Bob Vokey grew up in Verdun, a blue-collar borough of Montreal, Canada, more than 4,000 miles from his current abode in southern California, the golf equipment capital of the world.
Vokey made that trek as a 26 year old without a college degree and without much direction. His first gig was at a telephone company. His last gig, which he continues to this day at age 78, is master craftsman of wedges at Titleist. “I can rest when I’m dead,” he says.
Believe me, a lot happened between the phone gig and today, like when Vokey was first incredulous at a new brand of clubs called TaylorMade, or when he ventured into a startup brand named Founder’s Club, or when he basically volunteered for the wedge job at Titleist.
Much of that story can be chalked up to hard work, like when he worked for minimum wage for years, crashed on friends’ couches and ate too much fast food. Another part of the story has to do with luck — or rather, making luck by studying, rough-drafting, testing, perfecting everything that came into this hands and catching some breaks along the way.
The story of Vokey wedges continues moving forward, as Vokey was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in July and his newest set of wedges (the SM7) debuted on Tour in October. Check out that story from start-to-finish in this episode of the GOLF.com Podcast.
