Callaway

The Callaway Company is one of the world's best known brands of premium equipment. Callaway manufactures various club including woods, irons, wedges, and putters. They also produce balls and licenses its name for apparel, footwear, and accessories. Callaway also owns and manufactures products under the Odyssey putter brand as well as Top-Flite and Ben Hogan brands.

The company first made its name building clubs that were friendly and forgiving for amateur golfers, but became famous for its success among notable professionals and endorsers that include Phil Mickelson, Rocco Mediate, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Johnny Miller.

Callaway is perhaps best known for its Big Bertha drivers, the industry's first wide body, stainless steel wood and the club that launched the company to iconic status among pro and amateur golfers. The Big Bertha would put Callaway into the forefront of golfer's minds as they realized that "Bertha" would help them with long drives beyond their own expectations.

The company was founded in 1982 by former Burlington Industries textile president Ely Callaway. A dynamic leader and famously successful businessman, Mr. Callaway sold his Temecula, CA-based winery for a nice profit and was enjoying a brief retirement before adding club maker to his resume.

Never one to sit idle, he was playing plenty of and was on the lookout for new business opportunities when he spotted a wooden pitching wedge in a Palm Springs-area shop. The club was reminiscent of the hickory-shafted clubs he had used as a child, but this shaft was hollowed and filled with a steel core for consistency and strength. He bought half of Hickory Stick USA and renamed it the Callaway Hickory Stick USA.

Mr. Callaway was well known for thinking big, and he did this a lot when forming and growing his company. Today, the company continues to develop and manufacture technologically advanced equipment, including its line of two- and three-piece balls, as well as its Fusion FT-3 Driver, which combines titanium and carbon composite materials and allows golfers to choose internal weighting options that can counteract a slice or hook or enhance a draw or fade.

Callaway is preparing to release their latest driver the, F-Ti - a new technology in drivers with a square head. Phil Mickelson used two versions of the driver - a draw and a fade - in his 2006 Masters victory. Swedish sensation Annika Sorenstam, who has used and endorsed Callaway equipment for her entire pro career, became the only woman to shoot 59 in competition in 2001 and in 2006 used the FT-3 Driver to earn her 10th major championship victory.

Author Information

Mark Hamilton of Golf2Win.com. This Golf article may be reproduced provided the author's information and web site link is kept intact

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