Last week, Golfweek ran a Q&A with Chris Hilleary, owner and president of Bellingham's very own Aerotech Golf, maker of the SteelFiber shaft which was introduced a decade ago and which has slowly been making a name for itself ever since. Now, every Monday it seems, the company sends out a press release stating the success a player(s) using the SteelFiber achieved the previous week. Hilleary can't name those Tour players benefitting from the unique composite design as Aerotech doesn't have endorsement contracts with any of them. But, rest assured, the results Steelfiber-users have been posting over the last couple of years have been very impressive. Brandt Snedeker (nothing to stop us identifying the players), who uses the 95g version, won the FedEx Cup last year and has risen to No. 4 in the world, while Matt Kuchar who also uses the 95g shaft and who began using the SteelFiber toward the end of 2008, has become a money machine on the PGA Tour winning almost $18million in the last four and a bit years and, of course, winning today's final of the WGC Accenture Matchplay Championship. BellinghamGolfer caught up with Hilleary for a little Q&A of its own. It seems use of the Steelfiber on Tour has really increased lately. How many players are using it now?
It's really snowballing for us out there. We now have at least seven players on the PGA Tour and six on the Champions Tour but we have probably another dozen players testing them that could put them into play at anytime.
What are some of its successes?
SteelFiber shafts have been the No. 1 composite iron shaft on the PGA Tour for the last three years. During the 2012 season, in addition to their second-straight Ryder Cup appearance, SteelFiber shafts won the FedExCup title, the TOUR Championship, The Players Championship and the Farmers Insurance Open. It collected 21 top-ten finishes on the PGA and Champions Tours. In 2011, two of the top eight players in the final FedExCup standings played SteelFiber shafts, and SteelFiber delivered two top-three finishes in the PGA Tour playoffs. In 2010, SteelFiber shafts were used by the player that finished #1 on the PGA Tour money list, #1 in scoring average, #1 in all-round ranking and #1 in top-ten finishes.
I read about Nick Faldo using it. What is his involvement exactly?
I really don't know how Nick got a hold of the shafts, but he was on CBS during the telecast of the Northern Trust Open last week giving a swing tip with a club that had a SteelFiber shaft in it. That's all I know.
What's the next step for the company - sponsoring a tour pro?
Fortunately, we're not paying any players to use our shafts so they are playing them only on the merit of their performance. Going forward, we will continue to expand on the SteelFiber offerings as well as research and develop new technologies.
