William L. Coney Blog: Bubba Gets His Pink On with Volvik

By John Barba

A couple of weeks ago the golf world went collectively apeshit when the game’s 650^th ranked player made a ball deal. This week, the world’s 10^th ranked player announced a new golf ball deal to considerably less fanfare.

In a deal rumored for so long Stevie Wonder could see it coming, Volvik USA has signed Bubba Watson to a multi-year deal to play its colorful line of balls, giving Volvik its highest profile player on Tour. Bubba will be playing Volvik’s 4-piece, 105 compression S4 ball this season in pink, pearl blue/white and green.

This is, without question, the biggest thing that has happened to Volvik since it started operations in the US in 2012.

#ChangeTheGame

Volvik’s announcement comes with the requisite hashtag - #ChangeTheGame – but the biggest game change out of all this is most likely for Volvik itself.

“Already we’ve had more people on the Volvik USA website in one day (Tuesday), than in the history of our company,” Volvik Sales and Marketing chief Jon Claffey tells MyGolfSpy. “That speaks volumes.”

Like Tiger, Bubba clearly moves the needle.

“It’s not like we don’t do marketing. We’ve won on the LPGA Tour; we have our own LPGA Tour event, the Volvik Championship in Michigan. We’re pretty aggressive – we’re the official golf ball of Morning Drive, and we’re on the set every day with our staff bags. But even with all the marketing we’ve ever done and with all the money we’ve spent, we’ve had more people on our website (Tuesday) than ever in our history.” – Jon Claffey, Volvik USA

Bubba first heard about the balls from Volvik staffer Craig Stadler, but what really sparked the deal was last year’s World Long Drive Championship in Oklahoma. Volvik was the official ball of the event, and Bubba was part of the broadcast with Golf Channel.

“All our different colored balls were being smashed by these long drive guys,” says Claffey. “Bubba’s watching and tweeting about it, and that’s when he saw the pink golf balls being hit 439 yards. It kinda sparked an idea in his head.”

Bubba, or any tour pro for that matter, is not about to sacrifice performance just to play a colored golf ball, no matter how sweet the deal. Claffey says Bubba tested the Volvik S4 head-to-head with his old gamer, the ProV1x, and found no discernable difference.

“We were hoping he’d say it was 10 yards longer, but he just came back and said ‘there’s no difference. I can play pretty much the same thing.’ He’s such a feel player. He tested it about four times and was very confident the S4 was everything he needed.”

Volvik is making a special shade of pink for Bubba for the Tournament of Champions, as well as a green for the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Both will be available at retail.

Bubba will also be heavily featured in Volvik’s print, digital, broadcast and social media marketing efforts.

The Volvik Story

Volvik has been making golf balls for 36 years, with a factory in South Korea. The company has been part of S.M Culture and Contents, a South Korean entertainment and travel agency and television production company, since 2012.

Up until about nine years ago, Volvik made lower end 2-piece balls, as well as balls for other brands. Claffey says it was about that time the company decided to get serious about Tour-level performance.

“We decided to change who we were, to rebrand,” he says. “We stopped making 2-piece balls and stopped doing OEM business out of our factory and put all our emphasis on making some of the best golf balls in the world.”

Claffey says management saw an open niche in high-end, color-tour level balls, and decided to dedicate itself to filling that niche.

“Nobody else was making anything more than a yellow 4-piece ball. We’re the only company right now making a 4-piece ball in green, in pink and in orange. We have our own innovation and our own technology. We have 43 different worldwide patents that we utilize across our product line, and we are the only ones to combine performance with the entire color spectrum. That made everyone realize that colored golf balls aren’t just two-piece non-forming balls that feel like a rock.” – Jon Claffey

Pretty In Pink

Bubba’s affinity for pink makes the Volvik match a no-brainer. He’s been using a pink Volvik ball during practice rounds at Kapalua and will be putting one into play in today’s opening round.

“The game is supposed to be fun,” says Claffey. “I think that’s been lost, with the golf ball at least. Color has started making golf fun again, with Bubba and his pink driver, with Rickie and his orange. The golf ball has been holding on to this traditionalist mindset. Why does that have to be the case?”

If you’ve been paying any attention at all, you know the golf ball market is getting, well, weird. Snell and, to a lesser extent, Vice and a few other direct-to-consumer brands have been rattling cages for a couple of years now. And Costco, quite unintentionally, is threatening to blow the doors wide open with the Kirkland Signature.

“There’s been a sea change in the open-mindedness of golfers,” says Claffey. “A lot of that is when they spend a certain amount on balls, and then spend a lesser amount on balls, and they see not much of a performance difference.”

Claffey says Volvik’s U.S. market share is approaching 3% (it’s #2 in South Korea), and its retail footprint is spreading. “We’re now in every Dick’s Sporting Goods, all 740 locations, as well as all the big box stores you can name. Our distribution points are up to about 4,500 doors in the U.S.”

Colored golf balls aren’t anything new, especially if you play a lot of Miniature Golf. Both Jerry Pate and Wayne Levi won on Tour using orange balls back in the 80’s, but since then it’s been a sea of white, with just a dash of Optic Yellow for those daring few. Volvik, with Bubba riding shotgun, thinks the time is right to bring a rainbow of color to the game.

What do you think of Bubba’s new color splash? Would you game tour-level performance balls in pink, green or orange?