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Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
A Sucker is Born Every Minute: The U.S. Putter Market 7-31-25
00:04:12
In this episode, Scott Becker explores the booming U.S. putter market, highlighting how millions of golfers chase performance through equipment rather than practice.
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This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Today's discussion is A sucker is born every minute, the U.S. putter market. So for anybody that's not aware, a sucker is born every minute is an old line from P.T. barnum, the founder of Barnum and Bailey. You know, one of the great, great circus companies of all time and one of the great entrepreneur creative geniuses of our time and just hustler and entrepreneurs, P.T. barnum. So the US putter market proves the case that a sucker is born every minute. Now, just go through a couple stats very quickly and anybody that's a golfer that this will resonate with, or anybody that's a tennis player, everybody does anything that thinks the new laptop is going to make them a better professional, the new tennis rack is going to make them a better player, the new golf course can make them a better golfer when they really need to spend time and money investing and learning and practicing versus buying clubs, buying a computer, buying this tool, buying that tool. It's like the salesperson says, I can't get started without the new CRMA CRM system. I literally want to tell that salesperson to gfy, but I usually don't. But the US Putter market proves the case of the suckers born every minute. Here's a quick breakdown. In the US every year, estimated sales are 2 to 4 million people buy a putter every year. And I think that's probably understated versus overstated because so many people golf and so many of those golfers can't help themselves but try the new putt or try the next thing, anything they think that will give them another stroke, take a stroke or two off their game, I don't know. At the end of the day, swinging the club better and making good decisions in the course, those are the two things that really take your handicap down. But swinging the cup well and making good club choices, but making good decisions. But again, so many people are fixated on clubs. So about 2 to 4 million putters are sold a year in the U.S. $550 million in putter sales a year are made throughout the world. The estimated number of putter sales by dollar volume is $3.5 billion. So that's a lot of PT Barnum suckers out there buying new putters every year. In terms of the big brands Here, Callaway, Odyssey, TaylorMade, the Spider Titleist, the Scotty Cameron's in their line, 4th Ping and 5th WAB WAB Companies is a putter company that started about eight years ago. It's more the center. You know, I don't pronounce it a center facing putter, but. But the we have company has really hit it out of the park recently. Many of the estimates show that they've probably surpassed Ping in sales. I cannot tell you the amount of people that we go off with that now think that they are the next Scottish Scheffler because they have a lab putter. It's literally gone to a lot of people's heads. I know a friend of mine recently got one for his wife. When you talk about a project trying to get his wife to putt better, she's actually a very good potter and she's actually the most brilliant person in that family. That family created a son who's a valedictorian, and we generally give that woman the credit for that creation of the son who's a valedictorian. The other son is actually brilliant and fantastic too, and as good as they come. But I. But I segue. But this is how bad this putter thing has gotten. My friend feels compelled by the way, a putter for his wife. I don't know if that's because she thinks she's going to be better putting with it or he thinks she's going to be happy with him because of it. The old concept, happy wife, happy life must live out in that family of valedictorians. In any event, that's the US Putter market again. Kelway number one. They're Odyssey brand of potters. They're different putters. Tailor made, Titleist, then Ping and Lab. But maybe lab ahead of ping. Now, 2 to 4 million putters sold a year in the United States, including another web putter. Sold to a buddy who beats me on the golf course all the time. Another sold to a buddy of mine who bought it for his wife, who's got the child who's a valedictorian, where that bloodline or that brain line comes through her. Thank you for listening to the Becker business podcast, the Becker private equity podcast. I am swearing off buying a new putter for the rest of this year. Thank you for listening.