At every tour stop, before many of the players have even turned up there will be an army of manufacturers’ representatives ready to fulfil players’ equipments desires. On the European Tour, one of these is Paul Constantine, the Tour rep for T.P.Mills putters. Here is the second half of our exclusive Golfwrx interview.

Golfwrx: How do you make yourself different from the other putter manufacturers?

Paul: We like to emphasis the quality of our product and that that every putter has passed through David Mill’s hands. We don’t have some massive production line, this is still a hand made and hand crafted product and this is true for all our putters. What you see the pros play is exactly what you can buy from us. Amongst other achievements we were the first to make the putter head black, the first to mark the sweet spot, the first to use the slant heel. This gives us a level of prestige and authority that sets us apart anyway. Because we don’t pay players to play us, we have to make the best putters to get them in play, it’s that simple. The years of knowledge and the high level components of our putters mean that we can customise a putter – bend some loft on, gooseneck it a little – to make it exactly to the player’s specifications.

Golfwrx: Do you pay much attention to the secondary market?

Paul: While you don’t often see a tour Mills putter on eBay or in BST forums, I do occasionally get emails from David saying ‘have a look here, I remember making that one’ or ‘that one is actually a rare handmade’ so he definitely does keep on top of that. Our putters are unique enough that we can do that and it’s very interesting to see how golfers value our putters, especially the older ones.

Golfwrx: So what’s your biggest satisfaction?

Paul: Knowing what the player is going to feel when they pick up a putter and try it out. That the putter is going to perform for them and then have them take it away, use it and, of course, hopefully watch them win with it. With T.P. Mills there are basically 3 types of players. The first group are the younger players and those who are new to the tour who don’t really know the brand. You see these guys get blown away by how the putters perform and they always ask how come they haven’t heard about them before. The second group are the guys who know the brand from the Spalding TPM and Mizuno days back in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and even the early 90’s when the brand was at its most commercial. The third group are the guys that have played and won with our putters: Faldo, Monty, Langer, Olazábal and others. Each of these groups reacts differently to playing our putters, some knowingly but others surprised at how balanced the putters feel. The greatest satisfaction I get is seeing them all putt well with our putter.

Golfwrx: And your biggest frustrations?

Paul: When you are competing for a spot in a players bag against others who are willing to pay to get their clubs in play. Not so much for me but when you are in a situation where you know you have a quality putter, the player knows you have a quality putter but they have signed a 14 club deal and while they love the club they just can’t use it. I had this situation not too long ago with a major winner of the last 10 years. He picked up one of our putters and just started draining everything, and I mean everything, that he hit. Eight foot, 10 foot, 12 foot and out it didn’t matter, he just couldn’t seem to miss. Because he had a 14 club deal all he could do was put the club back, smile and then walk away swearing!

I said earlier that we are pretty unusual in that we don’t pay any players to play our clubs. In fact, until recently players had to buy their clubs! We have a gallery of the cheques from famous players that paid for their putters like Phil Mickelson’s for the putter he used when he beat Tiger at the Buick in 2000. Getting our putters into players hands is easy, getting them into their bags is tough and getting them to keep them in their can be almost impossible. That’s just a fact of the competitive market.

As much as we and I’m sure the players would like, we are also limited on the amount of tour stops we make. Flying around Europe on a weekly basis is not financially viable for a privately owned company.

Golfwrx: What are the perks of your job?

Paul: I know that some people are going to think that we get access to all sorts of free gear but that’s just not true, I just wish it was! I might get the occasional free glove or dozen balls every now and then but that’s about it. There’s no sort of schoolyard swap meet going on where you swap your merchandise for someone else’s which seems to be the biggest fantasy about being a Tour Rep! The biggest perks of the job are being able to watch the greats of the game do their thing and watch it from up close.

Golfwrx: Do you make a decent wage from this job?

Paul: I can’t speak for the big OEM’s, though I would imagine that they are salaried and have expenses taken care of. Being small the Mills Co doesn’t pay a salary or expenses to any of its reps. What I am able to do is have David make me a few putters to cover expenses.

Golfwrx: Do you ever have any bizarre requests from the pros?

Paul: Funnily enough, no. The pros tend to be far less picky than your average golfer. If there’s a scratch on the bottom of the club because another pro has taken it out to test it previous or there is a slight cosmetic imperfection in the milling of the cavity, they don’t care. If they do want something different and we don’t have it to hand then it’s something we can get made up in a couple of weeks and get it to them at the next Tour stop or even have it delivered to their home.

What the pros tend to request are things that directly affect the playing characteristics of the club, say more offset or different loft or a changed grip or hosel and not just the appearance of the club. Wedges and putters are the two most individual clubs in a player’s bag so these things can make a big difference about making it acceptable to the player. Ultimately it’s all about getting it in the bag.