Titleist Sues Several for Counterfeit Balls
Posted July 5th, 2005 by Erik J. Barzeski
Titleist is suing both retailers and distributors for selling illegal, counterfeit Pro V1 golf balls.
The Acushnet Company, parent company of Titleist, has sued Cam Golf, Inc., City Sports, Inc., Faber Brothers, Inc., GI Joe's, Inc., and Kings of Golf, Inc. for selling counterfeit Titleist Pro V1 golf balls, the world's best-selling golf ball and the preferred ball of professional players worldwide.
Said Titleist in a press release, "These suits are the result of each of these entities either distributing allegedly counterfeit Titleist Pro V1 golf balls at wholesale or selling allegedly counterfeit Pro V1 golf balls in retail locations."
The press release continued, "The suits against City Sports and GI Joes resulted from consumers who had purchased these products from various retail location and brought sales of counterfeit product to Acushnet's attention. These samples were submitted to Acushnet, who confirmed that they and other samples subsequently obtained were counterfeit. City Sports and GI Joes are not authorized retailers of Titleist Pro V1 golf balls and purchase Titleist Pro V1 balls through the grey market and other unauthorized channels."
Finally, Cam Golf, Faber Brothers, and Kings of Golf (also known as KG Golf) are alleged to have supplied counterfeit golf balls to various retail locations around the country.
I have personally visited Titleist's ball-making plants in southeastern Massachusetts. Every Titleist and Pinnacle is made in the United States. Most grey-market golf balls come from China, a common source for anything ranging from grey-market DVDs and CDs to electronics, and sporting equipment.
Simple word to the wise: if you buy anything you suspect as being counterfeit by any manufacturer - golf clubs, balls, bags, or clothes - contact the manufacturer. In many cases, they'll ask you to send them the item in question and will replace the item with an authentic one or otherwise take care of you.
As Titleist says, "These situations and the similar situations whereby Acushnet filed suit earlier this spring against Academy Sports and Scheels All Sports reinforce that the best way for consumers to protect themselves from counterfeit product is to be sure that they purchase only from authorized retailers. A list of authorized golf shop locations for all of Acushnet's brands - Titleist, FootJoy, Cobra and Pinnacle - can be found on the respective brand websites. Any questions regarding the authenticity of an Acushnet product can be directed to an authorized Acushnet retailer or to the Acushnet Company Consumer Relations at 1-800-225-8500.
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Posted 19 Feb 2007 at 9:00am #
[...] they've applied an expensive-to-produce holographic label there in the lower-right-hand corner. Counterfeiting is a real problem, especially for an expensive market leader like this line and that label is meant [...]
Posted 14 Jun 2008 at 11:04am #
This explains a lot. At some point and time I had purhased a sleeve of Pro V1 golf balls (not sure where I bought these) but I used the balls for maybe a couple of holes and they just did not feel "right".
The balls seemed very hard and even when I marked it with my sharpie the mark seemed to come on totally differant. I never suspected that it was counterfit and still dont know if it is but that might explain it. I think I bought these balls at a lower end course in LA and that could explain it.