Equipment
TaylorMade makes big investment in its golf balls
TaylorMade will invest $13 million in building a new 120,000-square-foot ball manufacturing plant in Liberty, S.C.
With the investment, TaylorMade is making its push to become a major player in the golf ball industry; an industry that is already saturated with products from many other manufacturers. While Titleist has a stranglehold on the top spot on the PGA Tour with its Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls, this move from TaylorMade could be the first move toward closing its gap to Titleist.
Already known to have an extremely advanced Research & Development department, the new plant will include a state-of-the-art R&D lab, which will look to take an already quality product even further.
The release of its new Lethal golf ball, one of the few five-layer golfs ball on the market, was received with overwhelmingly positive reviews among TaylorMade staffers. According to a company press release, Lethal sales have been higher than any Tour ball in company history through the first two months of the year, and its is currently the No. 2 golf ball played on the PGA Tour.
The move to a new plant will also improve the company’s profit margins by streamlining the ball-making process with new energy-efficient and eco-friendly machines. TaylorMade is also expecting much lower costs of maintenance.
“We are getting a new building in a booming area that will improve our unit production, quality and margin position,” said John Kawaja, TaylorMade’s executive vice president, in a press release. “Most important, we are committed to keeping jobs in South Carolina.”
The company currently manufactures its golf balls 26 miles away from the new site in Westminster, S.C. The new plant will replace the 52 year-old facility, but the company hopes to retain and add to the 90 workers currently employed at the plant.
The plant will serve as TaylorMade’s North American ball production headquarters. It is expected to manufacture 2.5 to 3 million dozen balls per year, compared to the 2 million dozen currently being produced.
Construction will break ground in May with an expected opening of the plant in January 2014 and a complete transition to the new building by July 2014.
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Whats in the Bag
Kevin Streelman WITB 2024 (April)
- Kevin Streelman what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.
Driver: Titleist TSR3 (10 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 6 X
3-wood: Titleist TSR3 (15 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X
5-wood: Ping G (17.5 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 10 X
Irons: Wilson Staff Model CB (4-9)
Shafts: Project X 6.5
Wedges: Wilson Staff Model (48-08, 54-08), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58-L @59)
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (48), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (54, 58)
Putter: Scotty Cameron TourType SSS TG6
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Check out more in-hand photos of Kevin Streelman’s clubs here.
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Equipment
Choose Your Driver: Which 2012 driver was your favorite?
The year was 2012. Gangnam Style ruled supreme, its infectious beats and ludicrous horse-riding dance moves hypnotizing us with their stupidity. Everyone was talking about the Mayan calendar, convinced that the end of days was near. Superheroes soared on the silver screen, with the Avengers assembling in epic fashion. Katniss Everdeen survived The Hunger Games. And the memes! The memes abounded. Grumpy Cat triumphed. We kept calm and carried on.
In much the same way that automotive enthusiasts love classic cars, we at GolfWRX love taking a backward glance at some of the iconic designs of years past. Heck, we love taking iconic designs to the tee box in the present!
In that spirit, GolfWRX has been running a series inspired by arguably the greatest fighting game franchise of all time: Mortal Kombat. It’s not “choose your fighter” but rather “choose your driver.”
Check out some of the standout combatants of 2012 below.
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Nike VRS
Often harshly critiqued during its years releasing golf equipment (right, Phil Mickelson?), Nike’s tenure in the club-and-ball business gets a gloss of nostalgic varnish, with many of its iron and putter designs continuing to attract admirers. Among the company’s driver offerings, the 2012 VRS — or VR_S, if you will — drew high marks for its shaping and toned-down appearance. The multi-thickness, NexCOR face was no joke either.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
Callaway RAZR Fit
Callaway’s first foray into moveable weight technology (married with its OptiFit hosel) did not disappoint. With a carbon fiber crown, aerodynamic attention to detail, and variable and hyperbolic face technologies, this club foreshadowed the tech-loaded, “story in every surface” Callaway drivers of the present, AI-informed design age.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
Cleveland Classic 310
Truly a design that came out of left field. Cleveland said, “Give me a persimmon driver, but make it titanium…in 460cc.” Our 2012 reviewer, JokerUsn wrote, “I don’t need to elaborate on all the aesthetics of this club. You’ve seen tons of pics. You’ve all probably seen a bunch in the store and held them up close and gotten drool on them. From a playing perspective, the color is not distracting. It’s dark enough to stay unobtrusive in bright sunlight…Even my playing partners, who aren’t into clubs at all…commented on it saying it looks cool.” Long live!
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
Titleist 910
While there’s no disputing Titleist’s “Titleist Speed” era of drivers perform better than its 2010s offerings, sentimentality abounds, and there was something classically Titleist about these clubs, right down to the alignment aid, and the look is somewhere between 983 times and the present TS age. Representing a resurgence after a disappointing stretch of offerings (907, 909), The 910D2 was a fairly broadly appealing driver with its classic look at address and classic Titleist face shape.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
TaylorMade RocketBallz
The white crown. The name. You either loved ‘em or you hated ‘em. TaylorMade’s 2012 offering from its RocketBallz Period boasted speed-enhancing aerodynamics and an Inverted Cone Technology in the club’s titanium face. Technology aside, it’s impossible to overstate what a departure from the norm a white-headed driver was in the world of golf equipment.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
Ping i20
Long a quietly assertive player in the driver space, Ping’s i20 was more broadly appealing than the G20, despite being a lower-launch, lower-spin club. Ping drivers didn’t always have looks that golfer’s considered traditional or classic, but the i20 driver bucked that trend. Combining the classic look with Ping’s engineering created a driver that better players really gravitated toward. The i20 offered players lower launch and lower spin for more penetrating ball flight while the rear 20g tungsten weights kept the head stable. Sound and feel were great also, being one of the more muted driver sounds Ping had created up to that time.
Check out our coverage from 2012 here.
GolfWRXers, let us know in the comments who “your fighter” is and why!
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Equipment
Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (4/29/24): Krank Formula Fire driver with AutoFlex SF505 shaft
At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.
It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.
Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a Krank Formula fire driver with AutoFlex SF505 shaft.
From the seller: (@well01): “Krank formula fire 10.5 degree with AUtoflex SF505. $560 shipped.”
To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Krank Formula Fire driver with AutoFlex SF505 shaft
This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules
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Billie Canuck
Mar 27, 2015 at 8:54 pm
At least get your years right…! 2014? Wasn’t that last year? Good job proof reading folks
Joe Golfer
Apr 15, 2013 at 12:08 am
Good ideas in the comments section.
The name “Lethal” makes it sound like a purely distance ball, despite it being a multi-layered high end ball.
J
Apr 13, 2013 at 12:51 am
TM TourS
TM TourX
Just a thought… Improve the performance year after year
Jack
Apr 11, 2013 at 11:54 pm
True. I get confused and think none of them are top of the line. Like Callaway calls them Hex … I just checked and they have a million different Hexs. NVM.
DJ Golf
Apr 11, 2013 at 8:38 pm
They need to choose a name for their top-of-the-line golf ball, something similar to “PRO V1”. A singular, recognizable name for that specific ball. Every year it’s a new ball with a new name. Wanna catch Titleist?
Mimic them.