Legendary journalist Michael Bamberger is well known for his prose and a list of books that have been consumed by golfers far and wide. One of the most notable is “To the Linksland.” If you’ve never had the privilege of pouring over Bamberger’s prose, this is the place to start.
Without giving too much away, Bamberger, then a Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter, hit pause on his job and took a pilgrimage to Europe with his wife, Christine, where he earned a job looping on the European Tour for Peter Teravainen. He also found his own game in the Scottish highlands.
It was during the time abroad that Bamberger started to pick up on the different ways golfers attacked shots from around the green. Tour pro Glen Day opted for a fairway wood over a wedge on numerous occasions. On one of his numerous trips to the Old Course at St. Andrews, Bamberger also observed locals using the flatstick from well off the putting surface.
An idea started to bubble up in his mind.
“I had this idea of how you could combine the two,” Bamberger said on GOLF’s Fully Equipped podcast. “Chipping with a fairway wood is difficult because you’re standing so far away from [the ball]. Putting is one of the easier strokes. I wanted to combine the fairway wood, putter and the heaviness of a sand wedge where gravity alone would get you back to the ball.”
In an industry where literally every idea has been done in some form or fashion before, Bamberger was shocked to learn no one had created a club with the offset and upright lie angle of a putter, shape/size of a fairway wood, and the weight of a sand wedge.
With some help from Stanley Chu, a club manufacturer, the E-Club Type II Jigger was born more than two decades ago.
“It took maybe a year, year-and-a-half to get it right,” Bamberger recalled. “Once I had a prototype of it, I brought it to the late Frank Thomas, the USGA’s equipment guy, and he said, ‘It’s fine for off the green, and it couldn’t be more upright than 72 degrees.'”
Once the club received the green light, it started to gain traction in the world of professional golf. Nick Price became the pitchman for a series of E-Club infomercials that ran overnight on the Golf Channel. Bamberger also sent several prototypes to tour pros around that same time, including 6-time major winner Lee Trevino.
“Just because he’s Trevino,” Bamberger said. “Why wouldn’t you? I never heard back or anything, or knew if he got it. Then in 2000 when Trevino was playing in his final [Open Championship] at the Old Course in St. Andrews, he used it. He was 64 or 65, I think. Like Jack Nicklaus said when he won the Masters at age 46, he could quit right now. That’s probably the highlight. Definitely the highlight of my golf design career. Maybe my whole career. Lee Trevino used a club I invented.”
Former President George H.W. Bush, through Fred Couples, ended up with an E-Club in his hands at one point — and it didn’t take him long to see the benefits of the design.
“Fred told me this, and I’ll take it to my grave, [President Bush] said, ‘Every golfer over the age of 65 should have this in their bag. Well, that’s a lot of golfers!” Bamberger recalled.
Golfers are a desperate bunch, so it should come as no surprise that Bamberger sold plenty of E-Clubs, mostly through the overnight infomercials, to anyone and everyone who needed a shot-game fix. Asked how many he sold, he jokingly said it was “almost enough clubs to just break even.”
Bamberger also tried to pitch the club design idea to anyone and everyone who might be interested in ponying up for the company. That included Callaway Golf and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, but neither was willing to bite.
Go search eBay and you’ll notice the E-Club is still hanging around. It’s a reminder that while Bamberger will always be remembered for his prose, he’s much more than that. He’s a former tour caddie and, as luck would have it, a club designer. That’s one hell of a resume.
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