Every week, manufacturers send trucks out on the road to assist PGA Tour players with their every need. But TaylorMade’s latest truck is something different altogether. Check out the below video and take a behind the scenes look into the state of the art TaylorMade Tour Truck.
Wade Liles kind of looks like a guy who might have run away and joined the circus – or maybe followed a jam band around. In a way, it is possible that Liles did indeed join the circus, but that traveling show is the PGA Tour, and Liles operates the most magnificent tour truck in professional golf. What’s a tour truck, you ask? Good question. Each week, major club manufacturers send out a truck set up to help their players should they break a club, need a wedge ground, or need their grips changed.
The new TaylorMade trailer is a whole other level from what’s been seen in the past. At a cost of $1.4-million, the two-storey (it has a hydraulic system to raise the trailer up for the second floor), and 42-feet long by 15-feet wide, the trailer acts partly as a shop for Liles, the bearded mad scientist who keeps the clubs of Dustin Johnson and current world No.1 ranked golfer Jon Rahm in shape. It also has a lounge area that allows a player and a friend or agent to relax and watch TV, play video games, or just escape the constant scrutiny of the PGA Tour.
“We really wanted something that suits the goals of TaylorMade and the team of players we have,” says Liles. “[The trailer] is really a reflection of what our players want.”
So what do they want? First and foremost, they want to be able to get their clubs tweaked so they can play their best, week in and week out. The TaylorMade trailer houses more clubheads and shafts than any tour would need, and everything can be customized for the golfer. But beyond that, the trailer allows players to do social media—Liles and fellow TaylorMade tour rep Chris Trott use it for their increasing social media presence—and players can escape to the second floor if they need to conduct business or sneak away from the media and the gazing eyes that are everywhere on the PGA Tour.
“If someone came into the trailer and Dustin was on the second floor, you wouldn’t even know that,” says Trott. “Guys sometimes just need some privacy, so that’s built into this.” Are there any issues with bringing a two-floor trailer into a PGA Tour course? Liles says the second floor has complicated things on occasion.
“There were some places where we’d park before and now we’ve had to find a different location because of the second floor,” Liles explains. “But that’s a problem we’ll take.”