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There are 27 million golfers in the United States, and each has the same goal: Hit the ball longer and straighter.
In the pursuit of that goal, professional and amateur golfers spend almost $5 billion a year on new equipment. And Callaway Golf (ELY, news, msgs) is confident they'll spend even more for equipment that demonstrably improves their swings.
The golf equipment maker, known for its Big Bertha line of clubs, has a team hard at work at company headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif., developing golf equipment that gives golfers the technological advantages they need to lower their scores -- and help the company regain market share.
The company last week unveiled the new Ely Callaway Golf Performance Center, a state-of-the-art facility named after Calloway Golf's late founder and dedicated to his pursuit of technological breakthroughs in the design of golf clubs and balls.
Arnold Palmer was the perfect guy to open the new facility. Sure, Palmer is one of golf's all-time greats, but it's his swing that made him the fitting showcase at the June 27 opening of Callaway's R&D facility. No one ever called Palmer's swing beautiful or poetic; in fact he swings a golf club a lot like the rest of us do. Only the results are better.
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Callaway hopes Alan Hocknell is the perfect guy to apply science to the game of golf. Hocknell is a crash dynamics engineer, who earlier in his career studied the impact of collisions on moving vehicles and their occupants. Today, Hocknell is Callaway's vice president for innovation and advanced design.
"We have metallurgists, we have physicists … the extent of the science and technology that goes into the creation of golf is far in excess of anything I thought possible," Hocknell says.
Video: Callaway's high-tech golf center
The R&D center is part of the turnaround story at Callaway, which appears to be rebuilding market share under CEO George Fellows, a former Revlon (REV, news, msgs) executive.
Callaway had just under $1 billion in sales last year. It has the leading brand in irons and putters, and it's No. 2 in woods and golf balls. But the market is growing increasingly crowded and more competitive as rivals court the 12.8 million "core" golfers in the United States who account for 87% of the spending.
Staying on top has turned almost exclusively into a technology play, Fellows says. "It's (all about) moving weight inside the club head to affect ball flight and impart corrective spin on the golf ball," he says.
Providing a better fit between club and golfer is another big part of the game, says Randy Peterson, Callaway's fitting director. "We've got data where a guy will pick up 15, 20 yards without an increase in head speed, just because they have a better drive fit, better launch, better spin," Peterson says.
What Callaway's new performance center and its proprietary measuring software is all about is numbers -- not red or black but '"launch," 'side-back fore spin" and "roll-to-skid ratio." The idea is not so much to study how you swing and change it, but how to match a particular club setup to your swing.
"It always is substantially you," Fellows says when asked whether it's the golfer or the gear that is most important.
More than just scores are on the line as Callaway seeks added harmony between golfer and gear. The business needs to attract more players -- read buyers -- and the more quickly beginners can feel accomplished, the more likely they are to keep playing.
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