The Short Game

Redding Native Aaron Dill’s Custom Tour Wedges…

When some of the world’s top golfers gather this month at Augusta National Golf Club for the 92nd Masters Tournament, they can thank their otherworldly hand-eye coordination, their good fortune and the countless hours of practice they put in for propelling them to the pinnacle of their sport.

Many also will be thanking Redding native and Shasta High School graduate Aaron Dill for crucial help with their short game—specifically the Titleist Vokey Design wedges he fits and custom grinds for touring pros. 

Dill, 43, is the director of wedge relations for Titleist, a job title that might strike non-golfers as a tad bit silly. Professionals, however, with their potentially high-dollar livelihoods dependent on knocking golf balls as close to the pin as possible, take their lob, sand, gap and pitching wedges very seriously. 

Not only does Dill represent the leading brand in the golf industry (91 of the approximately 215 PGA Tour players are playing with Titleist wedges), he also has the distinction of having studied under Bob Vokey, a revered clubmaker. 

“It’s a unique job,” Dill says. “My focus is solely on wedges. It’s the number one wedge in golf and we’re responsible for maintaining that position. We do it with service and great precision. Our ideas and concepts come from the PGA Tour. They’re our R&D department, so to speak.”

As Titleist’s top wedge rep, Dill is a touring professional himself. “I travel 40 weeks a year with the PGA Tour in some capacity,” he says. Dill is a fixture at each tournament stop, from Pebble Beach on the west coast to Hilton Head on the east, working with players out of his mobile tour truck.

“We are the pit crew to the PGA Tour, offering driver support, iron support, ball support. For the first three days of the week I’m checking in on players, checking on course conditions—sand patterns, moisture in the grass, how much bounce they’re going to need.

“The tour van is a workshop and we can make golf clubs onsite in a very short period of time. In 15 to 30 minutes I can make a wedge, adjust lie and loft, measure spin, loft, distance, carry and roll. I help players identify places of weakness and fine-tune ways to save half a shot, maybe a full shot, from tee to green,”
Dill says.

“I’m working with the best in the world—Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth. They’re incredibly talented but they need help shaving a shot here or there. They need confidence. If you feel more comfortable in your swing, you can make more confident shots. We can provide them with some tools that help them play better golf.” 

In addition to working with touring pros like Cameron Young, Brian Harman, Russ Henley, Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg, Dill is often sought out by other notables in the sporting world. Dill has fitted (and monogrammed) wedges for Michael Jordan and Tom Brady, among others.

Growing up in Redding, Dill says he had a paper route delivering the Record Searchlight and later worked at C.R. Gibbs, where he got to know Steve Gaines and Ed Rullman. His interest in golf started with “sitting in the cart eating sunflower seeds and watching my dad” and progressed to where he was competing on the Shasta High golf team.

After graduating from Shasta High in 2000, Dill attended a golf academy in San Diego and earned a degree in management. He spent the next two years in the golf industry, working as a club pro, running a driving range and serving in retail operations. He discovered his passion leaned toward golf equipment. “I loved working with my hands … that craftsman touch. I love making adjustments.”

Titleist offered him a position in 2005 in its fitting works program and he was soon visiting the top courses on the west coast, including stops at Riverview and Tierra Oaks, two of his former home courses, and building clubs onsite.

“That’s where I got to know Bob Vokey, the head of the wedge program. Him and Scotty Cameron were the fitting guys,” Dill says. Cameron is another big name in the golfing world; Tiger Woods won 14 of his 15 major championships using a Scotty Cameron putter. After two years with Titleist, Dill became the Vokey wedge tour rep.

Dill, who lives in San Marcos with his wife, Taylor, and their three boys, returned to Redding last fall to support the Luis Miramontes Memorial Foundation. Dill donated three wedges and a custom fitting at the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside as a raffle prize. Proceeds will support the Louie House project to provide low-cost accommodations for cancer patients and their loved ones.

“I felt so compelled and so honored to participate in the Foundation. I felt really grateful,” says Dill, who knew the late golf pro Luis “Louie” Miramontes.

Louie Foundation board member Bill Speer, who coordinated the Vokey Wedge raffle project, says he was struck by Dill’s generosity and his commitment to his home town. “I can’t say enough good things about him.”  •

www.titleist.com/fitting/golf-club-fitting
www.louiefoundation.com