Golf is no longer an elite sport in India. With the rise of talents such as Aditi Ashok, Aryaman Mohan, Shubhankar Sharma, and on Asia tours such as Veer Ahlawat, Manu Gandas, Kartik Sharma, the country is progressing towards nurturing passion and practice for professional golf. Global brand Callaway, set up in 2010, has been the go-to destination for all things golf in the country. Prashant Singh, Country Manager at Callaway Golf discussed how aspiration for the sport has increased across key domestic markets.

Covid a Boon for Golf
    
With the spurt of new golf academies, a booming economy has supported the growth of golf as a sport in the country in the last decade or so. Yet, there was a much tempered growth rate of 10 percent before the pandemic struck. As almost all kinds of outdoor sports were banned during the global health crises, golf showcased its innate features of socially distanced gameplay. 

“Moreover, the golf courses and standalone practice facilities provided recreation to the golfers and their accompanying family members. A lot of players who had left the sport, came back. There was a lot of interest amongst professional and amateur women golfers as well. Few years back, there were only 15 professional female golfers. Now the tally is near 45,” said Singh. 

Callaway started with Gurgaon as India headquarters and now commands a 35 percent share of the total golf equipment market. Over the years, the brand witnessed a better gender distribution amongst golfers, like any other sport. Pre-pandemic, Callaway was the only brand in India in terms of marketing and distribution.Today, the brand is growing parallel to that of the sports’ overall market growth in India, which is an impressive 30 percent.

Product Innovation and Analyses

From a product technology perspective, Callaway, the top golf equipment manufacturer in India, has been heavily invested in innovation. To perfect the craft of designing a club head, the brand has applied artificial intelligence this time, and the result has been breathtaking. “Offline, we take a maximum of 15 iterations, but with about 15000 iterations by AI, we created the best possible clubhead. We are also using forged carbon, a material that is stronger than titanium and yet very light,” he said, also mentioning their Paradigm line of clubs which use forged composite and a a proprietary Callaway technology called jailbreak.
 
Such experiments are followed by on-ground tests at performance centers where players can test out different club heads and gears. A lot of product demonstrations and fittings are carried out by Callaway across golf clinics, indoor practice facilities, and academies such as Karnataka Golf Association, DLF, Tollygunge in Kolkata and the Chandigarh Golf Range. A host of professional golfers such as Kartik Sharma, Manu Gandas, and Aman Raj have collaborated as brand ambassadors. “This apart, cricket legend Kapil Dev has a big influence in golf and has collaborated with us. Besides, we work with the top 15 golf teaching professionals in the country,” Singh maintained.

Emerging Golf Hubs

Callaway is present across Europe, US, Japan, China, S Korea, India, and pretty much in every country with even a nascent golf community. In India, its biggest market is in Delhi-NCR, followed by Chandigarh for its generational influence of army-related sports and recreational practices. Then comes the fastest growing market for golf - Bangalore, followed by Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai.

Callaway has a direct-to-retail distribution model with about 80-100 green grass stores across India. Online, although they are present in luxury destinations such as Tata CliQ, and are planning their Amazon strategy, golf still remains a highly experiential sport, for which in-person interaction between player and the retailer is necessary. “Hence, 95 percent of our business would still be offline retail, as at least 80-85 percent of our consumers would still prefer to buy from green grass stores,” Singh concluded.