As the Open Championship was played for the 148th time, it was a reminder that golf is one of our oldest sports. Yet the brands that dominate the golf marketplace are relatively young – most were not even around when our golfing mothers and fathers started playing the game. Let\u2019s look at some of the leading brands of golf:<\/p>\n
One of the most venerable golfing names is Titleist. The first Titleist golf ball was introduced in 1930 by a rubber manufacturing company called Acushnet, best known at the time for making swimming caps. In short order, the Massachusetts firm was best known for making Titleist golf balls<\/a>. At the 1949 U.S. Open, Acushnet representatives figured out that more golfers in the field were playing their brand than any other. Ever since Titleist has been promoted as \u201cThe #1 Ball in Golf.\u201d The Titleist Pro V1 is the current go-to ball in professional tournament golf.<\/p>\n Titleist entered the golf club business in 1962 and its sticks gained a similarly devoted following. Tiger Woods<\/a> continued using his beloved Titleist driver long after he had signed endorsement deals with other golf manufacturers. Today you will find Titleist golf clubs<\/a> in the bags of top stars like Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott.<\/p>\n The oldest brand in golf is FootJoy. The Burt and Packard Shoe Company was already three years old when the first Open Championship was played in 1860. There weren\u2019t even referred to as \u201cgolf shoes\u201d at the time since nails were just driven into the soles of regular shoes. When golf shoes started becoming a standard piece of equipment, FootJoy golf shoes<\/a> were there. When the immortal Walter Hagen captained the first American Ryder Cup team in 1927, FootJoy was the official team shoe. When the PGA performed its first official shoe count in 1945, FootJoy was the winner and still remains the dominant footwear in golf.<\/p>\n FootJoy entered the golf gloves<\/a> business in 1979 and rapidly became the best-selling glove in golf on the back of its pioneering water-repellent Cabretta leather. For the past 35 years, FootJoy has been a sister brand of Titleist.<\/p>\n Karsten Solheim ushered in the era of the specialty golf company in 1959. A Norwegian-born engineer and frustrated golfer, Solheim developed a putter<\/a> in his California garage that was weighted in the heel and toe, rather than directly behind the sweet spot. He called it the PING 1A because of the sound the club made when it struck the golf ball<\/a>. Solheim refined his design to create the Anser putter in 1966, which went on to claim over 500 PGA Tour victories. Three years later, Ping introduced heel-toe weighted irons, creating an entirely new sales category in golf – the \u201cplayer development\u201d club. PING golf clubs<\/a> are not just for amateurs looking to improve their games, however. PGA Tour driving distance leader Cameron Champ deploys a PING G410 Plus driver for launching his bombs.<\/p>\nFootJoy<\/h2>\n
PING<\/h2>\n