Industry Facts and News from the USA

From the Masters:
TaylorMade (27 drivers), Titleist (14 sets of irons, 33 putters, 68 wedges, and 45 balls), and Footjoy (51 pairs of shoes, 25 gloves); Of those 45 Titleist balls in play, 38 were Pro V1, 6 were Pro V1 *, and one was the Pro V1 Diamond, a new prototype model; The most-played fairway wood model was a tie between Callaway's Steelhead and TaylorMade's 200 Steel Tour (17 in play, each); 39 players used Softspikes cleats in their shoes, more than thos e who used metal spikes.

TaylorMade continues to rack up wins on the PGA Tour with Goosen's win at the BellSouth Classic. Their new RAC wedges have already notched 3 wins to date.

Se Ri Pak has re-signed with Maxfli Golf to a multi-year deal to use the Maxfli A10 golf ball in competition.

Carbites B- Brass balls putter scoredits first win at the BellSouth Classic

TaylorMade Golf has promoted Mike Peck to director of U.S. sales and Chris Coffman to national accounts director. TMAG has also officially made public the endorsement signings of Craig Perks, Jose Coceres, Peter Lonard, and Eduardo Herrera.

The San Antonio City Council April 5 approved a deal that will allow Lumbermen's Investment Corp. to build a second PGA Village resort over an environmentally sensitive aquifer's recharge zone north of the city. The possibility of a referendum to bloc k the project, however, still exists.

According to Golf Datatech, February putter unit sales improved to 72,770 from 71,250 in the same month a year ago -- a 2.1 percent gain. The industry research firm also reported that the number of wedges sold in February increased 2.4 percent to 41 ,590 this year compared with 40,620 in 2001. Sales were $3.5 million, up 1.2 percent from $3.4 million.

Titleist reports that Terry McCabe, senior VP of research and development for Titleist clubs, has resigned after 40 years.

Lands' End, one of the largest direct market retailers and an e-commerce pioneer, has introduced its first official golf wear collection for spring.

Yonex will introduce a new line of V-mass products--the V-mass 260 irons and woods. The irons--with a suggested retail price of $960 for a set of eight with Yonex' UL-Titanium 7 graphite shafts--are cast but use a soft grade of steel to mimic forged clubs. The new woods, with the same UL-Titanium 7 shaft--feature a stainless steel body with a cast maraging steel face and have a suggested retail price of $260 each.