As Gary Hansberger split yet another fairway with a V-14 driver he helped design, one thing became apparent– this guy’s living the dream. As president and owner of Vulcan Golf based in St. Charles, Ill. since 1995, Gary is doing what he loves—but importantly he’s running a business with who he loves. His father Alan, and his two son’s Adam and Alex, provide the bookends to Vulcan Golf and the stability he needs in a competitive golf world.

“We have a kind of unique little company as the family has been in the golf business for a very long time. My dad founded Sportsman’s Golf (which then became RAM Golf Corp.) in a little garage on the west side of Chicago in 1947,” stated Gary Hansberger. “I worked for the family through my growing up years and then when we sold RAM to my uncle in the early 90’s, I started Vulcan Golf in the mid-90’s. I have two sons, Adam who is 26 and serves as our financial advisor and my youngest, Alex, serves as our Tech Rep. He went to the Leadbetter Golf Academy for high school and played the Butch Harmon mini-tour in Las Vegas last summer. He kind of grew up with golf in his genes and it’s a pleasure to have him working as our main custom fitter. Plus, it’s great to have my dad around to help guide us by using his over 60 years of experience in the golf industry.”


Midwest Golf Magazine is proud to profile the Hansberger Family and their 60-year love affair with the game of golf for this issue’s Midwest Personals. Just how deep and enduring has their contribution been? The entire family was inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame in 1997.

The history of the Hansberger legacy began in 1947 when Alan Hansberger founded Sportsman’s Golf with his two brothers. Gary was born four years later and picks up the story from there. “I used to go down to Melrose Park on the weekends and mill around the factory when I was six, seven, eight years old. I got a great early understanding of what went into making a golf club. When I was in high school, I got into playing the game and really loved it. I played on our school team and our home course was St. Andrews in West Chicago. I started to work there when I was 13-14 years old as a cart boy and a starter. When I was in high school, I went to Melrose Park and worked in the factory for two or three summers. I really began to take an interest in golf clubs and how technology was evolving. Lucky for me investment casting was coming into the business in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I learned putter designs, iron designs, and what made a wood look good. I also learned how to create the angles and shape of the face, lofts and lies and how you design and build all that stuff. That really got me interested in this as a career. I always knew what I wanted to do after I got out of college, come back from school and go to work for RAM Golf ,” explained Gary.

“And then just after I got out of college in 1975, my Dad told me he sold the company to Colgate Palmolive. So instead of working for my dad’s former company, I borrowed some money from him and started a custom golf shop in the western suburbs of Chicago. We fitted and built golf clubs. We did business with RAM and Ping, MacGregor, Wilson, Spalding and all the other major brands at the time. The golf shop was called First Tee Custom Golf. We had one store and did a nice little business. But by 1980, Palmolive’s hope of increasing business thru sponsoring golf tournaments and products didn’t work, so my Dad bought RAM back. I sold my golf store and went back to work with the family. I got into running research and development for RAM Golf in 1980. Plus, I did a lot of club design. That was a wonderful time in my professional life. By 1993 the original three founding brothers split the company into a ball and club division and I was out by 1994. In 1995, I started Vulcan Golf and here we are today,” stated Hansberger.

Today, Vulcan Golf prides itself in customization– a concept that took awhile to gain popularity in the golf industry. “If you look at clubs and how they’ve been designed over the years, you’re going to notice they’ve all been designed off of what tour pros are playing. But that’s not what 97% of the players out there should have,” said Alex Hansberger, Vulcan’s Tech Rep. “With that being said, we offer clubs of all types for a wide range of players. We like to make it easier on the average guy. By some of our iron, driver, and hybrid designs we’ve been able to focus on the people out there that are just looking forward to break 90. The fact that we’re a smaller company allows us to do a lot of things the bigger ones can’t. We’re a little bit more hands on if anybody needs anything custom we have options in terms of bending lies and lofts, re-shafting or gripping. People can come here and get that done on the spot. You don’t really find that in any other company.”

Besides the ability to customize, a deep feeling of family pride is what sets the Hansbergers and Vulcan Golf apart from the competition. The only non-Hansberger I interviewed for the feature, Vulcan Sales Rep. Mike Hanschke, realized a unique family dynamic from the start. “It’s absolutely a gas. I can get on the phone at any time and talk to Gary, Alex, or Al if he’s there. If I have any questions or input they want to hear about it. And while I’m making suggestions they’re taking notes,” stated Hanschke. “It’s a real family atmosphere and they’re looking to get better and grow and they’re smart enough to realize their sales force can give them a lot of crucial input to move forward and grow the business.”

All the customization in the world wouldn’t matter if Vulcan Golf products weren’t industry leaders. To that end, Gary has taken steps to insure inherent quality. According to Alan Hansberger, it’s his son’s talent and dedication that ignites the company that was named after the Roman God of Fire and Forging. “My son Gary is very astute and knowledgeable about the products themselves in researching and testing and he spends quite a bit of time on individual products. He has been able to build playing equipment I think is superior to the industry,” stated Alan. Just how committed is Vulcan golf to quality– they are the only company in the industry that charges the same price for graphite and steel shafts, even though graphite costs more to produce.

A few of Vulcan’s hallmark products include the Backfire Hybrid Wide Sole Iron and the award-winning V-14 Driver with “Powerball Technology.” Gary and his staff have developed a driver with exterior perimeter weight channels that work like an “Air Traffic Control System” for ball flight. Stainless steel ball bearings are used to alter head weight and manipulate nearly 20% of the club’s total body mass. Finally, their Sniper Hybrid Transition Woods feature a lightweight carbon crown and a heavy sole that help keep the club’s center of gravity extremely low to maximize launch conditions.
Gary Hansberger’s philosophy for the future can be likened to Coach Mike Holmgren’s post game speech after the Packers advanced to Super Bowl XXXI– “We’re Not Done Yet!”
“We have a couple of surprises coming up for the ‘07 line. I was just overseas working with our tooling guys at the factory. We’re going to be introducing some new hybrids that are great a couple of new drivers that are going to be very cool and cutting-edge. We definitely have some surprises in 2007.”

For more information on Vulcan Golf, call 1-800-842-1836 or visit their website at www.vulcangolf.com