“This isn’t cowtown,” says Mike Taylor. “This is Golftown.”

The cofounder of Artisan Golf has a point. After all, Fort Worth can claim legends Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan, and it’s home to Colonial Country Club, a perennial host for the PGA. And for decades the sport’s best players have been visiting an unassuming, roughly 10,000-square-foot facility where the smell of industrial grease permeates the air. Inside is a wall bearing the signatures of luminaries like Lee Trevino, Tiger Woods, and even Michael Jordan, all of whom have come to get their clubs made to their exacting specifications.

The space was originally built by Nike to produce golf equipment; Taylor worked as a model maker for irons and wedges, and his Artisan partner, Granbury native John Hatfield, was a putter craftsman. I

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