Callaway Golf

Market

Some 22 years ago, Ely Callaway laid a foundation that has changed the way golf is played. A visionary with a gift for instinctively knowing what consumers would buy, he began with a premise that golfers wanted to, above all, hit more rewarding shots. He found just the tool to help them do it in the early 1990s with the introduction of the friendly, forgiving, and oversize Big Bertha Driver. And the innovation continues. From woods, irons, and putters to golf balls and golf accessories, Callaway Golf has consistently used ingenuity, quality construction, and technology to make premium products that are the most forgiving in the history of the sport. Other companies followed Callaway Golf’s lead, and a game once thought to be the province of a few has become the property of many.

{viewonly=registered,special}Today, there are some 25 million golfers in the United States, and the majority say the pleasing sensation of a well-struck shot is the number-one reason they keep coming back. Providing that enjoyment is why Callaway Golf is now a global company bringing Demonstrably Superior and Pleasingly Different products to 107 countries, in 29 different languages, building more opportunities for more people to enjoy the game.

Achievements

Simply put, Callaway Golf has changed the way the game is played. Millions of golfers around the world have used the company’s products to make the game more enjoyable. Callaway Golf’s Big Bertha line of metal woods has become the benchmark, and the driver has been transformed — from a feared and little-used club to the most popular tool in the golfer’s arsenal.

Callaway Golf’s ambitious attempt to create an oversize metal driver with increased forgiveness succeeded where other companies had failed, yielding the original Big Bertha Stainless Steel Driver in 1991. Ever since the advent of Big Bertha and her progeny — including such current products as the ERC Fusion Driver and the Great Big Bertha II 415 Titanium Driver — the driver has become the flagship product for golf manufacturers around the world.

Callaway Golf now designs and produces a complete line of drivers, fairway woods, irons, putters, and golf balls that share the same ideal: make the game more fun for golfers of all skill levels, from first-time golfers to tour professionals. In fact, Callaway Golf products are among the most popular on the world’s professional tours and have been used to set several scoring records and win hundreds of tournaments.

This success helped Callaway Golf become the world’s largest manufacturer of golf clubs within five years of Big Bertha’s launch, and the company became the first major golf company to go public, as shares of company stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1992 under the ELY ticker symbol.

History

Callaway Golf’s success story began with a small three-person golf company called Hickory Stick USA. The company initially made wedges and putters that had unique shafts made of hickory with a steel core. These clubs caught the eye of Ely Callaway during a visit to a golf shop near Palm Springs, California, in 1982, and he bought an interest in the company. Callaway had already been a successful businessman in the fields of textiles and wine, and golf would become the third and most successful act in his entrepreneurial career. By 1988, the company had been renamed Callaway Golf, moved to Carlsbad, California, and had shifted from trying to re-create classic clubs. A series of engineering and production advancements led to the creation of the Big Bertha Stainless Steel Driver in 1991, a breakthrough product that lifted Callaway Golf to the top of the golf industry.

The company continues to flourish. In 2003, Callaway Golf bought the assets of The Top-Flite Golf Company, adding the popular Top-Flite and Ben Hogan brands to its portfolio. Though Ely Callaway passed away in 2001, his spirit lives on in every product that the company produces.