Today, many well known professional golfers use Callaway Golf products while on tour. A few clients include Lee Janzen, Phil Mickelson, Arnold Palmer and Momoko Ueda. How did Calloway Golf get to the point where its products are found in the hands of living golf legends and celebrities? It took decades of work.
Founding
The beginnings of Callaway Golf date back to 1981, when Ely Callaway made a rather lucrative decision. He sold Callaway Vineyard and Winery for a $9 million profit to Hiram Walker & Sons. The following year, Callaway visited a golf shop in Indian Wells, California. There, he saw steel-core, hickory-shafted golf wedges and putters for the first time. Soon after, he bought $400,000 of stock in Hickory Stick USA, which made him part of a four-way ownership. Callaway became president and CEO in 1983, moved the company to Cathedral City, California, and renamed the company Callaway Hickory Stick USA.
Future-Focused
In 1986, Callaway Hickory Stick USA was ahead of the pack with many golf club creations. One was the creation of the first putters with manufactured with computer-aided milling machines. This provided a consistently flat bottom to each putter. Two years after this innovation, Callaway renamed the company Callaway Golf Company. That same year, a new club technology was introduced. By 1991, sales reached $54.8 million.
Wins Go Public
When 1990 arrived, Senior PGA Tour golf professional Don Bies became the first to win using Callaway Golf's S2H2. The S2H2 had been invented a year before and offered a new sole design constructed in graphite or steel. After Mark Brooks won the Greater Greensboro Open and the Greater Milwaukee Open with Callaway Golf's Big Bertha Driver in 1991, the company went public in 1992 and sales reached $133 million.
Getting Bigger
By 1995, Callaway Golf's Big Bertha had become the top driver in the PGA, LPGA, Nike, European and Senior PGA tours. The same year, Great Big Bertha Titanium Driver was added to the growing list of Big Bertha offerings. In 1996, Callaway Golf hit $683.5 million in sales and became the largest golf club manufacturer on the planet. The year 2000 saw Callaway launched Rule 35, a three-piece golf ball that was immediately used in dozens of professional golf victories.
From 2000
After two decades of turning Callaway Golf into a world-renowned company, Ely Callaway retired in 2001. Over the next nine years, the company continued to seek innovative ways to improve golf clubs and other golf products, and golf professionals continued winning tournaments with Callaway Golf products in hand. In 2003, Callaway Golf puts their stamp of approval on Callaway Golf Footwear and Callaway Golf Timepieces. In 2009, Vicky Hurst averaged 273.2 yards using Callaway Golf's Fusion Technology, putting her at the top of the LPGA for driving distance.
Member Comments