I mentioned up top that two interesting things happened at the Open Championship last yesterday. One was the Opus wedge. The other was the golf ball. I know what you’re thinking… Come on, Yeags… you’re beating this ball thing to death. You’re right, but hear me out.

As I watched the coverage, or listened to it on XM Radio, I was hit over the head with “It’s either a Titleist, or it’s not.” Seemingly every 15 minutes there was another ad. This has become a running joke with me. Every time I reach into the ball pocket of my bag, I say “it’s not.”

I was a Retail business management major in college. It’s a major that is kind of like Marketing, but it’s for stuff that is right in front of consumers – rather than driving traffic. I learned how to make people buy stuff. As such, I enjoy ads. Not so much the timing of them, but the creativity of them. I love the Titleist ads. They are creative, inspiring, and they make the brand aspirational. Taylor Made ads? Funny and light. Also great. Other ads from other golf companies are also great. Ping with Victor Hovland, Peter Millar, Straight Down. I love them all. But…

It’s either a Titleist, or it’s not… What does this mean? Consider this. In 2015, Titleist had 60% market share – almost all of it in the Premium ball category. Did you ever see a Titleist ball commercial on TV ten years ago? Not a chance. It was a waste of money. They didn’t need to. Their premium balls have remained largely unchanged over the last 25+ years, while no other category in golf has done the same. They do have small improvements, but nothing major (no pun intended). After all, why mess with success? Even putters have improved with the new Ai faces. Are these ads a marketing share driven decision? Of course it is.

Titleist touts itself as the number one “trusted” ball on Tour. Titleist golf balls are actually the most paid product of any product on any tour worldwide. The fact that they have 900+ paid touring professionals playing their ball is a telling stat. They will pay anyone who wants some $$ to play the ball. That, however is how you can continue to make that claim year after year. Smart.

Why is this interesting to Callaway? Because the 2024 majors concluded yesterday without a Titleist win. Let that sink in.

900 paid staffers. The 2024 majors were won by players playing a TaylorMade ball, a Callaway Ball, a Bridgestone ball, and a Callaway ball.

This is not new. 2023. Callaway, Srixon, Titleist, Titleist. 2022. TaylorMade, Titleist, Titleist, Titleist. 2021. Srixon, Callaway, Callaway, TaylorMade. 2020. TaylorMade, Bridgestone, TaylorMade. 2019. Bridgestone, Titleist, Wilson, Srixon.

In the last 6 years, Titleist – 6, Callaway & TaylorMade – 5 each, Bridgestone & Srixon – 3 each, Wilson – 1.

Hmmm… What is the takeaway here? First, there is absolutely no chance that the best players in the world (call it the top 100 and maybe more) will play a ball that they don’t believe gives them the best chance to win. Perhaps that the best players in the world choose other golf balls? Perhaps other golf balls are better? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps… The takeaway is this. Titleist balls work for some, but not for all. Same with EVERY Company. Titleist pays upwards of 80% of the field to play their balls each week, yet players playing their golf balls don’t win anywhere near 80% of the tournaments – despite their large numbers of chances to win.

Other companies who choose to enter into the Premium ball market HAVE to make a better ball to compete with the market leader. It has to be better, and it should be different, or it won’t get any traction. Every company who competes in this market takes market share from the market leader. That 60% share is now down in the upper 30’s. At $20M per share point, that’s a LOT of lost revenue. Why the Titleist Ball ads now? THIS is why. If a professional or a consumer is open minded and willing to experiment, he or she has a very good chance of finding something better suited to his game that “the ball I’ve always played”.

Consider this. In 2021, Callaway didn’t win the ball count with our own staff team. More Callaway tour players played other manufacturers golf balls that ours, and they were on our staff!! That’s awful. Players would switch to Callaway staff despite the ball in 2021. Today, players come to Callaway because of the ball. Today, we have more players playing the ball than we do staffers. Talk about a reversal!! Make a better product and word will get out there.

One thing we did was to eliminate unique SKU’s. In the Chrome Soft X/ X LS era, we had 16 different versions of the same model ball on tour. 16. When that happens, it’s a sign that you don’t have it right. If you make the ultimate version of a ball, you don’t need more than one version of a model (Chrome Tour is a model, and Chrome Tour X is a model). Titleist is going down that road with the dot and dash models. When you feel like you need to do this – something is wrong. Your ball isn’t the ultimate any more. You have to go back to R&D and re-design. We did it. Scraped it and started over. The Chrome family of balls is completely new – from the core to the cover. Event the paint color is new. And, we don’t have a single tour player in the world playing a golf ball that is not commercially available for sale at retail. This is some impressive sauce right there.

Other companies tout their world class golf ball manufacturing facilities. We started this trend. Since 2016, we’ve invested over $100M in our Chicopee golf ball plant. It’s the state of the art facility behind no one. Truth be told, ALL of our competitors are at least 3 years behind where Callaway is in terms of quality control and performance. Jon Rahm switched to Callaway because of the Chrome Soft X. He said “this ball allows me to do things that I simply could not do with my previous ball.” Xander said the Chrome Tour is “The best ball in the wind that I’ve ever played. It seems like the wind doesn’t touch it.” That was on full display this weekend, wasn’t it? The announcer made a comment that Xander has gone from “sneaky long to just plain long”. I couldn’t help but wonder if a golf ball change (from Chrome Soft X LS to Chrome Tour) had anything to do with that. I can’t help but wonder if this ball change had anything to do with him winning not one, but two major championships since making the change? Coincidence? You can decide for yourself. One thing is for sure though… When the Champion Golfer in the World pulls a ball out of his bag – he says “It’s not” too…