logo 2011 industry golf founded 1914 headquarters chicago illinois products golf equipment website wilsonstaff.com wilson staff is the professional and advanced amateur golf products division of wilson sporting goods . wilson designs and manufactures a full range of golf equipment accessories and apparel using the wilson staff wilson prostaff profile and hope brands . wilson s other lines are generally considered to be big box value or economy brands while the wilson staff line provides higher quality equipment used on all major professional golf tours . many of the world s top professional golfers have used wilson equipment including gene sarazen who had a 75 year relationship with the company the longest running contract in sports history . other golfers who have used wilson staff equipment include sam snead walter hagen arnold palmer nick faldo payne stewart john daly ben crenshaw and vijay singh . palmer and crenshaw both used wilson 8802 putters with crenshaw s receiving the moniker little ben due to his proficiency with it . current wilson staff players include open and uspga champion p draig harrington as well as kevin streelman . contents 1 wilson staff s place in golf history 2 equipment 3 major championships 4 sponsorship deals 4.1 players 4.1.1 european tour 4.1.2 ladies european tour 4.1.3 pga tour 4.1.4 advisory staff 4.1.5 former players 5 references wilson staff s place in golf history edit in 1932 wilson advisory staff member gene sarazen was inspired by the aerodynamics of an airplane s wing to create a club head that would glide smoothly through sand . sarazen welded a piece of steel to the sole of the club and ground it producing bounce . this marked the introduction of the sand wedge and in 1933 alone wilson sold 50 000 of these clubs marketed as the r 90 which went on to be the most popular sand wedge in golf . 1 in 1933 wilson advisory staff member willie ogg created a design for distributing weight away from the heel of the club head moving it towards the sweet spot of the blade . this design feature was used in the wilson ogg mented irons the forerunner of perimeter weighted or cavity back irons . 2 in 1948 then wilson sporting goods president lawrence icely provided the financial backing for patty berg and babe didrikson zaharias to form the women s pga predecessor of today s lpga . 3 in 1954 wilson began producing the wilson staff ball which was seen as revolutionary due to its ability to launch up to 40 percent faster than the golf club s head speed . 4 previous wilson staff logo circa 2005 previous wilson staff logo circa 1960 in 2005 wilson staff claims to be the first golf company to utilize nanotechnology in golf equipment . 5 equipment edit wilson staff currently markets the following equipment . drivers wilson staff fg tour f5 d 200 d 200 women s fairways & hybrids wilson staff fg tour f5 fairway woods d 100 fairway woods fg tour f5 hybrids d 200 hybrids d 200 women s fairway woods d 200 women s hybrids irons wilson staff fg tour 100 fg tour f5 fg tour v4 fg tour m3 c200 d200 d200 women s wedges wilson staff fg tour pmp wedges includes fg tour pmp tour frosted and gun blue pvd harmonized black and classic harmonized hope women s putters wilson staff 8802 infinite series windy city michigan ave lake shore grant park north side south side women s windy city vizor level 2 m1 vizor level 2 m2 vizor level 2 m3 vizor level 2 m4 balls wilson staff fg tour duo urethane duo spin duo duo yellow fifty elite fifty elite orange fifty elite yellow fifty elite pink zip miscellaneous items and accessories wilson staff golf caps and visors belts golf towels golf bags staff cart and stand types as well as golf bags with nfl team logos travel bags golf umbrellas golf club head covers and golf gloves . miscellaneous wilson staff golf equipment including golf glove zip golf ball sleeve of zip golf balls . wilson staff golf clubs including ci7 gap wedge and smooth driver both for left handed golfers wilson staff pro staff golf bag as used by ricky barnes at the 2011 memorial tournament major championships edit wilson staff claims that its line of irons has more majors won than any other brand . 6 players using wilson staff clubs have won a total of 61 majors . year tournament winner 1922 u.s. open gene sarazen 1922 pga championship gene sarazen 1923 pga championship gene sarazen 1928 u.s. open johnny farrell 1932 the open championship gene sarazen 1932 u.s. open gene sarazen 1933 pga championship gene sarazen 1935 the masters gene sarazen 1935 pga championship johnny revolta 1936 pga championship denny shute 1937 pga championship denny shute 1937 u.s. open ralph guldahl 1938 u.s. open ralph guldahl 1939 the masters ralph guldahl 1941 pga championship vic ghezzi 1942 pga championship sam snead 1946 u.s. open lloyd mangrum 1946 the open championship sam snead 1947 pga championship jim ferrier 1948 the masters claude harmon 1949 the masters sam snead 1949 u.s. open cary middlecoff 1949 pga championship sam snead 1951 pga championship ben hogan 1952 the masters sam snead 1954 the masters sam snead 1955 the masters cary middlecoff 1956 u.s. open cary middlecoff 1958 the masters arnold palmer 1959 the masters art wall 1959 u.s. open billy casper 1960 the masters arnold palmer 1960 u.s. open arnold palmer 1961 the open championship arnold palmer 1962 the masters arnold palmer 1962 the open championship arnold palmer 1963 u.s. open julius boros 1965 pga championship dave marr 1966 u.s. open billy casper 1968 u.s. pga championship julius boros 1969 the masters george archer 1970 the masters billy casper 1974 u.s. open hale irwin 1976 u.s. open jerry pate 1976 the open championship johnny miller 1978 u.s. open andy north 1979 u.s. open hale irwin 1981 the open championship bill rogers 1984 the masters ben crenshaw 1985 the masters bernhard langer 1985 u.s. open andy north 1989 u.s. pga championship payne stewart 1990 u.s. open hale irwin 1991 u.s. open payne stewart 1993 the masters bernhard langer 1995 the open championship john daly 1998 pga championship vijay singh 1999 the open championship paul lawrie 2007 the open championship p draig harrington 2008 the open championship p draig harrington 2008 pga championship p draig harrington sponsorship deals edit in the past wilson has had many of the world best golfers under contract including 6 time major winner nick faldo . wilson staff currently has endorsement deals with many professional golfers who compete on all the major tours . 7 players edit european tour edit andreas hart paul lawrie marcel siem steen tinning anthony wall ladies european tour edit maria verchenova pga tour edit ricky barnes p draig harrington jim herman troy merritt kevin streelman brendan steele advisory staff edit meghan hardin rick sessinghaus carly werwie michael sainz former players edit brad mcintosh stewart ginn markus brier sir nick faldo jesper parnevik jos manuel lara ben crenshaw arnold palmer references edit gene sarazen develops the wilson r 90 wedge wilson ogg mented irons lawrence icely of wilson sporting goods financial backing for women s pga wilson staff ball wilson staff introduces nanotechnology more majors won than any other brand golf players sponsored by wilson retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wilson staff & oldid 741667060 categories golf equipment manufacturers navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 28 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