Callaway mixing hip hop and golf

Brad Jordan - aka Scarface

Callaway is coming out with a new documentary featuring rapper Scarface. The 10-minute film will launch online in September and shows how Callaway is trying to lure millennials into the game.

Callaway is trying to make golf cooler and a lot less country club. The film will feature Brad Jordan, aka Scarface, getting fitted for golf clubs and other equipment at Callaway's Southern California headquarters and using it on the golf course.

The former Geto Boys member is apparently an avid golfer. "He plays 300 rounds of golf a year, which is a crazy number," said Harry Arnett, senior VP-marketing and brand management for Callaway.

Golf and hip hop "typically wouldn't go together," Mr. Arnett admitted. But "Scarface really shows that golf is really a sport that transcends demography and transcends what your normal expectations would be."

Callaway is also active on teen-friendly Snapchat. Content has included a video of Ben Roethlisberger hitting golf shots at Heinz Field during the week of the U.S. Open.

Ben Roethisberger –Pittsburg Steelers quarterback

The initiatives are aimed at "creating an avenue for a new audience to think about Callaway," Mr. Arnett said. The preconceived notions people have about the game of golf "were definitely preconceived notions that people had about Callaway," he added, meaning that it is for rich men.

"There is an affluency to the game that definitely is attractive and has been a foundation to our business," he added. But "we are extending ourselves to a newer, broader audience," he added, like people who are "looking for that next passion point activity. And we think golf can be that."

We’ve been harping on about this stuff ever since we launched in 2004, because back then the golf world was not speaking to us in any way shape or form. And that’s 12 whole years ago.

We like to think we showed them the way, but wow has the industry taken its time to cotton on. And whilst we were getting about our business, the industry completely then failed to even think about the millennials and how to attract them into the game.

So at least Callaway are starting to think GP. They should have given us a bell!

Anyway, here's a bit of Scarface for your further listening and viewing pleasure.

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