How textiles helped make Callaway a golf-industry giant
A quarter of a century after his death, an autobiography of Ely Callaway has now been published.
The founder of Callaway Golf died in 2001, but using extensive notes and recorded interviews that Ely Callaway compiled while working on his autobiography, his book publisher son, Nicholas Callaway, has now brought that project to a successful conclusion. The result is ‘The Unconquerable Game: My Life in Golf and Business’.
A review of the new book in the Wall Street Journal makes it clear that it was Ely Callaway’s background in textiles that allowed him to develop “the sharp-edged skills” that helped him transform a California start-up into the world’s largest golf-equipment company.
It makes clear that Callaway Golf was very much “a late third act” in the business life of the Georgia-born entrepreneur. His background was textiles; his family owned mills in his home state. When he joined the US army in 1940, he put his knowledge to good use and quickly became involved in negotiating contracts for uniform procurement.
After World War II, Mr Callaway worked for Milliken and then for Burlington, bringing innovation to both in the form of new fabrics woven from blends of wool and synthetic fibres, such as DuPont’s Dacron product. He rose to senior positions before being sacked by both companies. The autobiography goes into extensive detail about what went wrong each time.
What went right was the ability he built up for hiring talent and making deals. He used his settlement from Burlington to turn a vineyard he had planted as a hobby at a second home in southern California into a successful wine business.
He sold the wine business at the age of 62. He had family connections to golf legend Bobby Jones and was himself a scratch golfer for many years. He now looked forward to retiring and playing the game he loved as often as he liked.
Soon afterwards, however, a playing partner let him hit a few shots with a locally made wedge. The unconventional club intrigued Mr Callaway, who promptly visited the workshop where it had been produced. He invested and turned the start-up into Callaway Golf, but only after studying other major golf equipment manufacturers and concluding that there was a gap in the market for new ideas, new products and a new way of working.
