Hi TeamTitleist!!
Now some of you has contact me directly or via social media.
(I'm a caddie with over 10 years of tour experience and now sharing the ins and outs with you) And the most frequent question I received from you is:
Can you tell anything more about the Titleist tour truck & the inside of it?
Well, yes, I can!
I use to say: “ The Titleist truck is a pro shop on wheels but then a million times better! “
Titleist has their own Tour Truck on the PGA European Tour & PGA Tour.
The tour truck itself is nowadays more than a place where clubs being build and/or repaired. It’s the control room of Titleist on Tour where everything is organised & coordinated.
Below you will read all about the ins & outs of the Titleist Tour Truck.
Usually the tour truck arrives early Monday morning at the event and is parked close to the driving range. After arrival the tour truck is parked near the driving range. After parking the tour truck start evolving. The large doors start collapsing outside and before you know there is a portable shop parked next to the Driving Range.
(This process takes up about 30 minutes to 45 minutes)
As soon as there is light the Titleist truck is open. Which is around 06:00 in the morning. Fresh coffee is served and the tour reps are ready to serve.
The truck is driven by professional chauffeurs from week in week out.
The reps their selves travel by plane, because there is no space for all of them to travel and by plane they arrive earlier in the event to catch up requests from players, caddies & managers.
On Monday morning as soon as the truck is open the reps will start filling up the players pockets. Each player will get: 3 dozens of golfballs, 4 pairs of Footjoy gloves and 3 caps every week. And if you every won on tour or if you are Titleist “icon” player you will get personalized balls & caps. Usually the balls contain specific number and caps with their nickname on it.
So let’s enter the tour truck!
The first part of the truck is the main seating area. Here is where players, caddies & managers all come together and meet during tournament week. Some caddies ( like myself ) starting their mornings in the truck. I love the fresh of hot glue, new hardware and surrounded by Titleist staff. Boxed off with a fresh coffee or frink from their fridge I wait for my player to arrive. Also this is the place to be to hear all the bloopers, fun facts and jokes from the previous week!
In the first part of the tour are the players pockets I mentioned earlier. The tour truck carries all sort of Pro V1’s & Pro V1x’s in a variety of numbers. (high-low- double figures).
The Pro V1X is the current ball who is very popular but the tour is showing more interest in the new AVX also.
Next to the balls we have the caps. The Tour trucks stocks about 6 different styles of caps and visors. The Titleist Tour Truck also have bucket hats and Aussie style hats. (Usually provided to caddies). Next to the hats goes the towels and extra carry bands for the caddies if they request and extra sleeve on the bag. (I worked for a large number of Titleist players and yes I did ask the tour guys 2-3 times a season for an extra strap for the tour bag)
Below the players pockets they have the drawers and stocks the Footjoy gloves. The Titleist Tour Truck stocks the Stasof, Players gloves, Footjoy ProFlx, Footjoy Raingloves, Footjoy Pure Touch (Limited edition, so not every player gets to wear these).
In the other drawers are waterproofs and extra straps for tour bags as mentioned earlier rain covers, beanies, MITs & umbrella’s .
Continuing the tour truck, we have some Footjoy compartments were shoes are stocked. A separated compartment for soft spikes. Usually this Footjoy area is stocked with players stamped shoes. Which includes their names or nicknames. The complete Footjoy area is further back in the truck.
Now let’s continue inside the tour truck. In the middle compartment we have the workshop.
The workshop area is divided over 2 sections. One section (left side of the tour truck) is all irons & wedges and the other section (right side of the tour truck) is all the drivers, metal woods & hybrids. Plus, a Scotty Cameron area. The good think about this (divided workshop) is that 2 people can work simultaneously. In the drawers you will find shafts and all options of grips. Still on tour is the most popular shaft: “the Dynamic Gold” shaft & “project X where the majority is playing with. But don’t forget the Titleist Tour Truck stocks all available shafts there are on the market!
In the wedge section, the Tour truck carries two options:
1. The Classic Chrome (which takes up to about 50% space)
2. RAW types.
Now that RAW finish has the same chrome, I talked about earlier but has a little rust in there. Titleist often use this for consumer use. So not often given out! All loft & grind options are stocked too. So as you can imagine a lots of clubheads. Some players have a custom fit model like black finish or special weight balanced type of clubheads.
Grip wise the most popular grip on tour is the Tour Velvet grip by Golfpride. But next competitor is the MultiCompound (colors) and after that full cord grips. Funny is when the further down you go in the drawers the funkier grips are popping up. There is also a specific section where some special players have their own grips. Like their initials are printed in grips etc.
The machines in this part of the truck are the Vokey stamping machine. Here is where all the wedges get stamped with initials or players requests. Loft & lie machine, shaft cutter. There are also 2 different grinding machines. Those are 2 different machines with 3 different belts. 1.The roughest belt, 2. slightly smoother belt, 3. polishing belt. On the roughest belt you make your initial grind. You detail it on the smooth belt and finish it up on the polish belt. And trust me I grind some wedges and it’s not easy to do to make it perfect!
In the back of the work shop area are the driver & fairway area. And last but not least there is the Scotty Cameron area. Perhaps fun part to tell you is that all the tools in the Scotty Cameron area is built by the master himself. And of course, as you can imagine it has the logo: “For Tour Use ONLY” / “Tour Only” on it. In the button drawer the grips. Now first they look all the same but in fact they are not. Different in sizes, colors and cord.
The most popular grips are the Super Stroke grips. Next to the grips the Scotty Cameron drawer stocks the chipping disks. (Very popular in the amateur world, Yes I am still looking to receive a pair of those… so calling out to Titleist!! Please Please!! ).
All the Scotty Cameron putters have the circle T logo on it. (Tour ONLY). And yes, there is a special drawer for all the Scotty Cameron headcovers too.
Not let’s move all the way to the front of the truck. The CABIN!!
The driver seat is very comfortable I can tell you for personal experience! It has to be because the truck is hours and hours on the road. Also, there is a lot of space there. There is a bed behind the driver & passenger seat. (Should the driver require some rest).
Also fun fact is after 4 hours the driver has to rest for 45 minutes. Now not ideal when you have to drive a through Europe, but I think you all can imagine the impact of the large truck and the content of it.
So below some interesting figures:
- Personalized license plate: T17LST
- The Titleist Tour Truck drives over 40.000 km’s each year.
- Joins about 25 events on tour.
- The Titleist Tour Truck can
- Financially a new Tour truck cost approximal 450.000 euros. (Inc. decoration & excl. stock)
- Carries 1000 liters of fuel
- New set of tires are about 5000 euro’s
- Over 80 Footjoy players gloves & caps are given out EACH week !!
- The Titleist truck can built about 200 irons each week!
- The Tour truck has a 450 horsepower - 12 liter engine
- Stocks over 350 shafts on board.
- Stocks over 600 balls
- Between tournaments the tour truck stops by St. Ives, England to fill up their stock.
I hope this gives you a closer look inside the Tour truck. Please do share your comments below and contact me directly if you want to know more about life on tour.
Happy Swings,
Bart