Fitting at 9am...
I show up to Artisan Golf at around 8:30am. The night before I scored some Miller Lite, the preferred beverage by the fine folks in the shop. Picked up a case and was ready to offer it to the Wedge golf Gods the next morning. I jump outta my car and start to get ready with the trunk popped. I brought the Ecco shoes I had ordered about a week ago. I figured if there was a time to wear them, today is da day! Spikes on, shirt tucked, Frank hat ready, beer cold, clubs cleaned, and I’m ready to walk up...
I open the door and it’s a workshop. Pretty open floor plan, maybe three walls that breaks up a HUGE workshop. A nice guy (forget his name 🤦♂️) greeted me at the door and asked, “when’s your appointment”. I could see the myth, Mike Taylor, maybe 20 yards away. The gentleman asked me if I wanted to move my clubs “over here” and as I grabbed the clubs and the case, he exploded with, “HEY MIKE! THIS GUY BROUGHT MILLER LITE!!!!!” Mike returned with a, “Oh yea! My man! Thank you!”, so that was my first interaction with MT 😂
About 3mins pass and a fella named Jamie comes over and introduces himself, he’d be the one fitting me today and if he could see my wedges (PW, 50, 54, 58). I handed them over and then got a tour of the joint by the one gentleman. Incredible place. I saw the putter building room, the wedge building room, all of the grinder belt machines, the “wall of fame”, the wedge/putter heads being worked on, I even saw Mike grinding a bevel into a wedge, it was just incredible to witness.
Jamie comes back and asks if I’m “Ready”. Oh yea, here we go.
We walk outside and of course it’s extra humid but, a beautiful morning. He sets up a track man and asks me to warm up with my current clubs. I hit the 58, the 54, the 50, and then my PW. Jaime immediately hates my 54 and my 58. I was hitting full shots for him and those two he just hated. Lie was wrong, length was wrong, they just didn’t fit me at all. He was “ok” with the 50. Still sucked but, “ok” with it. The PW is where he said, “Now those are golf shots”. I told him it should be going 140, he fired back, “the first one you just hit went 140”. Boom, easy 😂. I hit maybe 20 shots on Trackman and then.......he said “ok, enough with this technology, let’s get to work” 🤯. Here we fucking go.
We hit the short range out back, beautiful spot. ProV1 balls, manicured grass, the works. He has me hit shots from 40/60/80/100 yards and I’m going from wedge to wedge, trying everything in the bag. It wasn’t until the 80 yard shot where I “felt something”. I couldn’t explain it in words. It just felt like “the one”. It was pure, buttery, sexy, slide-y, just exquisite. The way this wedge moved through the grass was unbelievable.
We move up to the green, about 5-10 yards away. I had to hit small flops over this huge bunker, to three stick locations. He gives me what I’m loving and it started... I couldn’t miss. First pin, I hit 4 balls. 2 hit the stick, 1 lipped out, the other stopped next to the cup. Second pin, exactly the same thing. Third pin, all 4 balls within 2ft. Unreal. Jamie actually says, “Well let’s make this a little harder” 🤯. Mind you, I’m hitting 5yd flops to tight pin locations and he says HARDER?! He moves me up of some ugly hard pan and says, “try it now”.....Same shit. I was floored. Everybody next to the pin. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing/doing. Wedges are the absolute WORST part of my game and here I am looking like Phil flopping these balls like I’m in the NBA finals on the green and next to the cups. It was just unbelievable, I didn’t/don’t understand it.
We go back inside with a game plan. 50° with a t100 TI, 54/59° with s400 TI’s. And then it got weird....
Length? 36”. No, for all three wedges. Mike came over and agreed....strongly. He watched me hit some and they both think that longer wedge shafts will benefit me, flighting and overall control. I agreed and we’re going with it.
Only thing left to do is stamping 🤷♂️. I don’t know what to do. Thinking of going naked, talk about a clean look. Shipping in six week 🤞🤞🤞.
After we said our goodbyes, I asked if I could get some pic’s of the shop, 😬😬😬 that’s a no no. But, the gentleman asked if I wanted a picture with Mike and Jamie and I said HELL YEA! So he rounded them up and called me back...
I walked back and Mike swings a chair around and slaps his hand on it and says “can’t have you tower over us! Take a seat!” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 So we snapped a pic and then started talking a bit about random stuff, I didn’t ask any Tiger info or anything related to golf, we were just having a chat 😂. It turned to BBQ and ohhhhh boy, Mike and I talked Q for an hour. He has a stick burner and a Pitboss. I showed Jamie and Mike my meat pictures 😂. It was glorious. Mike Fired a “You should have brought some dang brisket!!” 😂. When I go back for a putter fitting, I’m bringing beer and brisket 😂. At this rate, am I even getting fit or am I just hanging out with them 😂😂😂. They just give off the friendliest vibes and they know so damn much, it’s unbelievable. It was excellent.
To sum it up, this was a pretty wild experience. It was $200 for the fitting and my wedge total was $975 for three wedges and TI shafts. -$100 because they take half the fitting fee and put it towards the wedges! Wild! So the total owed is $875. In my mind, it’s a no brainer. And I’ll explain why...
I’m not a “Normal” golfer. I play most (95%) of my golf alone. When I play I’m practicing, I don’t play “for fun” but, I do have fun playing. I’m on a quest to qualify (look for something in the coming days on this...😏). My wedge game is awful and I needed professional help, it costs $875, I’m buying. Seemed to work today so we’ll know in six weeks. So to me, a not normal golfer, it’s worth it.
And when I say “not normal” I’m not saying I’m better or I’m worse, I’m saying I think about golf differently, I play it differently than the average golfer. A club event doesn’t excite me (if that’s what you grind for, awesome! I hope you play well and win every event 🙏), skins games don’t excite me (I did play my first this year 😂) I don’t grind for those. I want to beat the best and to me, “the best” play in AM events (US AM/Mid AM, Texas AM/Mid AM, Houston AM, US Open Local, PGA pre-Qualifiers). Is it a pipe dream? Probably but, can we not dream? Have goals? People laugh when I say, “I’m trying to qualify”. I “look different” than the average golfer. I’m “too big” to play golf. The golf world is littered with pieces of shit who say, “You can’t do this, it’s impossible.” I don’t comprehend impossible 🤷♂️
I want to feel what it’s like to walk onto the range to warmup for an actual tournament. The stress, the butterflies, the head games, the conditioning, everything. I want to feel that I made it, I earned this fucking spot and I’m going to go try and win this damn thing!
The Quest to Qualify continues this Monday. Texas AM Last Chance.
