Meet the club builder who turns Titleist wedges into colorful works of art
Aaron Dill is one of the most recognized and trusted club technicians on the planet.
Golf.com
Every job in golf is a good job. But some gigs — like this club builder (below) — make us especially envious! To browse more Best Jobs in Golf, click each link here: USGA Museum Curator | TaylorMade content creator | Luxury helicopter pilot | Superintendent’s dog | Course designer | Gold Putter Vault guardian | Social media content creator | St. Andrews Starter | Callaway equipment innovator | Course photographer | Pinehurst bartender
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Imagine traveling the PGA Tour, working with the best players in the world and helping them dial in their short games — all while turning their wedges into carbon-steel artwork.
As the Titleist Vokey wedge rep on the PGA Tour, this is Aaron Dill’s job description.
Dill is a mainstay on tour and one of the most recognized club techs in the game, but his roots in the business took hold when he Titleist hired him back in 2005. In that role, Dill worked with legendary wedge designer Bob Vokey and his team of builders.
“He shared so much with me, as did his tour team showing me the right ways to grind and shape a wedge sole,” Dill said of Vokey. “The exposure to the PGA Tour and the players further taught me the more difficult elements of the conditions and psychology in club selection.”
Aaron’s primary role on tour is that of wedge-fitter and -builder, with the goal of offering short-game solutions. But, in 2012, things changed. Dill and a young tour star by the name of Rickie Fowler started trading some ideas about the back of Fowler’s wedges.
What happened next was unexpected, but a “Call me Maybe” wedge stamp inspired by the popular Carly Rae Jepson song went viral — and the rest is wedge-art history.
In the 10 years since that surprise viral moment, Dill’s stamping has grown only more ornate. The back of Vokey wedges on which Dill has worked have featured everything from children’s names to food to a stamped portrait of the island-green 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass.
“I really want each player to have an opportunity to tell their own story or share something about themselves that they can showcase on the back of a Vokey Wedge,” Dill said. “For those who don’t share input or just say, ‘Do whatever you want,’ then that’s a different story. This is an opportunity to have some fun and be creative with stamping and paint.”
It’s fun, yes, but also hard work. Among his PGA Tour duties, Vokey roadshows and the annual PGA Merchandise Show, in Orlando, Dill spends up to 40 weeks a year on the road. At Tour events, he’s typically on site from Monday through Wednesday helping get players dialed into their gear for the week. When he’s home, Dill said he enjoys testing a different skill — the culinary kind — with his wife and kids.
Dill’s club-building and -designing career could have pulled him several directions: toward woods, hybrids, irons, putters.
But there’s something about wedges that resonated with him.
“I really enjoy the flexibility to do anything you want to a wedge,” he said. “You can shape the profile and sole to be whatever you want/need it to be, and then add personalization that showcases details about someone’s life. There is a really fun aspect of this job that I don’t feel you can have with other parts of the bag, which is the reason why I love it so much.”
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