{"id":12161,"date":"2026-06-01T01:58:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/12161\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T01:58:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:58:37","slug":"wilson-golf-plans-to-focus-more-on-younger-better-golfers-in-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/12161\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilson Golf plans to focus more on younger, better golfers in future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sept. 19, 2025, 5:01 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Wilson Sporting Goods, a major sports equipment company since 1914, is now focusing on growing its golf division.The company aims to attract younger, more skilled golfers while still serving recreational players.Wilson’s strategy involves a renewed emphasis on high-performance irons, a category central to its heritage.<\/p>\n

Founded in Chicago in 1914, Wilson Sporting Goods has grown into one of the world\u2019s sporting equipment giants. Its products have been used by some of the most recognizable athletes in history. Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, Venus and Serena Williams, and Roger Federer all won Grand Slam titles swinging Wilson racquets. Every NFL game is played with a Wilson football, just as every NBA and WNBA contest tips off with a Wilson basketball. In baseball, the company owns Louisville Slugger, DeMarini and EvoShield, three of the most respected names in the game.<\/p>\n

Wilson also has a rich golf history. Padraig Harrington captured three major championships using Wilson clubs. Gary Woodland won the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with Wilson irons in his bag, and Ben Crenshaw\u2019s \u201cLittle Ben,\u201d the Wilson 8802 blade putter, remains one of the most iconic flatsticks ever made.<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/p>\n

Now, Wilson is investing heavily in research and development, growing its team of engineers, and aiming to make clubs that appeal to elite ball-strikers and younger golfers who are taking the game more seriously. Golfweek sat down with Markus McCaine, Wilson\u2019s head of global marketing, to discuss the company\u2019s direction and what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n

Golfweek: With all due respect, golf is a smaller division within Wilson Sporting Goods. Baseball, football and tennis are enormous. How do you see yourselves, and how does corporate look at Wilson Golf?<\/p>\n

Markus McCaine: No, that\u2019s a great question. We\u2019re the smallest business unit at Wilson, which is wild. What I think makes it cool is that it\u2019s also the biggest opportunity. And I think that what\u2019s kind of happened at Wilson over the last 30 years is that all the other sports weren\u2019t No. 1 in market share. Football was kind of always there, but we didn\u2019t always have the NBA deal. We weren\u2019t always No. 1 in tennis. They just kind of go domino by domino. It\u2019s Federer and the Williams sisters, and then we\u2019re gonna go get the NBA deal and skyrocket you in baseball by purchasing Louisville Slugger and DeMarini and EvoShield, and all those brands they add to that portfolio. It\u2019s kind of just been that exact thing, and I think now the eyes are starting to turn to golf. We know what the blueprint looks like in sports equipment.<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>\"The<\/p>\n

Golfweek: So, how is Wilson going to change from a legacy brand that was known for value and making gear for the masses and morph itself into something else, gear for a younger, more accomplished crowd?<\/p>\n

McCaine: It\u2019s an interesting challenge. I would say that we have had a lot of success in leaning into young players, but it\u2019s good young players. It\u2019s not just saying, ‘Okay, you got to get younger for the sake of getting younger.’ I think a lot of it is intentional by Bob Thurman (Wilson\u2019s global vice president of R&D and general manager of Wilson Golf). It\u2019s been intentional. I am the oldest person on the marketing team at 36. It\u2019s crazy to me. You know, working with 24-, 25-year-old golfers and seeing golf through their eyes \u2014 it\u2019s very intentional.<\/p>\n

Golfweek: But the majority of people aren\u2019t really good ball-strikers, and that was where Wilson, before, had seemed to try to go after value-minded, recreational, weekend players. It feels like there\u2019s been a really concerted effort to go after much more skilled players, lower-handicap players \u2026 and that market is smaller.<\/p>\n

McCaine:\u00a0Obviously, we\u2019re going to keep making game-improvement clubs, too, but I think golf is just kind of inherently aspirational. When I was getting into golf out of college and I was a 30-handicap, I was looking at my 18-handicap buddy trying to figure out how I get there. The 18-handicap is looking at his 10-handicap friend, and so on and so forth up the ladder. It\u2019s kind of that pyramid of influence and attacking it from the top. We want to have stuff for the best players, Tour, and then still make sure that we\u2019ve got the full portfolio of offerings for all different player types.<\/p>\n

\"Wilson<\/p>\n

Golfweek: What category do you want players to associate with Wilson Golf?<\/p>\n

McCaine: Irons. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been known for, that\u2019s what the long heritage is around, and I think that, you know, there\u2019s no secret, that\u2019s what we got away from 30, 35 years ago. We kind of took our eye off of that Staff Model, better player \u2014 who mostly plays blades and CBs. We took our eye off of \u201cHow do we attract the scratch player and how do we attract the plus-handicap?\u201d and we went into box sets and really focused the business there. You can see how quickly it can shave away the core audience.<\/p>\n

Golfweek: How challenging is it from a marketing and business standpoint now to project how the market is going to be in 2026, given the level of volatility and the changing landscape in the business world.<\/p>\n

McCaine: Yeah, it\u2019s extremely challenging. I mean, we talk about it every day. How can we manage the political landscape and the geopolitical landscape and all that stuff? It\u2019s obviously a huge topic, but we feel really good about the brand, the momentum, the market share, and what we\u2019re seeing as a business. We feel really good about the products that our team is putting out, so it gives us a lot of confidence. It\u2019s going to be a tough environment one way or another, for everyone. And for us, it\u2019s kind of like, okay, we can manage that and keep our momentum. We\u2019ll be in really good shape.<\/p>\n

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