Eyes of the golf world will be watching the return of Tiger Woods this week at the Accenture Match Play in Tucson. But for Rick Wahlin, a former BYU football player, it will take on special meaning.
When Tiger tees it up, it will have been 254 days since Woods last competed and defeated Rocco Mediate in a dramatic playoff at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines — a weekend during which Woods limped his way to the finish with a torn ACL and fractured leg.
Wahlin, engineering manager over creation, conception, design and performance of golf clubs for Nike Golf, was one of the few behind the scenes who knew the extent of Woods' physical condition the week of the Open. When Wahlin watched the Nike icon polish off Mediate, he felt chills go up his spine.
"He is what he is. He's awesome," said Wahlin.
It's been almost seven years since Nike hired Wahlin away from Taylormade Golf in San Diego and sent him to Fort Worth, Texas, to help put Nike seriously into the golf club business under legendary Tom Stites. Wahlin had designed the Firesole and 300 series drivers for Taylormade and is now instrumental in creating Nike's Sumo and SasQuatch drivers, including the soon-to-be released Dymo STR8-Fit.
In the highly competitive golf club arms race, you could call Rick "General Wahlin." A huge man with everything transplanted Arizonan to Texan, he's got the boots and pickup truck, he's engaging and glib, a cowboy with a little genius scientist in him.
"Yeah, I went over to the evil empire," joked Wahlin during an interview with me in Fort Worth when BYU's football team played TCU last fall.
Nike could have just bought a golf club company like Callaway or Taylormade, but it wanted to start its own operation and jump into the industry.
Nike's resources are bottomless.
The Nike Research and Development facility in Fort Worth is a nondescript property right off a freeway exit. There is no big swoosh logo, billboard with Tiger, or anything that says Nike anywhere. It's almost a secret enclave. They call it The Oven. And secrets are kept there.
It is there Nike equipment in general and clubs specifically for Tiger Woods are designed, honed, engineered, tweaked and tested. This is where an engineer like Wahlin and his staff fine tune Woods' drivers and irons, measuring everything with the most sensitive equipment in the industry.
It is also the location where Wahlin personally witnessed two incidents that illustrate Woods' special abilities and remarkable senses and talent.
Wahlin, whose father was an All-American football player at ASU, grew up in Pinetop, Ariz., where the Sun Devil alumnus asked his dad to develop a golf course. It was there Rick was exposed to golf, mowing grass and playing it in high school.
"All I ever wanted to be is a good person and play football," said Wahlin.
He played football at Mesa Community College, served an LDS mission to Ecuador and then walked on as a linebacker on BYU's football team, playing in the Thor Salanoa, Duane Johnson and Chad Robinson era. An injury ended Wahlin's career during his sophomore season. He was designing software for power plants when Taylormade hired him.
A giant man with a flat top, Wahlin was once asked by Woods, "Hey, can I put a ball up on that turf and hit it?"
One day Woods was at the Fort Worth facility and Wahlin gave Tiger three drivers to try out. They were manufactured exactly the same. But golf clubs are like snowflakes, said Wahlin, "As much as they look the same, they are different. They cannot be the same."
Woods told Wahlin one driver was lighter than the others. "I don't like the lighter one," Woods said. Wahlin told him it was the same as the others.
Woods disagreed. "I went in and measured them and had to come out with my tail between my legs," said Wahlin. "One was one gram lighter, basically the weight of a dollar bill."
On another occasion, Wahlin gave Woods some drivers to hit and Woods reported immediately that one of them was flatter.
"No, it's not. They're all the same," Wahlin said.
So, the two went inside and measured the driver. It was off by one-quarter of a degree. "Tiger could tell by the ball flight that it was off by a fraction, that's how good he is."
Wahlin called it a humbling experience to work with Woods and other PGA stars like Stuart Cink, Anthony Kim and Trevor Immelman.
Wahlin, who is vacationing in the mountains of Arizona this week, says the team back at the Nike camp is glad for the return of the star. Like a crew working on an Indy car, they fine tune Woods' clubs to tolerances and specs regular golfers would never appreciate in their swings.
A regular golfer may never play through the life cycle of a driver. Tiger Woods, with his strength and club head speed, can sap up the expected life cycle of a driver within a season.
"There's nobody like him. In a positive way, he's a freak of nature, he really is," said Wahlin.
"I feel honored and privileged to witness this whole thing. But to be involved in it, knowing the tournaments he's won, a little part of that hits all of us and it's a very big deal."
E-MAIL: dharmon@desnews.com