Pro Golf’s Brian Pruitt works his club repair magic

If there is something new about golf clubs, it rarely would get past Brian Pruitt. When you have been repairing and building golf clubs for over 30 years, there is not much that gets by you in the golf club business.

Pruitt has been working his magic with golf clubs at Pro Golf in Tacoma for over 30 years. He has seen his fair share of broken clubs and new clubs that might need reshafting or new grips. And with the world of golf every changing with new technology, Pruitt has seen it all.

He has even seen a guy pay $1,000 for a new shaft. He has even repaired clubs for a guy who broke every iron over his knee after a bad round. Another guy broke three shafts on purpose and was texting Pruitt within minutes saying he needed new shafts. From new grips, to new shafts to new clubheads, Pruitt has fixed or seen just about everything there is to see in the world of golf club repair.

The 57-year-old Pruitt got his start at Tim O’Brien’s Golf Shop and Golfland repairing clubs. He took a job at Pro Golf in Tacoma in 1992 working on the floor selling – not repairing. But he knew that golf repair was his true calling and found his way back into the shop not long after.

Pro Golf was not the complete golf club repair location it is today, starting with grips and not much more. But now all of the Pro Golf shops from Bellingham to Tacoma have club repair shops and all of the repair folks are Mitchell Certified – meaning they are top of the line when it comes to golf club repair.

Since Pro Golf has its own repair shops, the time for golfers to get clubs back is cut down. “That is what makes us successful,” said Pruitt. “We can get the work done fast because we have just about everything here.

Has Pruitt every come across anything he couldn’t fix? He says the old Ping clubs were virtually welded together and needed to be sent back to Ping to get fixed. Other than that, anything has been fair game when it comes to club repair or working on anything that has to do with golf clubs.

“What is interesting about golf club repair – and especially getting clubs reshafted is the price. As Pruitt explained – the higher quality the graphite the higher the price. Most golfers are looking for ways to chase distance. And, as Pruitt said, many will pay the price to find a way to add yards and that means more expensive shafts.

As Pruitt looks around his own shop in Tacoma, he sees an endless supply of shafts, clubheads and repair equipment. It has been his world for over 30 years and he takes pride in every club he repairs and every new shaft he puts in.

“It’s a great business and it’s fun to give people what they want,” said Pruitt. “What makes us successful here is that we have just about everything to give clubs back to people when they want them. It’s been a great business.”