Taking a Swing at Counterfeiters
Golf’s Biggest Brands Join Forces
Golf’s reputation as an expensive sport has attracted counterfeiters offering equipment bearing famous names at a fraction of the price. Ralph Cunningham explores how the industry is working together to tackle the threat.
With 66 million players worldwide and the global golf equipment market forecasted to excedd US $15.5 billion by 2034, the scale and economic impact of the “gentleman’s game” are difficult to ignore.
The intellectual property (IP) connected to the sport is equally significant, as manufacturers, broadcasters, and media companies seek to maximize the value of their creativity, R&D investment, brands, and other IP while protecting those assets from counterfeiters and other infringers seeking to exploit the sport’s popularity.
A panel of leading market specialists from equipment companies, media, and law will join moderator Sami Havens, Associate General Counsel, Trademark & Brand Protection, TaylorMade Golf Company (USA), for The Business of Sport: IP’s Big Swing in the Golf Industry on Friday, November 20, 10:00 am to 11:00 am.
They will discuss the challenges in trademark procurement and enforcement, anticounterfeiting, streaming and brand separation, collaborations, among other IP-related issues facing the industry.
Joining Ms. Havens are Derick Gallegos, Senior Project Manager, Partnerships and Collaborations, TaylorMade Golf Company, Inc. (USA); Tim Hance, Vice President, Intellectual Property and Music, Versant Media (USA); and Jason Yao, Partner, Wanhuida (China).
Securing Rights
According to research published earlier this year by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), between 2016 and 2025, golf, along with swimming, emerged as the most IP-intensive sports across patents, trademarks, and designs, “showing sustained innovation in equipment, materials and performance technologies.” This, WIPO says, is despite these sports having lower media profiles than some team sports.
However, as the industry increasingly uses IP to create new revenue and forge new commercial partnerships, it must also focus on brand protection and enforcement of IP rights against counterfeiters and other infringers who see the amount of money players spend to improve their game and enjoy their sport, and want some of that expenditure for themselves.
The golf industry faces three types of risk from counterfeiting, says Ms. Havens: unit value and margin, performance deception, and, most seriously, physical safety.
"As counterfeiters pay closer attention to our collaborations and limited-release drops, we need to make sure our house marks remain fully intact on the product itself."
- Sami Havens | TaylorMade Golf Company (USA)
A Lucrative Target
Ms. Havens points out that because fake clubs can sell for hundreds of dollars, far more than a fake T-shirt or ball, counterfeiters can earn large margins without selling as many products.
Fake clubs can also deceive golfers who cannot predict how the counterfeit clubs will perform just by looking at them, so when the clubs don’t perform as expected, the golfers blame the manufacturer.
Physical safety also comes into play because if fake clubs are made with inferior materials or processes, as they often are, the shafts can break or come apart in a golfer’s hands or a club head can fly off mid-swing, with the obvious risk to the golfer and anyone else nearby.
The global golf industry has formally worked together on brand protection and anticounterfeiting since 2004, when the U.S. Golf Manufacturers’ Anti-Counterfeiting Working Group was founded.
The group is made up of six of the largest golf manufacturers in the world: Acushnet Company, whose brands are TITLEIST, FOOTJOY, VOKEY DESIGN, and SCOTTY CAMERON; Callaway-Odyssey; Srixon, Cleveland Golf, and XXIO (which operates under the Dunlop Sports umbrella); PING; PXG; and TaylorMade Golf.
The group works with counsel in China and the United States. The group also pools financial resources, operates an antitrust compliance cooperation framework, and works on capacity building with regulators, policymakers, and legal authorities.
"The transferable lesson is that competitor cooperation works when it is scaled, professionalized, and compliance-framed, not ad hoc."
- Jason Yao | Wanhuida (China)
Working Together
Centralized intelligence helps the group track counterfeit activity and coordinate online investigations of counterfeit sellers and website shutdowns to stop them before they can do any damage.
Keep Golf Real, a consumer-facing website set up by the group, educates the public by providing guidance on “how to spot the fake.”
“The transferable lesson is that competitor cooperation works when it is scaled, professionalized, and compliance-framed, not ad hoc,” Mr. Yao says.
The group has capitalized on this focus to achieve some notable wins against counterfeiters.
For example, a substantial seizure occurred in August 2020 after a group investigation identified an online counterfeit operation and its entire supply chain.
The group worked with around 100 police officers, who raided 10 facilities simultaneously in three provinces in southern China, seizing roughly 120,000 counterfeit clubs, clubheads, shafts, grips, and bags. Criminal prosecution followed.
Collaboration Risk
Collaborations create a different threat to the golf industry’s IP. These often take the form of new ranges of clothing, shoes, clubs, or other golf equipment that combine the manufacturer’s brand with brands and names from other industries, including ORACLE RED BULL RACING and luxury brand TAG HEUER.
“We've seen a surprising uptick in counterfeit products around collaborations, and it's created a new set of challenges”, says Mr. Gallegos. “Our strategic collaborations with other brands are typically produced in limited quantities and command high resale value on the secondhand market, which makes them an attractive target.”
According to Ms. Havens, that makes it critical for golf brand owners to maintain their clear branding and distinctiveness in any collaboration.
“As counterfeiters pay closer attention to our collaborations and limited-release drops, we need to make sure our house marks remain fully intact on the product itself. That’s what gives us the standing to enforce against counterfeits when they surface,” she adds.
"IP is vital to driving growth, revenue, and opportunities in the golf industry right now."
- Tim Hance | Versant Media (USA)
IP in Media
Mr. Hance approaches IP infringement in the golf industry from a media and entertainment perspective as Vice President of IP and Music for Versant Media, which consists mainly of cable networks, including the Golf Channel, and some digital platforms, such as GolfPass and GolfNow, that were spun off from NBCUniversal at the beginning of 2026.
Versant offers golfers and golf fans the ability to watch premium golf content on Golf Channel, work on their game through GolfPass instruction, book tee times with GolfNow, and train with Full Swing Technology, a sports technology company best known for its golf simulators and launch monitors, which was recently acquired by Versant.
“IP is vital to driving growth, revenue, and opportunities in the golf industry right now, especially as technology rapidly changes and consumers seek trusted brands to guide every part of their golf experience,” says Mr. Hance.
Protecting the Game
Golf is a global sport that can be expensive to play and follow. The willingness of golfers to spend money on equipment to play and improve has alerted counterfeiters and other infringers to opportunities for exploitation. This makes a joint approach to IP rights protection and enforcement among the biggest brand owners an important strategy against fakes.
