It has been quite a week for Viktor Hovland, the Norweigan golfer who is currently ranked No. 8 in the world. First, his clubs got lost on the way to the Genesis Scottish Open. Then, playing the fourth hole in today’s opening round of the tournament, he shanked his second shot before duffing his third.
But the 24-year-old can take solace in knowing that while his club may get lost on the way to tournaments and once in a while, like us, he mis-hits a few shots, he’s not going to be buying golf equipment any time soon.
On Thursday, Ping Golf, based in Phoenix, announced that Hovland has re-signed with the company and plans to extend his relationship with the brand for years to come. While the financial details were not released, Hovland will play Ping clubs, carry a Ping staff bag and wear the company’s logo on the front of his hat.
“When we signed him right out of college, we knew he was a special player. The connection to Norway and our relationship with Oklahoma State over the years made it a no-brainer for us to add him to the PING team. He’s quickly proven himself to be one of the best players in the world in less than three years as a professional. We’re very excited to extend our relationship with Viktor.” – John K. Solheim, president, Ping Golf
Last November, Hovland won the PGA Tour’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, then took home the title at the Hero World Challenge and tied for second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.
Viktor Hovland’s Ping irons. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Hovland played on the 2020 European Ryder Cup team and will be looking to win his first career major next week at the 2022 British Open at St. Andrews.
Is golf’s boom chilling? Yes, and crummy winter weather is largely to blame as rounds have decreased year over year.
If you’ve recently tried at the last minute to book a weekend round of golf just about anywhere in the U.S. – especially if the weather was nice – you know how packed many courses are. Golf has boomed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and wise players have learned to schedule early.
But will the boom continue?
That question has been front and center on the minds of many course operators and industry insiders, and recent numbers provided by industry tracker Golf Datatech and the National Golf Foundation haven’t been entirely definitive on the recreational game’s trajectory. There are many factors to consider, with weather likely chief among them. But based solely on the number of rounds played, the sport in the U.S. is in decline compared to the boom years of 2020 and ’21.
Golf Datatech this week reported that rounds played in April 2022 in the U.S. slipped almost 13 percent versus the same period in 2021. That follows a 14.3-percent decline in rounds played in March 2022 versus the same month in 2021. Golf Datatech reports that total rounds played in 2022 in the U.S. have dipped 9.8 percent through April versus the same four-month period in 2021.
As golfers frequently love to do, you might be able to blame the frequently crummy weather more than a drop in interest.
The NGF reports that golf industry analyst company Pellucid Corp. says bad weather has been a major factor in the decline in rounds played. Pellucid reported that so far in 2022, playable hours dropped 14 percent. Pellucid uses detailed weather data from across the U.S. to determine playable hours, and its research showed that extreme cold, rain and snow kept players off the courses in many regions more frequently than in recent years.
And because fewer total rounds are played annually in the first several months of each year because of winter, especially in northern climates, the recent dip in rounds played likely will have only a small effect on total rounds played for the year. If the weather is better this summer, the game appears to be in good shape to continue its rebound – that assessment is based on the fact that club and golf ball sales have climbed 14 percent versus the same period in 2021.
So apparently there are plenty of players who have been stuck at home waiting for the weather to clear so they can use all those new clubs and balls. Our advice: Book early.
This all comes on the heels of some of the most dramatic increases in rounds played in history. The total number of rounds played in 2020 surged 13.9 percent versus 2019 as the pandemic shut down many alternative entertainment and exercise options. Rounds played increased again in 2021, rising 5.5 percent as the popularity of golf continued.
Are those kinds of numbers sustainable? Time will tell. But in the meantime, keep an eye on the weather and your favorite online tee time booking site.
Less than 72 hours after Scottie Scheffler won his second PGA Tour event, the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, TaylorMade has announced that the Texan has signed an endorsement deal with the company.
The financial details of the multi-year deal with were not made available.
Last week in Orlando, Scheffler used an 8-degree TaylorMade Stealth Plus+ driver, along with a set of TaylorMade P-7TW irons (5-PW). According to TaylorMade, those clubs will remain in Scheffler’s bag (which will now be a TaylorMade staff bag), and a TaylorMade fairway wood is expected to be added soon.
After the Ryder Cup, TaylorMade fitters went to Texas and worked with Scheffler and introduced him to the company’s 2022 driver, the carbon-faced Stealth Plus+. According to the company, during that fitting, Scheffler’s ball speed increased to 177.4 mph with Stealth Plus+, a 3 mph increase from the 174 mph ball speed he was creating with his previous driver.
Scottie Scheffler’s TrackMan data from his off-season TaylorMade fitting. (TaylorMade)
Scheffler, who had been an equipment “free agent,” joins a TaylorMade staff that also includes Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff and Tiger Woods.
The 2018 Masters champion started wearing a PXG hat and using a PXG driver this week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion and winner of two World Golf Championships, won the Farmers Insurance Open last year at Torrey Pines, earning him a spot in the field at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions. In the first PGA Tour event of 2022, Reed will tackle the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Hawaii armed with a new equipment sponsor.
On Thursday, PXG announced on social media that Reed is the newest member of the company’s “troops.” PXG refers to staffers as its troops, and Reed has been seen this week sporting a PXG hat and using PXG equipment.
While PXG has yet to provide details of the deal, Reed was photographed Tuesday at Kapalua wearing a Grindworks hat. Grindworks is the maker of the irons that Reed used for the past few seasons. On Wednesday, Reed wore a hat with a PXG logo on the front and back with a Grindworks logo on the side, implying he intends to keep a relationship with the Japanese iron maker.
Reed has tinkered with PXG clubs in the past and is now listed on the company’s website. PXG said Reed will use a GEN4 driver(from $299 at pxg.com).
Among other PXG staff players are two-time major winner Zach Johnson, Joel Dahmen, Austin Ernst and Ryann O’Toole.
For TaylorMade, the move ensures that it has more control over critical parts of its golf ball business.
You cannot play the game without a ball, and over the last two years, people have been playing golf more than ever. With that in mind, TaylorMade announced on Wednesday that it had acquired Korean-based Nassau Golf Co. Ltd for an undisclosed amount.
TaylorMade acquired Foremost Golf Ltd three years ago and transformed it into TM Golf Ball Taiwan to complement TM Golf Ball South Carolina. With the purchase of Nassau Golf, TaylorMade is now forming TM Golf Ball Korea.
“This acquisition further supports TaylorMade’s strategic plan to create vertical integration in the company’s golf ball supply chain,” said David Abeles, TaylorMade’s chief executive officer. “TM Golf Ball Korea now joins TM Golf Ball Taiwan and TM Golf Ball South Carolina to service the global demand requirements for our rapidly growing golf ball business.”
According to Golf Datatech, through June 2021, rounds played were up 23 percent over 2020, and golf equipment sales were 78 percent compared to 2020 and 41 percent compared to 2019. Between 2016 and 2021, the global golf ball market is up 176 percent.
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For golfers, the acquisition of Nassau Golf Ltd does not mean anything. However, for TaylorMade, it represents a commitment to grow its ball business further. At a time when many companies are feeling the strain of global supply chains breaking down, TaylorMade is trying to ensure that it has more control over critical parts of its golf ball business.
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Women Fore Hire launches at the end of the month with education sessions with an online job fair opening mid-January.
Courtney Trimble doesn’t dance around the hard questions. In professional golf, the idea of a career transition can present plenty of them.
“It could be borderline, somewhat uncomfortable if you’re asking a professional golfer if they’re done playing,” said Dori Carter, who spent 10 years on the LPGA from 2010 to 2019.
In Carter’s case, Trimble, the former head women’s golf coach at Louisville, picked up the phone anyway. While looking to fill an assistant coaching position for the University of Louisville, she had started with a list of LPGA players and zeroed in on Carter’s name. She cut right through the awkwardness as Carter, standing on the practice putting green at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas, during the 2019 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship – where she was on the cut line – listened intently.
“I was contemplating something else but I just had no clue what to do and she said, ‘I really think you’d be great in college coaching, would you have any interest in that?’” Carter, now 34, remembers. “I said I’d totally love to hear about it.”
After Carter fulfilled a commitment to her sponsor to play the remainder of that season’s full-field LPGA events, she packed her bags for Louisville and spent two years as the assistant women’s golf coach under Whitney Young, who replaced Trimble when she stepped down at the end of the 2018-19 season to spend more time with family. Carter has since transitioned out of college coaching into a position as a junior player development representative at Callaway Golf – another career change facilitated in part by Trimble.
Carter’s state of mind in 2019 is a common one on the LPGA and Symetra tours. When the path from professional golf wasn’t clear, Carter would simply return to Q-School. Uncertainty, she thinks, prolonged her career by at least a year or two.
“The tour is a blast but it’s a grind,” she said. “I would kind of be shocked if other players don’t at least have this thought cross their mind.”
Dori Carter is congratulated by her caddie at the ninth hole after carding a course-record 63 in the second round of the 2017 Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout at Las Colinas Country Club in Irving, Texas. (Photo by Darren Carroll/Getty Images)
Cindy LaCrosse, who also played professionally for a decade, wouldn’t be surprised if that number is as high as 80 percent. The 34-year-old also struggled with knowing when it was time to stop playing professional golf for a living – and how to transition out of it.
LaCrosse ultimately stepped away at the end of 2019 but still played three events in the 2021 season. After a year-long stint as the brand partnerships manager for 5 Iron Golf in New York City, LaCrosse now works as a teaching professional at Baiting Hollow Golf Course on East Long Island.
Trimble helped LaCrosse narrow down opportunities and land on the right one – and figure out how to market all the work she’d done as a student-athlete.
“What Courtney helped me do was take what I had done for 10 years out of habit or out of routine and made me realize that it does translate into the workforce,” LaCrosse said.
After guiding players like Carter and LaCrosse to the next step, Trimble is ready to spin her Rolodex for the benefit of the next generation of female players – both at the college and professional levels. Two years after leaving the coaching world, she’s partnering with former Auburn teammate Anne Moon, owner of the Moon Golf chain of golf retail stores in Central and South Florida, to launch Women Fore Hire, an initiative designed to create a pipeline for females into the golf industry, whether that be in retail, instruction, coaching or any other specialty.
Women For Hire will launch at the end of November with a virtual career panel – essentially education sessions that focus on everything from getting a foot in the door to leveraging on-course skill within a career.
“Sharing with them real-life stories of how people got to where they are but then directly teaching them OK, this is where you are,” Trimble said. “I’ve got no job experience on my resume, how do I make that presentable to somebody who is looking to hire?”
Courtney Trimble, left, during her seven-year coaching stint at the University of Louisville.
The Women Fore Hire online job fair opens mid-January, allowing interested companies to set up a booth just as they would at an in-person job fair. Job candidates can create a profile on the platform and upload their resume so that companies can schedule interviews.
Candidates could come from any division of college golf (and anyone who’s been a college golfer), the Symetra Tour or the LPGA, Trimble says. The whole thing hinges on word of mouth within the communities Trimble and Moon occupy.
“Going and knocking down doors,” Trimble explained, “saying here’s what we’re doing, are you looking to hire these types of people? We can connect you to them.”
“We want to be part of the solution”
Trimble and Moon, both 41, have been partners in crime since they starred for Auburn from 1999 to 2003, during which time the Tigers finished sixth, fourth, second and ninth, respectively, at the NCAA Women’s Championship. Both followed college with professional golf careers.
After two years and four top-5 finishes on the then-Futures Tour, Trimble began her coaching career as an assistant at Auburn in 2005, moved on to the head women’s position at Central Florida in 2009 and spent her final seven seasons coaching at Louisville.
Anne Moon (second from left) and Courtney Trimble (far right) during their competition days. (Photo submitted)
Moon remembers her own brief foray on the Futures Tour and remembers just as well how it all ended one day June 2005 in small-town Illinois. She and Trimble, both newlyweds, were traveling the circuit together and after a tournament in Chicago, spent a day relaxing in the city with their husbands. Then it was on to the next stop.
Moon pulled up to the golf course, took one look at the crowd of players with their training aids set up on the putting green and knew that lifestyle of grinding wasn’t for her.
“In that moment I was just like, this isn’t it,” she said. “And I got back in my car and I told Courtney, I’m driving home. No more, I’m done. . . . I’m never going to be one who commits to standing over 3-footers for six hours in the sun.”
Upon returning home to Birmingham, Alabama, Moon began work at Edwin Watts, a golf retail story where her husband Dan was the assistant manager. The Moons eventually relocated to an Edwin Watts store in Jacksonville, Florida, where a Callaway rep asked Dan if he had anyone who would like to do demo days. He didn’t hesitate in volunteering his wife, which began her seven-year relationship with Callaway. When she was hired, there were three other female outside sales reps in the company – more than most hard goods companies in the golf space had on staff.
“There were definitely customers that when they heard they were getting a woman rep, some of them didn’t think they knew what you were talking about,” Moon said. “It kind of goes back to being able to say I played Division I women’s golf, gave me a little bit more credibility and then obviously when they heard me speak, because I worked my butt off to know my stuff so my knowledge was good, it kind of made things a little easier. It was always an uphill battle, uphill climb.”
Anne Moon, Moon Golf shop
Since opening the first Moon Golf store in 2015, contacts within the industry have asked Moon for leads on female candidates – a question that wasn’t being asked 10 years ago.
She has looked hard at the makeup of her staff across her three stores and wants more women in her own company, too – women like Brooke Raney.
Raney, 26, spent two years playing golf and studying golf management at College of the Desert in Palm Springs, California, before going to work in the golf department at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Moon found her through a series of golf Tik Tok videos Raney was posting. Raney started at Moon Golf in Palm Beach, Florida, full-time in July 2020, but six months later was struggling with being the only female in a male-dominated industry.
“I just knew that sometimes some of the guys walked in (for a club fitting) and they didn’t really expect to be with a girl,” she said. “And that was totally fine, but I struggled with that. So I kind of took a break and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew it was going to involve golf.”
Moon put Raney in touch with Trimble to talk through her career in golf. Now that’s she’s back to full-time, Raney is thriving as a club fitter and also dabbling in things like club building.
Trimble and Moon’s influence likely kept her in the industry.
Tapping a network
Since leaving Louisville, Trimble has stepped into a role as a consultant to the Women’s Golf Coaches Association, running a mentorship program for current coaches. It’s a unique seat that allows her to work with coaches and put her in a position to understand just how few people were entering the coaching profession.
With Trimble by her side, Moon has also infused some goodwill into college golf. Since 2019, she has sponsored the Louisville-hosted Moon Golf Invitational, a women’s college golf tournament based near her flagship store in Melbourne, Florida. In 2022, she’ll expand that to two events.
Dan Moon, far left, and Anne Moon, far right, flank South Carolina’s women’s golf team, winners of the 2021 Moon Golf Invitational. (Golfweek photo)
Re-entering the college-golf world as a tournament host opened Moon’s eyes to the wealth of resources available to college players, from mental coaches to strength coaches to equipment. There’s no denying that the bubble pops after graduation, but it doesn’t mean the career opportunities go away.
“At the end of the day,” Moon said, “I think I want to be able to show them that it’s totally possible and even more possible today than it was when I got out of school.”
On her own teams, Trimble noticed that her seniors went one way or another – if they were committed to a pro career or had another post-graduate plan lined up, they played great. Uncertainty about the future often led to on-course struggle.
“The reality is just that we want to be part of the solution, we want to take action and that’s really how we’ve gotten to where we are because of that mentality,” Trimble said. “Let’s just help. Both of us are in a position with our backgrounds to be able to do that.”
Trimble is perhaps most excited about the education piece of Women Fore Hire, which solves the common problem of “you don’t know what you don’t know.” She sees the benefit for the golf industry, too, and hopes that in five years, the network she and Moon have created is the premier place for employers looking for educated, driven females ready to enter the workforce.
Still to come? Trimble and Moon are conceptualizing a mentorship and career advancement program as well as an advisory board to guide the initiative forward.
“Everyone needs someone in their life to say, ‘Hey, I think you’d be good at this, try,’” Trimble said. “And that’s sort of what we’re trying to provide.”
It’s a simple phrase that could be monumental for the industry.
There was no merchandise tent last year at Winged Foot, but there is plenty of cool gear to buy at Torrey Pines.
LA JOLLA, CALIF. — Walk around any golf club in the United States and you will see logos everywhere. Apparel brands, local clubs and maybe a few destination resorts like Bandon Dunes or Pinehurst. Masters gear is prized because the only place where you can get Masters swag is at Augusta National during the tournament.
The USGA sells a lot of U.S. Open merchandise and according to Mary Lopuszynski, who is the organization’s managing director of merchandising and licensing, most of it is purchased in massive pavilions at the host course. Back in 2008, when the U.S. Open was played at Torrey Pines, the merchandise tent was, in fact, 42,000-square feet. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no merchandise tent at the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Merchandise was sold online, but nothing was for sale at the course.
This year, as the U.S. Open returns to Torrey Pines, the merchandise tent returns, too. It’s open on two sides, and therefore considered to be an outdoor space by the state of California. But it is just 12,000 square feet this year, and features only four apparel brands instead of the typical eight or nine.
Hats are usually the biggest seller because they are less expensive, can be worn immediately and make an easy gift. Clothing is getting more and more popular, and according to Lopuszynski, lifestyle items are also popular.
If you are going to be one of the lucky few to attend the 2021 U.S. Open in person, the merchandise tent is on the left side of the first fairway. If not, you can buy official U.S. Open gear online. Below are some of the cool things you can get to commemorate this year’s event at Torrey Pines.
The purchase of Stanton Ridge in New Jersey and Boulder Ridge in Illinois give Heritage Golf Group 11 clubs in seven states.
Heritage Golf Group, a course owner and operator with clubs in several states, announced this week it has expanded its reach with the acquisition of two more clubs: Stanton Ridge Golf & Country Club in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and Boulder Ridge Country Club near Chicago.
With financial backing from KSL Capital, Heritage Golf Group now owns and operates 11 clubs total in New Jersey, Illinois, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida and Wisconsin. Some of the better-known clubs in the group’s portfolio include TPC Tampa Bay and TPC Estancia.
Stanton Ridge Golf & Country Club features a layout by Stephen Kay about 40 miles west of Newark, New Jersey. Heritage said in a media release announcing the purchase that it is reviewing several possible upgrades to club amenities.
Stanton Ridge Golf & Country Club in New Jersey (Courtesy of Heritage Golf Group)
“With its location in a family-oriented suburban market and an outstanding golf course, clubhouse and residential community, Stanton Ridge Golf & Country Club is a welcome addition to our expanding portfolio of clubs,” Mark Burnett, Heritage Golf Group’s CEO and president, said in the media release. “This club represents our third acquisition in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area over the past three months (alongside Shackamaxon Country Club in Union County, New Jersey, and Knollwood Country Club in Westchester County, New York).”
Boulder Ridge features 27 holes designed by Lohmann Golf Designs with former PGA Tour player Fuzzy Zoeller as a consultant. As with Stanton Ridge, Heritage Golf Group plans improvements for the course, clubhouse, pool complex and outdoor areas.
“We are very excited to add Boulder Ridge Country Club to our portfolio of private clubs,” Burnett said. “This will be our first club in the Chicago suburban market – a traditional family-centric club, located in a growing residential community, that offers a wide range of amenities including 27 holes of championship golf. We look forward to creating an environment that reflects what current and prospective members want from a private club experience.”
Club Car is one of the world’s largest makers of golf cars and other electric, low-speed vehicles.
As rounds of golf played in the U.S. surge, mechanical equipment manufacturer Ingersoll Rand Inc. has agreed to sell golf car-maker Club Car to Platinum Equity, an investment firm and holding company founded and operated by Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores. The price: $1.7 billion, Platinum Equity said.
Founded in 1958 and based in Augusta, Georgia, Club Car is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of golf carts and other low-speed vehicles, especially electric versions for a wide range of commercial and consumer applications. The company’s carts can be found at many golf courses across the United States and globally.
“Club Car is an iconic golf brand that for more than 60 years has set the industry standard for quality and innovation,” Gores, who is Platinum Equity’s chairman and CEO, said in a media release announcing the sale. “We appreciate Ingersoll Rand’s confidence in our ability to build on that legacy and support Club Car’s continued growth and expansion as a standalone company.”
Ingersoll Rand bought Club Car in 1995, and Reuters reported the deal is part of an effort to pay down debt and streamline Ingersoll Rand, which last year merged its industrial business with Gardner Denver Holdings.
The media release said Platinum Equity has 25 years’ experience acquiring and operating global businesses that have been peeled out of large corporate entities. In recent years the firm has acquired businesses from Ball Corporation, Emerson Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Newell Brands, Office Depot, Pitney Bowes and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, among others.
“Demand for electric vehicles across many product platforms and geographies is at an all-time high,” said Club Car President Mark Wagner in a media release. Wagner will stay in his current role under Platinum Equity’s ownership. “Golf remains a very stable, healthy business while our consumer and commercial markets are rapidly growing around the world. As our product line and geographic reach have expanded, so has the complexity of our business. Platinum’s experience and global resources will be vital to helping us continue that growth and to achieving our long-term ambitions.”
KPS bought the equipment maker in 2017 from Adidas, and the new price could be more than four times higher as golf participation soars.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that KPS Capital Partners wants to sell TaylorMade Golf, which it acquired in 2017 from Adidas for $425 million. The potential asking price could exceed $2 billion.
The Timesreported in its DealBook that New York-based KPS has hired Morgan Stanley to run the sale of the golf equipment brand based in Carlsbad, California. Spokespeople for Morgan Stanley and KPS declined to comment to the Times on the report. No potential buyers were listed in the report.
TaylorMade is the sponsor for many noted PGA Tour players including Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy.
A possible sale would come on the heels of a strong year for golf. Analytics company Golf DataTech reported the sport’s recreational participation in the United States surged 13.9 percent in 2020 versus 2019 as players sought outdoor opportunities during the coronavirus pandemic.
Retail sales of golf equipment also surged in 2020, Golf Datatech reported, with $2.81 billion in revenue. That was a 10.1 percent increase over 2019. It gave 2020 the third-highest annual total since Golf Datatech began tracking the industry, trailing only $2.91 billion in 2008 and $2.87 billion in 2007.
“While the global pandemic wreaked havoc on many segments of our economy, the golf industry experienced a significant boost in rounds played and equipment sales,” John Krzynowek, a partner at Golf Datatech, said in a release announcing the surge in rounds played. “On the equipment side, sales increased by low single digits in both 2018 and 2019, but the double-digit gains in 2020 can only be attributed to the pandemic and golf being a respite for so many.”
The German-based Adidas sold the company to KPS to narrow its focus to soft goods and footwear in the golf retail space.
