Darrell Survey Year-to-Date Counts Reveal 655 TaylorMadeå¨ Drivers Have Been Put in Play on the PGA Tour in 2008 Compared to Nickent’s 18
CARLSBAD, Calif. (March 21, 2008) – TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company (TMaG) filed a lawsuit yesterday against Nickent Golf in regard to claims made in Nickent’s recent print and television advertising and on its website concerning the purported success of Nickent drivers on tour.
Nickent’s online, print and TV campaign appears designed to lead consumers to believe that its 4DX driver is the #1 driver model on the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour. The reality is that – by a tremendous margin – more professionals on the PGA Tour in 2008 have used TaylorMade drivers than drivers made by any other manufacturer, including Nickent (655 instances of use for TaylorMade drivers, compared to just 18 for Nickent drivers).1 Likewise, more professionals on the 2008 PGA Tour have used TaylorMade’s Burner® driver than any models made by Nickent (156 instances of use for TaylorMade Burner drivers, compared to just 18 for Nickent drivers).2 Finally, while Nickent attempts to base some of its broad claims on statistics from just two of the only four Nationwide Tour events played this year to date, the truth is that at every Nationwide Tour event played this year to date, more professionals played TaylorMade drivers than any other brand.3
"Occasionally fringe companies in the industry try to encroach on our territory as the #1 driver in golf by misrepresenting the facts," said Bob Maggiore, TMaG’s vice president of marketing. "Being the #1 driver model at a Nationwide Tour event does not equate to being the No. 1 driver on tour. TaylorMade has been the #1 driver brand on the PGA Tour, as well as the Nationwide Tour, since 2001.4 That more than qualifies us to question Nickent’s logic and judgment in making claims that are misleading at best, and blatantly false at worst."
The Darrell Survey and Sports Marketing Surveys Ltd. reported that a total of 8,474 TaylorMade drivers were put into play during 2007 on the world’s major professional golf tours, with the next competitor – which was not Nickent – ranking a distant second with 4,082.5 So far this year TaylorMade leads the PGA Tour’s cumulative driver count with 655 in play 1, leads the Nationwide Tour driver count with 183 3, leads the Champions Tour driver count with 170 6, and leads the LPGA Tour driver count with 137 7.
1 Darrell Survey driver brand count statistics for the PGA Tour up to and including the 2008 WGC-CA Championship and 2008 Puerto Rico Open.
2 Darrell Survey driver model count statistics for the PGA Tour up to and including the 2008 WGC-CA Championship and 2008 Puerto Rico Open.
3 Darrell Survey driver brand count statistics for the Nationwide Tour up to and including the 2008 HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship.
4 Darrell Survey annual driver brand count statistics for the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour from 2001 through 2007.
5 World’s major professional golf tours include the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Nationwide Tour and LPGA Tour, whose statistics are reported by the Darrell Survey; and European Tour and Japan Tour, whose statistics are reported by Sports Marketing Surveys Ltd.
6 Darrell Survey driver brand count statistics for the Champions Tour up to and including the 2008 AT&T Champions Classic.
7 Darrell survey driver brand count statistics for the LPGA Tour up to and including the 2008 MasterCard Classic.
About Taylor Made Golf Company, Inc. dba TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company
TaylorMade Golf has led the golf industry’s technological revolution since the company was founded in 1979. TaylorMade metalwoods, irons and putters have been used to win hundreds of professional golf tournaments around the world. In 1998, TaylorMade became a wholly owned subsidiary of the adidas Group. adidas Golf footwear and apparel is the choice of hundreds of professional golfers around the world. Learn more about TaylorMade-adidas Golf and its brands at (866) 530-TMAG (8624) orwww.taylormadegolf.com , www.adidasgolf.com or www.tmag.com .
About the adidas Group
The adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry, offering a broad range of products around three core segments adidas, Reebok and TaylorMade-adidas Golf. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Group has almost 30,000 employees and generated sales of more than ?10 billion in 2006.
Contact:
TaylorMade-adidas Golf
Public Relations Department
Scott Leightman
Tel: 760.476.5748
email: scott.leightman@tmag.com
John Steinbach
Tel: 760.918.6330
email: john.steinbach@tmag.com
