Tailor-made: (adjective) made special for the individual—as in the TaylorMade golf company, maker of clubs specially tailored to your hand and your golf ball. 

The first face of TaylorMade was not a Taylor but Gary Adams: entrepreneur, amateur golfer, and founder. In 1979 he borrowed a $24,000 loan. With it he bought a 6,000 square foot building in McHenry, IL with the ambitious goal of creating a new kind of club, one that would catch up to the cutting edge golf balls that had already transformed the game. He began by experimenting with different materials in the hope of improving upon the screws that muttled the face of a persimmon wood.

What was the action that would set off years and then decades of success like falling dominos? He struck a ball with a metal-faced club instead of a typical laminated wood club, and the ball landed farther than it ever had before. Although the club was subject to skepticism at the PGA Merchandise Show in 1979, Mr. Adams managed to convince 47 professionals to use it in the PGA Club Professional Championship that year. By 1983, over half of the PGA Tour was using the metal-wood driver.

It was a match made in heaven when Salomon, a French ski company, picked up TaylorMade in 1984. Both companies were founded with innovation and commitment to research and design in mind. In what would become like a symbiotic relationship, Salomon established itself in the world of golf while TaylorMade benefited from the new technology and financial resources. In 1984, at the PGA Championship, the power of the TaylorMade driver was validated once and for all with the victory of Lee Trevino.

In 1985, TaylorMade moved to the capital of golf: Carlsbad, CA. Sales were strong throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s, but it wasn’t until 1995 that TaylorMade truly awed the golf industry with its debut of the Burner Bubble Graphite Driver Shaft: a copper-headed driver with a funky shaft. A whopping $18 million went into its marketing, and it achieved international fame practically overnight. Anybody who was anybody became overjoyed to pull that brown suede headcover and make a pass at the ball with the Burner. In just 8 months, half a million clubs were sold, and sales increased by 90% over the 1994 numbers, reaching $220 million in 1995.

Soon after the explosion of success, TaylorMade, along with a select group of other manufacturers, began producing titanium-headed drivers. It was then that the long game off the tee changed forever. The USGA actually had to remake its rules surrounding the Coefficient Of Restitution (trampoline effect) of the driver to adapt to the evolution of golf club and ball technology.

TaylorMade’s 1997 prosperity did not only go unnoticed by golfers everywhere, but caught the attention of a global sports and shoe giant, Adidas. Salomon agreed to sell controlling interest of TaylorMade in the formation of the Adidas-Salomon Group—a deal worth $1.53 billion. TaylorMade again revolutionized the golf industry in 2009 with the release of the Penta TP. The first ever 5-piece golf ball (cover, outer mantle, middle mantle, inner mantle, and core), it could accommodate multiple swing types because of its variety in compounds.

If you are not made of money, you can still experience TaylorMade at Lost Golf Balls. Click here to make it yours today.  

To celebrate Taylormade, we are giving you a great chance to experience their quality and craftsmanship for free with a new SLDR Driver and 3 Wood.  Click the image below to enter our giveaway.