Titleist had yet another big year on Tour, including wins at the US Open (McIlroy), Tour Championship (Haas).  But while they may dwarf everybody else on tour, other brands picked up some big wins as well.  In particular I hadn’t realized that Taylormade  snagged 5 wins with the Penta this year.  Can anybody make a dent in Titleist’s numbers for 2012?

1. Titleist Pro V1x – 21 wins

2. Titleist Pro v1 – 6 wins

3. Tayormade Penta – 5 wins

4. Nike One Tour D – 3 wins

5.  Callaway Tour i(z) – 2 wins

6. Srixon Z-Star XV – 2 wins

7. Bridgestone B330s – 1 win

 Golf Digest

Fortune Brands announced this morning that Acushnet was being .

Acushnet has been on the chopping block for a while now.  They’re a strong business, but Fortune Brands wants to focus on its core business of liquor at the urging of activist shareholder William Ackerman.

A number of bidders reportedly entered the fray trying to snap up Acushnet, who owns Titleist and Footjoy.  Probably the most unexpected development (at least by me) was Callaway putting together a deal with a private equity group to try to raise the cash needed to buy the much bigger Acushnet.

However, it always seemed likely that Acushnet would go to an Asian buyer with a lot of cash and the desire to break into the US market with a premium set of brands.

Fila is one of the oldest sports brands in the world, having been founded in 1911.  However, it was taken over by a Korean group in 2007, making it the largest Korean sportswear brand.

The biggest question that this raises for me is what will be the impact on the PGA Tour itself and the players schedules.  Will we see a PGA Tour event in Korea?  Will we see more Titleist players showing up at events in Asia?

Bidding began on Friday to purchase Acushnet, the maker of Titleist and Footjoy, from Fortune Brands.  Over 2 dozen potential buyers examined the business, which is being auctioned off by Morgan Stanley.  Among the expected bidders are Nike, Adidas, and Cleveland Golf.

Nike and Adidas certainly have deep enough pockets to purchase Acushnet.  I’m sure that Titleist’s golf ball business is the key driver behind their interest.  But I’d be surprised to see either of these guys actually end up as the buyer (although stranger things have happened).  They’re probably making sure that the actual buyer doesn’t get it too cheap.

Although they’re not mentioned in the article above, I’d be very surprised if Sumitomo (Srixon) and Bridgestone don’t make bids as well.  They both seem like good fits for the Titleist and Footjoy brands.

Fortune had revenues of $1.25B in 2010 with $25m in operating profit.

[Image: Flickr/ikelee]

Like the title says, Bloomberg is reporting that Fortune has selected Morgan Stanley to handle an auction of it’s golf business, which consists of Titleist and Footjoy.

Estimates are that the brands could go for as much as $1.5 billion.  Nike, Adidas, and Sumitomo Rubber (Srixon) are all mentioned as potential buyers.  I can’t see Nike or Adidas actually purchasing Titleist, but Sumitomo or even Bridgestone seem like reasonable buyers.

Bloomberg

MyGolfSpy.com is reporting that Scotty Cameron was seen today at The Oven, Nike’s R&D facility in Fort Worth, TX (aka Cowtown).  The implication of this is that Scotty Cameron may be in the middle of leaving Titleist and heading to Nike.  A thread on GolfWRX suggested that the move may be effective as of Jan 2011.

Fortune Brands, which owns Acushnet, which owns Titleist (the brand that Scotty Cameron has been selling his putters under) & Footjoy, recently had a significant ownership share in the company acquired by activist shareholder William Ackman.  Ackerman wants to break up the various business units and it’s looking like Fortune management may agree to cooperate.

Titleist is one of the brands that is rumored to be on the auction block.  The question is who the buyer will be.  Callaway and Nike have both been mentioned.  My take is that Callaway is too small to acquire Titleist.  And to be clear, Cameron heading to Nike doesn’t mean that Nike is buying Titliest/Footjoy.

Nike may or may not be interested, but Titleist/Footjoy’s current line-up of products and overall brand image don’t seem like they mesh well with Nike.  My pure guess is that Bridgestone is a reasonable bet (fellow Japanese golf company Srixon bought Cleveland Golf a few years ago).

What this move probably means (if it’s true) is that a significant shake up of some kind is imminent at Titleist, and Cameron is taking the opportunity to jump ship to a company that can offer a significant payday, ala Nike.

This  makes sense for Nike as their putter sales have never really taken off.  Their Method line of putters is very nice, but they don’t have the cachet of a name like Scotty Cameron to charge $250+ for a putter.

Additionally, Tiger has used a Scotty Cameron Putter to win 12 of his 14 majors.  He’s recently played a round here or there with a Nike Method putter but hasn’t made the switch full time.  You just know that Nike is drooling over the prospect of getting Tiger to play a Nike/Scotty Cameron branded putter full-time.

[Image: Flickr/ikelee]

Titleist is putting the finishing touches on their new ProV1 and ProV1x golf balls.  They’re out in force at the McGladrey Classic in St. Simmons, GA.  No word on exactly when they’ll be available for purchase (or exactly what the improvements are), but it seems like a reasonable bet that Titleist will want something new to compete with the upcoming Nike RZN in February.

via Team Titleist Blog

The rumor mill has it that long-time Titleist golfer, Davis Love III, will be jumping ship to Bridgestone for the 2011 season.  If true, this would be a huge signing for Bridgestone, who’s roster of players currently include Fred Couples, Matt Kuchar, and Will Mackenzie.

The Fred Couples signing in 2005 put Bridgestone on the map, but it’s the quality of their products that has fueled their success.  Their E6 Ball is currently the #4 selling ball in golf and they’re about to release a new and improved B-330 line for 2011 on Nov 1.