Callaway Golf
How would you have this –Titleist is to Pro V1 and Callaway is to Great Big Bertha? Or is it True Temper is to Seamless Golf Shafts and Callaway is to Great Big Bertha?
Everyone knows that the Titleist Pro V1 is the brand name Titleist’s working design and so is True Temper’s golf shaft. Anyone who has been playing golf for some time would have heard about the Great Big Bertha, and how it paved the way for Callaway Golf to become the best gold equipment manufacturer in the United States.
Like all things however, the brand name Callaway didn’t start with a big bang. Instead, it started out as a bright idea.
It all started with the avid golfer Ely Callaway, who was already a successfully retired businessman when he first saw the inspiration for his idea. It was some wooden pitching wedge sold on a golf shop in Palm Springs. It was made of Hickory and it wasn’t of the traditional solid make. Take note that during this time, around the 80’s, drivers consist mostly of wood, actual solid wood, hence the name. They are usually made of persimmon, or maple or hickory. These woods are efficient long shooters, long an heavy club for the purpose of delivering long drives. The only thing is that they are heavy, as solid maple wood shaft plus a steel club head that’s several inches in length becomes pretty heavy and equally tricky to hit a ball with.
But Ely Callaway’s find was a fascinating one. Instead this wooden golf club was hollowed out and filled with steel for a core, thus providing strength and consistency where the solid hickory golf club would fail, due to natural inconsistencies and the wood’s frailty. And of course, it is lighter. Ely Callaway bought half of the stocks and proceeded to seek out the next design: the clubface.
This was later on provided by Richard C. Helmstetter.
Before Ely Callaway wooed him into joining him, Richard C. Helmstetter was an engineer working also successfully in Japan. He became Ely Callaway’s chief club designer and the partnership proved to be fruitful. The brainchild was a catalyst clubface, of which the golf club would be later known better of. A 190cc of steel, it was one massive clubface that was wildly different from other drivers on the market. The massive club head, together with Ely Callaway golf shaft concept, the Big Bertha was born.
The original Big Bertha, when it came out, rewrote the physics of the golf game. It was massive, or the club head was. This rare feature (during the time it was rare) was more forgiving skill wise. Due to the enlarged head, the sweet spot (the optimal striking area) also became larger. Strikes now become more solid and longer drives became achievable even by novices. It became easier to hit with, and even off center hits made fantastic conversions. The absence of weight on the hollowed shaft magnified the weight of the massive club head, where the weight is often critical. With the Big Bertha, even weak armed golfers like women can achieve longer carries. And before long, Callaway’s Big Bertha was on every golfer’s club bag. In 1992, Callaway became public on the New York Stock Exchange.
To this date, Callaway Golf clubs are still among the top picks, that Callaway golf club clones became also profitable markets. And Callaway Golf had extended their line towards most golf equipment: Callaway golf balls, Callaway golf shoes, Callaway golf apparel, Callaway golf bags, etc... Most of these spin off golf equipment are also true to the Callaway Golf Quality Assurance.