Hey everyone, and thanks for stopping by – today we take a close look at our Buzz feed for some of the most viewed stories of the past week. This week we have news on Adams Idea hybrids, TaylorMade’s Limited edition Black R11, Yes! Golf’s financial woes, and Nike’s “flip” irons. Enjoy!
First up..Yes! Golf
Yes! Golf Files for Bankruptcy
It’s true, and Yes! Golf is looking to sell. According to our friends over at MyGolfspy.com – here’s the nitty gritty on what went wrong:
So What Went Wrong?
I mean they had some good technology with the C-Groove face…hell Jim Furyk just won the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup with a Yes! Putter just a couple months ago. They had the tour guys playing and winning with it too. So why did yet another popular golf company meet its demise?
Well it is a combination of factors in my opinion. But one of the biggest was they had too many putter models. It’s expensive to go from a small putter company to a big brand putter company. Their business model seemed to follow the Odyssey model closest….where they hoped a buyer would come in after building up the brand and buy them up…but this is high risk/ high reward. There aren’t many Callaway’s anymore buying up putter brands like they did Odyssey years ago. And with the amount of models and overhead for advertising, tour exposure and debt they had it just seemed to be too much for a buyer to come and swoop them up before allowing them to go into Chapter 7 Bankruptcy (as you can see below) where they could almost surely get them for a better deal.
Another issue with brands like this is having big accounts that make up a huge % of your revenue stream…sounds like a good thing right? Well it is often times but when you put a lot of eggs in one basket it can hurt you just as much. Because if one of these big accounts stops taking in your product, goes under themselves or refuses payment on an order like happened with Yes! Golf it can be the club that broke the golfers back. One client, for example, ordered $1 million worth of putters but refused to take delivery on them. “That left us holding the bag for $1 million worth of product,” said Yes! Golf President Francis Ricci.
- 2008 Losses = $215.942
- 2009 Losses = $1,804,713
- 2010 Losses = $1,248,170
TaylorMade R11 Black Rumour
It appears TaylorMade is going to take a page out of Cobra’s book and release a limited edition model of the r11 in an “all-black” finish. Some folk over at golfrx.com mocked up what this potential club will look like – have a peek.
Nike’s New Blade vs Cavity Back Irons Patent
I’m not too sure about this latest patent from Nike and golfpatents.com – here’s the gist of it. There will be a removable plate on the back of the club so that you can either make the irons blade-like, or add a bunch of weight and make it more cavity-back like. I like the concept of being able to change the COG of your irons, but for the average player, this may be a little much. I hope the ego-factor doesn’t come into play, and amateurs start thinking the “blade-like” version is all they need. Hello high scores!
New Adams a12 Peanut Hybrids
Adams launches a new line of peanut Hybrids for 2011 – the a12 series. See a bunch more pics here: Adams a12 Peanut Hybrids