Worldwide Golf Shops INSIDER PODCAST #325! In this installment, we chat with the President of TaylorMade Golf, David Abeles! David talks TaylorMade Golf's NEW SIM 2 Series of Driver, Fairways, Hybrids, and Irons! Please Enjoy this INSIDER Podcast
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Tom Brassell
Welcome to the worldwide golf Shops insider podcast. Episode 325. Greetings everyone. Tom Brassell here. Happy New year again. 2021 is here and it's here on full throttle here on the worldwide golf Shops Insider podcast. The guest list this year will be second to none, once again, and it starts with our special guest today. Always great to catch up with our good friend TaylorMade Golf's David, Abeles. David, how are you my friend?
David Abeles
What a what? A crazy ride. This has been a rollercoaster Tom hasn't it? and yeah, it feels like we're still Dealing with it a bit here early in 2021, but I'm doing well. I appreciate having some time on The podcast is always and spending some time with all the fans of worldwide golf. So this this time of year is always an exciting one for me to have the opportunity to reengage with you and the team and share a few thoughts about golf and certainly TaylorMade.
Tom Brassell
Yeah, this is kind of our state of the Union. Let's turn the Clock back David. I mean, it was about what 10 months ago and Everything kind of hit. I think the Big East tournament got stopped at halftime and The Players Championship was going to take us back to what You were doing when all this happened and how it kind of started.
David Abeles
Yeah, you know, I'll even backtrack beyond ten months ago because it was March 13th or 14th on Friday when Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour suspended play and then ultimately canceled The Players Championship withstand really started to. Create what I call the lever pulls in golf all the different decisions that were being made around our great game sport at the professional level. At the amateur level, and certainly the businesses that's when things started to migrate, but we had had some level of awareness to a virus in China back at the end of last year. Had no idea Was coronavirus had no idea that it was epidemic of sorts at the time that could ultimately manifest itself or develop into a pandemic, but like many like many of us in this industry, we do some work with Asia based entities, some in China and we started to see A little bit of absenteeism and some of the facilities, and so we weren't sure what that was, so we paid very close attention to that.ˇSoˇweˇweˇgot a sense that something unusual was happening at the end of last year. Really. The beginning of this year and then once the media started to get engaged in the Public Health Committee, started to engage both nationally and internationally. We found out like everybody else That there was this epidemic happening in Asia, that ultimately has become coronavirus on a worldwide basis.ˇSoˇwe had a little bit of a notion that there may have been something unusual, although we really didn't know what that was. In our companies. One that I alwaysˇprioritizesˇhealth and safety and everything we do absolutely everything comes its people, customer health and safety. First that tailor made Soˇwe're very cognizant of it then then really to the Genesis of your question, Iˇactually duckedˇout with my family For a couple of days on a holiday inˇmid Marchˇand that's when the news started to break that this isˇseriousˇand we were obviously like every other company going to take this very seriously. And then The Players Championship was suspended. the NBA was suspended. I'm silvers and the NBA suspended the NBA season and then things you know started to ramp so Over the past ten months, there have been a series of actions and decisions that have had to be made on behalf of our sport On behalf of the business and certainly all the people involved, that has been a bit surreal to be honest with you, Tom and you know the starting point again is you know our hearts go out to all of those that have been directly affected by this andˇandˇhave either been infected by the virus or sadly you know have had some real Sadness in their life because of it. We're fighting like everybody else to do our part in help Our communities andˇall ofˇour people and certainly their families and everybody associated with golf. True, this is the best that we can.ˇ
Tom Brassell
Yeah, it made us really start thinking and reassessing and wondering where we were going to go. But what did they? What did? What did you learn about Your team or yourself that you may not have known during this time because it was certainly a time forˇself reflectionˇandˇandˇteam reflection.ˇ
David Abeles
Yeah Tom, you know, and I think a lot of a lot of executives will tell you that you know we had some levels of preparation For an unusual circumstance like this, ready to go, kind of a crisis management model that would help your people and your team through a situation like this, but IˇIˇcan honestly tell you is as strong as our management team is. I think we're the best in the business and I also believe that we prioritize the right values within our business Nobody is prepared for something like this, so youˇactually haveˇto, in many regards, react to new data points and new learnings on aˇday to dayˇbasis to enable you to, you know, make progress orˇplan for the futureˇand then the bigger question is Tom, what are you planning for? Because the data is responsive data Not proactive data, and you can't model precedence From a prior year or prior sequence of time that says OK, this is what's going to happen.ˇSoˇwhat we learned very quickly about our team and it's something that we knew is we have a very fast and nimble leadership team at Taylor made in a very fast and nimble culture, a culture that really can make changes in our business and with our customers, and with golfers and with Athletes very quickly To ensure that we get our company in our people best position for whether it's health and Wellness in this case or success. When things started to improve. And so it was a tremendous learning invalidation that and you know, you've heard me talk about this before. Our company at TaylorMade here in many regards, gets D and S1 of if not the most innovative company in golf and typically When the constituencies talk about innovation, they talk about our product innovation, Tom But I have always said this and I believe this more so today than ever before. Innovation, a truly innovative company, innovates across everything you do and it starts with the way you think and it starts with your corporate culture and innovative companies have the capability to create when they need to. They have the capability of think differently when it's required. They have the opportunity and capability Of acting quickly when necessary, and Fortunately we're able to do that. No better example, when we really one of the first things we wanted to do was do our part in helping those affected or helping those that are fighting this pandemic on the frontline. So you recall back in May we brought together four of our superstars, Dustin Johnson, Matt Wolf, Rory Mclroy, Rickie Fowler and we with our partners at PGA Tour and at NBC put on the 1st live televised sporting event, TaylorMade driving Relief at Seminole Golf Club of all places We put on the 1st live sporting event since the onset of COVID-19 to raise money for the Nurses Foundation CDC Foundation. We raised almost $7,000,000 Tom to help and that was something that I personally am incredibly proud of. Incredibly proud of what TaylorMade was willing to do to help here and we continue to do that through PPE and other provisions throughout the course of the year.
Tom Brassel
Yeah, that that event was huge because for for the longest time not only golf but everything was shut down and then all of a sudden golf it seemed like it started starting to come back a little bit like hey, you know what we can. We can play this game safely as the sport itself in the recreation of it. You know, with distancing with walking, then all of a sudden. Push carts started to be scarce. They were all selling out and the next thing you know are great sports, making a little bit of a comeback.ˇ
David Abeles
Yeah, no doubt and and I'm sure you feel the same way you know you never want a pandemic to be the catalyst to drive the success in a given category. But make no mistake What is real here is because of our sport, how you can physical distance and how you can play the game and the safety being outdoors in the practices and protocols put in place at the golf course and think about Tom, the work that golf professionals across the country and around the world have done to create an environment that is safe For people to come play golf, I mean they're heroes in my mind, golf professionals at every level, at every facility that is opened up the game in their club and access to their golf courses to play in the modifications they've made. Their work has been paramount to golf's, you know, shrink throughout the course of the pandemic, but you know, one of the things that was interesting. I was looking at some data points pre pandemic during pandemic in what we hope to be post pandemic is As quickly as we can as these vaccines get rolled out, golf was on the upswing prior to covid We were seeing single digit constant participation. We had stability in the marketplaces. We had stability in the in the participation based not just the number of rounds of played and then coded really activated. What we call the latent demand in golf. So to put that in a numerical context some there are 25 million golfers here in the United States there are 15 million golfers Outside of those 25 that have indicated that they would like to consider or are considering playing golf, and I think in many regards what's happened Because people have had more time,
