Callaway Golf Staff Pro Bruce Fleisher Uses New Callaway Ball In Senior PGA Tour Victory
Callaway Golf Staff Pro Bruce Fleisher Uses New Callaway Ball In Senior PGA Tour Victory
February 7, 2000 at 12:00 AM EST
CONTACT(S): Larry Dorman, Mike Galeski, Peter Gotfredson, Jamie Taylor (760) 931-1771
CARLSBAD, CA., February 7, 2000 – In a resounding victory, both for Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY) and for its new golf ball business, Callaway Golf Staff Professional Bruce Fleisher birdied the final two holes on Sunday to win the Royal Caribbean Classic at the Links at Key Biscayne. The victory was the first of the 2000 season for Fleisher and the first for a Callaway Golf ball.
Fleisher, the 1999 Senior PGA Tour Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, picked up where he left off last season. By successfully defending his title in the Royal Caribbean Classic, Fleisher notched his eighth Senior PGA Tour victory in less than 12 months. His winning score of 30 points in the Modified Stableford scoring system format gave him a one-point victory over Vicente Fernandez and a three-point margin over fellow Callaway Golf Staff Professional Jim Dent – who also used a new Callaway Golf ball in the tournament.
Fleisher birdied 16 holes and bogeyed two in the 54-hole event, shooting the equivalent of 14-under par and bringing his stroke average to 67.45 for his brief Senior PGA Tour career. In addition to using a Callaway Golf ball, Fleisher had 13 Callaway Golf clubs in his bag, including a Great Big Bertha® Hawk Eye® Titanium Driver, the new Steelhead Plus™ 4-wood and 5-wood, and Hawk Eye® Tungsten Injected™ Titanium Irons.
“This is a great thrill for me, to be the first to win using a new Callaway ball, and to do it in front of my family and friends in the South Florida area,” said Fleisher, a Miami native. “I feel fortunate. Nothing could be sweeter than to win here, especially with the way all these things came together.”
Fleisher’s victory added an exclamation point to a week of successes for Callaway Golf. The Company introduced its much-anticipated new golf balls to the retail market and the public at the PGA Merchandise Golf Show in Orlando on February 4, 2000. The new Callaway Golf balls come in Firmfeel™ and Softfeel™ models. Each ball is stamped with the distinctive, stylized “C” logo of the Callaway Golf Ball Company. The unique and simple packaging – bright red boxes for the Firmfeel™ ball, bright blue boxes for the Softfeel™ ball – will be easily recognizable in displays at selected retail stores and pro shops beginning in early March. Callaway Golf Staff Professionals have been playing a USGA-approved prototype version of the golf ball in competition since January.
“We are very proud that our golf balls already have achieved such rapid acceptance and success at this high level,” said Ely Callaway, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Callaway Golf and the driving force behind the Company’s foray into the golf ball business. “This is a tribute to the people who have worked so effectively for the last 3½ years at the Callaway Golf Ball Company to create the golf ball business from scratch. That touring professionals like Bruce Fleisher and many others have chosen to use our golf balls is gratifying, especially considering that we design our golf balls to please the average golfer.”
Callaway Golf had 12 balls in play at the Royal Caribbean Classic, according to the Darrell Survey Company. At the rain-delayed AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, four PGA Tour pros, all Callaway Golf staffers, were using the new balls.
“We worked long and hard to bring a demonstrably superior and pleasingly different golf ball to market, and this is a very exciting day for everyone connected with the Company,” said Chuck Yash, President of Callaway Golf Company and CEO of Callaway Golf Ball Company. “We think our concept of building ‘Complete Performance’ into our new golf balls has been validated by the success we have seen this week with Bruce’s win, with Jim Dent’s fine showing, and by the other touring pros who chose to play with the Callaway Golf ball.”
Callaway Golf Company makes and sells Big Bertha® Metal Woods and Irons, including Great Big Bertha® Hawk Eye® Titanium Metal Woods and Tungsten Injected™ Titanium Irons, Big Bertha® Steelhead Plus™ Stainless Steel Metal Woods and Steelhead® X-14™ Stainless Steel Irons, and Bobby Jones® and Carlsbad Series™ Putters. Callaway Golf Company also makes and sells Odyssey® Putters and wedges with Stronomic® and Lyconite® inserts, including the White Hot™ and TriForce™ Putters. Callaway Golf Ball Company launched its Firmfeel™ and Softfeel™ golf balls on February 4, 2000. For more information about Callaway Golf Company, please visit any of our websites at www.callawaygolf.com, www.callawaygolfball.com and www.odysseygolf.com.