The Callaway Golf Company (NYSE:ELY) unveiled the Ely Callaway Performance Center as a celebrity-filled opening ceremony in Carlsbad. The new, state-of-the-art golf research and fitting facility that is named after Callaway Golf’s late founder will carry on his passionate pursuit of technological breakthroughs in the design, creation and custom fitting of golf clubs and golf balls for golfers of all skill levels, the Company said.
Among those participating in the evening gala were legends like Callaway Golf Staff Professional Arnold Palmer and prominent Washington, D.C., political advisor and longtime Ely Callaway friend Vernon Jordan, as well as celebrities who love to play golf, such as Catherine Bell, Alice Cooper, and Phillip Bailey of Earth, Wind and Fire fame.
“This spectacular Ely Callaway Performance Center is dedicated to making golf more accessible, pleasurable and maybe even a little bit easier for everyone who loves to play,” said George Fellows, President and CEO of Callaway Golf. “Those were the cornerstones of Ely Callaway’s view of the game. Another part of his genius was being the first to apply technology to the design of all Callaway Golf clubs for a broad spectrum of golfers — average players and professionals alike. Finally, Ely’s groundbreaking emphasis on custom fitting is taken to another level in the building we dedicate today. He was a visionary who never stopped looking for ways to improve a golfer’s enjoyment of the game, and his name on this building serves as a constant reminder to us to never lose sight of the vision.
“The Ely Callaway Performance Center expands its namesake’s vision with golf analysis technology unrivalled in the golf industry. Consumers will experience the highest level of swing analysis and service inside the Center’s gleaming fit bays that bristle with golf’s most accurate and up-to-date measuring devices. Services will include instant club alterations, clubs built from scratch to a golfer’s specifications — with the latest in Callaway Golf’s OptiFit ™ technology affording immediate access to hundreds of driver customized head/shaft combinations.
The Ely Callaway Performance Center is the hub of Callaway Golf’s two-building R&D operational area, which has a total of 75,000 square feet under roof and spreads across 15 acres. Armed with the most current technology available today, Callaway Golf club fitting specialists are able to give each golfer the ultimate club fitting in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere.
- Each part of a golfer’s swing is analyzed in fitting sessions conducted in a climate-controlled fit bay illuminated to replicate natural outdoor light. Data is measured by both the Callaway Performance Analysis (CPAS) and Club Impact System (CIS) systems, proprietary programs that lead the industry in the accurate capture of club head and golf ball metrics. CPAS measures clubhead speed, path, attack angle, ball speed, launch angle, back spin, side spin and side angle. It also measures the efficiency of the alignment of clubhead and ball centres of gravity at impact. CIS measures clubface angle and impact location relative to the geometric centre of the clubface as well as clubhead closure rate, dynamic loft, dynamic lie and clubhead path and attack angles.
- Putter fitting enters the 21st century in the Odyssey Putting Studio, wherein various systems, including a Science and Motion (SAM) analysis system, capture multiple precision data points. The SAM system captures rotational rates and impact location and multi-camera measurement systems in the Studio capture ball skid and roll, putter path, face angle, and dynamic loft and lie data. On-board sensors measure putter face rotation, and angle at impact. With this data it is easy to fit a player for the exact Odyssey ® model, length, lie and loft that best suits their stroke.
- The Center also houses: a club testing lab where Big Bertha – the nickname for the robot with the reliable and repeatable swing – tests the limits of the newly-expanded 345-yard long range, conducting live tests on prototype drivers and clubs using proprietary measurement systems to provide information to the Callaway Golf R&D team; a virtual test centre with proprietary software that enables Callaway Golf engineers to accurately predict – within one yard – the outdoor result of a shot hit indoors.
“From the data gathering, research and analytical perspectives, the new Ely Callaway Performance Center has everything a scientist dedicated to building a better golf club could possibly want,” said Jeff Colton, senior vice president of research and development for Callaway Golf. “From a golfer’s perspective, it’s a wonderland of new toys, cool machines and radical golf club designs. It’s the repository from which ‘A better game by design‘ can be offered to every golfer, from the elite touring professional to the amateur playing for the first time.”
The Ely Callaway Performance Center will host a variety of high-end events, including corporate gatherings, sales meetings, customer events and other public relations functions.
Callaway Golf www.callawaygolf.com