Jack Nicklaus once stated that “golf is not, and never has been, a fair game.” Few people appreciate the veracity of that adage as well as Roger Cleveland.
Nearly 81 years old, the Long Beach, California, native made his bones as an equipment maker, starting in 1979 with a company that carried his last name (Cleveland Classics Golf) and building that into a full-line club concern (Cleveland Golf) that became renowned for the wedges he designed and then produced.
First came the Tour Action 485, which Curtis Strange used in 1988 to win the first of his back-to-back U.S. Opens with an up-and-down on the 72nd hole to seal victory. It remains one of the biggest pressure plays in championship history.
That same year, Cleveland launched the Tour Action 588 wedge, and company officials say that stick has been used to amass more than 400 victories on the PGA Tour. All told, they add, Cleveland Golf has sold more than 15 million wedges worldwide.
To say the man who founded that company was on top of the golf world after those successes would be an understatement. And his bank account no doubt received a nice bump when the French ski equipment maker Rossignol bought Cleveland Golf in 1990 for an undisclosed price. The founder stayed on as the chief club designer, and happily so, with a consultant that Rossignol had brought in running the show.
“But just as my five-year employment contract expired in late 1995, that guy showed me the door,” Cleveland said.
That meant the man who had founded and then built that business into a formidable force had to leave the place that still bore his name.
There was certainly nothing fair about that.
“[This] is a special moment for me. I look forward to collaborating with the talented team here to continue to push boundaries of design even further.” – Roger Cleveland
Cleveland quickly rebounded when Callaway Golf asked him soon after to become its chief club designer. And after 28 years in that position, Cleveland’s golf life came full circle when his old company, which is now part of Dunlop Sports Americas, asked him this past spring to come back home.
“[This] is a special moment for me,” he said. “[Cleveland Golf] has always been close to my heart, and I’m excited to contribute once again to its legacy of innovation and performance. The brand has built a trusted reputation among golfers worldwide, and I look forward to collaborating with the talented team here to continue to push boundaries of design even further.
“I know some of the Cleveland guys on tour, and we had kept in touch,” he added. “They asked me if I had any interest, and I said that I would love to help so long as they want to listen.”
Mike Jolly, the company’s director of tour operations, is delighted to have the founder back.
“Roger has so much knowledge and experience,” he said. “He is also so well connected with tour players and has so much credibility with them. When Roger talks golf club design, people listen.”
Golf has been part of Cleveland’s life since he was a teenager. The youngest of two sons whose father was a fireman and mother a part-time piano teacher, he played on the golf and football teams at Long Beach Polytechnic High.
After graduating, he enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he played golf (but not football). He earned an undergraduate degree in business and then went to work for what was then the Douglas Aircraft Co. (and would eventually become McDonnell-Douglas before being absorbed by Boeing).
After spending a couple of years at Douglas, Cleveland decided to change industries and locales by taking an assistant professional’s position at Willow Ridge Country Club in New York’s Westchester County.
That adventure lasted only a few years, at which point Cleveland decided to move back to Southern California. Soon after, he founded Cleveland Classics Golf Co., and the first club he made was a re-creation of Bobby Jones’ Calamity Jane putter.
“I took it to the 1979 PGA Merchandise Show and came back with 500 orders,” he said. “From there I started making persimmon woods and did pretty well with them. Then, I began making wedges, the first one of note being the Tour Action 485 that Curtis used to win his first U.S. Open.”
By the time Strange made that epic up-and-down, Cleveland had taken the word “Classics” out of his company name, and it was Cleveland Golf.
Two years later, Rossignol purchased Cleveland, at which point it started developing iron and metal wood lines.
“We made some great clubs, but we were undercapitalized from the get-go,” Cleveland recalled. “And that made it a real struggle competing against the biggest companies.”
Cleveland says he received calls from both Callaway and Titleist after he was forced out of his own firm, eventually electing to go with Callaway. After his nearly three decades there, he is now back at his old place of business, advising the tour and R&D teams on new product and design ideas and working with some of the best golfers in the game.
Ask Cleveland about his legacy, and he says it is his wedges.
“I learned so much about them by working with the top tour professionals,” he said. “And I love getting the right soles for the different conditions and teaching people how to use them. If I get you 40 yards and in, you do not need a lot of strength to get it close. You just need good technique, and good wedges.”
And Jolly marvels at how good Cleveland’s wedges have been for so long.
“I love how well they come together,” he said. “The way the hosel goes into the leading edge, the shape of the clubhead, the overall look and functionality. Tour professionals and recreational players alike love the way they look, especially at address, and the way they perform.”
It must feel good to be back.