Fast-forward 112 years, and this company with an unparalleled golfing heritage was sold for a paltry $1.75 million – while GolfWeek magazine in the US published headlines like, ‘MacGregor – Demise of an American Classic’.
Despite a back catalogue that included 1992’s titanium T920 driver – reportedly the first club to be designed by computer – MacGregor stood on the threshold of an equipment revolution and somehow managed an air shot. Since Nicklaus sold the company in 1992, the MacGregor brand has been ingloriously hawked around with no one seemingly able to revive its fortunes – not even its last owner, the notoriously business-savvy Greg Norman.
A new era
MacGregor’s new owner is Golfsmith International Holdings, the mighty US retailer of 72 megastores across America – each of up to 60,000 square feet – plus a huge component supply business. Macgregor’s European operation will be headed up by wholesalers Golfsmith Europe, with managing director Doug Poole confident they can, at last, find a working formula for the brand.
“Corporately, MacGregor has been owned by a whole variety of people who, with the best intentions, all had a vision for where they wanted to position the brand,” he starts. “Some put it at the top of the market with high-quality, forged, custom-ground irons, while others placed it in the middle with more price-conscious, game-improvement models. I think it confused the consumer, and even the retailer a little bit.
“The secret of driving a brand forward is to make your bed and continue to lie in it – and to make it more comfortable as you go along. You need to trade in the part of the market that people understand you live in, and that’s what [the previous owners] didn’t do.”
Poole tells SGB Golf that Golfsmith’s plans are to position MacGregor as a brand with products that will both honour the company’s heritage, while advancing the technology to 21st century levels. “Our plans will be to develop high-quality forged models or game-improvement models that have unique features technically,” he confirms.
Golfsmith’s Texas-based R&D team has been working on new product since the May 2009 acquisition: “It takes a year or so to bring a new product to market,” Poole adds. “One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to rush. We have talked to past [MacGregor] customers to find out what they felt was right for the brand. That feedback told us we needed to dwell in its heritage, in the quality player market, and that’s why we will continue with the famous VIP and Tourney names, with quality forgings.”
New versions of MacGregor’s classic VIP forged blade and a mid-sized, cast Tourney iron are on the horizon for May – a year on from when the company was purchased – while Golfsmith has elected not to continue with MacGregor’s licensing agreement with Bobby Grace putters. However, MacGregor is taking distribution of hand-milled, high-quality Bettinardi putters, and will sell seven models besides its own new range. There will also be three new balls – the VIP, Tourney, and VX – with VIP and Tourney drivers scheduled for production.
For now, the principal design story is MacGregor’s impressive Cup Face 360º technology, in which the entire face is attached to the clubhead via a proprietary plasma welding process that means no welding on the face itself, rendering the entire face of the golf club the sweetspot. MacGregor believes this adds distance to the power clubs and distance control to the scoring ones.
Golfsmith is also raising the standard of specs, with the new Cup-faced MT driver being powered by a Fujikura Motore F1 shaft (previously it was fitted with a house brand), and the three forged irons – MT, MT Pro C, MT Pro M – now feature the KBS shaft, which is increasingly visible on Tour. Lamkin Special Tour grips are also fitted as standard.
Young bucks
Golfsmith has also identified the need for MacGregor to reconnect with younger golfers. “If you are a heritage brand, you tend to direct your marketing to people who know and respond to heritage,” says Poole. “MacGregor has won 59 majors and been used by everyone from Nicklaus to Norman, and most in between. We weren’t really an interesting brand to the younger golfers though, the 20-40-year-olds, but more so to the 50-70 year-olds who all grew up with MacGregor and its quality.”
MacGregor’s priority to entice the younger golfer will be seen in the spring when it launches a six-month marketing campaign on Sky Golf during the week of Masters. “We’ll have 30-second slots every day, taking the brand from urban golfer to heritage golfer, generating exciting stories over the six months,” says Poole. “There’ll be magazine advertising too to help raise the profile of MacGregor as a brand for everyone, without losing the heritage.
“We are trying to make clubs of the highest quality, working for all levels of golfer, and we’re using R&D technology, not the hollow-headed gizmo technology that MacGregor did try to get into for a period. We will be in the more expensive part of the market place, competing against the likes of Mizuno, PING and the other major brands.”
MacGregor fits neatly into a Golfsmith Europe portfolio, which includes high-quality custom build through Snake Eyes, box sets with Zevo, and Golfsmith’s own component expertise. A robust operational structure with strong ties to most retailers, including green grass buying groups TGI and Foremost, bodes well.
A nine-strong sales team is covering the UK and Ireland on the road, while 15 further agents will sell the brand into the Continent, and Golfsmith promises that retailer profit margins will be protected by the absence of parallel importing and also by restricted distribution. Though component production takes place in the States, all MacGregor clubs for Europe will be assembled at the Golfsmith base at St Ives, and thanks to the FAZ-FIT head swapping system, more than 100 fitting options will be available on the average iron.
“The bottom line is that the design of our MacGregor clubs will carry a lot of heritage through [micro] brands like VIP and Tourney,” Poole sums up, “but we will bring modern R&D to the brand - all the features you would expect of modern day quality clubs.
“The secret for us going forward is that this is a margin-making product; we will work on making features and benefits known to our retailers and consumers, and create demand through advertising and marketing. Then we can start seeing MacGregor competing against the top brands at the top end of the market – where it belongs.”
Taking orders
MacGregor products available now:
MT driver
460cc head, traditional pear shape
Titanium face welded to titanium body
Cup Face technology
Lofts: 9.5°, 10.5°, 11.5°
RRP: £249
MT Fairway wood
Stainless steel
Cup Face technology
Classic pear shape with two sole rails
Lofts: 15º, 18º
RRP: £149
MT Hybrid
Stainless steel
Cup Face technology
Lofts: 17°, 20°, 23°, 26°, 29°
RRP: £129
MT irons
Forged cavity with classic blade looks
Cup Face technology
Extra forgiveness via wider sole and offset
RRP: £549 (3-PW)
MT Pro C irons
Sleek forged cavity back
Designed for the better amateur
RRP: £599 (3-PW)
MT Pro M irons
Classic forged muscle-back blade
Designed for the serious player wanting feel and playability
RRP: £599 (3-PW)
MT OS irons
Deep undercut cavity
Wide sole & thicker topline
Cup Face technology
RRP: £499 (4-PW)
MT Mid irons
Deep undercut cavity
Medium offset, wider sole
Cup Face technology
RRP: £479 (4-PW)
