"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

October 8, 2006

Chattanooga golfers who play Ping equipment are going to have to search a bit to find it these days, thanks to a mass purging of local accounts by the company.

In March, Ping sent so-called secret shoppers to every golf course and club retailer in the city. If these undercover agents found a club discounted below the company’s iFit Pricing Policy, the offending seller was immediately dropped. That’s one-strike-and-you’re-out, no appeals, it’s-been-nice-knowing-you, cold-heartedly cut off from selling Ping products.

When the carnage was completed, only Chattanooga Golf and Country Club, Windstone Golf Club and Pro Golf Discount were left with Ping accounts. And several area club professionals are mad as hell.

I’ve played Ping clubs for more than 20 years and have been intensely loyal to the brand, even buying a Ping golf bag when I think Sun Mountain makes a better product. But after talking to several club pros, I can see why many of them are upset.

Consider the case of Council Fire, whose director of golf, Hunt Gilliland, has been a proponent of Ping clubs for years, even though he’s a member of the Titleist team. Richard Rebne, the club’s head professional, sold me my last set of Ping irons and is an expert in the company’s fitting system. But one day five putters arrived at Council Fire, four at the same price and one slightly higher. The higher-priced putter was accidentally priced the same as the others, and the secret shopper lunged on it, bought the putter and reported Council Fire’s dastardly deed to Ping HQ.

A few months later, the sales receipt from that purchase and a letter telling Gilliland that Council Fire was banned from selling Ping equipment arrived. Gilliland ran the gamut of emotions when he read that letter.

“I was mad at first, but now I’d say I’m just disappointed,” Gilliland said. “I’ve always thought Ping had a great product. Still do. I’ve put a lot of my members and other customers in Ping equipment over the years, even though I’m a Titleist staff guy. Because in a lot of situations, I thought they were better for the individual.

“I really don’t know what they’re thinking. I’ve had a great relationship with them. But my relationship will never be the same.”

That goes double for Tad Holley, the head professional at Lookout Mountain. Holley priced a $145 putter $10 below the price Ping mandated.

“I just misread the price,” Holley said. “They sent somebody to my shop and they find one club that’s been priced wrong, and I get cut off.

“I think it’s B.S. It seems like they’ve targeted Chattanooga for some reason. And I don’t understand what they’re doing to their sales reps. You’re talking about people’s livelihoods.”

Of all the area professionals who got the shaft (sorry, couldn’t resist) from Ping, Tony Cabrera, of the Champions Club at Hampton Creek might be the angriest. That’s because a Ping mystery shopper came into his shop one day and sweated down his assistant for a discount.

“He came in late one afternoon,” Cabrera said. “The only one in here was my assistant. He kept saying that he really wanted this club, and that he could get it cheaper down the road. He kept on and on. My assistant finally said ‘All I can do is save you tax,’ and gave him a 10 percent discount. The club was priced correctly. He actually beat us down to get the price.

“I don’t have any use for it. I don’t know what their motivation is. I guess they know what they’re doing, but I can’t get my arms around it. It looks like they’re intentionally trying to shut accounts down. I don’t understand what their thinking is.”

Surprisingly, Ping’s drastic action has been barely reported in the media, though it’s apparently taken place nationwide. But in an article in the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, a Ping spokesman said the company’s drastic action has been taken to preserve the company’s integrity.

"It's something we put in place to protect our brand," Bill Gates, Ping's director of distribution and associate general counsel, told the Chronicle. "It's something we apply to all of our accounts consistently, and we don't have exceptions to it. We don't sell direct to the public; we sell to retailers, and we do have certain policies in place with them. Those policies are confidential between us and the account."

Gilliland got the same song and dance when he put in a call to Ping. “They essentially said, ‘Management doesn’t care what the customers think of the policy,’ ” Gilliland said. “But I didn’t do anything unethical. It was an honest mistake we made to price a club wrong.

“My best comparison would be if somebody ordered a set of clubs from Ping and the shafts were wrong. The person who put those shafts in made an honest mistake. Do you fire him for one mistake? That’s what they’re doing to retailers who have been with them for years.”

Ping’s practices seem like professional suicide, even though the company has long dominated the iron, putter and bag market and has made serious inroads with its drivers. How does cutting off its products from the public help anyone—the consumer, the retailer, the sales rep and the company?

Ping must be selling a lot of golf clubs and feel very confident about its place in the industry. But this move has alienated retailers and will eventually erode Ping’s market share. The company’s espionage shenanigans are a far cry from the days when Ping founder Karsten Solheim sold his funky sounding putter out of the trunk of his car in the early 1960s. Solheim built his company on relationships with grass-roots retailers, and now, long after he’s dead and gone, Ping has turned its back on those retailers.

Though Ping’s ban isn’t supposed to be permanent, a lot of formerly enthusiastic retailers have essentially written the company off.

“I won’t sell Ping again,” Cabrera said. “I hate to be like that. But if a customer comes into my shop wanting a G5 [driver], I’m going to try and put him in something else.”

Several other pros and retailers have said they can live without Ping. And even Bruce Etter, the head pro at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club, is rethinking his position, though his shop survived the secret shopper purging.

“I’m seriously considering not selling Ping,” Etter said. “I despise what they’ve done to the local pros, especially when they bait and switch to get someone to sell them a club at a discount, then shut them down. I’ve written the president of the company an e-mail to let them know that.

“I could look at it now like I’ve got the market cornered. But I don’t like the way they’re treating people.”

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