Member in the spotlight - Adrian Rietveld

Adrian Rietveld, the Senior Manager of global tour operations for the TaylorMade Golf Company. Based at TaylorMade HQ in Carlsbad, California. Specialising in golf equipment performance, Adrian has become best in class at working with elite players at the top of the professional game.

My career path,

I was lucky enough to do my PGA Training in the UK though the PGA national training academy program. I was both an assistant pro and then a qualified professional working out of the Prestigious Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey, England. Given the opportunity to manage and run the first of its kind “TaylorMade performance lab” which was built at the Wentworth Club. This type of facility in those days would have been considered the ultimate in technology and performance fitting for golf equipment. Being a qualified engineer, I fell in love with the science and art of fitting golf clubs. Fast forward 4 years and I got approached by TaylorMade to join their European Tour operations working predominantly on the European tour fitting TaylorMade equipment to all contracted and no-contracted players alike. More than 50% of the tour used TaylorMade in some shape or form. The time working with so many players constantly and equipment that is without a doubt of the highest quality really helped me grow to become a specialist in my line of work.  It goes without saying that the hard work done by the team is super successful in our brand always acquiring the best players in the world to use our products.

Having developed a club fitting reputation of successfully working closely with many of the top 50 golfers in world golf rankings. My career progressed to managing TaylorMade’s European tour operations with a very talented team around me who are all successful. Having first hand access to an extremely talented group of specialists at TaylorMade I was able to learn and develop the most valuable skill in my line of work which is to have the ability to spot golfing talent at a very early stage of an elite golfers development. The job satisfaction is twofold, one in working closely with and being an important part of the successes of players like Rory Mcilroy and Jon Rahm, the other in being an integral part of helping develop young golfing talent to one day emulate the likes of players you work with, for example Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood.

It’s very important to be able to always be in a position where you available to service players on their immediate demands, for this reason someone in my position would easily travel to 30+ elite golf tournament in a calendar year. From continent to continent constantly preparing the world’s best for the week and conditions that lie ahead. 2016 through 2019 were huge team successes. Playing an integral part from an equipment performance standpoint to help secure high profile victories and accolades (Olympic gold, world number 1 ranking, fed-Ex cup wins, PGA TOUR POTY awards, The Open Championship win, Tiger winning the Masters, Ryder cup successes, Race to dubai wins and special to me the BMW PGA championship win… these were certainly highlights for me and the performance of TaylorMade equipment).

TaylorMade Golf relocated me and my family to America where my role would now focus on managing and running our European operations from TaylorMade HQ. I also had the added responsibility of now working predominantly on the PGA Tour. Joining the highly skilled PGA Tour team at TaylorMade Golf is a goal that all in my line of work would consider a huge career achievement to date. The ultimate test of your skills and knowledge when it comes to understanding equipment and working with the world’s elite. They call the PGA tour the travelling Superbowl, I certainly now understand why!    

What services do you specialise in ….

I specialise in equipment and all aspects of it from fitting golf equipment to providing high level feedback to our R&D department for the future of product development in our industry. The ultimate goal is helping golfers at every level play and enjoy better golf. 

Our PGA tour team, a best in class team of individuals…. we support our wider TaylorMade business though the field of Sports Marketing. Our successes on tour with the best in the world using TaylorMade equipment and winning big validates the performance of our products. Being a PGA Professional I have a deep desire to play a part in the success of the many PGA pro members who service recreational golfers with equipment all over world. Much of the feedback from a tour level goes through the channels to eventually help and support the many golf club professional business throughout the world. With golf being such an aspirational sport, our tour operations are playing an integral part of the excitement and buzz around golf equipment which is a big part of the overall puzzle. In a nutshell that what I specialise in. 

Overseeing and working with our teams around the world when it comes to identifying and supporting the best amateur golfers in the world is a huge part of the TaylorMade tour operations mission statement. To specialize in securing that the future talent funnel feeding all worldwide tours are best placed to achieve their golfing goals.

My day to day role….  

One of the joys of my role is that no two days are the same, the equipment work on tour is without a doubt endless, just imagine the world elite searching for perfection week in week out.  A typical week on tour for myself would be to head to the Airport around midday on Sunday and arriving before midnight at my hotel room. I arrive at the tournament golf course where our state-of-the-art tour truck is located. This is my office for the week, everything myself and the team need to perform any job to the highest quality can be done on our TaylorMade Tour truck. Between Monday morning 7am and Wednesday evening before I board an aeroplane back to HQ. The work is non-stop from building / fitting golf clubs in every part of the bag, player, agent meetings/dinners , TaylorMade marketing activation, Staff player service day requests , TaylorMade customer meetings in that specific region where the PGA Tour is that week and the list goes on but so different every week. Wednesday evening ill fly home unless it’s a Major Championship. I plan to arrive home anytime from 9pm -midnight. Thursdays and Fridays, I’ll be at TaylorMade HQ offices working with the team in house and preparing for the following week on tour or working offsite with players on their requests.

My Mentors….

My mentors range from the many people who gave me my breaks in life, Stephen Gibson who supported me through my PGA training and then gave me the biggest platform to shine at the Wentworth club. The first break you get is so big then it’s up to you to make the most of it. To then being able to work with and get mentoring from the team of experts at TaylorMade Golf. Without a doubt the team are all handpicked and would be considered the best in the world at what they do. It goes without saying that nobody does or gets anywhere without hard work and amazing people around them. I am very fortunate to have both in abundance.

Best advice I’ve been given …

It is not sure if talent can make you successful or not, but know one thing, hard work will always make you successful. And if you got talent and hard work, you’re going to be a legend. The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether you win or lose, you have applied the best of yourself to the task.

Advice I’d give…

I think in teaching and fitting golf clubs, knowledge is power. In fact, in our information-driven world, how much you know makes more difference to your long-term success, more than almost anything else. A person who's talking is giving away information, often more than he or she intended. Listen 50% more than you talk. A person who's listening is receiving information to act on. Your actions after that will be meaningful and more often make a real difference.

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