Barry Willett, who has died, aged 70, was at the forefront of bringing to reality the vision of Neil Coles, Europe’s Number One golfer in 1963 and again in 1970, to provide the burgeoning European Tour with a mobile workshop that would herald a new level of professionalism on the circuit.
Willett, once a two handicap golfer, and Coles forged a lifetime friendship after meeting at the St George’s Hill Golf Club in Weybridge, Surrey, where Willett first pitched-up as a boy caddie in 1950 when Max Faulkner, who was to win The Open Championship in 1951, was the professional, and where Willett was to learn the trade of clubmaker under the studious eye of Lambert Topping, who in addition to succeeding Faulkner became personal clubmaker to King Hassan of Morocco.
Willett and St George’s Hill, where his wife, Barbara, was to run the secretarial side of the business, were virtually inseparable but the lure of turning Coles’s dream into reality took him away from the club after 35 years to spend much of his life in a mobile workshop on the edge of practice grounds at European Tour events throughout Britain and the continent.
The project started in 1984 when Willett set up a temporary workshop at The Open Championship at St Andrews where Seve Ballesteros, who as a 17-year-old had visited Willett at his St George’s Hill workshop, was to win the second of this three Opens. In fact many top professionals, including Nick Faldo, the winner of six Major Championships, would choose to visit Willett and his clubmaking team at St George’s Hill in the then closed season to “fine tune” their equipment.
Nevertheless the success of the 1984 Open Championship equipment facility persuaded Coles, who had also become Chairman of the PGA European Tour Board of Directors, with Willett to plan a mobile workshop to follow the players on The European Tour and to help bridge the gap in standards between the European and the United States Tours. After Japanese club manufacturers Mizuno embraced the concept, Willett marshalled the service.
The Mizuno Official European Tour Workshop quickly became a fixture as did Willett at the helm of a popular team that initially included driver Pat Dent and two Japanese technicians. In effect Willett, who at 6 foot 4 inches towered over the Japanese craftsmen, became the man the professionals came to see for their pit stops and the Mizuno state-of-the-art workshop was a hub of activity next to the driving range throughout the week.
Willett admitted to having an ambivalent relationship with his on-the-road role – “When you’re on the road, you want to be at home and when you’re at home you want to be back out there,” he once said – but both home and away few people enjoyed life more than the genial Willett and without question everyone who worked with him, including so many of the world’s leading golfers, will miss his kindly word and knowledgeable insight.
Barry Willett, who retired in 1998 following the PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England, and who courageously battled illness for several years, leaves his wife, Barbara, and their daughter, Kim.
Barry Willett’s funeral will take place at Randalls Park Crematorium, Leatherhead, Surrey, on Monday August 4 at 1.15pm
Tributes to Barry Willett:
Neil Coles, Chairman of the PGA European Tour Board of Directors, said: “Barry was a very special person, loved by all professional golfers who met him and he was a master of his craft with the unique gift of understanding what the professional wanted out of his clubs. He will be impossible to replace and we feel for Barbara and the family at this very difficult time.
Seve Ballesteros, winner of three Open Championships, two Masters Tournaments and Europe's victorious Ryder Cup Captain in 1997, said: “I met Barry when I started my career as a professional golfer. Year after year our friendship grew up while he was on Tour repairing clubs. For many seasons he worked in the British Isles but in time he even assisted us in the continent. I remember him as a great expert who fixed our clubs and would say he was the best – he made miracles happen in the workshop with our woods.
“He had everything: he was nice, friendly, generous, a hard worker and a caring human being. Finally, I would say he was a man with a huge charisma. All the players will always remember him. He always welcomed me at the workshop with a big smile and thereafter did wonders with my battered clubs. My brothers Baldomero, Manuel and Vicente also keep, like myself, a beautiful recollection of Barry.”
Nick Faldo, winner of three Open Championships and three Masters Tournaments, and The 2008 European Ryder Cup Captain, said: “This is such a sad loss for the golfing world. Barry was one of the few people that have the eye and the touch that professional club manufacturers require and was someone that I admired tremendously. In fact, we used to refer to Barry as ‘the eye’ and I learned an awful lot from his skills. I remember way back even before the M25 was built in the 80s I used to spend countless hours down at his workshop in St George’s Hill. Sometimes we’d go down the road with a set of test clubs and, if a club wasn’t going to work, Barry knew within one or two shots. He had a great deal of patience and truly understood the qualities that professionals wanted. I know that he will be greatly missed.”
Andy Kikidas, spokesman for Mizuno, said: “Mizuno can be forever grateful to Barry for being so instrumental in the introduction, development and promotion of the brand in Europe. As both a craftsman and a respected statesman within golf he was held in extremely high regard by everyone at Mizuno and by many of the top players around the world. Barry's achievements were never made at the expense of the people around him. He led his field for many years and set high standards in everything he did. We will remember a big, warm-hearted man who entertained and counselled us all for many years and we'll dearly miss him.”
