At that point, from my days working at WRX, it wasn’t uncommon for a Tour player to reach out for an unbiased opinion, but in this case, it was from a young Callaway staffer on the Korn Ferry Tour fighting for his professional career. Max Greyserman at that time was a relative unknown amongst the general golfing public, but for those of us who follow Tour golf closely, there was a promise of greatness that was VERY close to becoming fulfilled.

His message was this — actually, there was no question, just a statement.

“Currently in a Titleist T grind, Trying to get the boys to make me a similar grind, they took a Jaw T grind and shaved some off.”

In that same conversation, I discussed an Artisan wedge I had just got (that I couldn’t use because I was a Callaway guy now), shared the pictures and right on queue he said, “Speaking of Artisan, I got a wedge fitting with them on Monday afternoon…got some freedom in my bag for wedges but I’m a Callaway loyalist.” “BTW I’m a gear junkie too, love your stuff, keep it up.”

That’s where it started.

And from that day forward, Max became a DM buddy who came in handy when I was waiting for my kids to fall asleep. We’ve talked about wedge grinds, 5-wood strategy, iron bounce, mini-drivers, ball testing and any other gear dork category you can think of.

Not all Tour players are “gear dorks,” of course. In my travels, most of them know what their equipment does but don’t have that deep curiosity of what else is out there. Chris Kirk is one who comes to mind, he has a Ph.D in what works for Chris Kirk. How sensitive is he? Well, he can hit a 5-iron that’s maybe .25 too flat (negligible) and tell it’s flat because the ball starts 2 feet to the right of his desired window and doesn’t start drawing back to the center line in time to satisfy. Give Chris a Trackman and he is looking at seven or eight tiles down the data screen to get his info. That’s where all the nerdy numbers are — dynamic loft, face to path, spin loft, etc.

Rahmbo is another one who knows his equipment VERY well, but he’s more of a ball-in-the-air kind of guy. Without any measurement tools, he knows that if he makes a certain swing, the ball has to fly out of a very specific window and finish in another. That’s his checkpoint. I’ve seen him test new drivers multiple times, and in most cases, he can pick out a gamer in like six swings.

Back to the dorks.

The real ones I can count on one hand — Greyserman, Charles Howell III, Akshay Bhatia, Tommy Fleetwood and, of course, Bryson.

I have my own unique back and forth with many of them (some way more than others). For me, coming from where I did before I got into this business, it’s quite surreal. Howell and Fleetwood were gods to me — for years. CH3 especially — I’ve been following him since his AJGA days. To call him one of my dearest golf friends and to have him be the guy I nerd-out on equipment with is wild. We could start a gear podcast on the phone calls we have once or twice a week. Not a bad idea actually.

The Max Greyserman relationship is definitely unique, though. This young man is just starting his PGA Tour career and the conversations we have take on a different form, especially when I still had a Callaway hat on. I was not his Tour rep, but an idea guy on the inside to either confirm or deny what he was feeling. The Callaway Tour team had/has him dialed, and I learned a lot about Tour fitting based on the work they did with Max and the eventual conversations we would have after the fact.

There is something about what this game does to us all, though, especially those with passion for gear. A Max text would/still does come in, and all I can do is smile because I know a deep-dive, nerd download is about to go down.

What’s the favorite part of my job?

That.

I asked Max to comment on our relationship to gear, and this is what he had to say:

JW: I am comfortable labeling you a gear dork like me. When did your passion for equipment start? Was there a certain player or website you followed to get your info?