Titleist, Callaway Offer Competing Golf Packages

Callaway Offering VIP Experience Golf Package In Carlsbad

Titleist and Callaway are each offering “two-day getaways [that] expose amateurs to every advantage that the world’s best [golfers] draw on, except natural ability,” according to Mark Hyman of BUSINESSWEEK. The 33-acre Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) in Oceanside, California, is offering a $5,000 package “complete with swing gurus, high-tech analysis, and loads of personalized goodies.” Callaway will offer a “VIP Experience” on ten acres in Carlsbad, California, for $25,000 that “focuses on curing swing flaws” and has guests “stay at a Four Seasons hotel, ride in stretch limos, and have every whim indulged.” Callaway Dir of Fitting & Instruction Randy Peterson said, “If a guest tells us, ‘I only eat Famous Amos cookies,’ we send somebody out for them.” Callaway guests will also receive a “personalized bag and a full set of custom-fit clubs,” which they had previously offered to only a “handful of corporate partners and celebrities.” Hyman noted “even at these heady prices, the programs have found an audience.” TPI is “booked through next summer,” and guests last year included Falcons Owner Arthur Blank, team President Rich McKay and coach Jim Mora. Actor Michael Douglas and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, former N.Y. City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner have had club fittings at the Callaway center (BUSINESSWEEK, 7/10 issue).