Aaron Dill is Titleist’s Director of Wedge Relations. In this blog for NCG, Aaron discusses some of the most unusual wedge set-ups on tour as well discussing which Titleist pros are the equipment geeks and who he thinks has the best shortgame.
There are a few really technically knowledgeable players. A lot of them approach golf club selection with a more trusting manner. They tell me they trust me to choose something for them. Jordan Spieth is one of those players. He will say he trusts me to choose what I think is best for him and that’s where I get to step in and make the decision for him.
But you get some players, like Rory Sabbatini or Scott Piercy, who are really golf and equipment smart. These guys know there are certain things about those golf clubs that work for them, because they have a lot of experience in their own personal clubs. We can brainstorm together because each knows what he likes, and I know the equipment, so we can come up with cool ideas together.
Those guys are really cool because they challenge us as club designers and stretch our imagination. How do we solve certain issues? How do we fix certain things that these guys are probably paying more attention to than some other players? It’s a strange balance. It makes us better at what we do, but some players are certainly a lot more intuitive with there equipment, they know more about their stuff, so they can certainly communicate with us on a deeper level.
The best short game player I’ve worked with might surprise you. They are all so good and make wedge play look so natural. Adam Scott, KJ Choi – all these guys make wedge play look like a part of them. But when Brett Rumford first came out and I was working on tour he would pick up a wedge and he would get up and down from everywhere. It was so easy for him.
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I’ve learned a lot from that technique and it set me the foundations of what I look for in a good wedge player. It’s this free, quick-moving, smooth, confident action that Brett had. So, in my generation, he’s the best that I’ve seen.
There are a lot of guys that are right up there with him. I know if you asked Bob Vokey he would give you some names from his past – Phil Mickelson, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods in the late 1990s, early 2000s. Those were his guys, I’ve got my small group but Brett is one of my guys I’ve been most impressed by.