Callaway Golf Clubs

Callaway Golf Clubs, Then and Now

Picture of Callaway Golf Clubs. Producers of some of the most prestigious golf clubs in the world of golf, Callaway golf clubs began their life as Hickory Sticks brand golf clubs.

Ely Callaway former president of Burlington Industries was an avid golfer whose personal preference in golf clubs was Hickory Sticks golf clubs made using a steel core in a hickory shaft.

As Hickory Sticks began to founder in the world of golf clubs they sought out a financial investor to help keep them afloat. Callaway was happy to step in and invest, buying half of the company and renaming it to Callaway Hickory Stick USA.

Following this acquisition in 1982 he bought out the rest of the company in 1984 and subsequently renamed it the Callaway Golf Company which it is still know as today eight years after his death. His obsession was to create the absolute best in golf clubs and balls available to the golfing world.

In 1986 he hired Richard Helmstetter a former billiard cue designer to work as a golf club design consultant. He soon became the chief club designer and introduced the concept of using a computer to help design Callaway golf clubs. With the help of the computer and Helmstetter, the Big bertha was born. This revolutionary driver changed the look and feel of drivers in the golfing world, what started out as 190c.c. the latest Big Bertha Diablo Driver is now a massive 460 c.c. driver that has been designed to give you the most distance with more built in forgiveness than any other club in the history of Callaway.

Coming on the heels of its success with the Big Bertha series of golf clubs, Callaway has drawn a new line in the sand bunker by creating the FTiQ series of drivers. Some say that the back of club looks just like a Lamborghini complete with the two adjustable weights that look like the tail lights. Inspired by Lamborghini or not this is definitely one inspired driver. By using a composite body Callaway has lowered the center of gravity twice as low and even further back than its forerunner the FTi.

This change in center of gravity has reduced the ball spin by 300 rpm and because the head is lighter than the FTi your shot will go further off the tee and stay on a much straighter track, getting you to the green in fewer strokes.

Not satisfied to make some of the finest in golf clubs, Callaway turned their attention to creating a new golf ball that would stand the golfing world on its ears. Using a computer program to analyze over 300 different dimple patterns and 1,000 different cores, cover materials and boundary layers they came up with the Rule 35. They came up with only two variants of the Rule 35 deciding that it was better to concentrate on creating a "complete performance" ball that combines all of the performance benefits into one ball so that players no longer need to carry a multitude of balls to cover every condition.

Callaway Golf Company continues to take great strides in developing the finest golf clubs and equipment available in the world today. You will find many of today's top professionals carrying Callaway every time they step out onto the golf course.