Over the Green

The arguments and counterarguments by the parties of the Titleist – Callaway brouhaha have resulted in not only forcing Titleist to revise the production of Pro V1s but now Callaway has demanded all the “previously manufactured” balls be pulled from the market. This is viewed by Callaway as their right after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a stay of a permanent injunction given Callaway on Dec. 23 when the manufacturing process used for Pro V1s was found to infringe on four Callaway patents.

So Acushnet got a lump of coal in their stocking and in my view this whole thing is just a mess.

There are three salient points which should not be overlooked and which are being under reported by my fellow golf journalists. First within a few weeks newly designed Pro V1s will be on the market, at least the fourth iteration since the brand was introduced in 2000, and needless to say this version will be made without coming within miles of the Callaway patents.

Second according to Acushnet the Callaway patents are not valid and the Patent Office has said so in a ruling issued subsequent to when Callaway filed the original law suit back in 2006. Predictably Acushnet is appealing the original patent infringement verdict.

Finally, and this goes to a point I made in the Dec. 11 column, if the above is true Callaway in my opinion doesn’t seem to be operating in the spirit of the game of golf where you take your opponent to the course to prove who is better. You cough in his back swing or put pepper in his sun tan lotion.

If Callaway wants to compete with Acushnet in the golf ball market where Acushnet’s Titleist and Pinnacle brands have over 60% share let them make a better product at a better price not resort to gamesmanship. I know they must think Acushnet is in the wrong and they may be but I guess I’m unhappy with how Callaway is conducting their business.

Callaway seems to be making this point easy for me since they have been running full page ads in the national golf publications with the copy, “’The #1 Ball in Golf’ was built on Callaway Golf technology. In business as in golf, we believe in playing by the rules.”

However, I remember Callaway selling non-conforming drivers a few years ago.