Callaway worked with Netflix and Happy Madison on the new products, with Callaway’s Odyssey playing a slightly greater role in the creative process than it did in making the original Happy Gilmore putter. Before filming the 1999 original, director Dennis Dugan approached Odyssey Sports marketer Vikash Sanyal about making a putter resembling a hockey stick for the movie. The company agreed, asking only that one of its inserts be used as the stick and its logo appear on the blade.
The company was purchased by Callaway for $130 million a year after Happy Gilmore’s release, and a version of the putter made it into McInally’s Callaway office in the U.K. a few years ago. While “a little big” and “great for camera, but not necessarily fit for purpose,” the hockey stick putter predicted not only Callaway’s participation in a Happy Gilmore sequel, but its golf marketing future that a strong social media presence, trick-shot influencers, and celebrity partners like Stephen Curry, Justin Herbert, and Niall Horan.
“Whenever we’re doing marketing, whenever we’re doing activation, we’re always trying to target golfers, but there’s an audience that will sit and watch the Golf Channel every week, and watch the PGA Tour, watch the LPGA, etc.,” McInally said. “That’s probably about 15 to 20% of your audience when you get the opportunity of something like [Happy Gilmore 2], that hardcore golfers are going to watch, occasional golfers are going to watch, comedy fans are going to watch, Adam Sandler, fans are going to watch. It just makes it so much bigger.”
Somebody’s closer
The National Golf Federation found that 32.9 million of the 45 million people who played golf in the U.S. in 2023 did so at off-course facilities. Last year, the number of golfers playing only at off-course facilities rose from 18.4 million to more than 19 million. McInally noted that, in South Korea, more than half of the country’s golfers will never play on a course.
While Callaway is aiming for that whole group of golfers, the changes to golf demographics have it taking a running-start swing at the sport’s more casual fans. McInally noted that, in the past, Callaway would’ve launched a campaign around Happy Gilmore 2 with a few TV ads, a feature in Golf Digest, print ads, a presence at Dick’s Sporting Goods or the PGA Tour Superstore—and hope that a Callaway-sponsored player would win that weekend.
