An observation about Titliest and tour players

While looking through older PGA WITB's and just going what i remember in my head, I have made an observation and wanted others to chime in on it. I have noticed that many of the big name players in today's game started their pro careers with full Titleist contracts. Brooks and Rory are the ones in forefront of my mind. My question is why? Is it Titleist had taken more chances on younger players or is it they have a great junior program and discounts like I know ping does? Would love to hear others' thoughts on this and discuss it.

Side note, my old account got lost and man does it feel good to be back on the forums :)

What equipment are college golfers using? We polled 61 coaches to find out…Most colleges participate in a college discount program for clubs and balls. Sponsorship and Donations | TitleistI remember when working at a course many years ago where there were pretty good discounts were available for pga class a professionals or those in the pga program.

I guess that's a partial answer.

Junior sponsorships,in 2012 i got lots of coaching from a Titleist signed Coach,he had his Scotty was from Scotty..so Real passion and love of the game,not just ok here is your half hour mate,lets go....?

Titleist focuses on the younger crowd to create brand loyalty. Hence the junior program and college ties. As they turn pro, guess what they want to play. Titleist. And as they rise to superstardom, 95% of the time they tap out and let them go to save money to sign younger and cheaper contracts. The only guy that they’ve stuck with for the long term is Adam Scott. You could maybe add DLIII to that list as he was a long-time Titty staffer. But other than those two I can’t think of anybody high profile that has been with them for more than 10 years. Scott Stallings is a great golfer but to me he’s not high profile.

A young player wants to show the other kids that he is a real player, and real players play Titleist. They are VERY conscious of that.

Jordan spieth has been with them for a few years now and would say he’s pretty high profile.

You’re right. Completely forgot about that guy.

Would add JT is no slouch.

Quite a few of the present big name guys started out with Titleist but left for greener pastures to other OEMs as Wally Uihlein at the time said that no one player will ever be bigger than the brand.

Jimmy Walker

YJS plays AP2's, so clearly not a real player.

IIRC, Titleist doesn't pay their staffers NEARLY as much as the other OEMs. I remember reading that Adam Scott was "only" getting $750k/yr from them in 2013 when he won The Masters.

They all have their strategies to sell more clubs. Whether It’s sponsoring a name, or paying tee up money to no names to get your counts up, or relying on reputation, or wholesaling clubs to juniors, etc. It’s a free for all for market share and no ones a “bad guy” for doing it however they see fit. Titliest just happens to crush the golf ball market share so they rely on reputation and junior programs more then high dollar sponsorships. But Nike couldn’t make it doing that, so was Titliest wrong to let go of players like Tiger and Rory when their agents wanted to get them more money? Food for thought. Seems like Titliest is one the brands that has remained solid financially.

Could we throw Webb Simpson in the mix? Not sure "elite" would be the word but he's pretty dang solid and can get it done when he needs to.

I think it comes down to what people grow up playing, it makes sense they stick with what's comfortable until something like contract money plays a part. Watching the Long Beach Open last year, I was surprised at how much Titleist was out there on the course in these young guys bags. By far more than any other brand.

Yes, a US Open champion and top ten player can be considered elite.

It’s like baseball. Titleist builds from a serious farm system. TaylorMade signs all the big name free agents.

Does Steve Stricker count?

Easy... cause historically they are regarded by most to have the best stuff across the board, especially highly skilled golfers. They always leave em Eventually cause they dont pay as much.

As a high school coach, kids want Pro Vs, Vokey wedges and Scotty putters. Titleist does a great job pricing balls for HS teams with the team logo. My sons played college golf at the NCAA D-3 level and Titleist sells them everything at a fraction of the cost through their schools. Plus they seem to have the club pro market cornered as well. Heck you watch a Titleist ball commercial and you feel guilty you're not playing their ball! Titleist has never believed in big contracts for its tour players. But I don't think that hurts them - they still have ball, glove, shoe and hat deals out there for a lot of players from Juniors to the professional tours.

Titleist just does a lot right in their marketing and the quality of their products.

I forgot a lot of guys who’ve been long-time Titty staffers. My basic point wasn’t to name every one of them, it was to generally make the point that Titleist focuses on younger talent and generally when those contracts are up they let them walk. Some do stay, of course.

Years ago, perhaps 1980s and before, Titleist never used any professionals in their ads. No particular players were ever synonymous with the brand. Just promoted their balls by the ball count and how it was always the #1 used ball in golf (for better players). Of course Top Flight had the market cornered for inexpensive two piece balls that were the "longest."

Titleist has some incredible players on staff. JT, Jordan, Adam Scott, Webb and Patrick Cantlay who is an absolute baller. They had some of their biggest name players over the years win their first major while being on staff. A lot of companies are making great equipment now, and Titleist is right up there. Plus, the state of the art facilities, TPI and legends in the game as equipment designers it would be hard to say no to that.

I don't know if this has changed but for a loooonnnngggg time Titleist focused almost 100% of its attention on green grass accounts. So your head pros, teaching pros, and assistant pros (and likely shop and backshop staff) got pretty good PUD discounts on equipment. They also usually got a couple dozen balls, a few FJ gloves, and a hat or two to start the year fresh. Some bigger accounts would get free equipment for the guys and each shop staff would get a pair of golf shoes and shop shoes to wear. I remember starting out in golf retail in 2004 I think and my big box store didn't have a Titleist PUD program until around 2006 and 2007 as that was reserved for the green grass accounts only. I'd like to see how many dozen ProV1s a country club sells vs. a place like PGA SuperStore over the course of a year...but they held fast.

Now I know some of my friends who still work in the big box environment do get the packages of clubs each year (that they have to return). But they have noticed that the hats, gloves, and balls no longer get dropped off in April each year. Cycling back, when you get your kids who play 36 a day in the summer and are getting lessons from the pro every week with the shiny new shoes and those new irons that Tiger/Adam/Jordan/Justin/Mickelson/Els used last week to win or hit that clutch bunker shot....what do you think they ask for for Christmas? They aren't dumb!

He does in Wisconsin!

lol....just wanting to know, what went through your thoughts when you wrote that Webb might not be in the mix, and you have doubts about him being an elite golfer on the best tour?

Then, just to put it into perspective, do you know what it takes to even get a card for the lesser tours around the world?

Anyone playing the US tour is elite.

I meant elite, like top 5 or 10 in the world "elite". I do think Webb is phenominal but there have been a lot of people here that do not see him that way. Obviously anyone playing in the PGA is on another level but the OP talked about Titleist staffers not necessarily being highly ranked and more of a younger, new to the tour crowd type presence... besides the few already named, Webb hadn't been mentioned... obviously wasnt at the top of a lot of people's minds, maybe for a reason, maybe not.