Flawless in Seattle: Avian 530 Irons

Redbird Avian 530 Irons Review
The Avian 530 Irons from Redbird became available June 15, 2016

 

Seattle’s Beacon Hill district, seven miles south of the Space Needle and home to a diverse mix of what one local real estate company refers to as ‘Foreign-born Urbanites and Scrappy Homeowners’, is not really the sort of place you expect to find a highly-acclaimed golf club manufacturer. Unlike the giants of the industry which operate in high-tech, 100,000 square foot factories in Carlsbad, CA, Redbird Sports does business in a small street-front store between a garden center/pet supply shop and an American diner. A Chinese restaurant and dry cleaners are just a couple of doors down.

Co-founded by Jay Turner and Steve Cole, Redbird Sports has been building custom-built clubs for serious golfers in its Beacon Avenue South premises, a mile south of Jefferson Park – the Seattle muni where Turner and Fred Couples would sneak on for a few holes in their early teens – since 1985.

Cole left to pursue other opportunities just a year into the partnership leaving University of Washington graduate Turner to build the company himself. At first, he harbored grand plans of building a club-making empire pumping out thousands of sets a week to the mass market. But he soon realized getting to know a customer and selling him a set of professionally-fitted clubs that would very likely make him a better golfer and have more fun playing the game was far preferable to selling shelf-loads of homogenous clubs to golfers he’d never meet and who were likely wasting their money on equipment ill-suited to their body type and swing. “I learned quickly I wanted to help people enjoy the game more,” he says.

Redbird quickly earned a reputation for quality and, though Turner was never able to land his buddy Couples who could obviously command big money club endorsement contracts, he did build clubs for a number of Senior (now Champions) Tour players, Canadian Tour players, and local PGA Section professionals, as well as dozens of celebrities from stage, screen, studio, and professional sports.

Because of his emphasis on premium components and lasting quality, Turner has released just 24 iron models and 17 drivers in 30 years. The company’s most popular product was surely the cavity-backed 880 iron which sold well for eight years before finally being retired in 1998.

This year, Turner has worked on restructuring the company to accommodate a bold new expansion which sees Jeffmont, Redbird’s parent company, launching an entirely new proprietary brand. Avian is a range of high-end equipment featuring forged irons, wedges, and CNC-milled putters. A new line of drivers will join the stable in a few months.

Avian 530 Wedge
Avian 530 Wedge

“I created Avian for golfers who want the very best,” says Turner. “It is a bespoke offering featuring comprehensive custom fitting, high levels of personalization/customization and built utilizing the finest materials and craftsmanship.”

Turner says Avian has been in development for nearly three years, but concedes the arrival of PXG on the scene accelerated his plans some. “I think PXG is changing the industry,” he says. “If I’d told friends and customers a couple of years ago that I was working on an iron I’d sell for $200 a club they would have given me a very strange look,” he says. “There is a significant market for top quality products, fitting, and service, however. The Avian 530 iron is forged from a single piece of soft, dense S25C carbon steel in a small Japanese foundry that has always done exquisite work. I believe the Avian 530 is a notch above Miura.”

The grooves on the 530 (“5 refers to the series – compact muscle cavity – 30 is the number of years we had been in business,” says Turner) and cavity are CNC-milled, the shafts come from Japanese manufacturer Shimada, and the grips are designed by Mesa, AZ-based Pure Grips – it’s a combination, says Turner, that produces a rare level of quality and precision. “We always guarantee our clubs for life,” he adds. “We want people to enjoy playing golf as much as possible and believe they can only do that with top quality, properly-fitted clubs made especially for them, not pulled off a shelf and given one or two minor adjustments based on a basic and rudimentary fitting.”

Having known Turner for many years, having played golf with him at Jefferson Park (where he once held the course record of 63), and having seen him at work on several occasions, I can vouch for his and his company’s integrity, and am confident a custom-fitted Avian 530 will be among the finest irons you’ve ever hit.

More info:
redbirdsports.com
$200 per iron or $1,600 3-PW. Introductory special – buy seven irons and get eighth free. Offer ends July 15th.

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