GWD_MAY_16

EQUIPMENT
THE TECH
EXPERT
Breaking the monopoly
Derek Murray on why it’s so difficult for new brands to
break into golf and why PXG might just manage it.
The golf equipment club market is a
tricky and complicated place. Five
or six big brands dominate the
landscape and it can be incredibly
hard for even the biggest global equipment
brands to get a foothold and gain some
traction. Combine this with some of the
established order struggling to make ends
meet and the odd ‘For Sale’ sign emerging
and it’s diffcult to see any room left at an
already jam-packed party for new names.
Quite a few big general sports brands have
tried to smash their way into golf – and most
often with limited success. It seems strange
that global and instantly-recognisable brands
seem to struggle to gain consumer traction all
around the world. Even though they sign big
name players to endorse the products, have
an endless marketing budget to throw at their
very trendy current messaging and produce
what seems like very credible equipment with
good performance, the golfers of the world
just don’t really engage.
Many golf consumers are almost tribal in
their loyalty to their chosen brands. It’s almost
as if they don’t want to even consider another
brand that doesn’t fit into their historic
support of the brands they know and love. I’ve
often seen golfers struggle with a brand and
almost give up the game before they will be
seen to ‘cheat’ on what they perceive to be
their lifelong ambassador role.
Recently Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG)
entered this cluttered and complicated golf
club market. I’d been watching from the
sideline for nearly a year, observing how this
brand was developing, and I was interested in
the different way they presented themselves.
It wasn’t the performance of the product that
caught my eye initially, but rather what they
stood for and how they were doing things.
PXG’s clubs
are already
making a big
impression.
‘In some cases a stronger
loft is acceptable but
when a 6-iron has a 4-iron
loft I ask questions’
They’re happy to have strict jurisdictions, and
happy to tell golfers that the people they’ve
chosen to work with are the very best advisors
and/or clubmakers in the world. They’re all
about the consumer experience with PXG and
the ‘journey’. They’re happy to take a stand
and tell the golfing public that they were
producing very, very good equipment and it
won’t be out of date the week after they buy
it. They actually took a step back and gave the
industry what it seemed every other brand
wasn’t giving.
I’ve studied quite a few very successful
businesses that were born out of a group of
smart individuals looking deep into the
marketplace and studying what’s happening.
They analyse, dissect and work out what’s not
being done properly. Figure out what the
consumer or retailer really wants, what they
aren’t getting, and then simply deliver a
product and/or service that ticks all the boxes.
This is exactly what PXG has done – and it’s
why they can force their way onto the top
table of golf club manufacturers. It’s an
exclusive brand that is very clearly focused
on uncompromising design with high-end
performance. Their exclusivity is also led
through their higher pricing policy. The clubs
might seem pricey to the consumer but I
understand this approach because they want
to do less business with fewer accounts, so the
higher price has to reflect this.
They’ve made a smart move to align
themselves with very professional, successful,
like-minded people around the world who
I believe will remain loyal to the brand even
when the media hype dies down. They don’t
want to sell online because they want golfers
to be properly and professionally matched
and fitted to their clubs. The stack it high and
sell to everyone quickly model has failed
miserably – and continues to fail – so they had
to do something different. Trying to be
everything to everyone simply doesn’t work.
When other well-known brands broke into
the golf market they believed their knowledge
of how things work in other sports and
industries could be easily applied to golf and
create inevitable succes. But it just doesn’t
work that way. Golf is different – and you have
to treat it differently. This approach has
created a marketplace that isn’t entirely
working. Golf, for the consumer, is for the most
part dented, and in some cases badly broken.
PXG’s fresh approach might just be the
catalyst for change. If the more established
brands can see that a different way can work,
it might force them to alter their approach to
the benefit of all of us.
THREE OF THE BEST The products and technologies that caught Derek’s eye this month.
ARTIFICIAL GRASS FUJIKURA SPEEDER 665
EVOLUTION II TS
We’re revamping the mats in our fitting bay so
we’re looking at a variety of weaves, depths,
Any time a manufacturer releases a new
densities and blade widths of artificial grass to
shaft we have to work out where it fits in
find what offers the closest performance to
with their other products and what
real grass. We may use
clubheads it matches with best. Fujikura
different strips to
shafts tend to be softer in the tip so you
replicate different lie
might have to decrease the loft of your
conditions. It’s going
driver to achieve optimum spin.
to be the best mat
in the world!
CALLAWAY CHROME SOFT
2016 BALL
I love this ball. It’s a significant step forward on
feel and spin control from the previous
version. It feels soft but it
doesn’t spin a lot on full
shots and it’s good
around the greens. Even
mid swing speeds are
getting more distance
from it.
May 2016 Golf World
103