Golf equipment companies say that "it's too early to
assess the impact" Internet e-tailers will have on player
endorsement deals, but with dot-coms in the marketplace
"offering big bucks and stock options" to golfers in return
for endorsement of their Web sites, the price for equipment
companies "is only going to go up," according to Liz Reisman
of GOLF WORLD. One equipment company exec: "Anytime anybody
drives up the price in a field by flailing money around, it
makes you nervous, wary. ... [But] even if a company loses
the bag to a dot-com, it will still have its clubs in the
bag." Reisman writes that the company "rattling the cages
most" is Chipshot.com, which was "ignored until it signed
John Elway." Chipshot.com CEO Brian Sroub says that sales
were up 1000% this past holiday season over the previous
year and added that the company "may sign as many as six
more pros." Reisman writes that Chipshot.com "won't
discuss" the possible endorsers, but two industry sources
"indicated that Se Ri Pak and Nick Price were among those
being wooed." Pak "was all but signed" by Callaway when,
according to one source, a dot-com, supposedly Chipshot.com,
"stepped in and upped the ante." Pak's agent, IMG's Jay
Burton, "denies that Chipshot.com is involved in a bidding
war" for his client. But one agent said that he "wouldn't
touch some" of the dot-coms: "I take my player away from
Callaway golf and she wins the Women's Open, I can't go back
to Callaway. They never said that, but you know it. It's a
loyalty issue" (GOLF WORLD, 1/14 issue).
CHIPSHOT NAMES AGENCY: GOLFWEEK's Gene Yasuda writes
that a new TV campaign by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for
Chipshot.com is "expected to break" during CBS' NCAA
basketball tournament coverage (GOLFWEEK, 1/15 issue).
