Jan. 9, 2003

CONROE, Texas — Legendary golf clubmaker Lew Gibson — the first clubmaker to begin regularly following the PGA Tour in the 1970s, died Thursday at the age of 79.

Today, PGA Tour events host as many as 15 manufacturers’ trailers all catering to the players’ every desire. The weekly scene is a far cry from the day when Gibson first began following the Tour three decades ago. From out of his own small trailer Gibson performed repairs for the game’s greats.

“I remember changing a set of grips for Arnold Palmer the night before a tournament, and we had to turn on his car’s headlights for us to see anything,” Gibson said last year. During the British Open in 1981 at Sandwich, Bill Roger’s putter head snapped off just minutes before his tee time, but Gibson was there to help. Rogers went on to win and the putter is now in the British Hall of Fame with a car radio antenna, taken from some unsuspecting car owner in the parking lot, holding the shaft to the head.

Later, Gibson went on to co-design the patented Weiss-Gibson Ultimate Extractor with Dick Weiss of Strategic Shaft Technologies, LC. The innovative tool allows anyone to extract even the most delicate graphite golf shaft from a clubhead without damaging the shaft.

“I first met Lew Gibson while attending a Doral Eastern Open in Miami 30 years ago,” recalls Weiss. “I was mesmerized by watching him handle club repairs of all kinds in a matter of minutes while the players waited knowing they had just a few minutes until their tee time. Every year I looked forward to attending that event, not to watch the players, but to be around Lew and watch him practice his craft. To me, he was the star of the Tour.”

Before embarking on the PGA Tour, Gibson served in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II and Korea. Four times he survived beach landings in the South Pacific during World War II. Gibson was part of a unit known as the ‘Chosen Few’ in Korea that went in with 100 men; he was one of only four who walked out of that engagement. For his efforts he received the Silver Star, Purple Heart and Presidential Unit Citation.

A memorial service will be held Jan. 24 at 11 a.m. at Cashner Funeral Home, 801 Tease Road, Conroe, Texas, 77005, (936) 756-2126.

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