Calloway Golf Equipment and History

Ely R. Callaway Jr. founded The Callaway Sporting Good Company. As a Burlington Industries textile president, Mr. Callaway loved to play golf to relax in his down time. It was a leisure activity he took seriously with passion for the sport. Hickory Sticks made his favorite clubs at the time; constructed of hickory-shaft with a steel core. Dick De La Cruz and Richard Parente, owned the Sticks company.

Times got tough and Dick and Richard were running low on funds. As Dick and Richard were seeking investors for their company, they approached Ely as a possible investor. The timing was perfect. Ely had just sold his vineyards for a nine million dollar profit. In 1982, he bought half of History Sticks. The company was renamed Callaway Hickory Sticks USA. Two years later, he bought the remaining interest in the company for $400,000. As president of the company, he moved the business to Carlsbad California where he promptly sold clubs out of his car.

Bruce Parker was brought aboard in 1985 as head of sales. Through his tenure in this position, the company saw an excess of $3.0 billion in sales. Parker was involved in all major decisions during the growing years of the Callaway Golf Company.

In 1986, Richard C. Helmstetter was hired as a billiard cue designer on a consultant basis. He later became chief club designer and added computer-controlled manufacturing machines. With the help of Helmstetter and Glenn Schmidt, the master toolmaker for the company, Callaway Golf Company developed the original Big Bertha driver using a 190cc steel club head. The Big Bertha became even bigger when in 1997 it grew to 290 cc of steel.

In 2002 with the help of Roger Cleveland, the more recent chief club designer, the company launched the Callaway Golf Forged Wedges. These state-of-the-art wedges were constructed from carbon steel, which is harder and stronger with less weld ability. Along with the carbon steel, they were faced with modified U grooves.

With Callaway golf clubs in place, the golf ball comes next. The same year as the modified clubs, Callaway Golf announced the development of the new and improved golf ball. Callaway had spent three years developing a new golf ball with the help of Du Point and Boeing. They recruited the pair of giants to use their aerodynamic computer programs to evaluate more than 300 dimple patterns. They also had them run 1,000 variations of ball cores, boundary layers, and cover materials to fashion the Rule 35 ball.

Callaway Golf and equipment has come along way in their relatively short history and are endorsed by some of the greats of the PGA Tour.