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

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]

We’ve known about the Nike 20XI golf balls for months, and months, and months.  We’ve seen players on tour sporting the logo on their hats and (presumably) playing the new ball.

But so far Nike has been pretty mum about the new balls publicly.  The Nike reps I played golf with a few weeks ago weren’t interested in discussing it at all and claimed that they didn’t have any with them (they did).

However Nike is finally officially unveiling the 20XI and beginning their marketing push with a video showing player impressions of the new ball.

The 20XI will come in 2 flavors, X and S (Distance and Spin, respectively) and will have a street price of $45.99.  The release date is April 29th.  The resin technology looks promising and I’m definitely going to try a sleeve as soon as I can get my hands on one.

See the Press Release below the break.

Nike Golf Introduces Ground-Breaking Technology Never Before Seen in Golf Balls with the Introduction of the Nike 20XI Franchise

BEAVERTON, Ore. (February 15, 2011) – Nike Golf is unveiling its new 20XI (pronounced: twenty-X-I) premium golf ball franchise, featuring innovative golf ball technology that will dramatically enhance the performance of golfers around the world and, at the same time, propel golf ball manufacturing into an entirely new level of innovation.

The new Nike 20XI ball features a combination of proprietary technology never before seen in the golf industry, and is the result of four years of collaborative research and development between Nike Golf’s golf ball engineers and a team of material and science experts at DuPont. The game-changing technology replaces conventional rubber cores with a radical new resin material. Resin is a highly neutralized polymer that’s faster and lighter material engineered to produce longer distance and more controlled shots.

“I have never been more excited about a new golf ball innovation than I am now,” said Rock Ishii, Nike Golf’s Product Development Director for golf balls. “For many years, golf ball development has primarily been focused on the number of layers with a solid rubber core. We believe that there wasn’t really anywhere else to go as far as technology advancement in these areas, and felt that the next window of opportunity was in the exploration of various materials for the core.”

Ishii and his team of engineers discovered that using resin core technology accomplishes three critical performance components that golfers dream to have in a golf ball: More distance off the tee; Straight ball flight; Increased control around the greens.

Faster Ball Speed Equals More Distance
• Advancement in proprietary resin core chemistry delivers faster ball speed.
• Internal tests with Nike Golf tour athletes have shown an average of 2-3 mph increase in ball speed.
• Every 1 mph increase equates to 2-3 yards carry distance.

Highest Levels of MOI Provides Longer, Straighter Ball Flight
• Lighter core and heavier outer layers result in perimeter weighting.
• High MOI assists in reducing driver spin and maintains spin beyond apex to maintain carry and control.
• After apex, the higher MOI assists in maintaining spin an average of 100-200 RPM.
• 20XI has the highest levels of MOI in a golf ball to date.

Steeper Spin Slope Equals More Distance Off the Tee; More Control Around the Green
• Less spin off the driver, more off the wedge.
• Overall design and MOI assist in reducing driver spin at impact on average of 100 – 200 RPM over prior Nike ball technology.
• Softer cover materials allow for greater short iron spin and control.

To date, the following Nike athletes have made the switch to the new Nike 20XI: Stephen Ames, Stewart Cink, Richard Finch, Lucas Glover, Matt Haines, Anthony Kim, Kevin Kisner, Justin Leonard, Jamie Lovemark, Pablo Martin, Francesco Molinari, James Morrison and Carl Pettersson.

The Nike 20XI franchise will launch two versions of the ball, the 20XI-X (tour-level distance) and 20XI-S (tour-level spin). While both balls deliver on faster speed, higher MOI and steeper spin slope, the 20XI-X is optimized to reduce excess driver spin to maximize distance. The 20XI-S incorporates a softer cover for enhanced greenside spin and control. Both 20XI balls will be available April 29, 2011 in North America.

“Rock and his team have nailed this,” said Nike athlete Stewart Cink. “They’ve been able to increase the gap between driver spin and wedge/iron spin. With this ball, I have 2mph more speed off of the driver and I’m hitting it 10 yards farther. Nike has developed a ball that goes faster and has found materials that spin more with the wedges and less with the driver. So it’s longest off the tee and spinniest around the greens. What’s not to like?”

In addition to developing a first-of-its kind golf ball, Nike Golf’s new technology has led to a reduction in manufacturing steps and allows for a 54% improvement in production consistency for resin core vs. rubber core.

Availability: April 29, 2011
MSRP: $58.00
Street Price: $45.99

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]

Apparently likes to get drunk and inked…  at least I hope he was drunk.

Rumors have been swirling for a while that David Duval would be moving on from Nike when his contract expires this year.  Today at the Viking Classic he was using a non-logo bag and a Taylormade R9 Superdeep Driver.  Duval is still listed on the Nike website, but since he is no longer gaming any Nike equipment or logos, the relationship seems to have ended.

No word yet on where he will end up (or possibly if he will go logo-less for while), but he’s using Scratch blades.  Could they be his next sponsor?  Would that sort of make Ryan Moore his boss?

A poster over at Golfwrx has spilled the beans on Nike’s new upcoming tour-level golf ball.  It’s currently codenamed RZN (pronounced resin) and is the first solid core golf ball that has a core made of a material other than rubber.  The core is made from a resin that Nike and DuPont have allegedly been working on for the past 4 years (I believe I read this in the golfwrx thread but I can’t find the post anymore – maybe it was deleted?).

The general idea is that the resin material is lighter than traditional rubber cores.  This allows them to move more weight to the outside of the golf ball.  Think of it as the golf ball version of perimeter weighted clubs.  The benefits are reported to be less spin off the driver, more spin on wedge shots, higher ball speeds, and the highest MOI ever for a golf ball.

According to the poster on Golfwrx, the new ball spins 150rpm less on driver shots and 300rpm more on wedge shots as compared to the current Nike One Tour (already a high spinning ball).  Average ball speed increase is said to be 3mph.  And the increased MOI should result in more “forgiveness” and “tighter shot dispersion”.  All things being equal, the increased ball speed alone should result in another 7 yards of carry.

The official name for the new ball will be announced in November with availability expected in February ’11.  The big question is what this means for the current One Tour and One Tour D golf balls.  They’re being sold just about everywhere for $30 per dozen – far less than other tour caliber balls which typically go for $40 or more.  At one local pro shop here in town, you can get 2 dozen for $45.  Will Nike keep these balls on the market at their current price point or will the RZN replace them (presumably at $40-45 per dozen)?  Will they go to a single premium ball strategy ala Taylormade Penta or will there be multiple variations of the RZN?

As more info becomes available, we’ll be sure to post an update.