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Unless you’re developing a fertilizer, you probably don’t
expect to disrupt the golf industry from the spare room of a
sewage company. But that’s where Dean Snell found himself
four years ago, holed up in an office with a single computer.
“In the mornings, we were walking past the trucks that pump
out the port-a-johns,” he says with a laugh.
It wasn’t what Snell envisioned when he decided to start
his own company. He’d been an engineer in the golf-ball busi-
ness for 25 years—first with Titleist and then with TaylorMade
Golf Co., where he worked with
such pros as Dustin Johnson and
Jason Day and was instrumental
in developing the Tour Preferred
line. His name is on dozens of pat-
ents, including one for the original
Titleist Pro V1, the most popular
ball on the tour. (Gary Woodland
played with it for his U.S. Open vic-
tory in June; Brooks Koepka used
the Pro V1x when he won this
year’s PGA Championship.)
But Snell figured he could bring
his knowledge of materials, patents, and processing to the
public and “eliminate big tour contracts” that pay pros hand-
somely to use specific products. His premium ball would have
the performance characteristics of market leaders while pass-
ing the savings back to the consumer. The base rate for a
12-pack of Snell’s new MTB-Xs is $33; a dozen Pro V1s cost $5 2.
Snell Golf is among a handful of companies that have
disrupted the golf-ball market—valued by Golf Datatech
at $420 million o ut of a total $5 billion g olf-equipment
industry—by following a direct-to-consumer model that
rewards volume shoppers. Vice Golf was started by a pair
of German lawyers who met while surfing. “We weren’t the
typical golfers coming at this wanting to turn our favorite
sport into a business,” says co-founder Ingo Düllman.
Instead, after seeing the success of Dollar Shave Club,
Harry’s, and other consumer brands, they set out to give golf-
ball marketing a makeover with cheeky commercials you’d
expect from Old Spice or Geico. Vice sells a dozen balls for
anywhere from $34 down to $11, if you buy in bulk. They come
in lime green, neon red, and traditional white, or you can mix
and match all three. And you can pair the brand’s logo—which
rides the line between edgy and gaudy—with a picture of your
own or a rival’s face. The company also sells flat-bill caps, golf
bags, and waffle-knit towels and has teamed up with the NBA COURTESY ONCORESPORTS Bloomberg Pursuits August 19, 2019so basketball fans can tout their favorite team on the fairway.
Another competitor, Buffalo-based OnCore Golf Technology
Inc., is taking a more technological approach. Its first ball had a
hollow metal core, which helps drives stay straighter, and even-
tually forced the U.S. Golf Association to rewrite its rulebook.
Its Genius ball, making its debut in the second quarter of 2020,
will have an internal GPS to measure shot velocity, spin rate,
total distance, trajectory, and apex, all while telling you how
far you are from the green. Brokerage founder Charles Schwab
joined as a shareholder in January,
and the brand was renewed in April
as the official ball of the New York
State Golf Association. Its premium
Elixr sells for $35 per dozen, but buy-
ing in bulk can drop it to $30.
If you lose four or five balls
a round, like Cut Golf founder
and Chief Executive Officer Sam
Uisprapassorn does, you might
need a cheaper substitute. He
started Cut under the assumption
that if he could get people hooked
on the ball, they’d also pony up for $80 polos down the line.
“The golf ball was a way to build a loyal following,” he says.
In two and a half years, Cut has carved out a discount niche,
selling its balls for less than $20 per dozen.
Most modern premium golf balls have the same three ele-
ments: a rubber core, one or two (or even three) additional
layers, and the dimpled cover. But Sam Robinson, senior
director for product testing at the independent review site
MyGolfSpy, says consumers have a misconception that pre-
mium golf balls are all the same. The distinctions are just hard
to measure, because everyone hits differently. Tested using
a robot that makes the same swing each time, Snell’s MTB-X
ball had a slightly higher ball speed on average and hence
traveled a few yards farther than almost every other ball on
the market. OnCore and Vice didn’t lag far behind.
Even though most golfers determine their brand loyalty
by how far the ball goes, Snell believes a better test is to start
125 yards from the green and then work your way in, because
that’s where you take most shots. After you’ve found a ball
you like, he says, use it when you’re looking for a new driver,
which is the opposite of how most golfers shop. “The ball
is the only piece of equipment you will use on every single
swing,” he says. “If you can’t tell a difference between them,
then go buy the one that’s most affordable.” <BW>Golf-ball startups are chipping away at a $5 billion market. By Michael Croley
Any Way You Slice It