When Nike exited golf in 2016, the consensus was that the sport was in terminal decline. I didn't buy it. I called Callaway as the primary beneficiary the same day Nike announced its exit, built exclusive access to the CEO, and published the quote that predicted a $2.6B acquisition two years before it happened. Golf didn't die. It reinvented itself.
In August 2016, Nike announced it was getting out of the golf equipment business. The narrative that followed was almost uniformly negative: golf was dying, millennials weren't playing, course closures were mounting. The industry was in its worst stretch in decades.
I disagreed. I published same-day analysis calling Callaway as the primary beneficiary — they would inherit Nike's retail shelf space, retail relationships, and consumer attention at the exact moment the market was beginning a reset. Callaway stock moved sharply in the days that followed.
Over the next three years, I built exclusive access to CEO Chip Brewer and CFO Robert Julian at Callaway. I covered the emerging Topgolf story when it was still privately held. I covered TaylorMade's recovery with an exclusive interview with CEO David Abeles, who pushed back directly on the doom-and-gloom narrative — a piece that was later cited in MyGolfSpy and syndicated to Yahoo Finance.
In March 2019, Chip Brewer told me on the record that Topgolf was "not likely to stay private forever." I published it. Two years and seven months later, Callaway acquired Topgolf for $2.6 billion — the largest deal in golf industry history.
And then COVID-19 happened. Golf became the ideal social-distancing sport. Rounds played hit record levels. Equipment sales broke industry records. Every pessimist who had called the sport dead was proven wrong. The thesis I had been writing since 2016 played out exactly as the data suggested it would.
Called Callaway as the primary beneficiary the day Nike announced its exit. Same-day analysis that proved correct as Callaway stock moved sharply.
Exclusive with TaylorMade CEO David Abeles and CFO Robert Julian. Cited in MyGolfSpy. Syndicated to Yahoo Finance.
Read on Benzinga →First exclusive with Chip Brewer. AI-designed golf clubs two years before "AI" was mainstream.
Read on Benzinga →The quote that called a $2.6B acquisition two years before it happened. Published and on record.
Read on Benzinga →A feature on Ararat Valley Golf Club in Armenia — the golf story and the geopolitics story converging in one place.
Read on Golf.com →The TaylorMade comeback piece picked up nationally. The golf death narrative was wrong. The data proved it. The coverage reflected it.