Ely Callaway, founder of Callaway Golf, chose the name Big Bertha for the driver he introduced in 1991. He borrowed the name from a German WWI howitzer, nicknamed Big Bertha because of its massive size and power.
The Big Bertha driver was revolutionary at the time for its fully stainless steel construction during a time when many golfers still used traditional wooden drivers. The head of the original Big Bertha, while small by today's standards, was quite large by 1991 standards, which immediately set the club apart from competitors.
Besides setting a new standard for size and materials, the Big Bertha driver was revolutionary in that it put more weight around the perimeter of the club-head, resulting in a thinner, more forgiving club-face. The design instantly enlarged the sweet spot compared to persimmon drivers, while remaining lightweight.
This Big Bertha driver is suitable for players who tend to slice their ball or struggle to find consistency in ball flight. While Big Bertha will allow you to hit it long because of its larger sweet spot, its forgiveness accommodates players of all abilities.
Made of stainless steel, Big Bertha OG clocked in at 190cc.
Big Bertha’s large sweet spot, which provided a new level of forgiveness, separated the line from its competitors. Designers eliminated the neck of the club by extending the shaft through the club head which created more energy at impact. At 190cc, the 1991 driver was only about 40% of today’s 460cc drivers, and is more comparable to today’s 3-woods, which have club-heads in the 175cc neighborhood.
Big Bertha has become one of the most recognized names in golf as a staple of the Callaway Golf lineup that has been successful since it launched in the 1990s.
Pinseeker was founded as R&M Golf in the early '70s near Monterrey (Pacific Grove), CA., by John Riley and Jim Murray.
The name was changed to Pinseeker in 1975.
The Pinseeker metal golf clubs you are showing were the first stainless steel "woods" (patented by John Riley) though Taylor Made was the first to successfully market them, and Pinseeker was a pioneer (along with Ping) in investment casting metal irons instead of using forging, persimmon, or wood laminates. They offered many models, from forged and cast blades to persimmon and graphite headed woods to one of the first commercially available long putters to hollow headed irons.
John Riley, SR., one of England’s top amateur players, came to America in 1960 and began a career in golf equipment. Eventually it would encompass eleven examples of his revolutionary thinking.
AFTER starting his manufacturing career with Ping, John went on to form a company in the early 1970's that would evolve into the Lynx Golf Company. There he designed a celebrated classic- The Lynx Master Model.
THEN, approx. 1975, onto another startup company, John Riley, SR. founded Pinseeker. During this period he designed and patented the first metal wood. A revolutionary design with radical technology that has forever changed the game of golf.
IN 1980, Riley Golf Company was formed as a family business, bringing on the next generation of club designers and revolutionizing golf club fitting.
The search for the game improvement led to John Riley JR. to use his engineering background to develop the first method of combining the personal computer with the club fitting process in 1982.
Today Riley Golf has refined this design and fitting heritage into products like the uniquely Energy Irons and Hybrids and services like -Personal Golf - their way of delivering the best possible club to help your game.