ruptcy agreement in 2003, the brand
enjoyed a healthy portion of the golf
ball market share. A steady decline
in Top-Flite’s sales coupled with a
desire to focus on Callaway’s core
businesses led the company to sell the
brand to Dick’s Sporting Goods on
April 4 for $20 million. Callaway sold
off the Hogan brand to Perry Ellis
earlier this year.
Although some might look at the
numbers and see a dramatic loss on
the deal, Callaway did have a revenue
stream for nine years with Top-Flite
and still owns the Chicopee, Mass.,
ball factory (which greatly reduced
production costs). The Top-Flite
acquisition also gave Callaway an impressive—and much sought-after—
portfolio of intellectual property and
ball patents.
At the start of 2005, Top-Flite still
held a healthy 12 percent market
share in on- and off-course golf shops.
That year, however, began the start
of a steady decline in sales, and by
the end of ’05 the company’s share in
balls had eroded by some 25 percent.
Today the company’s market share
is only about one-third of what it was
that year, with all of its current mod-
els selling for $20 a dozen or less.
Incredible comfort.
Barefoot feel.
Join the conversation at
Facebook.com/Truelinkswear.
pga tour
the Bashful prince
to take a princess
�� Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa
announced at a news conference
April 8 in Tokyo that he is engaged
to his longtime girlfriend. He hasn’t
revealed her name to protect
her privacy.
Ishikawa, 20, known in his home
country as “The Bashful Prince,”
The pair have known each
other since junior high school
and have been dating for more
than four years.
Ishikawa recently accepted
special temporary membership to the PGA Tour for the
remainder of the 2012 season
after finishing second at the
Puerto Rico Open and earning
at least as much as the No.
150 money winner from the
2011 season. He has earned
$501,231 this year. —D.S.
Ryo Ishikawa
truelinkswear.com
