Tour Players Rally to Support Cause on Mother’s Day
Marlborough, MA-May 12th, 2008 – CHAMP Spikes today proudly announced that the winners of The PLAYERS Championship and the Italian Open, along with scores of players from the PGA and LPGA Tours, wore CHAMP Spikes over the weekend.
As part of the Pink on the Links™ program, CHAMP will make a donation to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) on behalf of the more than 200 players on the PGA, LPGA and European Tours who wore the pink and white spikes. The program, which is designed to raise both funds and awareness for the fight against breast cancer, has seen a 20% increase in participation on the PGA and LPGA Tours over last year’s numbers. The 2008 program also includes an eBay auction of autographed memorabilia from several Tour pros.
In Jacksonville, Florida, it took one extra hole to determine the winner and when it was over, the champion stood in the center of the famed par-3 17th hole wearing CHAMP’s Pro Stinger™. The Pro Stinger is the industry’s only hybrid spike and combines the feel of a traditional metal spikes with the comfort and support of today’s plastic spikes.
A look inside the numbers reveals that CHAMP dominated the count as well as the leaderboard at TPC. Sixty-six players, or 46% of the field, wore CHAMP spikes, including the Stinger™ and Pro Stinger. Five of the top ten finishers chose CHAMP spikes to fulfill their traction needs and a staggering 71% of the players that wore CHAMP spikes chose them over the spikes that came in their shoes as original equipment.
CHAMP scored its second victory of the weekend at the Italian Open as the winner secured his first Tour victory while wearing CHAMP manufactured and Hi-Tec designed directional traction CDT spikes. The leaderboard and field were both filled with CHAMP faithful as six of the top eleven finishers and 63% of the total field chose the number one brand on Tour.
It was another victory for CHAMP on the LPGA at the Michelob ULTRA Open in Kingsmill, Virginia. This victory, however, was in the fight against breast cancer. An incredible 88 players chose to wear the signature pink and white spikes. Sixty-three percent of the entire field chose CHAMP Spikes, with 75% of those players havingchosen them over the spikes that came in their shoes as original equipment.
CHAMP Spikes is currently auctioning off autographed memorabilia from several Tour players, including the world’s top ranked men’s and women’s golfers. Available items include an autographed British Open pin flag from the 2006 winner, autographed shoes from top pros, three foursomes with Duramed FUTURES Tour players and exclusive autographed PGA and LPGA tournament memorabilia. The eBay auction can be found through the link atwww.champspikes.com.
“As far as I’m concerned we had a victory on every Tour this week,” said Harris MacNeill, President of CHAMP. “The response from the Tour players this year was phenomenal. To have so many professionals wearing our spikes and donating signed memorabilia is inspiring. We increased our player involvement by 20% on each of the two U.S. tours. We are looking forward to seeing even more positive feedback when our charity auction is done.”
# # #
About MacNeill Engineering and CHAMP Spikes
CHAMP is a division of MacNeill Engineering Worldwide, which has been designing and manufacturing athletic footwear components since 1931. The company has been a pioneer in cleat technology since it introduced the world’s first locking spike: SURE-LOK. Since then, MacNeill Engineering has grown to be the world leader in the sport cleat industry with revolutionary offerings which include the CHAMP Q-LOK System®, used in all Nike®, Dexter®, and Hi-Tec® and ECCO golf shoes; the CHAMP TRI-LOK® system, which fits shoes by Foot Joy®, Adidas® and Etonic®; as well as the most complete line of innovative spikes in the world, including the new CHAMP Scorpion STINGER™ spikes, CHAMP ScorpionSpike®; and CHAMP TRAC™ spikes.
Contact:
Mike Gugliociello
Account Executive
The Sherry Group
441 HQ Plaza, North Tower
Morristown, NJ 07960
(973) 984-3000
