― who founded three local clubs ― Colonial Country Club, which hosts the longest-running PGA Tour event each spring, Shady Oaks Country Club, and his nine-hole wonder, Starr Hollow in Tolar, Texas.

Golf is part of the tapestry of Cowtown. Tiger Woods and Bluejack National recently announced a championship course planned for nearby Aledo as well.

So, it’s not surprising that Griffin, founder of P53, chose the grounds of the West Fort Worth driving range known as Leonard Golf Links (founded by Marvin Leonard’s daughter Marty ― herself a member of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame) as the perfect spot to plant his FHQ, Fitting Headquarters & Club Room. It took over the former Nike headquarters there ― a tour practice facility ― which was known as “The Oven.”

The Difference of Bespoke Irons

“This is a hobby that got a bit out of hand,” Griffin tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “I fell in love with golf in my mid-thirties and wondered why exceptional golf equipment wasn’t being made in America anymore.”

So, it has become an obsession for him to accomplish just that. Bespoke irons are more than just custom. They are made by hand, small-batch forged, especially for each client. P53 has even trademarked the phrase “billet-to-blade.” But what does that mean?

“We are the only golf irons that are forged in the United States, all others are shipped here from another country,” he explains. “Our club heads are forged from a single-piece billet of steel. Anything else ― multiple pieces welded together, screws, polymers, embedded materials ― any of these, in my book, disqualifies an iron as a true forging. And if you understand physics, you’ll understand why.”

Griffin has been working with a large, family-owned forge located in the Pacific Northwest to produce each P53 iron from 100 percent US steel, and his growing clientele can feel the difference.

“We remain the only golf equipment company in the world committed to forging its irons in the United States of America,” Griffin says. “We singlehandedly reclaimed the lost legacy of great American irons, and we paid a very high price, in both capital and time, to do things the right way.”

The P53 Experience

“It’s like going to Savile Row to get a bespoke suit made,” Griffin says. “As is true of all genuine luxury products, our irons proudly show the marks of their maker. That is very intentional.”

“We do not use laser engraving, for example, which tends to be ‘perfect’ but creates clubs that look like they came out of a vending machine. It’s what’s called ‘the mark of the maker’ ― it’s a quiet signal and a reminder that something was created by hand. The humanity of the product matters to those suit makers, and it matters to us at P53.”

A set of four scoring irons, what he calls the “Crit Group,” begins with a day at the FHQ, taking a deep dive into the client’s needs ― analyzing spin rates, trajectory, and energy efficiency to be sure the irons fit just right. The cost begins at $6400, and clients can add additional irons for around $1000 each on an a la carte basis. It’s a personalized, one-on-one experience that comes with a round of golf at Starr Hollow, where Christopher is grateful to be a member.

At P53, educating their clients is a big part of the process.

“Every surface is hand-shaped uniquely for each client as part of a day-long, in-person, on-site fitting and conversation with Jeff Sheets and myself,” he notes. “Jeff has personally worked with the winners of over 60 major championships, and he has the heart of an artist. Toe shape, topline, heel, camber, bounce, leading-edge ― each of our irons are genuinely one-of-a-kind.”

“We utilize Trackman technology, using premium soft golf balls on our private fairway, when designing the best fit for our clients,” he says. “It’s nothing like hitting into a cage in a strip mall to ‘customize’ a set of clubs.”

So, if you’re struggling with Christmas gift ideas for the golfer in your life ― P53 can help with that as well.