They Want to Put a Tiger in Your Bag

Business

The San Diego golf industry is aiming to create happier golfers via better equipment, faster courses and programs to improve performance

SAN DIEGO’S GOLF INDUSTRY wants you. Anybody, really. The reality is, there aren’t enough players to go around. Insiders concede participation in the game is flagging as a result of the “three toos”: golf is too expensive, too frustrating and, in a time when a game of Madden video football can be played in a half-hour, too slow.

But the golf industry is mobilizing to overcome the terrible toos, and San Diego–based businesses are leading the back-nine charge. If your swing propels golf balls onto freeways instead of fairways, they’ll sell you a golf club that will compensate for your slice. If you look like John Daly and shoot like Fred Flintstone, they’ll design a fitness and nutrition program to put a little Tiger in your tank. They’re even working on designing links that get you on and off the course in three hours, instead of five.

Golf 20/20 is a program initiated by the World Golf Foundation in 1999 to bring the influence of the PGA Tour, PGA of America and the United States Golf Association to grow the game. A report on participation commissioned by Golf 20/20 found that, in 2003, 495 million rounds were played in the United States, compared to 502 million rounds in 2002. Hardest hit were the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states, off 13 and 5.6 percent respectively. Weather was blamed in the East, but the region including California, Nevada and Southern Arizona was off 2.3 percent.

“It’s no secret that, from a participation perspective, the golf industry has been generally flat for a decade or more,” says George Fellows, president and CEO of Callaway Golf, headquartered in Carlsbad. “The number of rounds played have remained relatively consistent over that time——as has the number of players——but the golf equipment category was up 11 percent. What this indicates is pretty clear: If golfers are presented with new products that promise to improve their game, they will respond.”

Callaway, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007, has landed 21 of its products on the Golf Digest “Hot List,” including awards for the best driver (FT-5), best fairway woods (Big Bertha), best game-improvement irons (X-20) and best-value performance golf ball (HX Hot). Investors have taken notice, bidding up shares 12 percent in January, when Callaway announced it expected 2006 profits to beat Wall Street estimates with earnings of about 35 cents a share——up from 19 cents in 2005——on more than $1 billion in sales.

Callaway’s Carlsbad neighbor and rival, TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, a unit of Germany’s Adidas, is also shooting birdies.

“We’ve had unbelievable growth,” says Sean Toulon, executive vice president of product and brand marketing. Toulon says when he joined a new executive team at TaylorMade in 1999, sales were about $290 million. Last year, sales exceeded $1 billion.

TaylorMade’s sales are being driven by its line of r7 drivers, which aim to overcome a golfer’s handicap.

“The r7 has four weights in the club that the golfer can move,” Toulon explains. “It’s a more forgiving club, because, properly placed, the weights can cancel a tendency to slice by changing a player’s left-to-right tendencies.”

THE R7 AND OTHER innovative technologies highlight the two major trends in golf equipment: “mass customization,” or moving parts in the club to suit a player’s needs, and new driver shapes that allow a player to hit for distance even on a less-than-stellar shot.

“Ours is a stretched bullet shape that increases the ability of the club to hit farther, even if you don’t hit the ball in the ‘sweet spot’ of the club,” says Toulon.

Similarly, the TaylorMade Performance Lab at the Four Seasons Resort Aviara uses “motion-capture” photography to produce a three-dimensional movie of a golfer’s swing that can be analyzed from multiple viewing angles, such as underneath or overhead. The program was developed by TaylorMade to test golf clubs, but subsequently was used by touring pros and is now available to the public. Herb Meistrich purchased the licensing for the performance lab from TaylorMade and now operates labs in Portland, Georgia, South Africa, Spain and Dubai.

“The motion-capture technology uses nine cameras and infrared sensors to create a 3D image of a player’s swing on the screen,” says Meistrich. “It’s similar to the technology used in video game production.”

Once the performance lab has analyzed the player’s swing (at a cost of $350), a set of clubs can be customized to correct any flaws. “Most players can drop their handicap by 25 to 50 percent without doing anything but changing their clubs,” says Meistrich.

Of course, players could decide to change their swing mechanics, but switching clubs is quicker and easier, satisfying two of the three “toos.”

“Most players are not willing to take the time and energy to make major swing changes, which would require two to three hours a day, for 21 days in a row,” Meistrich says.

Not content just to improve golf equipment, some in the industry have turned to the more daunting task of improving the golfer.

Dr. Peter Mackay is a member of the advisory board of the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside. The TPI (mytpi.com) offers a series of tests and fitness programs designed to help players improve their games through fitness.

“If you look at golfers who are in top physical condition, their decision-making skills are better, and they operate better on the course when they’re more on top of things,” says Mackay. “If you are less fit, you are more likely to make a mistake.”

AN EXAMPLE of the successful and fit golfer is Tiger Woods. “Tiger does everything he can do to be the best, and it shows,” Mackay says. “When you see him, he is striding with authority, not slumping down the fairway. When the body is working more efficiently, there’s a psychological effect too.”

A session at the TPI runs in the neighborhood of $5,000, but weekend warriors can check out the Golf Fitness Academy on the mytpi.com Web site, complete with archived exercises and other fitness information. And certified TPI professionals Bob Townsend, Devin FitzMaurice and Derek Uyeda are available for consultations at the San Diego Golf Institute at Riverwalk Golf Club in Mission Valley.

For young careerists raised in the Apprentice generation, golf can be their entrée to the boardroom. That’s the theory behind the Professional Golfers’ Association’s Golf and Business Program, which the PGA has launched on 59 campuses, including the University of San Diego (with a $50,000 grant).

“A lot of business is done on the golf course, so if you’re a good golfer, you get a little extra form of respect, which can be a foot in the door,” says Steve Kaese, director of instruction at Riverwalk Golf Club in Mission Valley, where the 10-week USD classes are held. About that business pitch: It’s probably best to wait, says Kaese, till your party is on the back nine——or better yet, in the clubhouse.

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