This Ask MyGolfSpy is a little different, in that we’re asking for your questions on a specific OEM, Wilson Golf.
Or, if you prefer, Wilson Staff.
We solicited questions from you on our social media feeds and, as always, you came up with some doozies. We couldn’t answer all of them (but we’ll throw out some on social, just for fun), but as you might expect, you had a lot of fundamental questions about Wilson’s past, present and future.
Q: I think about Wilson’s company strategy vs the major OEMs we think about. At some point, they lost all their ground. Was it just marketing or investments in technology or just their clubs didn’t look good or that their woods lineup was poor? Why did they fade? – @BigHippoZen
This is what you folks are most curious about. In one form or another, it was the most-asked question. There’s no simple answer for one simple reason: there’s no single thing, event, product or happenstance that you can identify as a turning point.
If you’re old enough to remember the Beatles breaking up, you’re old enough to remember that Wilson, along with MacGregor, Spalding, RAM and a few others, were the biggest names in golf. They made gorgeous forgings that all the Tour pros played, and they owned the market.
It’s here where we need to recognize just how much Karsten Solheim and PING (and, to a lesser extent, Tom Crow at COBRA and John Riley and Carl Ross at Lynx) permanently disrupted the golf equipment industry. Karsten gets most of the credit (Riley, Ross and Crow deserve some, too) for making forgiving, investment-cast irons a thing. By the mid-‘80s, forged iron sales were down 30 percent and wood sales were down nearly 40 percent.
Wilson’s performance and quality had nothing to do with it. The Killer Whale was, by all accounts, an excellent driver for its day. But the Big Bertha line was getting bigger every other year, COBRA had its KING driver and TaylorMade was flexing its bubble-shafted muscles.
As Wilson’s market share bled during the ‘90s, so did its Tour sponsorship efforts. Paul Lawrie won the Open Championship in ’99 with Fat Shaft irons in his bag but Wilson wouldn’t cop another major until Padraig Harrington’s three wins in 2007-2008.
And that’s a perfect segue into our next question …
Q: Why are people looking down on them? Wilson irons are and always have been up there with the best of them. – @Xafication
Social media, unfortunately, paints with a broad brush. I don’t think it’s a universal truth that everyone looks down on Wilson. People may overlook them but that’s not the same as looking down on them.
There’s an old saying in sales and marketing: Perception is reality. More accurately, your customers’ perception is your reality. We’ve already discussed why Wilson today isn’t what the Wilson of yesterday was. It took a long time for golf’s pecking order to change and nothing that happened with Wilson happened in a vacuum.
By the ‘90s, the market had shifted. Historically, market shifts are never driven by market leaders. Disruptors drive market shifts. Karsten was king of the disruptors followed by Ely Callaway, Tom Crow and TaylorMade’s Mark King. It’s kind of the natural order of things.
Look at it this way. In the ‘50s, Elvis was King. But by 1964, it was all Beatlemania, all the time, Elvis was an afterthought and the King never reclaimed his throne. And the teenagers who bought up Elvis records in the ‘50s weren’t teenagers anymore. The new generation of teens loved the Fab Four. Elvis was yesterday’s news.
Wilson, I would say, is looking to join Mizuno and PXG.
Q: What are their plans to continue to compete with the bigger-name club makers?
– @PureIronSpite
We took a peek under that particular tent a couple of weeks ago in our interview with Wilson Global Marketing Director Markus McCaine. But the big-picture answer might come as a surprise to you if you’re the least bit cynical.
It’s innovation.
Don’t underestimate the power of Wilson’s 2024 lineup. The new Dynapower Forged irons are getting plenty of industry buzz, and the Staff Model Blades and CBs are drop-dead sexy. The Triad golf ball was a solid performer in the MyGolfSpy Ball Lab testing and the new Staff Model balls show promise.
McCaine’s new direction – targeting the young ball striker – is smart. That demographic doesn’t carry three decades of preconceived notions around and isn’t afraid of being different. They don’t necessarily want to play what their fathers, mothers, aunts or uncles played.
Q: What do they want to be? – @infogolfgearbox
In the short term, they’re not thinking of a return to the “glory years.” That’s unrealistic for several reasons. As part of Wilson Sporting Goods, Wilson Golf is a business unit. As a business unit, it has to grow profitably and responsibly. Given where they are in terms of market share and the relative strength of the Big Five, growing profitably and responsibly means growing slowly and steadily.
Ask anyone at Wilson and they’ll tell you flat out: “We’re an irons company.” Through all of Wilson’s ups and downs, it has consistently produced excellent irons and this year’s bumper crop is no different. We’ll see how MyGolfSpy Most Wanted testing shakes out but, in my limited personal testing, the Staff Model Blades, CBs and Dynapower Forged irons are next-level good.
That’s a long-winded non-answer. What do they want to be? I’d say their ultimate goal is to be viewed on the same level as a Mizuno: a maker of high-quality, high-performing irons.
Q: Why are the drivers/irons so much cheaper than PING, Titleist, etc? Always played PING but am tempted to try Wilson. – @Reneildo
You’ve noticed that too, huh? As sweet as Wilson’s 2024 irons lineup looks, I was surprised at the pricing.
In a good way.
Dynapower Forged pricing was even more startling. The Big Five’s player’s distance offerings are typically $1,200 to $1,400. The Wilson Dynapower Forged comes in at $999.99 with the KBS Tour Lite shaft.
And don’t even get us started on the value Wilson’s Infinite Putter line brings to the table.
That said, Wilson certainly isn’t forsaking traditional retail. There are still a lot of golfers who won’t buy unless they try and won’t buy unless they’re custom-fitted. Both are impossible without a brick-and-mortar presence.
Pricing is a double-edged sword. Complaining about price has become a blood sport for golfers. We hate high prices because they’re, well, high. But we also know deep down that a high price indicates high quality and performance, even though we may outwardly demean it.
The growing direct-to-consumer companies have carved out a solid and profitable niche but have yet to break that mindset. DTC is growing but traditional brick-and-mortar still rules. Wilson seems to be straddling the line. They still need that retail presence, but Guerilla Marketing 101 says that if you can’t find a level playing field at retail, find a different playing field that is level.
Q: They clearly have great irons, but their wood and hybrid products don’t seem to perform as well. Do they have a development plan or goals for their woods in both the short and long term? – @Billy5174
The broad brush of social media strikes again.
If you review our Most Wanted Testing, you’ll find a handful of solid- to excellent-performing Wilson metalwoods. Wilson Golf doesn’t dominate the medal stand like Callaway, PING, TaylorMade and COBRA but they can be sneaky good if you know where to look. If yards per dollar is a metric you care about, Wilson does bring some value.
Drivers, however, get the headlines, date the cheerleaders and drive the sales cycles. The Dynapower Carbon and Dynapower Titanium both performed well in pockets. The Carbon finished third overall in accuracy but it’s doubtful anyone will rush out to buy this year’s third-most accurate driver.
That said, Dynapower outperformed its predecessor, the D9 (which was a big step backward in performance compared to its predecessor, the D7). Wilson Golf has had some sneaky performers over the past decade but driver is a point of emphasis for the company.
Q: Their putters always get such good reviews yet I hardly ever see them promoted.
– @mikewitchter
Don’t get me started on this one, Mike – and we need to set a date for another round at Pine Hills.
The Wilson Infinite putter lineup is solid from top to bottom. The Spider-styled Buckingham has been an outstanding performer for us since its release two years ago. The Staff Model putters, designed with input from the legendary Clay Long, are also excellent performers.
I’m anxious to see how Wilson Fit AI turns out for putters (not to mention wedges and metalwoods). It’s a fascinating technology that captures more than 100 swing characteristics and then leverages hundreds of thousands of swings to fit you into a club within five to 10 minutes. That gives the fitter an excellent starting point to add tweaks and expertise.
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