Not coincidentally around the announcement of a slight second quarter sales dip of golf ball sales, Acushnet has countered with a lively filing!
David Dawsey at Golf Patents picks apart the claim and notes some of the stronger rebuttal points against Costco's hot-selling Kirkland ball. His conclusion:
Acushnet’s complaint contains a lot of subtle, and some not so subtle, jabs at the Kirkland Signature golf balls. It is hard to comprehend that “over half of the Kirkland Signature Golf Balls tested by Acushnet Company cracked or became structurally unsound before the testing could even be concluded.” Maybe there is some truth to the old adage that sometimes you get what you pay for! Fortunately, most amateurs would probably lose the ball before it becomes “structurally unsound;” in other words, it may not be too smart to play the K-Sig’s that you find in the woods or fish out of the pond.
This was fun from the filing:
34. Distance Performance. The results of the distance tests for the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball and the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls during Acushnet Company’s robot testing demonstrated that the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball travelled a shorter distance than both the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls for 130 mph drives; that the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball travelled a shorter distance than both the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls for 140 mph drives; that the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball travelled a shorter distance than both the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls for 150 mph drives; and that the Kirkland Signature Golf Ball travelled a shorter distance than both the Titleist® Pro V1® and Pro V1x® golf balls for 167 mph drives.