Chris Trott grew up in Merseyside in northwest England. After turning pro, he made his name as a club fitter on the European Tour, where he launched the hugely popular Tour Truck Tuesday series for TaylorMade. He has worked at tournaments all over the world, making clubs for many of the game’s greatest players. Now based in the US, he is the founder and face of the highly successful Trottie Golf social media empire and a Clippd ambassador.

‍I started at a pitch and putt. It was called Arrowe Park. There were no flags because the scallies would steal them. Then my dad took me to Brackenwood. The opening par four is probably only 380 yards but as a little kid with a Northwestern 2-wood, it felt like it was going to take me seven of them to get anywhere near the green! I said, “Dad, where are we going here?” He said, “We're not at the pitch and putt now, son.” And off we went. I knobbed one down there and the rest is history. 

‍My dad has had a big impact on me. He’s probably the reason why I liked golf, because I got to hang out with him doing it. He worked pretty hard, so I didn't see him much unless it was on the golf course. 

The more you're with Tiger, the better he gets with you 

‍I honestly think I have a bit of little man syndrome. If I hadn't been this small, I probably wouldn't have come this far. I’ve always been competitive and I’ve always loved sport. I wanted to be the best, wanted to beat the older kids, wanted to win. 

‍I like things that genuine golfers like. As a junior, I loved the smell of the pro shop and the Maxfli leather bags and the fact that the bag I had was so goddamn heavy it made my shoulder hurt. I liked the mustiness of the junior locker rooms, the rubber flooring that you'd walk on because everyone wore spikes. I liked the fact that the steps to the clubhouse would be worn in the middle. I liked the smell of the grass, the practice grounds, the frost and the cold. I liked the door handles that would creak and the smoking in the bar and the fact as a junior you weren't allowed inside. Rules that kids should hate; I liked them. Don't know why.

‍Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam were my first golfing heroes. Woosnam was probably because my old man is Welsh and because Woosie is a small guy. Faldo was this machine who was portrayed in the media as never leaving a stone unturned. That really had an impact on me. 

‍My dad went to Ping to get a set of irons and I went with him. I left with a Zing 5 putter. I chatted to what would have been a PGA Pro in the factory in Gainsborough and I thought to myself, ‘I quite like this’. 

Pros talk about being in the pressure moment and running at the fire. I didn't run at the fire

‍I still have the medal for winning the 1999 Gold Cross at Hoylake. It was a massive men's club tournament. I used a Callaway Warbird, 11 degrees with a regular flex. I couldn’t reach the fairway on the par-4 6th. I had to hit it on the shale path, then I had to hit Warbird off the shale path. Then I had to hit pitching wedge and hole the putt for par because it was into a 30 mile-an-hour wind and I was shorter than I am now. I shot 74 in an absolute hoolie. To win that one, which is effectively off the Open Championship tees, was mega. 

‍I didn't get good until I was probably 22 or 23. At that point I was at the Belfry doing my PGA qualifications. I was winning PGA regional stuff and competing to get in [to the PGA Championship] at Wentworth. I was fairly close with Robert Rock at the time. He was seven or eight years older than me. I was seeing a pathway.  

‍Could I have made it on the tour? Not to the dizzy heights of actually having a real career out of it. But in the early 2000s, I was a decent player. I was pretty sharp, to be fair. 

‍I thought I was the man when I started working for TaylorMade on the tour. I was young and getting to the gym at 6.30am each morning. I remember being in Austria and heading to the gym only to find [Miguel Angel] Jimenez had been in there already for a good hour doing all sorts of stretches. He made me look out of shape and he was in his mid-forties at the time. You see the work ethic these guys have. They leave no stone unturned. You think you're good and then you get out of your own little pool and you realise you're not actually that good. 

‍I left TaylorMade in 2004 and went back to playing. I’d been to Q School a couple of times and was back there in 2006 with a horrendous neck injury. I was like, “What am I doing?”

‍I just didn't believe enough. I've worked with four pros from different sports — Aaron Rodgers, Michael Phelps, JR Smith and Jason Day — and they always talk about being in the pressure moment and running at the fire. I didn't run at the fire. 

‍Martin Kaymer's PGA Championship win at Whistling Straits was big for me. He won with a Super Quad that I built in Madrid on the Mizuno truck. No one wanted to help me so I got on the saws myself, cut that puppy, weighted it up. I put him in a Fubuki white ninja shaft, which was brand new at the time, and tipped it an inch. I said to him, ‘You can launch this higher than what you're doing.’ He fricking nuked it. He launched it three degrees higher and that was the key because he hit down on it and left. I didn't see him again for a couple of weeks and then he went and won the PGA. I thought nothing of it until I started piecing it together. That's what made my name at TaylorMade.

Sergio Garcia is one of the three best players I've seen

‍You realize that you've built clubs that people have hit the best shots of their lives with. You built them. 

‍Sergio Garcia is one of the three best players I've seen but I still think he had an underrated career. Unbelievable talent, made millions, won one major and I'm sitting here saying he should have done better.

‍The best golf shot I've ever seen was in a practice round at San Diego Country Club. It was hit by Chris Riley who paired with Tiger Woods in the Ryder Cup. He short -sided himself on the right of the third green, a 220-yard par-3. He was on down-bank over a little hollow to a pin that was three feet on the green. He hit a flop shot at full speed. This thing landed next to the hole and stopped. My mouth hit the green. I was amazed, speechless. He just looked at me and laughed, picked his ball up and walked off. I got to the next tee and I said, ‘That's the greatest shot I've ever seen’. He looked at me and said, ‘I know, let's keep playing’. 

‍If I understood what I understand now about how to create a golf shot I would have got further. Unfortunately, I don't have the speed to go as far as I wanted. 

‍I would love to have watched Ben Hogan. I’d love to have watched him at Carnoustie when he won that Open. I’d love to have stood on the 6th tee every day when he hit that driver between the out of bounds posts and the bunkers. He’s got a 56-degree lie persimmon. He's hitting the thing out the middle. He's using steel. He had busted legs. He was terrifying. He didn't want to talk to anyone. And he just looked like a legend. 

‍I've been around Tiger a lot. He's all business, all the time. You’ve got so much respect for him that you want to handle him with care and respect. On the third or fourth photoshoot I did with him for TaylorMade, I've got a radio piece in and they’re telling me you’ve got to get Tiger to do this, do that. I went up to him and said, ‘Alright mate’. He went, ‘I was until I saw you’. Fair play, I thought. I have nothing but respect for the guy. Nothing bad to say about him. He's a legend. The more you're with him, the better he gets with you. 

‍Best swing thought? Hit the middle. That's all you have to do. I've been able to ask Tiger questions and I love a technical answer. I love to over complicate. I love to talk about golf and try to take it down an avenue. I always used to think my mate Dean Wilson was full of shit when he'd say to me: hit the middle. Tiger was the same: just hit the middle.

TrottieGolf on YouTube: Watch how Trottie practices like a pro using Clippd's What To Work On