"USGA restrictions are hindering product innovation."

Adam Schupak reports that times are tough for the equipment industry and of course, it's mostly the USGA's fault...if you ask the manufacturers.

Retailers and analysts say consumer spending domestically has stalled over concerns about an economy wracked by foreclosures and soaring fuel prices. Adverse weather has limited rounds played in key areas, which also is affecting equipment sales, they say.

Another persistent complaint: USGA restrictions are hindering product innovation. In an analyst report on Callaway, Casey Alexander of New York-based Gilford Securities wrote: “The U.S. market looks like it could produce a year where equipment sales come in down 7 percent to 8 percent, which may not sound that bad until you judge it against 10 years of equipment sales that were plus or minus 2 percent regardless of what the economy was doing.”

At this point Schupak lists all of the ways the manufacturers have made things tougher on themselves:

Retailers also say they’re being hurt by shorter product life cycles. The growing practice of launching products in almost rapid-fire succession is conditioning consumers to wait, say six months, to buy a premium-priced driver because they know it will be marked down. That consumer behavior has become more pronounced during a sluggish economy.

Those darn consumers! Don't they know they exist to help each quarter's earnings? What is wrong with you people. Shop!

“That mindset has come back to bite us,” Marney says.

Comments

[jneu]

I was at a recent media event where a spokesperson for a major equipment company detailed the benefits of the clubs they're rolling out in the fall, and noted that the shelf life of their products is eighteen months, and they'd have something else ready then.

Don't know if it was the most honest thing I've ever heard, or the most cynical. Probably both. Suffice it to say, I'm not going to weep for the manufacturers.

[pete blaisdell]

Isn't it a bit of a stretch when we blame the PGA of America and this overblown criticism of course setup for poor tv ratings and the demise of the game? Let's be honest here. Too many golf courses were built, green fees are too high. The costs of maintaining these courses have skyrocketed. The economy has tanked. $400 drivers, $200 putters,$150 shirts,normal working class folks have less free time, cost of living (gas ,food, healthcare etc.) and the game has simply spread itself too thin with too many tours and too many events. Do you actually believe that the ratings were bad because the golf course was too tough? give me a break.. i heard people complain about millionaire players whining about how tough it was. that's what turns people off, that is what makes them change the channel or go do something else.You can only ride the coattails of the messiah (mr.woods) for so long.we don't need golf in the olympics and winning scores of 20 under to grow the game. we need affordable equipment and green fees (67% of the game is public) and good basic golf courses to play.the first tee program is so important to the game's growth.let's not lose the new players that have taken up the game.the media's obsession with course setup, course design and numbers is really getting old.it seems that it has become " the story" week in and week out.have we forgotton that it is a simple game of stick, ball and hole?

[Chuck]

Sheeeeeesh!
Hey, Titleist, hey Taylor Made, Ping, Callaway, etc.; what do you suppose is the effect on "growing the game" and enhancing the expereince of casual golfers when you are telling them that what they need to compete are $499 titanium-alloy drivers, balls at $54 a dozen, and multicompund irons with tungsten inserts and elastomer cavities?
Really, for any analyst to complain about USGA "restrictions" is to say that they should be no rules on equipment at all, since the USGA has done practically nothing to "restrict" clubs other than to try to play catch-up with rather old rules...

[86general]

The ultrashort product cycles are really a sham, I think, and it's only been the fact that we've had a decade or more of a soaring economy that has sustained it. With all sorts of things crashing around us in the global economy, why couldn't the golf club market - or all of golf, for that matter - be next in line.

I can't prove any of this, but I don't buy 95% of the arguments as to why golf may be declining in participation and/or popularity. The equipment is fine, it isn't too expensive, it's basically right around where it's always been compared to the price of a gallon of milk, and there are more choices and better overall quality across the board today. The stupid product cycles help consumers, who can get better quality for off-prices.

It isn't the golf courses and the expense. Nobody takes up golf to save money, and I doubt that incremental changes in the price of greens' fees and memberships has really driven down participation.

What I wonder is whether it's a deep, societal trend that cuts wider than sports. The computer and information age is isolating people more and more. Young kids become involved in sports today, but primarily in adult-supervised, organized venues. "Pick up games" of anything - wiffle ball, stickball, spud, whatever - are never seen among the kids in my neighborhood. Kids send each other text messages; they barely ever actually talk to one another outside of school, other than in supervised activities with adults.

The simple summer day of my youth, which usually involved lots of free, unstructured time, in which I would typically call up a friend and see if he wanted to play wiffle, or go to the pitch and putt, or ride bikes, is just gone.

Golf is a social game. It also doesn't lend itself to mass participation in programs organized by adults and through schools and municipalities. Everything about the way people interact and structure their lives today makes it just a little harder to become engrossed in golf.

It's too good a game to ever become extinct, I think, but I'm not sure golf has very bright prospects for significant growth in the future.