MacDuff's Top Five from The Show

The Show is over for another year. My iPhone showed I walked 33,000 steps over the 3 days in the Orange County Convention Center. My feet feel like it! I did finally find a restaurant in the Hall I had heard of! Chick-fil-A had a couple of carts serving the awesome chicken sandwich, but you had to look hard to find them!
The steps were not in vain. It was a busy show and with rainy Orlando days, many who come for the mediocre golf available in Orlando actually attended the PGA Show and checked out the 2016 ranges of hard and soft goods. And as I walked 33,000 steps, so you didn't have to, here are my
Annual Top Five from The Show.

Holderness & Bourne

It was the inaugural show year for this New York based company. Owned by two young entrepreneurs Alex Holderness and John Bourne, the company has created a terrific range of shirts, knits and accessories. With bold stripes and a color palette that will appeal to golfers on and off the course this young company are going places. Their small range of luggage and accessories in canvas and leather is also stunning.  See the range here.

Oak Locker

Oak Locker is a cool idea. You go online to their site, register and curate your own locker of clothing, clubs, courses, even your fantasy golf Tour players. Oak Locker allows you to buy products through their partner websites and has a library of current content that is engaging and informative. They have wisely been selective about their partnerships and as their tag line suggest they only promote "the best in golf." You can create your locker here.

Seamus Golf

It's no secret that I have been a Seamus fan since clapping eyes on a single headcover that co-owner Akbar Chisti was wandering the cavernous OCCC hall with several years ago. He and his wife, Megan (she's the other owner!) have taken their simple idea of plaid headcovers and created a brand built on great ideas, execution and passion. Their wool, metal and wood products crafted in Oregon are irresistible! See the Seamus Golf range here.

swingOIL

I so wanted to like swingOIL. It has a great name, packaging and marketing and their endorsement deal with Jason Day is spot on. So, I wandered by their booth and met the engaging owner, Thomas Healey and heard the story behind the company. (You can read it here) I'm pleased to report the drink supplement, available in three flavors tastes terrific and will definitely be in my bag once the season begins. With glucosamine, chondroitin and turmeric, swingOIL will unquestionably help my flexibility and concentration. Read the whole story here.

Titleist

I have played the same set of irons for nine years now - Callaway forged blades. Having now seen in person the Titleist 716 T-MB irons I may actually switch brands. Built around a large tungsten weight with a thin top line they are an incredible looking set of clubs. I need to see my friends at Club Champion and go through a fitting to see if they will work with my rusty swing. Hopefully they will perform, because I really want these! Read more here.

Bonus Find! - Callaway Mack Daddy PM

This is a matte black line extension of the successful line created by wedge genius Roger Cleveland. I bought the 56 degree version last year and am very tempted to add the 60 degree version. My only question - why didn't they call it Black Daddy? Read more here.

The High Heat Driver - Taking on the Big Boys

                                             

It takes brave souls in any business to take on the industry leaders, but in the golf business many would say you have to be certifiable. Well, crazy or not, two gentlemen, Dean Knuth and Steve Trattner decided to take on the behemoths of Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist and launch a very cool and effective new driver. It's called High Heat and it is already making waves in the business. I'm told their first production run is already sold out and more drivers are on the way. And that's because it performs even better than advertised.

Both Dean and Steve have a long history in the game of golf. Dean is the "Pope of Slope" and if you have a USGA approved handicap you know his work, if not his name. He's the math whiz from the USGA who came up with the rating and slope system used in modern handicapping. His resume contains many extraordinary accomplishments (you can read it here) and suffice to say it was just a matter of when, not if, he created a great driver. His business partner is Steve Trattner and for full disclosure Steve is a family friend. He and Dean worked together for many years at the USGA where Steve was the intellectual property attorney (imagine the fascinating documents that came across his desk during that time). So, you know the patents and intellectual property for High Heat were in the best of hands.

Dean at a demo day

I have worked with golf club manufacturers for many years, so I try not to get too caught up in the invented buzz words and marketing speak which invariably come with new clubs. For me, it's much more about understanding the tech without getting too wrapped up in the terminology. Look and feel mean more to me and these are tough concepts to sell, but are the most important factors to me when testing a club. So, let's get the tech bit out of the way. Thankfully and rather wisely High Heat has kept the marketing speak to a minimum  - they focus on High Heat having a deeper and lower center of gravity and a higher MOI than the major brands. 

That's all I need to know, as I understand both concepts. So that should lead to improved trajectory and longer distance, right? Well, in my tests both indoors on a launch monitor and outdoors where I was simply watching ball flight, the High Heat beat my existing Callaway RAZR Fit driver by a solid 10-15 yards and the flight dispersion with the Fujikura Pro 63 shaft straightened me up too!

The other really cool element is the no groove, shiny face that allows you to see where you actually strike the ball on the club face. It had the effect on me of focusing on a pure strike, rather than simply just trying to smash it - a strange calm took over and I started swinging instead of simply hitting, with very positive results! (See below - hard to shoot a great picture, but you get the idea!) I asked Dean about the smooth face for clarification and here's what he had to say,

"Another benefit of the mirror face is that it helps to lower backspin rates. Too much backspin causes distance loss. Lastly, there are seven zones of internal thinness behind the face for increasing the size of the sweet spot zone and putting grooves over this area would have created variability in performance."

If you would like to buy this great driver, go to the High Heat site where Dean and Steve have a MacDuff Golf special. In the "How did you hear about us?" section check the "MacDuff Golf" box and you'll get a $50 discount reducing the price from $399 to $349. You will love this driver! Read more about High Heat here.

A Great New Ball Comes to Market - Vice Golf

I was recently sent a few dozen golf balls from a new German company. They are called Vice and the balls come in a variety of colors and compressions. And having tested them for the last couple months they are really, really good. These guys are very brave entering the US market and going up against Titleist, Callaway and Bridgestone in the worst retail golf market in memory. But, with awesome packaging and a quality product, priced to sell at way, way below the big boys, I wish them luck. Take a look at their website and you'll see pricing at around $25 a dozen and I defy you to tell the difference between Vice and Titleist if your handicap is north of 10. Even for the single digit player the Vice Pro is a great alternative to the $60 a dozen Titleist option. Give them a try by buying online here. (and no I'm not a paid spiffer - this is a great golf ball!)

Titleist Update - The Vultures are Circling

In early December it was reported that conglomerate Fortune Brands (FO) was looking to split itself into 3 parts and unlock greater shareholder value. Word is now out that a couple of Wall Street titans, Bain and Blackstone are circling around the different businesses and a deal is on way. Sumitomo Rubber is also mentioned as an interested party for the Acushnet /Titleist/Scotty Cameron/Bob Vokey divisions of the business.
In addition, FO has hired Morgan Stanley to auction the golf business with a price tag of $1.5B, which seems excessive to me based on the annual sales of $1.0B. All will become clear shortly and with the huge amounts of cash that have been sitting on the sidelines for a couple years, someone is about to place a very large bet on the game of golf.

Fortune Brands confirms Titleist spin off

Fortune Brands confirmed this morning that they are breaking the company into three. It'll be fun to watch the scramble for Titleist/Cameron/Footjoy/Vokey. We speculated in a recent post about who will pay for these world brands and whilst the Tour is in hiatus for a few weeks it will keep golf on our minds.

You can read the release here.

Titleist Going Solo?

Rumors run amok that pressure from certain key investors in Fortune Brands is going to force the NYSE quoted company to split their business into several parts. Fortune owns many great brands like housewares maker, Moen, liquor brands like Jim Beam and also the number one golf revenue generator, Acushnet. The brands within Acushnet are Titleist, Pinnacle, Scotty Cameron, Vokey Wedges and Footjoy shoes.

As an investor I'm all for unlocking value in a share price. The question is ...Who will buy Acushnet?

The suitors would naturally include industry giants, Callaway, Nike and TMAG. Let's have a brief look at these and see if there is a fit.

Firstly Callaway. I don't see this one. As much as Callaway would like to buy their nemesis, their market capitalization of $450M isn't going to support an acquisition of Titleist's reported $1B plus sales.

Nike and Titleist together. In England, we like to say "like chalk and cheese". In America you say "oil and water".  It means the same thing! The culture clash would keep HR busy for an eternity. Not going to happen.

TMaG (TaylorMade adidasGolf) is another potential candidate who would be anxious to get their hands on Titleist's hugely profitable golf ball business. They certainly have the money as the German giant, adidas generates revenues that the golf business can only dream about. As well as facing US monopoly issues, rather like Nike I just don't see the cultural fit.

The natural suitor comes from the East - Japan, Chaina, Taiwan, Korea. They have the money, especially with the exchange rate the way it is and they like "blue chip" brands like Acushnet. The company throws off a good amount of cash and it would be a great story for a Far Eastern company to own this prestigious US brand.

It's all conjecture at this time but good fun to speculate. Titleist and Footjoy under the Acushnet banner remain one of the great legacy brands of the game of golf and a company with deep(ish) pockets will pay for the privilege of adding it to their assets.

TMaG and Villegas - too much too soon.

What are TaylorMadeadidas Golf (TMaG) up to? Publicly announcing Camilo Villegas is under contract from 2011 to them while still under contract to Titleist in 2010 is just asking for trouble. And they got it when the litigious Titleist filed suit against them.

If they were looking for publicity by their actions they got that too - just the wrong kind! Not only that, watch the results of Villegas in the coming months while this plays out and it will be surprising if he shows up in the Top 10.

In the past, we have had players switch manufacturers from year to year. Of course this happens all the time, but there is a unwritten rule that the switch, usually mid season, happens quietly and without a huge fuss. Press releases come and go and the public see the player with new equipment and figure out what has gone on. BUT, to announce mid season while the player is under contract to another company is just underhanded and as the lawyers will argue damaging to the existing company's business. TMaG - cheap shot - actually, maybe an expensive shot!