GOLF ASIA 45ball I was playing and I needed to do
something,” said Rory McIlroy, referring
to his disappointing performance at
the Masters, a few weeks previously.
“I felt like I struggled in the wind. So I
sort of went back to the drawing board
and tested for about 10 days pretty
extensively after Augusta. I worked with
a lot of different things, but I worked with
the TaylorMade guys one day and started
just on TrackMan on the range and saw
stuff with the golf ball, that new TP5x ball
that they have. I thought, ‘Wow, this is
what I need.’ This is exactly the thing that
I’ve been struggling with, and this is, I
feel, what I need.”
For Titleist, this was the flip side
of big player endorsements. Rather
and centre. So strong is the science
metaphor that famous golfers are as likely
to appear in white lab coats in adverts as
they are in polo shirts, visors and chinos.
“The size and the financial strength of
Titleist allowed them to gain technological
advantages over competitors,” says
Helge Mayer, Head of Marketing at Vice
Golf. “The ProV1 was certainly a big step
away from the balata balls and there is
still huge investment in Research and
Development (R&D)”.
This gave Titleist a first mover
advantage. Huge advertising budgets
ensured that the company’s technology
message reached the target audience.
Today, says Meyer, the way information
is passed around the internet and social
media means competition is able to
respond more quickly to tech and other
claims. It has also broadened the buying
options of golfers. Callaway’s aggressively
priced Chrome Soft ball disrupted the
premium end of the market while the
TaylorMade TP5 and the Srixon AD333
have also made inroads. There is also
recognition among handicap players that
the extreme performance demanded by
tour pros may not be relevant to them.
“In the auto industry” says Meyer, “not
everybody is looking at getting a Porsche.”
Mike Fox of TaylorMade agrees
that the buying choices of the average
player have shifted from the extreme
distance messages of a few years ago.
The story has moved to control and
accuracy from 150 yards in to the green.
That puts spin rates at the front of the
marketing effort. “The TP5/TP5x is the
only five-layer Tour ball, which gives us a
competitive advantage in performance,”
says Fox. “With five layers, we are the
only company who can decouple driver/
iron distance and spin from inside 100
yards to create a ball that is low spin/lowthan talking up the Pro V1, here was
a famous golfer dissing the product
just at the moment when he had the
attention of the world’s sporting media.
As ever, the truth is in there somewhere.
Rory is hardly an independent source
on the quality of the new TaylorMade
ball. According to reports, McIlroy
is paid around $10 million a year to
promote the brand, having been left
without a club endorsement deal
following Nike’s withdrawal.
The signing of McIlroy was a central
plank of a renewed foray in to the ball
market for TaylorMade. The company’s
Category Director Mike Fox explained
to us the importance of the ball in the
company’s broader product range: “The
golf ball category was identified as a top
priority for the TaylorMade company in
2017 and beyond,” Fox says. “Last year
was about re-focusing around metalwood
and irons categories, but once that was
done, 2017 was about expanding focus
into golf ball as well.”
Fox describes the ball category as a
‘massive opportunity’ for TaylorMade
because “we have had fantastic
product for years, but have not gotten
the credit we deserve.
“In 2017 and beyond the company is
fully aligned around TP5/TP5x to ensure
that all golfers will know how great our
product is as much as we and our Tour
players do,” Fox continues. “A great way
to validate this statement is that 2017 and
2018 are the first years we have ever put
our golf ball product names on the side
of our tour players hats, which is the most
valuable real-estate we have.”THE CLAIMS DEPARTMENT
Since the Pro V1 was launched, the
promotional claims of the big ball
manufacturers have put technology front‘The argument for customised clubfitting
is a strong message that has extended
to the golf ball market’
While the
likes of Volvik
are heading down
the coloured balls
route, Titleist
remain traditional
in their approach
to production.