Odyssey White Hot Putter Used In Record-Tying Senior PGA Tour Win; New Callaway Golf HX Ball Off To Strong Start In First Week On Tour
Odyssey White Hot Putter Used In Record-Tying Senior PGA Tour Win; New Callaway Golf HX Ball Off To Strong Start In First Week On Tour
October 1, 2001 at 12:00 AM EDT
CONTACT(S): Larry Dorman, Mike Galeski, Millie Speirs (760) 931-1771
CARLSBAD, CA., Oct. 1, 2001 – Odyssey Golf, a brand of Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY), posted a pair of tour victories yesterday – including a record-tying performance on the Senior PGA Tour. The winner of the Senior Tour's Gold Rush Classic credited his sizzling 22-under-par total to the Odyssey® White Hot® 2 Putter he put in play just prior to the tournament.
“I have been hitting the ball as well or better than anyone on this tour, but I have been just worthless on the greens,” said the Gold Rush Classic winner, who earned his first senior victory in 15 months. “I putted a lot better this week. This is how I have hit the ball all year. Look at the stats: I'm in the top 10 in about everything, but about 70th in putting.”
His new Odyssey White Hot 2 Putter significantly improved his putting. The champion averaged just 28 putts per round in his victory, compared with his average of 30.4 for the entire 2001 Senior PGA Tour season. During his second-round 62, he took just 24 putts. Four of the top-10 finishers at the event used Odyssey Putters, and Odyssey Golf was the No. 1 brand in putter usage with 34.6 percent of the putters in play at the event.
Odyssey Golf also scored a victory on the Buy.com Tour, where the winner of the Inland Empire Open used an Odyssey Dual Force® Rossie® 2 Putter to win a playoff. One of the event's second-place finishers used an Odyssey TriHot™ 3 Putter, giving Odyssey Golf two of the top three places on the leaderboard. Odyssey Golf now has 50 wins on the world's five major professional tours combined through Sept. 30. Odyssey Putters are No. 1 in usage on the five major professional tours combined with 31.7 percent of all putters in play this year, compared with 26.5 percent for the nearest competitor.
Meanwhile, Callaway Golf's newest ball product made a strong opening statement in just its first week on the professional tours. A total of 31 golfers used the aerodynamically advanced HX™ ball across the PGA, Senior PGA, LPGA and Buy.com tours. Jim Colbert, Bruce Fleisher and Walter Hall all scored top-10 finishes using the HX Red model at the Gold Rush Classic. A total of 18 seniors used the HX ball, making it the No. 2 ball in play on the Senior PGA Tour the first week it was available to tour professionals. Colbert used the HX Red to win the Georgia-Pacific Super Seniors title on Saturday, and he added more than 20 yards to his driving average using the HX – jumping from his previous average of 268.5 yards to 288.8 yards in driving distance this past week. The HX also made an impact on the Japan Golf Tour, where Tohru Taniguchi finished tied for second at the ACOM International using the HX Red model.
Callaway Golf Company makes and sells Big Bertha® Metal Woods and Irons, including Big Bertha ERC® II Forged Titanium Drivers, Big Bertha Hawk Eye® VFT® and Big Bertha Hawk Eye VFT Pro Series Titanium Drivers and Fairway Woods, Big Bertha Steelhead Plus™ Stainless Steel Drivers and Fairway Woods, Hawk Eye Tungsten Injected™ Titanium Irons, Steelhead™ X-14® and Steelhead X-14 Pro Series Stainless Steel Irons. Callaway Golf Company also makes and sells Odyssey® Putters, including White Hot®, TriHot™, and Dual Force® Putters. Callaway Golf Company makes and sells the Callaway Golf® HX™ Red and HX Blue balls, Rule 35® Firmfeel™ and Softfeel™ balls, the CTU 30™ Red and CTU 30 Blue balls, and the CB1™ Red and CB1 Blue balls. For more information about Callaway Golf Company, please visit our Web sites at www.callawaygolf.com and www.odysseygolf.com.