No. 23 — Titleist vs. Callaway
At this time last year, Callaway had been granted a permanent injunction tostop sales of Acushnet's current line of Titleist Pro V1 family of golfballs, effective no later than January 1, 2009. The court's ruling alsoseemed to indicate that Callaway could be in line for a substantialfinancial gain in the form of damages, with some experts saying the numbercould top $100 million. Competitors and naysayers were quick to use theruling as fodder to speculate that Titleist's longtime stronghold on thegolfball market might finally begin to erode.
Fast forward a year and Acushnet had essentially sidestepped the injunctionby tweaking its existing Pro V1 products until new Pro V1/Pro V1x balls cameout early this year. In March, Callaway filed another suit claiming the newTitleist balls also infringed on its patents. Acushnet returned fire,countering with its own infringement lawsuit against Callaway.
In August, Acushnet won an important appeals court ruling that lifted the injunction and granted the company a new trial essentially putting the trial, which started in February 2006 back to square one.
For all the legal wrangling, golfers hardly seemed to notice or if they didnotice, didn't care. The Pro V1 line of balls increased its market shareslightly from the previous year and continued as one of the bestsellinggolfballs models in history.
The next step is the retrial, likely to begin in March 2010. With two of golf's equipment heavyweights preparing to slug it out in court again, expect this match to go nothing short of the full 15 rounds.Q: I play with a guy who constantly gives unsolicited golf tips. He's not even the best golfer in our foursome. How can I get him to stop?
Name Withheld / Los Angeles
A: Ah, yes, the selfanointed teaching pro, one of the most irritating subspecies known to golf. Others are the changerattler, the I'msoimportant cellphone bore and the selfcommentator. You've never played with a selfcommentator? The guy who feels compelled to give you an assessment of how he did after each of his shots, how he thought about going with a hard 8 but went with an easy 7, but the wind changed, and he got an unlucky bounce, and it wasn't a great lie, and €¦ No? Well, you're lucky. If only golf bags came with a detachable €Quiet Please€ sign, like the ones they hold up at the British Openas soon as the noise pollution started, you could whip it out and wave it in the perpetrator's face.
So how to deal with the advice guy? His tips are about as welcome as confetti at a funeral. It's important to understand his motivation for spouting unwanted golf advice. Either he genuinely wants to help you, or, more likely, part of his identity, selfesteem, ego, mojo comes from the belief that he knows a lot about golf, and certainly more than the rest of the foursome. Dispensing golf tips reinforces that belief. He's delusional. In his mind, it is he who should be teaching Tiger. It doesn't make him a bad guy, but he needs to be put straight. Tell him you appreciate his interest, but you'd really be a lot happier if he would kindly butt out.
When you want his advice, let him know that you'll be sure to ask for it. Ask him this: Would he take marriage counseling from Liz Taylor, or buy a Woody Allen bodybuilding video, or attend the Lindsay Lohan driving school?
Q: What's the best way to clean my white FootJoy Classic saddle shoes? I've heard that white shoe paint just makes a mess of them. I've grown up cleaning and polishing my dress shoes, but none of them was white. I missed the '70s.
Eric Batsford / Sorrento, Fla.
A: Regular readers will know The Golf Guru's feelings about white golf shoes. No matter. There are all kinds of expensive products on the market, but I have found the best way to clean golf shoes is with warm water, a little soap and a towel. This also works for body parts, incidentally. When they are drythe shoes, not the body partsgive them the onceover with a little neutral shoe polish. I applaud your commitment to cleanliness. Everyone knows that, just as a clean car runs better than a dirty one, a golfer with clean shoes holes a lot more putts.
Fast forward a year and Acushnet had essentially sidestepped the injunctionby tweaking its existing Pro V1 products until new Pro V1/Pro V1x balls cameout early this year. In March, Callaway filed another suit claiming the newTitleist balls also infringed on its patents. Acushnet returned fire,countering with its own infringement lawsuit against Callaway.
In August, Acushnet won an important appeals court ruling that lifted the injunction and granted the company a new trial essentially putting the trial, which started in February 2006 back to square one.
For all the legal wrangling, golfers hardly seemed to notice or if they didnotice, didn't care. The Pro V1 line of balls increased its market shareslightly from the previous year and continued as one of the bestsellinggolfballs models in history.
The next step is the retrial, likely to begin in March 2010. With two of golf's equipment heavyweights preparing to slug it out in court again, expect this match to go nothing short of the full 15 rounds.Q: I play with a guy who constantly gives unsolicited golf tips. He's not even the best golfer in our foursome. How can I get him to stop?
Name Withheld / Los Angeles
A: Ah, yes, the selfanointed teaching pro, one of the most irritating subspecies known to golf. Others are the changerattler, the I'msoimportant cellphone bore and the selfcommentator. You've never played with a selfcommentator? The guy who feels compelled to give you an assessment of how he did after each of his shots, how he thought about going with a hard 8 but went with an easy 7, but the wind changed, and he got an unlucky bounce, and it wasn't a great lie, and €¦ No? Well, you're lucky. If only golf bags came with a detachable €Quiet Please€ sign, like the ones they hold up at the British Openas soon as the noise pollution started, you could whip it out and wave it in the perpetrator's face.
So how to deal with the advice guy? His tips are about as welcome as confetti at a funeral. It's important to understand his motivation for spouting unwanted golf advice. Either he genuinely wants to help you, or, more likely, part of his identity, selfesteem, ego, mojo comes from the belief that he knows a lot about golf, and certainly more than the rest of the foursome. Dispensing golf tips reinforces that belief. He's delusional. In his mind, it is he who should be teaching Tiger. It doesn't make him a bad guy, but he needs to be put straight. Tell him you appreciate his interest, but you'd really be a lot happier if he would kindly butt out.
When you want his advice, let him know that you'll be sure to ask for it. Ask him this: Would he take marriage counseling from Liz Taylor, or buy a Woody Allen bodybuilding video, or attend the Lindsay Lohan driving school?
Q: What's the best way to clean my white FootJoy Classic saddle shoes? I've heard that white shoe paint just makes a mess of them. I've grown up cleaning and polishing my dress shoes, but none of them was white. I missed the '70s.
Eric Batsford / Sorrento, Fla.
A: Regular readers will know The Golf Guru's feelings about white golf shoes. No matter. There are all kinds of expensive products on the market, but I have found the best way to clean golf shoes is with warm water, a little soap and a towel. This also works for body parts, incidentally. When they are drythe shoes, not the body partsgive them the onceover with a little neutral shoe polish. I applaud your commitment to cleanliness. Everyone knows that, just as a clean car runs better than a dirty one, a golfer with clean shoes holes a lot more putts.
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