This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the revolutionary ‘metalwood‘ golf club. The powerful drivers and fairway woods of today all owe their existence to a metal headed driver that was born a quarter of a century ago, in 1979.
TaylorMade Golf is proud to be a part of this historic moment, as it was the company’s visionary founder, Gary Adams, who brought the metalwood into the world of golf. It all started twenty five years ago when Adams was approached by a man looking for an investor in a metal headed driver that he had developed.
Adams made numerous modifications to the club and having developed the first ever metalwood, the Pittsburgh Persimmon, went on to establish and name his new company TaylorMade Golf – to indicate that his clubs were tailored for better players. During that same year of 1979, the original TaylorMade metalwood made its first tour appearance in the ‘Tournament of Champions‘ and the rest, as they say, is history.
The TaylorMade of 2004 has come a long way from the original 1979 version in terms of size, success and influence within the global sports industry. After TaylorMade joined with adidas Golf in 1998, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the adidas Salomon AG group. The company’s growth was demonstrated by the February 2003 announcement that its global metalwood sales for 2002 had totalled $372 million.
TaylorMade-adidas Golf’s development is also reflected in the success that it has enjoyed on Tour since the company’s re-launch in 2000. TaylorMade drivers, irons, wedges and putters can be found in the bags of staff players like Sergio Garcia, Mike Weir, Retief Goosen and Ian Poulter. The R500 Series Driver is currently the #1 Driver on both the PGA European and USPGA Tours with over 60 global tournament victories since its launch in 2002*. Following in the footsteps of the driver, TaylorMade’s rac Irons and Rescue Mid are now the #1 Irons and #1 Utility Clubs respectively on the world’s professional golf tours.
To mark their 25th anniversary, TaylorMade Golf is running a year long, pan-European promotional campaign as part of its “What Drives You?” brand campaign, allowing ordinary golfers the chance to join in the celebrations. This unique promotion is focussed around a two day 25th anniversary Pro-Am Event hosted by the prestigious Druids Glen Golf Resort in Co. Wicklow, Ireland.
A number of TaylorMade Tour pros will attend the event and play in the Pro-Am including global stars such as Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Paul McGinley.
Through the promotion, which runs from April until July, golfers throughout Europe will have the chance to win a ‘money can‘t buy‘ prize to attend this star-studded 25th anniversary event and to play with the pros. In addition to Druids Glen Golf Resort, TaylorMade is also partnering with bmi, the official airline of the Volvo PGA Championship and the Smurfit European Open, who will fly players and prize winners to the event in Ireland. Talksport, GQ Magazine and several European golf titles, including Today’s Golfer (UK), Golf Digest (Sweden), Golf Europeen (France), Golf Magazin (Germany), and Golf Digest (Spain), will support the campaign.
Consumers can enter the competition and find out more about TaylorMade’s 25th Anniversary by visiting: www.taylormadegolf25.com
Ryan Lauder, product marketing director for TaylorMade-adidas Golf commented, “Our 25th anniversary is the perfect platform from which to reinforce TaylorMade’s heritage in golf and our success over the last 25 years. Through our pro am events we hope to bring the consumer closer to our symbols and Tour success, whilst creating additional awareness for the TaylorMade brand overall”
TaylorMade-adidas Golf www.tmag.com
*Source: No. 1 claim based on Darrell Survey brand count statistics at 121 consecutive PGA Tour events in which TaylorMade-branded drivers have ranked No. 1 or tied for No. 1.