The (not so) Glamourous Life On Tour

When most of us think of life on the PGA TOUR, we think of a glamourous lifestyle full of first-class travel, lush accommodations and money… lots of money. But life on the PGA TOUR Champions is not nearly as plush.

An excellent example is the tour Tech Reps. Those are the guys equipment manufacturers send out to each event to cater to every need of the players. From balls, gloves and shoes to shafts and clubs, TOUR professionals expect everything laid out for them on demand.

If you’ve ever been to a PGA TOUR event, manufacturers like Callaway, Titleist and PING, send out enormous vans, fully stocked with every conceivable club configuration. These rolling golf shops remind most of a luxury hotel or the swankiest of private club clubhouses. On the PGA TOUR Champions, it’s an entirely different scenario.

The “Tech Van” is a small trailer provided for the players by the TOUR. The manufacturer reps have to squeeze in, one at a time, to get work done for their stable of players. They travel up to 30 weeks of the year and spend all day running down anything a player might need.

On Wednesday of this year’s 3M Championship, I followed one of the unsung heroes of TOUR life; Andy Harris. Andy is a 30-year veteran of life on TOUR and currently the Tour Manager for Tour Edge Golf; a well-established and highly respected equipment manufacturer out of suburban Chicago that is relatively new to supporting PGA TOUR Champions players.

Andy started his career in professional golf as a player. He played multiple Tours for 8 years from 1986 to 1994. After that, the life of a club professional seemed more stable. After several years of working “the shop,” he was offered the opportunity to be a regional rep for Greg Norman Apparel. Then “sort of out of left field” as Andy describes it, he got the opportunity to be the rep for Maxfli on the Celebrity Golf Tour. Maxfli had decided that they were going to invest marketing dollars on the hopes that television viewers and in-person patrons would spend money and time to watch the likes of Michael Jordan and Mario Lemieux play golf. A funny thing happened along the way.

When his buddy that helped him get the celebrity job abruptly left his post as the PGA TOUR Rep, “I ended up winning the Tour Manager job,” said Harris.

If you think that getting a high-profile Tour rep job in the 80’s was the end of his travels, you don’t know what life in the golf business is like.

Maxfli suffered multiple years of losses despite sponsoring players like Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus. Eventually, Maxfli was purchased by Taylor-Made Golf meaning; Andy was in need of a new job. That led to stints with companies like Aldila and Tommy Armour Golf. Fast forward a few years and he now travels the country as an independent contractor for Tour Edge and Flat Cat putter grips.

A far cry from life on the PGA TOUR.

But when you ask a player like Doug Garwood, “These guys are fairly important. It’s like the guys at the Tour de France… the team that’s got all the parts for the bikes. If something happens, they’re vital.”

Then something did happen. One of Tour Edge’s staff players had an issue with a shaft in the middle of a pro-am. Andy had to run out to the course and figure out what needed to be done. After what seemed like an hour, Andy realized he did not have the specific shaft the player needed to deal with the different playing conditions TPC Twin Cities was presenting this year. Unlike the PGA TOUR, supplies are much more limited on the senior circuit, so Andy was left with one option… call the company and have them overnight a new shaft. Fortunately, that player had a new shaft in his 3 wood the next day and ended the week with a Top 5 finish. It’s also a good thing this happened in the middle of the day. If this had happened after 5:00 pm… it will have to wait until tomorrow. The TOUR Van is closed! “That would never happen on the PGA TOUR,” says Harris.

Things like that are rarely noticed by the public. Guys like Andy make the TOUR seem to run as smooth as clockwork. But with fewer supplies and fewer people, making things run this smoothly is much harder to accomplish. Perhaps that’s why Andy likes working the PGA TOUR Champions and working for Tour Edge. “It feels like this is meaningful… what we’re doing. Is it as meaningful as the PGA TOUR? Maybe not… but then again out here we’re building up wins, top 5’s, top 10’s and that means something. When you’re back home you’re living and dying with every shot. I live the whole ride that they [the players] take.”

In 2019, when the 3M Championship morphs into the 3M Open on the PGA TOUR, guys like Andy will most likely still be around. “I try to get to as many PGA TOUR stops as I can and set up my Exotics stuff, but it’s harder.” He explains. Those massive traveling luxury pro shops from the big guns in the golf equipment business will take over the range and the close nit traveling family of the PGA TOUR Champions will be replaced by an army of club techs, agents and swing coaches.

Will it be fun? Probably.

Will it be different? Certainly.