ORLANDO, FLA | For many in the golf industry, attending the annual PGA Show in this central Florida city is a rite of winter. In addition to being a chance to see old friends and make new ones, it gives people an opportunity to learn about the latest advances in golf equipment, among other developments in the business.
The sentimentalist in me also finds time during that January gathering to reflect on some of the folks who made the Show both fun and productive in years past but for reasons ranging from death and illness to retirement are no longer able to make it. One such soul is Ely Callaway. And though it has been nearly a quarter century since the founder of his eponymous golf company last held court at the Callaway booth here (he passed away in 2001 at the age of 82), I invariably flash back to the interactions we had in O-Town – and chuckle about all the times he held one of his woods or irons before me and said in his high-pitched, Georgia drawl: “John, it’s just a better golf club.”
Time with Ely was always time well spent, ...