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Remember When Titleist Was “KING”?

I remember back when I worked in a proshop when I was younger, Titleist was “The King” of the golf club industry. All my bosses would prep us ahead of time for when a Titleist rep would come for a visit. We had to be on our P’s & Q’s when they walked through those doors. We had to be more courteous, more attentive, and damnit you had better have more Titleist stuff being promoted then ANY other brand when they walked into your store. Everyone was in fear of losing their account with Titleist back then and for good reason…they made up a large majority of our sales…if it wasn’t for them our store and many others across the US would have been out of business.

And I also remember them having an odd amount of control over seemingly every golf shop across America for a couple reasons:

1. Pricing – The reps would walk through your store like turkey vultures (well not really but thats the way it felt to us) looking for any instance of you selling their equipment for even 1 penny under what price they had set. It’s called MAP (Minimum Advertised Pricing). And if you were selling below their MAP pricing, they could and would take your account from you (well that was the rumor going around at least). And you would actually hear through the grapevine daily of stores violating it and really losing their accounts, so you damn sure weren’t gonna push your luck. So we were constantly going through the store making sure all the pricing was right, actually we would raise the prices just to make sure we complied. Why was this effective?…Because it gave the impression that THEY were in control of YOUR store. Just like when your dad would tell you “As long as you live under my roof son your tail is mine!” So you looked up to them just like you did your Dad…you idolized them. They were KING!
2. Supply & Demand – This always blew my mind and I still never got the answer to this one. But back then we would have 100 people waiting in line for their driver but Titleist would only give us 10. We would call and beg for more but they said they were all sold out across the country. But then I would here of bigger stores getting more but still not enough even to fill their orders. Customers would wait months for a backorder to be filled without 1 single complaint. It had everyone wanting their clubs that much more just because it was that hard to get a hold of one. So I always wondered…”Did Titleist really have enough drivers to give all of us, could they really have been controlling the supply and demand to the point where it made you feel like a Rock Star in your town when your driver did come in 3 months after you ordered it?”

The point behind this story is that Titleist used to control this industry. All the way from what shoes you wore (Foot-Joy) to what driver and irons you played. But over the last 10 years the industry has changed and we always felt like Titleist was behind the curve in regards to technology. It hurt their sales and that control they once had. But fads come and go and trends have ups and downs…but not at Titleist. They don’t believe in following fads…there is just to much risk to their brand. And all though Titleist had lost some of that brand awareness over the last 10 years I truly feel like they are on the right path with their new line-up that we are giving you an early sneak-peek of today.

We had images of one of their models weeks ago but decided to wait until we had images of the entire line-up. We were originally confused by the first images we saw because they looked almost identical to last years model. But more surprises were to come and even a great reasoning for why they kept one of the models so aesthetically similar to last years AP2. We will try to get more images soon of the MB and CB…our pictures don’t do them justice…they are remarkable looking! So here you go enjoy!

Introducing the Titleist 710 Irons!

The 710 designates the new generation of product with the “10″ designating 2010. There will be four new iron models this fall – two new AP irons and two new traditional forgings. The Titleist AP1 710 – Titleist AP2 710 – Titleist MB 710 – Titleist CB 710.

Titleist 710 AP1

The new Titleist AP1 irons offer better feel, more forgiveness, and an improved shape, particularly in the short irons.

Titleist AP1 710’s (Address)

Titleist AP2 710

The new AP2 710 irons have the same multi-material chassis (forged 1025 body with tungsten-nickel sole box) as the original AP2 with a new co-molded feel tuned insert in the cavity to improve the feel and sound. The sole has been modified including less bounce in the short irons to improve ground contact and shot control. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH

The simple story is they maintain the great performance of the original…but add more control and better feel.

Titleist AP2 710’s (Address)

AP1 and AP2 710 Irons (Compare)

Titleist 710 MB (Address)

This iron looks much better in person. We will have to get you guys some more pics of these soon. The Titleist 710 MB Muscle back true blades carbon forged from 1020.

Titleist 710 CB (Address)

And our personal favorites…but once again you will have to wait for more pics on these. These things close up are definitely going in our bag next.