TaylorMade Tour chief talks equipment changes at The Open
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Scarves, wooly hats and the occasional rescue club tweak – it’s all in an Open Championship week for TaylorMade’s Tour Manager Sean Brady, as we found out when we spoke to him on the brand’s swanky white Tour van.
“Our American friends don’t often come with any cold weather gear, so there’s lots of requests for sweaters, waterproofs and scarves. Yeah, that’s probably the strangest request we’ve had this week,” says Brady.
As you’d expect, TaylorMade’s Tour guru was far too professional to reveal which player asked him for the aforementioned scarf, but he did explain that there had been lots of requests from players for equipment modifications to combat the different challenges a links course throws up.
“When the players get to a links course, they obviously want a lower ball flight. Primarily we’re seeing a lot of 2-irons being built, and guys strengthening the rescue clubs a little bit.
“There might be the odd tweak to the driver, just to get the ball flight down. Being a links course the turf is a little firmer, so guys are looking for a little less bounce on their wedges, so they can nip the ball off the turf a little easier,” added Brady.
It was an early start for the TaylorMade staff this morning too – Sean tells us that the guys who work on the Tour truck and on the range always arrive at the course about 45 minutes before their first Staff player’s tee-time.
And this morning, that meant a very early start, with Aussie Nathan Green going off in the first group at 0630.
