'My Callaway company car is a 35-tonne truck'

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My company car is a 35-tonne truck. 

I’m in charge of all of the Callaway clubs that get built on the European Tour and that means driving the truck myself from event to event. 

It is four metres high and two-and-a-half metres wide and driving it for the first time is nerve wracking.

I’ve been doing this for almost 15 years now, but on my virgin trip to Portugal I had never driven in Europe. I didn’t even know how to get to Europe.

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All I knew was that in the morning the sun should be on my left, and in the evening on my right. At least then I knew I wasn’t driving back to England.

Even when you pass your test you’re not a very good driver. Also, the Sat-Nav system doesn’t know how big the truck is, so there have been numerous times when we have got to bridges we can’t go under -  or over.

We work the practice days at tournaments so have to be ready and open for business on the Monday morning every week.

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That brings its own issues. Articulated lorries not carrying perishable goods or livestock cannot drive throughout the whole of Europe on a Sunday, while in Germany you can’t drive on Saturday and in Switzerland you can’t drive after 10 pm or before 6 am. If you arrive on the Swiss border on Friday night, you’re staying there till Monday morning.

You also can't drive on bank holidays in Europe and they often fall midweek, unlike in the UK. On occasion we’ve had to drive back out of a country the wrong way to get around it. That’s happened in Spain a few times – we’ve had to bail out into France or Germany.

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We often travel in convoy with the other brands for safety in numbers as these trucks stand out. They are alarmed, but if someone wants to get in, they will. Recently, we got broken into for the first time at Abington service station – they took two bags of putters, probably 40 or 50 clubs.

They’re the worst club they could have stolen, because they were custom fitted to players, so as soon as they go on Ebay, it will red flag. We were parked up with two other vans, but our brand is very popular at the moment.

We leave the tournament on Wednesdays, which means we miss most of the live action. I’ve never been at the course when one of our staffers lifts a trophy. Normally we won’t see them for a couple of weeks anyway, as they take a couple of weeks off. We don't have that luxury! 

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There’s another guy who helps me build clubs and assists with the driving. On shorter trips we’ll take it in turns so one of us can go home. I’ll probably get home to Sevenoaks in Kent every fortnight.

Every week the course is different, so we’re often dialling in fairway woods to suit the layout. Iron loft and lies rarely change, but we may be changing wedge bounces depending on the softness of the ground. It’s like one big demo day. Also, the amount of balls these guys hit, they do wear down their kit, especially wedges.

Golf is so much in your head, and sometimes a little tweak in your equipment is all you need to get to the next level. When that happens as a player, whatever handicap you are, it’s a great feeling.

Often guys come in and ask for new kit they have found in pictures on social media – we may only have known about it for a couple of days. Some of the players trawl websites to find new equipment - David Horsey, Kristoffer Broberg – they’re proper golf pervs.

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Everyone wants to try new kit, but whether they put it in the bag straight away is up to them. The numbers have to be better. I once built Henrik Stenson a set of Legacy Black Irons which are a model we only sold in Germany. That year they won him $14m (£9m). It’s tough to try and put a new set in his hand and say "these will win you $15m".

The shaft on his three-wood – the Graffoloy Blue Tour X 77 grams – is interesting because it came out probably 15 years ago. When it was released no one realised it was so far ahead of everything else. In my eyes it still is. It’s easy to make a shaft stiffer as you just put more material in, but to keep the weight down is very expensive. 

Before this job, I was a golf pro in Sussex - I wasn't playing well enough to make it on Tour. I was living in America and came back for a while. My friend was working for Callaway and I liked the way the brand was doing things so just applied for a job – I had no idea where it would take me. I worked in the repair centre at first, and thought I’d end up in sales, and six months later a few people left and this position came up.

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St Andrews is my favourite venue to go to, and having the Open there was extra special. It’s the only tournament we stay for the whole week, while the Tour reps go on ahead to the next site with just a handful of clubs. We’re on the truck at 0530 and go on till about seven o'clock in the evening . When our last player teed off on Sunday, we were done. It’s one of the rare times we get to walk to work, down the first hole of the Old Course. 

We operate an open-house policy on the truck. We see all the players and they like spending time here. We have three separate sections - the office area, the work area and the player reception area. Some guys just come in for a chat and watch TV. I get on with all the guys – Stenson is someone I’ve been working with for a while, so I have a great relationship with him.

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Job satisfaction is one of the real perks. When one of your guys wins, you’ve played a part in the team that brought that. This is our best year ever with 12 wins so far. When the players triumph, we’re delighted, but there’s no time to party as we’re on to the next event. 

Sometimes you'll do almost 10 tournaments in a row, which can be a grind. You work long hours, and it can be tough, but I take great satisfaction from what I do.