I thought THIS was a Tiger thread! 
Tiger ! Tiger ! Tiger !
In short, this will hurt everyone in the industry, whether they have the endorsement from T.W. or not.
To force the price line to be more reasonable so the brand name buyers will not abandon ship.
I know no one whom has a Costco membership still shop at the traditional grocery stores / chain stores for items like bath tissue , laundry detergent, organic egg..................
Why would someone pay 200% to 500% mark up instead of a 15% mark up ?
Best to start another thread for I'm thread jacking my own thread.
- Edited
It's Christmas. You ask me what kind of ball I would like as a gift. I'm not telling you Kirkland's new ball from Costco. I'm telling you Titleist Pro V1X.
And I would wager everything I own that players (like me) will go with the tried-and-true before they would go with a generic brand.
It's just the way it works. The generic could, in theory, be better in some aspects, even. But people are going to associate the quality perception, and Titliest has, for a long number of years now, enjoyed the distinction of being the most popular ball brand on the planet.
Never saw an "I'd rather be driving a Callaway" bumper sticker on a car, but I have seen numerous "I'd rather be driving a Titleist" ones.
If you believe you could play better with the Pro V1x then, it's your golf ball and you should play it simply because you believed so. That will give you at least 5% of the advantage over other golf balls.
I tried and played the K.S. golf balls, not one but quite a few times. However, the best weather I played under was in the mid 60° F and wet fairway to as low as below 40° F and snowy. So I did not play in the perfect weather with the new golf ball and did not have at least one season under my belt with it.
However, I had been playing the Pro V1 V1x for many years so I could compare the golf balls by my personal experience. My personal opinion is, the K.S. golf balls will take some of the V1 players away from Titleist. It's marginal comparing to the V1X since the K.S. feels softer. A player prefers a higher compression and more clicky golf balls will stay with the V1X if the over $40 per doz. is not an issue.
The K.S. is not a generic golf ball. It's from an established line of golf ball manufactured by an overseas factory.
I would call this re-branded golf ball. If anyone shop Costco regularly, they will know the Kirkland Signature pride itself of as good or in most cases better than the name brands you could buy in other stores. I don't need to promote the K.S. brands because I don't work for them and I do not own a single share of stock of the Costco.
Although I could work for them if they could use my past experience and I should have bought some stock when it was below $60 not too long ago.
I wish you get some Titleist Pro V1x for Christmas and hit them straight next year.
a month later
So this is official now.......
Dear Bill,
I first started playing TaylorMade equipment as far back as I can remember, so I'm no stranger to what this company has done over the years in pushing golf innovation forward. This brand has played a major role in my life and has contributed to many of my early successes, including U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur Championships. Today, I am proud to announce that I am officially joining the TaylorMade family.
Throughout my career, I've always been meticulous about my equipment. Over the past few months, I've had clubs from every brand sent to me to test. When it came to making a final decision, the choice was easy-it all came down to performance, which is why I chose TaylorMade.
In 2017, my new bag will include the full M family of metalwoods - Driver and Fairways. In fact, the new M2 3-Wood is unlike anything I've ever hit. It has the perfect shape and I told the guys during our first meeting that this is the farthest I've ever hit a fairway wood.
For irons and wedges, I'm going to work closely with the team at TaylorMade. For my irons, we will be developing a new custom set. Over the coming months, we will take you along the development journey, from the initial design concepts all the way through the process until they make it into my bag. Finally, the new MG Wedge is absolutely beautiful, and we're working to dial in the exact grind for me. There's no doubt it's fun to have some new weapons, and the confidence I have in my new TaylorMade equipment makes me excited for the season.
As I've said before, my goal remains the same: to win.
This is going to be fun.
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
staff professional | pga tour
taylormade golf company 5545 fermi court carlsbad, ca 92008
He should have just said "Callaway has Phil so TM was the only big name left to pony up some cash " and saved someone the time writing that load of shit.
JMO
Found this last night, although it is an older item. Just wondering if TW will actually get any money unless he performs well.
According to King, all TaylorMade contracts require players to enter a certain number of tournaments per year, but he did not say how many events Johnson must play. One PGA Tour agent says that requirement is typically 20 events. Johnson has played 19 events in the Tour’s 2013-'14 wrap-around season, including seven consecutive starts in May and June. Johnson’s guaranteed contract is worth millions of dollars but King characterized it as being “very incentive-based.”
He should have signed with Cobra and looked into the offset line.
lol
Doesn't look to good for Mr. Woods making the cut.
I thought he played the hell outta #16, myself.
I remember a time when he would say after the round, "I fought my tail off out there" and he shot 69, instead of the same comment being applied to a round of 76.
- Edited
The one thing that stuck out was that he was "dismay" or "not happy" with his game. I remembered when he was younger, he'd kept grinding away after a bad hole or two, now the fame he had accumulated in the past decade or two had became a " baggage".
He needs to adjust his attitude ( hi Steve 
) and take it from there. He had forgotten that he is no longer the number one. A " has been"at best. If he really wants to stay on Tour and win some tournaments, he needs to face the music and dance with the tune that was played to him. He can not reminisce and feel frustrated every time he has a bad shot.
In other "has been" news, Michelle Wie somehow squeezed a contract out of Callaway and promptly missed the cut this week.
LOL
- Edited
Read that it only took Tiger 5 hrs and 20 mins to play yesterday, feel bad for Day and DJ, who were waiting a few times in the fairway while Tiger took relief and they searched for his ball in the rough
Tiger's swing screams " My back is not ready for this ". Those who have had bad backs know
that swing well. He is going to have to make adjustments to continue playing at Tour level....