Where Are They Now?

Sonartec

Sonartec’s fate was sealed the day co-founder Toru Kamatari met Canadian businessman Peter Pocklington. A crooked businessman who once owned the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers – he was loathed in that city for trading Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings, Pocklington ran little-known Golf Gear International. At the time Sonartec was cash-strapped and needed an injection of money. They’d miscalculated consumer demand, thinking people would want their fairway woods, not their hybrids (one of which gained notoriety when Todd Hamilton used it during his 2004 Open Championship victory).

In February, 2008, eight and a half months after Kamatari and Pocklington created a new entity called Sonartec International LLC, the Japanese entrepreneur and shareholders filed a lawsuit against him for breach of contract. Pocklington had failed to come up with the necessary cash he promised.

Later that year, Pocklington declared bankruptcy citing liabilities of US$19.7 million and assets of US$2,900, US$500 of which were his golf clubs. With the lawsuit stalled Kamatari mused, “I can’t believe there’s someone like him in this world.”

Kamatari now owns Colantotte International, the makers of TRION:Z, the negative ion jewellery worn by Ryu Ishikawa. Sonartec re-entered the US market at the 2011 PGA Merchandise Show as Royal Collection. As of press time, Peter Pocklington is serving a 90-day probation in California for failing to disclose assets from his personal bankruptcy.