Club techs keep pros on course
By: Kevin Dunleavy
Examiner Staff Writer
July 9, 2009
Trailers allow players chance to make tweaks
Wearing safety glasses and an apron, Wade Liles looks like a junior high shop teacher. But he is a fixture in a much more glamorous environment, the PGA Tour. Liles works in the TaylorMade trailer, building, tweaking, and maintaining clubs.
At Congressional last week, approximately 45 of the 120 players in the field were under contract with the California-based company. In a span of 20 minutes Tuesday afternoon, Liles was visited by pros John Malinger, Richard S. Johnson and Dean Wilson. Also waiting to see the club doctor were the caddies for two other players. On occasion, players will enter the trailer and work on the clubs themselves.
"These trailers have become testing grounds," said Liles. "They are mini production facilities. It's pretty much part of the players' routine now, just like going to the range and hitting a bucket of balls."
Wilson, for example, brought in his hybrid, asking for one that would fly 12-15 yards shorter. Liles recorded the specifications of Wilson's 19-degree club and made a replica with a loft of 22 degrees within five minutes.
At the Callaway trailer next door, technician Nick Spinger wasn't nearly as busy. The company had just 12 AT&T National players under contract.
"Players vary so much," said Spinger of how often his services are required. "A guy like Mark Brooks wants to work the ball and likes the look of the older stuff. A guy like Stuart Appleby will put the new stuff in his bag real quick."
Every significant club maker -- including Titleist, Nike, Bridgestone, Srixon, and Cleveland, 17 in all -- is represented on trailer row. Each week, they stay through Wednesday, when the PGA requires them to leave.
Then it is on to the next stop. Liles and fellow technician Henry Luna, alternate on the wheel. When it pulled out of Congressional Wednesday night, the distinctive, black TaylorMade truck was on its way to the John Deere Classic in Illinois, preparing for set up on Sunday.
To make the trailer livable, it is equipped with flat-screen televisions, wireless Internet, and a kitchen with a refrigerator. To make it functional, there are vices, blow torches, grinders, and drills, along with drawers filled with grips, shafts, and club heads.
Some players are low maintenance, others, not so low.
"A guy like Tom Lehman re-grips his clubs once a year," said Liles. "Then there's one gentleman, I built 28 clubs for him in one day -- 18 drivers, five 3-woods, and five 5-woods. I'm not going to tell you who the player was."
