Today Adams…Tomorrow…????

On March 19^th we witnessed the end of yet another American owned and operated Golf Company. I am not, in the rather populist fashion that abounds these days, bemoaning the death of yet another American Company, as such is not the case. But it does strike me as rather odd that one by one, the big boys on the American Scene have dropped out of the game, and sold their name, rights, patens, etc. to foreign competitors. It’s not so much that they can’t make a profit anymore, as the buyers have all been more than willing to step up to the plate, and pay fat premiums for the likes of Titleist, Cleveland, and now---Adams.  TaylorMade, the buyer in name, is itself, an old American Company that sold itself to Adidas.

     I did bemoan the death of Nickent Golf, as that was a flat out—belly-up, “We’re bankrupt, and we ain’t never comin’ back.” type of deal. “Dick’s Sporting Goods did buy the name, and the rights to the last designs on the drawing board, but that’s pretty much the end of that tale. Sadly, MacGregor Golf suffered a similar fate after what appeared to be a fairly successful resurrection. Sadly, not even the well-heeled Greg Norman could save them. So in similar fashion, the name and the last designs on the drawing boards were sold off to GolfSmith, who has z strong track record of buying the names of many a once shining star. (Lynx Golf, Zevo Golf, Snake Eyes Golf, et al.) So this raises a rather interesting question. If it’s no longer just the niche and marginal players who are leaving the landscape, how long can it be before Callaway, and even Ping Golf go the way of the once burgeoning American Television industry? They are, after all, the last two American players left on the scene.

    Many of the product reviews I wrote about Adams and TaylorMade products featured the fact that several years ago, there was a mass exodus of some of TaylorMade’s best club designers. They left en masse, and the vast majority of their best and brightest landed at none other than Adams Golf. It wasn’t long before Adams shed their staid, and stodgy image as, “ The Old Man’s Golf Club, “ and/or “The Volvo of Golf Clubs.” In fact, pretty soon they were pounding out clubs that looked strangely enough like…”The next logical progression of what should have been the next set of iterations of The TaylorMade Line”, save they bore The Adams’ Moniker. TaylorMade continued on, but when Adams beat them to the both Wind-Tunnel Technology, and eventually the “Velocity Slot/Rocketballz Technology” it was only a matter of time before the boys at Taylormade realized---“If you can’t beat ‘em----Buy ‘em out.” This leads to yet another logical question.

    One of the last marginal American Player’s in the game that is left is “Tour Edge.”  Callaway has been desperate for a hit with their Odyssey Line of putters. Anyone who has read my reviews in the past will note that there is no big secret that Callaway’s/Odyssey’s Marxman line borrowed heavily from Tour Edge’s line—right down to the paint job. Next came the “Backstryke” line of Odyssey Putter’s, and these are definite direct descendants of Tour Edge’s “T-Balance” line of putters. There are also rumors to the effect that the “Diablo Line” is actually a spin-off of some of Tour Edge’s Experimental Prototypes, and that Tour Edge who had already suffered a huge hit from trying to market 2 lines simultaneously (Xotics and V-25) didn’t have the cash flow to take that risk again, so they sold them off to Callaway. Rumors are, after all, only rumors, but it does sound plausible. Could Callaway be in a position to pick up Tour Edge in the same way that Adams bought out “Yes” Putters just before they themselves got eaten up by TaylorMade. If so—who will buy Calloway? It’s no secret that Callaway is raising cash. They just sold off their rights to the old, “Top-Flite” name to Dick’s sporting goods.

    The Top-Flite/Ben Hogan/Strata acquisition is often viewed as the acquisition that saved Calloway who had previously bombed out in the golf ball market, and was suffering severe quality control issues with their Golf Club line. With the practically limitless production potential of Top Flite’s legendary assembly lines, and the Legendary Quality Control offered by the Ben Hogan Corporation, as well as some revolutionary golf ball designs sitting on the drawing boards at Strata, it was a match made in heaven.

Even so, golf is a cut-throat business, and as we now see, even an amazing turnaround is no guarantee of future success. Perhaps they feel the need for another technology infusion, and David Glod’s little company isn’t such a bad idea if you ask me.

   Either way you cut it, we are now in for an era of fewer and fewer “Golf Only” companies. Even Puma has gotten into the game via their acquisition of Cobra Golf from the same folks who spun off Titleist, i.e., Fortune Brands. This should all prove very interesting down the road as Adidas has obviously been successful with their TaylorMade Acquisition, but on the other hand, does anyone out there reading this remember how quickly Fila Sports got in and out of the golf club business? I really am hoping that some of the independents can make it, but in the past ten years I’ve seen even more promising companies go bust, Nickent, MacGregor, Burrows, Carbite---just to name a few, than I have seen get acquired. Acquisitions of brand names don’t count. Seriously, are Lynx, MacGregor and Snake Eyes actually stand alone companies or GolfSmith Brand Names? How about Nickent and Maxfli? These are pretty much Dick’s Sporting Goods name brands now. Let’s not forget Orlimar—now a mere shadow of its former self, and stamped out by the same guys who stamp out “Knight” clubs for Kmart and the like.

   Still, there’s hope for Ping and Callaway, but it is getting to be a tougher market everyday. The domestic market seems to have peaked already, but the global market is just beginning to tap into its potential. It’s no wonder American Golf Companies are a disappearing species. One by one some of the best names in the business are either trading hands, or going belly up altogether. If they want to survive as domestic stand alones, companies such as Scratch Wedges and SeeMore Putters, are going to have to take on a new business model. As thin as the numbers are for such a thing as boutique golf clubs, the Japanese are still making headway. Maruman, a boutique maker, is trying to expand its line yet again, and it’s no secret that Bridgestone Golf, a member of a larger corporate umbrella, is still going strong as well. Perhaps Asia holds more answers than simply acting as an overseas manufacturing option.