Customization is slowly flowing into the golf industry as well, as golf equipment manufacturers like Callaway Golf starts to realize that there are significant differences between golfers.
In case of the new Callaway Speed Regime golf balls that will be available from January 24, 2014, we golfers have to decide to which category of players we belong to:
- SR 1 is for swing speeds of 90 and below;
- SR 2 is for swing speeds between 90 and 105;
- SR 3 is for swing speeds of 105 and above.
The natural question to ask here is how do I know what is the speed of my swing. I checked Callaway Golf's website to find a tool or anything that can help us, but there was no such thing.
When would golf equipment manufacturers move beyond the classic boundaries of their industry and to provide services that relevant to their core business(es) (see pharmaceutical companies are providing health services and becoming more and more healthcare providers). This could be a new source of revenue, especially when the golf equipment sales are not growing or stagnating.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a Swingbyte like decision support tool (see similar solutions from Ping and TaylorMade)? Scott Goryl recommends (Senior Manager, Global Communications at Callaway Golf) demo days, performance centers, in retail hitting bays etc., but I think we should think about more flexible, less time consuming solutions + something that provides quick answers.
I would be also happy if companies like Callaway Golf would not solely rely on market reseach findings and the R&D team's knowledge and experience, but also on the wisdom of crowds (aka crowdsourcing). At this moment Callaway Golf is not crowdsourcing anypart of their R&D.
