Golf Asia — January 2018

GOLF ASIA 41

Given how profligate we are with golf
balls, you can start to see how valuable
the Pro V1 and its successors have
been for Titleist and its parent company
Acushnet. This commercial power was
shown clearly last year when Acushnet
was floated on the stock market. Ball
sales represented more than a third
of the value of the company, which
contains several other famous golfing
brand names, including Footjoy shoes
and gloves, Pinnacle and, of course, the
Titleist club maker.

2017: THE YEAR OF CHANGE
In 2017 the choice of ball became wider.
Each of the major brand names launched
new or upgraded versions of their
premium ball while we have also seen
a fragmentation of the market as a new
breed of manufacturer emerges – from
Costco’s Kirkland Signature through to
Snell, Vice, Clear and Volvik.
In addition, Nike’s decision to close its
ball and club division meant that 18 tour
players were free agents at the start of
the year, including some of the world’s
most famous and influential names,
from Rory, DJ and Jason Day to Hideki
Matsuyama and Bubba Watson. Each
played new balls in 2017.
But this may be of limited use when it
comes to the job of choosing the right
ball for you, as the various marketing
stories told about the premium tour
balls tend to focus on one aspect –
softness, compression, spin rates etc

• making the decision as to the best
  overall ball opaque.
  Golf balls are important because,
  unlike clubs, bags, shoes and clothing,
  we are always losing them. Over 500
  million golf balls are lost each year and
  that lake in front of the green on your
  home course probably contains around
  1,000 of them at any one time.
  Recent research commissioned
  by Bridgestone shines a light on the
  psychology of golfers. We lose around
  four balls a round on average and
  most of us carry around nine spares
  in our bag on the first tee. A quarter of

British golfers say that using just one

ball a round is a ‘great achievement’

and as we get better, we’re far more

likely to change balls at the halfway

hut. The same Bridgestone report went

in to the factors impacting our buying

behaviour. ‘Feel’ is by far the number

one factor mentioned when buying a

ball, particularly for better players. This

is followed by ‘durability’ and ‘spin

rate’ despite more than two thirds of us

remaining ignorant of the composition

‘Acushnet and Titleist remain market

leaders by some margin. The company

expects to generate between US$1.55

and US$1.57 billion in revenue in 2017.’

of the ball we are playing. Brand name

ranked fifth in the list behind technology

and price.

More surprisingly, the research

suggested that handicap golfers

put very little emphasis on ‘used by

Tour pros’ when making their buying

decision. This last point goes against

the industry received wisdom, in which

big name endorsement is the most

significant ploy in the industry playbook

all but created by Titleist.

Billy Andrade’s victory in

the 2000 Invensys Open

in Las Vegas was the

first event on a major

professional tour won

using a Titleist Pro V1

golf ball.