Scottie’s Tour-Level Fitting: Why TaylorMade’s AD Process Matters for Fitters and Serious Golfers

Why this matters now: with so much club tech available in 2026, the way a Tour fitter prepares can change outcomes for players and consumers alike. This inside look centers on Adrian Rietveld — nicknamed "AD" — who works with Scottie and two other top-ranked players; the routines and mindset shown here offer a clear set of priorities that fitters and committed golfers should be thinking about immediately. scottie appears as the touchpoint that ties Tour-level process to everyday fitting choices.

Scottie and the Tour pod: why fitters and serious players should pay attention

Adrian Rietveld is presented as TaylorMade’s lead Tour fitter who keeps the three top players in the OWGR under his watchful eye: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood. He is called "AD" and is the central figure in an exclusive inside look at how a Tour fitter preps before fittings. The material promises an in-depth video later this week that aims to show the pre-fitting process and the habits AD uses with staff players. Here’s the part that matters: that same trust-based, ownership-driven approach is being held up as a template for fitters beyond Tour settings.

Inside the pre-fitting work: Adrian Rietveld, The Lab and a trip to TaylorMade headquarters

Reporting included a trip to TaylorMade headquarters to observe how the club fitter for Scottie, Rory and other top players operates inside what is referred to as "The Lab. " The coverage frames the piece as an "inside baseball" deep dive — the sort of granular pre-fit work that precedes the hands-on driver session. The author emphasizes that watching the forthcoming fitting video and listening to AD’s explanations are core to understanding the process.

Three things AD highlights for golfers (the specifics are unclear in the provided context)

• The narrative repeatedly notes that AD addresses three distinct points he believes can benefit any golfer, not only Tour players — those three points are named but their detailed contents are unclear in the provided context.
• It is explicitly stated that this is not a critique of consumer fitters; many consumer fitters do excellent work.
• The writer frames the deep dive as a mindset lesson for the industry rather than an indictment of other fitting shops.

Fitting as contract, pods, craft and the trust equation

Fittings are called a financial transaction but the piece insists the spirit of a fitting should never be transactional: it should be a contract between fitter and player with one deliverable — the process will make the player better. That deliverable goes beyond ball speed and launch numbers; trust is a key output. On Tour, fitters work in pods with players so trust can be established, and the writer says there is a version of that setup any fitter could adopt. Fitting is described as a craft with "Jedis, apprentices and pretenders, " and AD is categorized as a master largely because he cares deeply about helping players improve.

What’s easy to miss is how much the softer elements — ownership, follow-up conversations and a steady working relationship — are emphasized as drivers of Technical outcomes.

The writer uses a haircut analogy to illustrate trust: a stylist asked three diagnostic questions that determined an ongoing relationship — where the hair should be in 6 months, what the client likes and hates now, and whether the client will try bold ideas. That line of questioning is presented as a model for fitting conversations.

Riviera context and the "weird relationship" line tied back to player performance

The coverage also connects to a separate competitive storyline: the Riviera Country Club has a long history of great champions — Hogan, Snead, Watson, Nelson, Mickelson, Couples, Faldo, Els and Adam Scott are listed — and yet some all-time greats have been confounded there. The George C. Thomas design has hosted U. S. Opens and PGA Championships and, since 1973, the PGA Tour’s LA Open (now called the Genesis Invitational). The course’s Poa annua greens and a playing profile that correlates to Augusta National demand spin and trajectory control to attack small, tricky greens.

Several modern examples are summarized: Jack, Tiger and Rory have struggled to convert at Riviera; commentary from 2023 and 2024 frames Woods’s record there as inexplicable to some peers. Tiger’s history at Riviera in the material includes 15 starts, a PGA Tour debut as a 16-year-old amateur in 1992, 10 cuts made and three top-10s, with a runner-up finish to Ernie Els in 1999; the player has attributed some of the shortfall to randomness and Poa greens.

On Scottie Scheffler specifically: he is identified as World No. 1 who arrived at Riviera with a checkered history there — a missed match-play cut at the 2017 U. S. Amateur and a missed cut as an amateur at the 2018 Genesis Open. As a professional he had four top-20s at Riviera but had never finished within six shots of the lead. He entered a week riding a streak of 18 consecutive top 10s (noted as "now over"), and after slow starts at the WM Phoenix Open and the Pebble Beach Pro-Am he had previously made a run at the trophy before coming up short. At Riviera he opened with a three-over 74 and walked the cutline; after holing a par putt on 18 on Friday he said he has "a weird relationship" with the course. He made a valiant weekend charge, said he benefited from early tee times and less chewed-up greens, but he finished in a tie for 12th at a plac (unclear in the provided context).

Mini timeline and forward signal

• 1973 — Riviera begins hosting what became the Genesis Invitational (the LA Open lineage).
• 1992 — Tiger Woods made his PGA Tour debut at Riviera as a 16-year-old amateur.
• 1999 — Tiger recorded a runner-up finish to Ernie Els at Riviera.
• 2017–2018 — Scottie missed the match-play cut at the 2017 U. S. Amateur and missed the cut at the 2018 Genesis Open as an amateur.
• 2023–2024 — Recent commentary and player reflections highlighted Riviera’s odd hold on even the game’s best.

Forward signal: in 2026, with accelerating club tech, how fitters codify AD’s pre-fit habits and the Tour pod model will confirm whether this approach scales beyond a handful of staff players.

If you’re wondering why this keeps coming up: the author frames the piece as educational (and personal) — the writer calls AD a close friend, recounts hours of phone conversations about Tommy, Scottie and Rory, and credits the equipment partner for letting AD evolve with an all-star lineup. Later this week the promised fitting video is due to show the process in action. Also mentioned as peers in the fitting craft is Aaron Dill from Vokey, offered as another figure the writer learns from regularly.