Golf Bully Acushnet Gets Big Pushback From Costco

Make no mistake about it, Acushnet, make of the Titleist golf balls, is a golf bully.

Acushnet has an established track record of going after small companies that are trying to earn a piece of the golf ball market.

Here’s what happens: Acushnet sues the smaller companies, claiming patent infringement on any number of patents that the company holds. The process starts and it is an expensive one for the small companies. Two things can happen, they basically go out of business, stop selling their golf balls or fight the lawsuit and spend so much money that they go out of business anyway.

Tough deal. It’s easy for a big company like Acushnet to bully small companies that don’t have the financial resources to fight the bully.

Now it looks like the bully will have to battle someone its own size, in fact, someone larger.

Acushnet started by sending Costco one of those nasty letters from lawyers, a threatening letter that claims Costco infringed in this case on 11 Acushnet patents.

Well, Costco didn’t wait and immediately filed a lawsuit against Acushnet and is going to battle the bully.

The problem for Acushnet is that Costco has the financial means to put Acushnet in a long and drawn-out headlock.

In the meantime, those Kirkland Signature balls at $15 a dozen are driving the folks at Titleist bonkers.

Stay tuned on this one, it oughta be good.

About the author

Tom Edrington

Tom Edrington spent the first 10 years of his misguided youth as a sports writer for the Tampa Tribune. His career brought him face to face with many of sports greatest stars -- Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Muhammad Ali, Don Shula, countless Hall of Fame NFL stars, more PGA Tour players than he can count. In 1980 he was honored by the Golf Writers Association of America for writing the best news story that year, his coverage of Jack Nicklaus' U.S. Open victory at Baltusrol. Today, 36 years later, golf is still a great part of his life, thanks to competitive playing days and the wonderful people he has met on this fabulous journey.

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beege
March 21, 2017 at 4:13 pm
I did not know how corrupt the golf business can and has been until i got deeply involved in it. It can never shake my love of the game and its return love to me but the game of gentlemen and honor and fair play is not what exists deep in the bowels of this game(business of). the governing bodies are all messed up driven by greed and self gratification nothing surprises me—-the fact that Phil can get away with the insider trading with not so much as an acknowledgement from the tour when the tour punishes guys for smoking pot is amazing to me.I do not smoke pot but it is actually legal in several states. the constant lack of transparency and accountability is mind bending.

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  Tom Edrington
  March 21, 2017 at 4:21 pm
  Bob, if you think back, Greg Norman wanted what today is the WGC events and the tour nearly banished him to proposing such a ridiculous idea, ridiculous in the fact that they did not come up with the idea and could not control it.
  
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