Callaway Golf

Callaway Golf

No matter which game you play--tournament golf or recreational golf--Callaway Golf Company makes products that help you become a better golfer. More than a decade ago, we revolutionized driver technology with the original Big Bertha Driver. Today, we continue a tradition of innovation with scientifically advanced products like the new Big Bertha Fusion FT-3 Driver, Big Bertha Fusion Irons, and the HX Tour and HX Tour 56 Golf Balls. Callaway Golf uses cutting-edge technology and respect for the game to help every golfer become a better golfer, regardless of age, gender or ability.

Ely Reeves Callaway Jr. was born in 1919 and raised in Georgia, and his Southern upbringing stayed with him all the days of his life. He and his three older sisters did spend a few years in New York City when their father opened a Callaway Mills sales office, but his formative years in LaGrange provided him with much experience in the pillars of his adult life: golf and business. He took up the game of golf at LaGrange's Highland Country Club and won four consecutive club championships in his late teens. He was introduced to commerce by his father's work in the family textile business, and added his own experience as business manager of his high school newspaper and yearbook. Upon graduation from Emory University, Ely Callaway, like the rest of his generation, found the course of his life changed by World War II.

In the Army, Ely Callaway rose through the ranks to major, fell in love and got married, and he gained experience that would prove invaluable as he started his career in the textile industry. By age 24, he had become the Army's sole procurement officer for cotton clothing. His three children were born in the late 1940s and early '50s, and his career began to flourish. Deering-Milliken Co. charged him with opening a Southeastern sales office in Atlanta, then moved him to New York to launch a new division. He oversaw the creation of a Deering-Milliken division that manufactured worsted fabrics for menswear; his success led Textron's textile division to hire away the budding corporate star. Textron was sold to Burlington Industries, and Ely Callaway continued his rise to the top.

Ely Callaway was named Vice President of Burlington Industries in 1960; by 1968 he was the company's President and Director, and Burlington had become the first textile company to exceed $1 billion in annual sales. He was a dynamic leader who enjoyed an easy rapport with employees from the mailroom to the boardroom. He had a flair for unconventional marketing techniques--he opened a replica textile mill in Manhattan and staged a fashion show where the models were doused in water to show the wrinkle-free properties of their clothing. By the early '70s, he said goodbye to textiles and hello to wine. He defied experts who considered Southern California unsuitable for growing grapes and created Callaway Vineyard and Winery in Temecula. By the end of the 1970s, he put Temecula on the map as a serious wine-producing region.

After selling his vineyard for a handsome profit in 1981, Ely Callaway enjoyed a brief retirement. On the lookout for new business opportunities and playing plenty of golf, he happened into a Palm Springs-area golf shop and spotted a pitching wedge reminiscent of the hickory-shafted clubs he had used as a child. This shaft, however, was hollowed and filled with a steel core for consistency and strength. He bought half of Hickory Stick USA and renamed it Callaway Hickory Stick USA. He again applied a successful formula he had used with his vineyard: hire the smartest people and think big. Richard C. Helmstetter was lured away from his successful company designing billiard cues in Japan to become the Chief Club Designer, and Callaway Hickory Stick USA began carving a niche as a small manufacturer of unique high-performance golf equipment. "Mr. C," as employees affectionately came to call him, bought out his partners and renamed the company Callaway Golf--relocating it from Cathedral City, California to a sleepy seaside town called Carlsbad, just north of San Diego.

In the '90s, Ely Callaway and his company changed the golf industry in ways no one could have anticipated. Richard Helmstetter and his R&D department found a way to create a stainless steel driver that had a larger and more forgiving head than any previous design. Mr. Callaway dubbed the club "Big Bertha" after a World War I German cannon famous for long-distance capabilities. He ordered an unprecedented 300,000 clubheads from the casting house and financed part of the cost with his own money. The success of the Big Bertha and its progeny made Callaway Golf the No. 1 golf club company in the world and Mr. C became an icon by making the game more enjoyable for the average golfer. Like the products he so passionately devoted his half-century in business to, his entire life can be aptly described as Demonstrably Superior and Pleasingly Different.

Through an unwavering commitment to innovation, Callaway Golf creates products and services designed to make every golfer a better golfer. Callaway Golf Company manufactures and sells golf clubs and golf balls, and sells golf accessories, under the Callaway Golf, Odyssey, Ben Hogan and Top-Flite brands. More than a decade ago, we revolutionized driver technology with the original Big Bertha Driver. Today, we continue a tradition of innovation in clubs, putters, balls and accessories with scientifically advanced products like the Big Bertha Fusion FT-3 Driver, Big Bertha Fusion Irons and the HX Tour Golf Ball. Callaway Golf uses cutting-edge technology and respect for the game to make premium products for all types of golfers - regardless of age, gender or ability.

Product Highlights: The Big Bertha Fusion FT-3 Driver, winner of five of eight major championships on the PGA and LPGA Tours in 2005. Fusion Technology is innovative, superior weight-shifting science in the FT-3 Driver and the Big Bertha Fusion Irons. HEX Aerodynamics is a revolution in ball aerodynamics that replaces traditional dimples in Callaway Golf balls for longer, more efficient flight.

Callaway Golf Rolls Out New X Hot Fairway Wood Uniquely Designed for Golfers Seeking Distance and Versatility

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 2006--Callaway Golf Company (NYSE:ELY) today announced the debut of the Callaway Golf(R) X Hot(TM) Fairway Wood, a new stainless steel design that builds off of the Company's line of X Fairway Woods, the #1 selling fairway wood in golf in 2006. The Callaway Golf X Hot Fairway Wood