Day in the life: FootJoy glove guru Maria Bonzagni

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Helping FootJoy maintain its grip as the world's number one golf glove brand gives me great satisfaction.

I have lived and breathed the brand ever since I joined Acushnet Company back in 1990, and golf has always been in my veins. 

As a young girl, I played a lot of golf and worked as a pro shop attendant, before going on to win the Massachusetts Junior State Championship at the age of 17. Working in a pro shop proved a big foundation for my mentorship, educating myself more about sales, the members and the game itself. 

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But the dream of one day joining the LPGA Tour eventually took a back seat when I joined Bentley University, a top private business school in New England. I essentially quit golf and focused on a career in marketing.

After university, I went into banking for around four years as a retail branch manager and then worked for Parker Brothers for a year. I then applied for a role at FootJoy as a sales support rep in 1990 and never looked back. 

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I have enjoyed various positions at FootJoy, ranging from customer service, product manager of footwear, overseeing the outerwear division and senior director of marketing for gloves, which has been my job now for 21 years.  

It has been an amazing career thus far. The mentorship I have received across all those touchpoints has been important for me, and I love the people I work with day in day out. We have our own factory and some 1500 Acushnet employees, who are all striving to make the best products in golf. 

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My proudest moment at FootJoy is ongoing. Every time I go to our factory and see our workers and 20-year plus associates of the managing group making the best gloves even better, it just keeps me so stimulated. I always come back with ideas for the next generation of glove and it excites me. 

To see right now that we have a 60% market share on course in the United States and 55% in the United Kingdom, it just gives us all so much pleasure. It ultimately comes down to making the best glove in golf better every year, but without our dedicated employees, we would not be where we are today. 

The vertical integration of the product, manufacturing and our long-standing partners on a leather and synthetic front effectively guarantees our players with consistency and quality every time we launch something new. 

My office is based in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and it is the original office of the founders of the FootJoy StaSof glove. I live with the goal to make and keep the StaSof the best glove in golf and on Tour.

We have this year launched the 13th generation of our popular StaSof glove - but believe it or not, the process for it still had to go through 40 steps to manufacture.

NEW: FOOTJOY STASOF GLOVE 2016

The StaSof glove travels globally from having the skins from Ethiopia, where they are also tanned. It's a by-product of the food industry and it feeds a lot of people. We were able to utilise this beautiful skin from a hair sheep to produce a consistent .45mm specification leather that then travels to Thailand in a hand operation.

From there, the leather will undergo a selection grading process, before going through the stretch, preparation, cutting and sewing stages. We then go through to the end of the line where it's validated by Mr Medium and Mr Large, as well as our Tour players, to ensure it fits consistently in that envelope before reaching the golfer's hand. 

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On Tour, the feedback we receive from the likes of Adam Scott and Zach Johnson, just two of our major-winning staff players to wear the StaSof glove, helps us a lot when we are about to launch a new product.

I travel annually to the US Tour and we deal on a quarterly basis with the Tour reps. We validate with the golfers and get their preferences. Once they are happy with the feel and fit, we are happy.

NEW: FJ PERFORMANCE APPAREL 2016

Ensuring a golf glove fits properly is a very important aspect for us because it won't slip or wear as much. A correctly fitted glove will also reduce the grip pressure to allow you to swing more freely and comfortably, and it will aid better performance.

In the 21 years I have been doing this job, it still amazes me that around 30% of golfers are still in a wrongly fitted glove. 

Much like with a shoe, you need to have a glove that provides a nice tight fit so that you are at one with the glove and the club. There should be no product interference, no wrinkle, no movement and certainly no blisters. 

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Away from the StaSof, other standout gloves in our 2016 range include the new GTxtreme glove, featuring the same grip in the palm patch and thumb for added durability, but it has a bonded construction in the back of the hand. We have minimised the stiching, so it should prove more comfortable. 

For the fall, we have a new WinterSof glove that will feature new Warm Plus technology on the cuff to better insulate the hand, keeping warmth in and cold air out. 

In terms of our future, it will be more of the same as we continue to maintain our grip on the glove market. You will certainly see added improvements in our manufacturing process, as too the utilisation of construction elements that make our gloves even more comfortable. 

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