Shinei Miura on the Tiger Woods iron rumors, importance of sole width and more
Miura's MB-101 is the company's first blade in six years.
Jonathan Wall
Miura president Shinei Miura eats, sleeps and breathes classic forged irons. It’s in his DNA. The youngest son of Miura founder Katsuhiro Miura, Shinei has taken the company to new heights since he took over as president in 2010, introducing the popular Passing Point iron line in 2011 and multi-material PP-9005 Genesis — made of 455 carpenter steel — in 2015.
Shinei recently joined GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast to answer a host of questions about the Miura brand (which is an affiliate of GOLF.com’s parent company, 8AM Golf), including its rumored connection to Tiger Woods, the importance of sole width and much more. (Listen to the full interview on the latest episode of Fully Equipped.)
On whether Miura has ever made irons for Tiger Woods:
MIURA: “I would prefer not to disclose this information (laughs) because this involves transactions between the companies. I wouldn’t mention names — I should say, I don’t know those names. Let’s leave it at that.”
On the importance of having a Miura iron for a variety of skill levels:
MIURA: “When I first started being involved in the business — at the time I just started learning what golf is — I used to think I wanted only skilled people to use our clubs. However, as I started learning more about golf, and players’ perspectives, I started thinking our clubs should be made available to a wide variety of players. It doesn’t matter if the players are low handicapped or high handicapped.”
On the role sole width plays in iron design:
MIURA: “When creating a model or designing, what we keep in mind is the width of the sole. I have been taught that if the sole isn’t perfectly designed, everything else would fail. With that said, we have been working on improving our products by changing the width of the sole. There is a width limit in forging.”
On strengthening iron lofts:
MIURA: “Up until a few years ago, I had a negative feeling about it. I had a negative feeling about it because we couldn’t create the width we wanted with the forging. After years of trying, we were finally able to find ways to create the width we wanted. The loft could be improved after that. The loft can not come before creating width. We now have the skills to create products in this order. With that said, going forward we’re going to make efforts to create clubs with strong lofts so that we can cover all types of players.”
On changing from stamped to milled grooves:
MIURA: “The difference between stamped and milled is the condition of the finish is an essentially element for giving the ball spin. Those grooves need to be processed near the final process. In general, stamped gives less spin. However, our engineering has improved to the point where stamped could give more spin, so I think our products could give the same amount of spin by using either one.”
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