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	About The Grip Master

Bruce & Ian McConchie:

For three generations the McConchie family have been involved in the leather industry. As kids, Ian and Bruce remember learning about leather and the art of working with it. So it is no coincidence, that some 35 years ago, they started to design and manufacture handbags and belts. That business they started 35 years ago, has flourished and is a now an industry leader in the Southern Hemisphere. Today it is fair to say that the McConchie brothers, are experts in the grading, tanning, production, manufacturing and nuances of leather.

In the early 90's they opened a sales office in Chicago to promote and sell their Australian fashion accessories lines in that market. In those years they became known and noticed by an American company and in the mid 90's were approached to see if they could modify one of their leather straps to be suitable to re grip and rejuvenate the old style Hickory sticks. As keen golfers from an early age, Ian and Bruce jumped at the opportunity to develop a product line away from the vagaries and fast changing fortunes to be made and lost in the fashion industry, not knowing where it might lead. As it happened they were able to fill a small void created when the most famous US maker of Genuine Leather grips [Nueman]closed their doors after the advent and onslaught of Rubber grips. After much experimentation with leather treatments and formulas for the leather straps, Ian and Bruce soon realized that unless they could up with some innovations to make leather grips a viable option [albeit expensive when compared to a rubber grip] they were never going to succeed in the golf industry.

In 1998 Ian developed and patented [US Patent #6,449,803 B1] a unique underlisting, which enabled The Grip Master to perfect an assembly system, to create and make the first fully assembled, pre-tensioned one piece slip on Genuine Leather Golf Grip in the world! The grip quickly was accepted on all of the tours, their success is extensive and continues today. The Grip Master's next innovation was the hand laced putter grip, it's acceptance was startling, today the “Tour Laced” leather putter grip is found on the majority of putter brands. Determined to take The Grip Master to the next level, Ian and Bruce in early 2008 made the decision to focus all of their attention on The Grip Master and to move away from their other leather manufacturing business. The result, one of the biggest innovations ever in the putter grip. Using knowledge, honed over 35 years, they have developed a range of grips called the “Touch Series” the innovation is that they have developed a process to use leathers that have never been used before. Such as the North American White Tail Deer, Kangaroo the playable exotic Sea Snake these leathers offer, feel, touch and response that have never been offered on a grip before. With major innovations to be announced in the fall, the message is clear, Ian and Bruce McConchie are determined that The Grip Master should lead the grip industry in quality and innovation.

Paul Heffernan:

One of golf’s leading designers and machine engineers, in a design, and manufacturing career spanning more than twenty years. As a former teaching professional Paul’s designs, innovations and patents clearly show his understanding for the dynamics of club design and it's the relationship to the golf swing and player.

Mentored by the legendary Stan Thompson “Father of all keeled design clubs”, Paul was taught every facet of golf club design and manufacturing. While working for Stan Thompson, Paul invented the milled copper faced putter. This design became the most popular milled putter in the industry and today is still copied by many. Paul later became President of Stan Thompson Golf and developed a port weighted keeled soled Ginty, the patent, for which was purchased by one of golf’s leading companies.

His work with weighting started more than 20 years ago, when he developed the first metal woods, milled putters and forged irons with adjustable weighting. His other inventions include, the Big Butt TM golf shaft, ceramic inserts for all clubs and micromilling. MicromillingTM is the latest and absolute state-of-the-art technology ,for golf club manufacturing. He developed MicromillingTM while the head designer for Porsche Design, it is the most precise discipline for manufacturing. Paul invented the flanged cavity using micromilling, it was a milestone in design change to the forged wedge.

Porsche Design became the first USA OEM customer of the Gripmaster in the year 2000, and this association eventually led to a close relationship with Ian McConchie, and the subsequent acceptance of an offer by him to join the company to head up R&D and International Marketing to all world markets.

Ben Jackson:

Having taken up the game at the tender age of 13, Ben quickly reduced his handicap to 'Scratch' at 16, and went on to play for the England Boys Golf Team competing for his country at many of the junior events around Europe at that time.

Ben migrated to Australia in 1988 at the request and sponsorship of the Waverly Golf club to play Pennant in their First Division Team. It wasn't long before Ben turned Professional and eventually played for 11 years as a Tour Professional on the Australasian and Asian Tours.

One of many career highlights was his victory at the West Australian Open in 1995, putting his name on the coveted Trophy with the likes of Greg Norman, Gary Player, and Ian Baker Finch, to name a few. During this period he was contracted to play Mizuno clubs and Nueman Leather grips out of the USA.

When Nueman closed their doors due to the success of Golf Prides Rubber grips, Ben was in trouble as he suffered from severe callouses on his hands from using any type of rubber grip. Late in 1998 he heard that someone in Melbourne was looking to make leather grips as a side line, and he was introduced to Ian McConchie. He subsequently got heavily involved in the early development stages of these Genuine Leather Grips, and has now been working full time at Gripmaster for 9 years.

Ben has been a vital link with the many Tour Players who are now using our Genuine Leather Grips, and works closely with these players on the US PGA, Nationwide, European, Asian and Australasian Tours. He is responsible for all Tour testing of grips and personally custom fits all tour players who require specific grip/hand sizing. Ben is also a key member of the R&D team, personally making many of the prototype grips and production samples for our growing list of well known worldwide OEM's customers.