I recently came across a small book/long essay by Robert D. Rickey, a long time executive with MacGregor and son of Clarence Rickey (cousin of baseball's Branch Rickey), who'd taken over the company during the Depression. It is a nicely (and it seems to me astutely/factually) written account of the golfing scene/industry from the 1900s to the 1970s. I thought some of you might enjoy it. Here are just a couple of tidbits (and I've saved one of the best bits for last):
"In 1897, the Crawford, McGregor & Canby Company of Dayton, Ohio made its first golf club. This was about a year after Spalding had made the first golf club in this country. In order to be able to manufacture irons as well as woods, a forge shop was added to McGregor's [the name was later changed to MacGregor's] existing facilities....Their plant and offices were located on the near west side of Dayton in an area called Westmont and were on six acres of land. Their total employment had reached approximately 50 people. They also owned a lumber mill in Gaylord, Michigan, where during the peak of the logging season, they employed between 150 and 200 people. By 1910, Crawford, McGregor & Canby... were becoming internationally known in golf; in fact, their outstanding persimmon wood heads and hickory shafts were in demand everywhere golf was played, but especially in England and Scotland, to whom they were already exporting over 100,000 units annually."
"Americans greeted the Twenties with a zest never again equaled and were especially drawn to sports and the "super" stars they produced. The decade was appropriately called "The Roaring Twenties", during which the public's interest in sports reached an unbelievable height. Star athletes were canonized and names like Jack Dempsey, Earl Sande, Bobby Jones and Bill Tilden became household words. However, Americans also decided it was time to participate themselves and thousands flocked to take up golf. By 1927, there were 4,800 golf courses in the U.S., which the game's scorekeepers, the National Golf Foundation, estimate were over 80% private country clubs. By 1929, this figure grew to 5,856, of which 78% were private country clubs."
"Rickey was an officer of the Medinah Country Club and was the person responsible for hiring Tommy Armour as Medinah's s club professional. Armour, who already was considered one of the game's all-time great players, also was a most unusual and charming man. However, he also was under contract to Spalding, but the minute it expired, he joined his old friend, Clarence Rickey, at MacGregor. Together they put together a ·marketing plan (although they undoubtedly did not call it that) that did the following:
1. Created the first complete line of Pro-only golf equipment, the Tommy Armour Silver Scot Tourney Line.
2. Developed an entire new line of models, which were selected by Armour, but then refined by his young assistant at Medinah, an Italian named Toney Penna.
3. Changed the spelling of McGregor to MacGregor and began leaning on its Scotch origin in their advertising...
5. Demanded an entire new philosophy which was created within the company, in which anything involved with a customer was to be highly personalized. Also, Rickey personally respected the club professional and refused to have anyone around him that did not share this respect, which necessitated replacing the entire Credit Department and several other key inside people and salesmen...
6. Rickey became personally involved with every employee and their families through company sponsored activities, at which he rebuilt their pride, both in MacGregor and their skills as clubmakers...
8. De-emphasized the effort to sell the retail market. In fact, it was his goal to build the Pro business to being 70-75% of their total sales, or exactly the opposite that it had become in the Twenties under the previous management.
9. Established a promotion program that encouraged club professionals to use MacGregor clubs personally by developing a special Custom Club Department to which the most skilled clubmakers only were assigned. To head up this program, Rickey induced Toney Penna, who had just started a job as a head pro at a Chicago club, to join
MacGregor on a full-time basis....In 1938, Penna recommended three young, but yet unestablished Tour players: Ben Hogan, Bryon Nelson and Jimmy Demaret, all of whom Rickey signed immediately with hand-shakes and for a total investment of less than $5,000"
"It did not take long after Pearl Harbor for MacGregor to feel the impact of World War II. In fact, on March 1, 1942 the government declared golf equipment a "non-essential" product and issued an edict that all work-in-process must be-completed by June 30 after which they were to convert to making products needed in the war effort. It also forbid them to buy any more materials such as shafts, leather grips, plastic adapters, etc. to use on golf clubs for civilian use. Of course, it also stopped the making of golf bags and golf balls on the same date..."
"In the immediate post-war years of 1947-49, the Tommy Armour model continued to be the top selling club on the pro market. A Byron Nelson Tourney model was added in 1948 and while it was an exact duplicate of the Armour, it never was accepted, although his name sold well on medium and low price clubs. Louise Suggs, the US Amateur champion, turned professional and joined MacGregor in 1949, and a line of Suggs ladies' clubs in all three price ranges was added to the line. Ben Hogan and Jimmy Demaret's names were featured on the Dealer line, but which MacGregor continued to treat with a secondary interest..."
"The introduction of the MT [line of clubs, in 1950] was also the beginning of the end for the Tommy Armour model as a sales leader, even though all of its Playing Staff continued to use the Armour model, except Lionel Herbert, after trying the MT and finding that they preferred the Armour. This was a revelation to MacGregor, for it was the first time that a top selling pro club was not the same model that the ·top players used -- and it also was a forewarning of what was to follow many years later when the consumer demanded the aluminum shaft and later Ping and Lynx clubs, even though the club pro initially disapproved of them..."
"Penna followed up his MT success with a series of innovations, which were timed to be introduced every second year. For example, in 1952, he introduced the Eye-O-Matic woods, which in essence were the first tri-colored face inserts that were also over-sized and were advertised that they increased the hitting surface, which they obviously did. However, they also required that MacGregor's magnificent head models be modified to accomodate the larger inserts, which in the opinion of many was the beginning of MacGregor losing its superiority as wood makers. You never would have suspected this though at the time, as the Eye-O-Matic woods like the MT irons before them captured the markets..."
"In fact, everything went well for MacGregor in the 50's, except the golf ball. They had changed the name from Tourney to MT trying to benefit from the impetus of the club line, but that did not seem to help. However, the final blow occurred in 1953, when Ben Hogan resigned rather than agree to use the Tourney (it was renamed again) in competition. Hogan, who was at the time the best pIayer in the world, had been allowed to use competitor's balls until MacGregor felt that their ball was equal to competitors. Prior to the US Open at Pittsburgh in June of 1953, Hogan had been asked to spend a couple of days in Cincinnati to witness a series of tests that MacGregor hoped would convince him that the Tourney was as good as other top balls, but especially the Spalding Dot, which Ben was using. Ben co-operated and spent three days watching every known test, all in which the Tourney proved to be equal if not superior to competition's balls. One entire day was spent showing Ben that the Tourney was equal or better on a mechanical driving machine that MacGregor had installed at one of the local country clubs. The final session was conducted by Toney Koegel, in which he reviewed all the tests that Ben had seen. Up to this time, Ben had uttered nothing more than a grunt the entire three days, that is until Koegel said, 'Ben, you have seen conclusive proof that the Tourney is now a good golf ball, one that you can use with confidence when you play in the US Open next week. The driving machine should have proven this to you if nothing else did.' Hogan was completely silent for several minutes, but then he replied, 'I would suggest that you enter the f---ing driving machine in the US Open.'"
Anyway, for those who like old golf clubs and industry history, I thought you might enjoy
Peter