Richard Kempton
1948-2023

Richard attended St Thomas’s primary school and went on to Sevenoaks School in 1961, following in his father Claude’s footsteps. He was proud of his education and his ability to translate  anything from German to English. After gaining his BA in Business and Languages at City of London Polytechnic, he went to work for Stone Manganese Marine, who made bronze propellers for  tankers and bulk carriers. Ten years later Richard entered the field of computing, working for ISG and then Hardware 2000, finally going back into sales at Salter, the kitchenware company based in Tonbridge.

In the early 1990s he decided to follow one of his passions, golf. He learned how to make golf clubs and set up a custom fit business in Hadlow. He named it Simply Golf and, with the help of  industry icon Tom Wishon, became one of the most well-known and respected club makers in the UK and Europe. He was European Club Maker of the Year 2001-02. Richard’s thirst for knowledge and his engineering background led him to pioneer the new concept of Moment of Inertia (MOI) matching. This refined the major golf club manufacturers’ claims of mass-produced matched sets which, following extensive testing, he was inclined to suggest were anything but! He became one of the most trusted craftsmen in his field and advised fellow clubmakers, European Tour professionals, gifted amateurs and those less fortunate, with equal enthusiasm and respect.

Richard’s career was cut short by the onset of motor neurone disease, but he has left a lasting legacy in his chosen field.