Masayuki Sasaya has worked hard at being the premium custom putter maker in Japan and while many hardcore enthusiasts know and love his work, Gold’s Factory has long been a boutique/niche brand with a smaller high end clientele. That may have all changed with Octobers issue of Golf Digest here in Japan.
Gold’s Factory’s Sasaya-san is featured as the master of hand crafted putter making and customizations in a 10 page article that talks about putters in Japan today. Gold’s Factory is talked about along with IPT Yamada Putters as really being the two only custom crafted putter makers in Japan today and Sasaya-san’s ability to craft putters of his own as well as modify other existing putter brands
In the last few years in Japan, with the demise of Gauge Design Japan/G-Field (where Sasaya-san was in fact the Chief of their Tour Division), golfers have longed for a Japanese brand that stood out against all the big overseas putter brands like Odyssey and Scotty Cameron. Many of you who know TSG have followed Sasaya-san’s work on his blog as well as our site and know the fine detail and amazing feel and performance that his putters give.
The fact is when it comes to hand made attention and quality, there is NO other putter in golf like Master Sasaya’s. Gold’s Factory is a one man operation, every putter is milled and crafted by the master himself. There is NO mass production here. This is something that cannot be said about the larger brands.
Besides crafting the most unique and one of a kind custom putters for each individual customer he serves, Gold’s Factory has opened its doors to modifying and refinishing other brands. The putter tuning market has yet to be realized here in Japan. Most buy off the shelf putters without realizing what a customized putter fit to a players stroke can do for their game. When it comes to putter tuning, one of the most common things Gold’s Factory does is add weight to each head, tungsten weights in the sole or face increase the MOI of a putter and change the CG positioning. This helps feel and roll as well as forgiveness on the face. The added weight creates control and can help smooth out a putting stroke.
Back to the custom work that Gold’s can do, Golf Digest talks about how a Gold’s Factory putter is built to spec for a customer including not only the head weight but the type of neck, the type of face milling which further enhances the feel, even the type sole. Gold’s Factory can create a tour quality custom putter from scratch… a billet of carbon steel to finished masterpiece.
So now that Gold’s Factory is getting the recognition it so rightfully deserves, what does this mean for Sasaya-san moving ahead? Probably much more work and greater than ever creations as we saw when Tourspecgolfer posted about the Ryu-Zen putter earlier. TSG is always here to help as building a custom putter is not easy and the options can be overwhelming. If you want a dream putter handmade by one of the TRUE masters in the golfing world, drop us a message and we can help you design your masterpiece.
