P53 Irons: A Not So Hypothetical Question

I want to ask you all a question and it’s not as hypothetical as it may sound.

Let’s say you could go to a two-day club fitting event with just you and a legendary club designer. You get to spend an entire day together working on every iron in your bag. It’s not just shafts, lofts, lies and swing weights. You can have each iron shaped to whatever provides the best performance. Everything from sole grinds, leading edges, trailing edges, toplines and toe shapes are fully customizable, iron by iron.

Day Two starts with a round of golf with irons mocked up to your specs. The designer joins you, taking notes and asking questions in case anything needs adjusting.

After you go home, that legendary club designer gets to work. He hand-grinds, shapes and custom crafts a set of forged, muscle-back blades that are uniquely yours. A set that’s one-of-one, if you will.

Therefore, the not-so-hypothetical question is:

What would a P53 irons fitting experience be worth to you?

P53 Irons: What is a P53?

We’ve shared some insight into P53 with you before and it’s really a two-part story.

The first part is relatively simple: P53 offers limited-edition bespoke forged irons handmade to your exact needs and specifications by legendary club designer Jeff Sheets after the two-day custom fitting experience described above.

The second part might matter to some, might not to others, but it’s a fascinating part of the story. Those irons are actually forged in the U.S. from billets of U.S.-made 1020 carbon steel. Literally no one does that anymore.

“We’re the only golf equipment company in the world that committed to forging its irons in the United States,” says P53 owner Christopher Griffin. “We invested in our own tooling and dies and sourced 100-percent certified U.S. steel for this project. We paid a very high price in both capital and time to do things the right way.”

The name “P53” pays homage to Ben Hogan and his iconic 1953 season. Griffin is a devout Hoganista, which ultimately led to his partnership with Sheets. Sheets designed scores of successful clubs in his career but his 1999 Hogan Apex blade for Spalding made him a legend.

The P53 world is, by the company’s nature, closed and a tad secretive. This past summer, Griffin gave us a peek inside.

The P53 experience

Make no mistake: P53 is a luxury experience. Griffin wants to make sure the client (never “customer”) will fully appreciate the process, the experience and, most of all, the clubs. He just wants to know what about golf brings you joy.

He’s a different sort of cat.

The core offering is called “Crit Group” and the package runs approximately $6,400. It includes the two-day fitting experience and four (yes, FOUR) custom-designed, custom-ground scoring irons with any shaft that fits.

“We provide the ability to add irons on an a la carte basis either during the fitting event or later on,” says Griffin.

The fitting experience takes place at P53’s headquarters which is part of what once was the Oven, NIKE Golf’s former R&D center in Fort Worth, Texas. Day One, as mentioned, is the full-day fitting session with Sheets. Day Two includes golf with Sheets and Griffin at Starr Hollow Country Club.

If you’re asking yourself who in their right mind would pay $6,400 for four clubs, you’re not alone. We asked the same question and Griffin put us in contact with a few of his clients who did just that. Each one, as we learned, had their own reasons for choosing the P53 path.

The Woods Hole club pro

Zach Mahan (no relation to Hunter) is the lead assistant club pro at the Woods Hole Golf Club on Cape Cod, Mass. He’s also a competitive mini-tour player and can get any clubs he wants for nothing.

“I use my clubs to make money,” Mahan tells MyGolfSpy. “So rather than taking whatever someone gives me for free and saying it’s the best, I did my own research.”

That research eventually led him to P53. As a competitive professional, Mahan says the fitting process sealed the deal for him.

“You’re sitting down with Jeff Sheets and telling him what you want. If you want a toe that looks like a PING Eye 2, you can have it. If you want a toe that looks more rounded like a Duval NIKE blade, he can do that. Every aspect of the club will look exactly like what you want. From that point, it’s more of a design than a fitting.”

As a competitive plus handicap, Mahan wasn’t worried about loft or lie. He wanted reliable apex, spin and carry.

“He tweaked the club until the ball did exactly what I wanted it to do.”

The capper was playing 18 holes with Sheets and Griffin using his prototypes.

“You’re just using your four clubs plus a putter. You hit all these different shots and then, at lunch, you sit down at tell them you liked the bump-and-run with this loft versus that loft or with this leading edge versus that leading edge. It’s just so much more specific than a fitting anywhere else.”

Beverly Hills 90210

Stewart MacLennan is a golfing entrepreneur from L.A. Another longtime Hoganista, MacLennan couldn’t resist the opportunity to work with the man who designed the ’99 Apex blades.

“The idea that you’re having clubs made for you by hands that have made clubs for the legends of the game is exciting,” he says. “That doesn’t mean it translates into perfect golf shots and lower scores but there’s something exciting about feeling a connection to that lineage.”

For MacLennan, the total P53 experience was more than worth the total price.

“It starts with a phone call from Christopher to get to know you. Then it’s a phone call with Jeff. He asks about your game, your equipment, your ball flight and what you’re working on.”

After that, Sheets gets to work hand-grinding each club to create a unique iron set.

 “They’ll make you a 5-iron that you can hit with the ball flight, carry and spin that you want,” MacLennan explains. “The 6-iron will be made specifically for you, too, but it might look nothing like the 5-iron.

“As blades go, they’re forgiving. But when you hit the sweet spot, it feels like nothingness. The sensation at impact disappears. It’s the weirdest thing.”

Red-blooded golf

David Sykes was looking for new irons. Specifically, forged blades since that’s what his grandfather started him out with many years ago. His Google search led him from Mizuno to Miura and other Japanese forgings.

“Then I stumbled across the P53 website which is not easy to find,” says Sykes, a hematologist at Mass General Hospital in Boston. “It’s a mysterious website. It said, ‘Reach out if you’re interested.’ So I did.”

Sykes is a 13 handicap and says his golf buddies had gone through custom club fittings at Club Champion and Golftec. They had good experiences but Sykes had misgivings.

“It’s only like an hour or so fitting. I loved the idea of spending a full day chatting, hitting balls, taking a break and coming back to it. You can hit all the shafts you want. That first day was 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.”

Sykes was impressed by the fact Griffin had reinvented U.S. forging. However, like Mahan and MacLennan, it was a secondary bonus. The fitting and design process with Sheets was the thing.

“If I’m going to be looking down at a set of clubs for the next five years or whatever, what should they look like? Jeff would suggest cutting a little off the topline and making the toe a little more square. It was a very satisfying tactile experience.”

P53 irons: A rich man’s toy?

It’s easy to dismiss P53 as just that. The brand, the clubs and the experience certainly aren’t for everyone. It’s not meant to be a brand for the masses but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an audience.

“If you go to Titleist’s Manchester Lane facility, that’s the ultimate of them fitting you into the clubs they make,” says Mahan. “This is for someone who wants to make their own golf clubs or have someone who knows how to make golf clubs make golf clubs just for them.”

“When you get a set of clubs like this it’s not entirely practical, but it is an expression of a desire to have something that connects you to something bigger,” adds MacLennan. “You play golf not just for performance, you want to feel connected to a bigger experience.”

“It’s the aesthetic nature of golf,” says Sykes. “As golfers, we’re all such nut jobs that it all might be in my head but they do feel good.”

To that, I can attest. Griffin vacationed in New England last summer and we had the chance to meet at a driving range. He brought some P53 irons for me to try. I’m by nature a cynic but I was not prepared for what was coming.

Whoah, just whoah

Have you ever hit a golf club that made you stop and collect yourself after just one swing?

That’s what happened to me that day in Epping.

P53 irons are compact, muscle-back blades custom-made into any shape that makes you happy. I tried Griffin’s personal set as well as several samples, none of which were to my specs. It took 64 years of maturity, experience and dignity to not fall to the ground and giggle like a four-year-old.

Shot after shot after shot equaled rope after rope after rope. It was one sweet-feeling and gorgeous-looking baby draw after another. I can’t shape shots on command but I did pull a few intentional high fades out of my tuchas, as well. Take it or leave it but I will say here and now I’ve never hit anything like them.

Tempting? You have no idea. It got to the point where I started doing the mental math but ultimately my left brain won out over my right brain. I have a daughter getting married next year and, well, dollars are dollars.

Damn kid.

P53 Irons: Final thoughts

Golf clubs cost money and some golf clubs cost more than others.

If budget is a concern, you have more excellent quality options today than ever before. If budget isn’t a concern, then the P53 world is your oyster. For those in between, you have decisions to make.

“I use my clubs to make money,” says Mahan. “So I might as well spend money on my clubs. I looked back at my stats this year and I made more than I spend on my clubs.”

Most of us, however, don’t make our living playing competitive golf. We play for fun and the experience. What brings each of us joy and how much we care to spend to experience that joy matters only to the person in the mirror.

“I Iove taking out my P53 irons, they’re just so pure,” says Sykes. “I don’t know if I’m a better golfer but I do know that I love looking at them every time I pick them up.”

“When you buy golf clubs, it’s about what you value and it’s an expression of why you play golf,” says MacLennan. “It’s not always rational or logical. I forget who said it but every dollar you spend is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in.”

“You can go to Zales or Kay and get a mass-produced ring,” adds Mahan. “Or you can go to Tiffany’s and get a really nice, mass-produced ring. Then there’s the jeweler who’ll make a one-of-a-kind ring. Once you get to that level, it’s going to be more expensive.”

It’s not a question of whether a super-expensive, custom-designed and -built golf club will make you a better golfer. It won’t. However, the right club can help you play better golf. That’s a hill I will die on because there is a difference.

And if that super-expensive, custom-designed and -built golf club brings you joy, who the hell are we to judge?