July 10, 2015 – This year on the Tour, Srixon – Cleveland Golf is keeping its foot on the accelerator. With its fantastic products, golf balls, drivers, irons, wedges, bags, caps… it has increased its lead role in equipping the professional golfers, and we can see it not only on course, but also in the television broadcasts of tournaments.
So we accepted the invitation to visit its truck on the European Tour, which is clad with new graphics on its bodywork, in red and white, and with a striking Srixon Z 545 driver on the left side, and a giant Z-STAR golf ball on the right side, which shine out when en route and at destination.
The four trucks that Srixon – Cleveland Golf have in circulation across the world have the same look, with this one in Europe, two more for the PGA Tour travelling half the US each, and one in Japan.
Leading the European Tour truck is Iain Steele, European Tour Manager, supported by Chris Rider, Coordinator for the European Tour, and assisted by Loïc Monchalin, specialist clubmaker. There is also a professional driver, who comes and goes whenever a heavy vehicle like this needs to be moved, every time it has to travel from one event to another.
We spoke with Chris Rider, who told us that “we’ve had the truck for about five years now. Before it was blue, the colours of Cleveland Golf, but last year we bought a new cab, we rebranded the bodywork, and we refurbished the inside”.
We sat at the red seats that had come out from a Rolls Royce, admired the mosaic in black and white at the entrance, and we looked at the TV in the adjoining room where golfers relax while waiting. But we are interested in asking about what is inside and how the Tour truck works as it attends to the needs of the golfers, that are playing to win every week ‘out there, on the course’.
“Well, this truck can go on the road for eight events non-stop, so you never know what might happen,” says Chris Rider to MyGolfWay.com. By product categories:
- IRONS: “Well, we have a set of heads for irons ready for every player on our staff. So we’ve probably got twelve sets of heads.”
- DRIVERS: “In terms of drivers, we’ve got ten of each model. So we can back them all up without any trouble.”
- WEDGES: “For the wedges, we really have a lot of stock. We must have some 25 of each loft and bounce. All our golfers who play wedges change them every five or six events. And there are also other players –non staffers- who play Cleveland wedges. If sometimes we run out of a head, or get low, then we just ship out some more stock to the truck in time.”
- SHAFTS AND GRIPS: “Regarding shafts and grips on the truck, in fact we don’t actually own them. There are shaft and grip reps, so they give us a load of stock. And if necessary, we jump onto another truck to get what we need if they have the stock, as they are supplied by the manufacturer, and we just carry it for them.”
- GOLF BALLS: “We give the players four dozen Z-STAR per event. Some guys like Miguel Angel Jimenez will only take two dozen, because he knows what he needs. Others like using more, or might change them more often.”
- ACCESSORIES: “For the soft goods, like balls, gloves, hats, bags, etc. we work out how many events we have ahead and we just add an extra few dozen. So we usually give four dozen golf balls, six gloves, four hats, and a towel every week for each player.”
Everything is ready to give assistance to the 21 Srixon – Cleveland Golf golfers on the European Tour this year. In the Spanish Open at RCG El Prat there were 15 players, and 17 in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. “We usually have about 15 or 16 golfers from week to week,” says Chris Rider.
At the beginning of each week, during the days before an event, there is a continuous coming and going of players, caddies, representatives, clubmakers… from the driving range to the truck and vice versa. Many participants need to change the loft and lie angles of their clubs often, especially if they are practicing a lot.
It also depends on their game: “We can give some players a set of irons that they use for whole season, because they’re happy with them, which is great. If the golfer is playing well, it probably means he’ll stick with what we’ve given him, but if he’s not playing that well, then he’ll look at changing.”
That’s interesting, but going a little further into the collection of Srixon – Cleveland Golf clubs for 2015, which models are most often used by the pros?
“As you’ll see, the driver is really completely up to the player’s personal preference. Some use the Z 545 head, others the Z 745, some use a 9º loft, others 10.5º,” says Chris Rider. “As for the irons, many people are surprised because they think that many players only play full sets of blades because they are pros. However, that’s not the case. Because the pros look for exactly what everyone else looks for: consistency.”
“So many of our players use Z 745 irons in the whole bag. Today we did some work for a player, who took Z 545 irons, the big headed ones in the 3 and 4 irons, and the Z 745 for the rest of the set. The same can happen with a combination of Z 745 long irons, with Z 949 blades from 8 to PW.”
Regarding the Cleveland Golf wedges, about 85% of their players are using new bladed 588 RTX 2.0 heads. “It was really easy to change them because of the sole grind of the club. A lot of the work we did in the last couple of years on the 588 RTX was to grind away some of the heal, but you get the heal relief on the RTX 2.0. For example with Shane Lowry at the Welsh Open, where we put them straight into the bag,” says Chris Rider.
Then there is the issue of the wedge customization with printing in colour, so much appreciated, and which Loïc Monchalin does wonderfully. “The players love it, everyone wants their own little message on there. We personalize them even for players are not on our staff. We are more than happy to help the players out. It kind of says more than anything when a player comes without a contract, and plays our wedges for free. It says a lot about how good our wedges are, so we are happy to do that.”
Well, between event and event, you’ll play a little golf, eh? “Iain was a pro, Loïc is low handicap and I’m high, but you never get the chance to play golf on this job,” concludes Chris Rider.
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