The Dailies

What’s happening around the city.

Flower

Maestro of Metal

Wade Liles
In the days leading up to a PGA Tour event, you’ll find Liles camped out nearby in his spartan TaylorMade equipment trailer quietly tweaking and building drivers for TaylorMade’s 80 touring pros, including John Daly, Sergio Garcia, Scott Verplank, and Justin Rose. Millions of dollars in prize money ride on each pro’s comfort with his club, so Liles is in heavy demand. He balances a club’s weight distribution with individual preference (he stores each pro’s likes and dislikes in a laptop) and can construct an entirely new driver in less than 10 minutes. His handiwork helped power Garcia and Verplank to top-five finishes at last month’s Tour championship.

Mark of influence: Eschewing their own sponsor technicians, non-TaylorMade pros have been known to sneak by Liles’ trailer in search of a club tune-up.

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