Veteran sports journalist Bob Margolis joins Back9Network with a series of upcoming conversations with golf’s biggest movers and shakers.
As I become more and more involved in the world of the golf, I’m constantly being reminded that no matter how complex a game it is, the goal is still to enjoy yourself while you play.
Ian Barrett, the Senior Global Marketing Manager with COBRA Golf lives and breathes the game of golf. He will tell you, in great detail, where the game is today, where he’d like it to be and where he’d like it to go with the ease of someone who genuinely cares about golf and golfers having a good time.
Back9Network: How important was it for COBRA PUMA Golf to get one of the biggest new golf stars to represent the brand?
Ian Barrett: It’s a big part of our business philosophy. The biggest thing we talk about within COBRA PUMA Golf is game enjoyment. It’s what we stand for. It’s what we live and breathe everyday.
For us, game enjoyment is our mantra. When we say game enjoyment, we don’t just mean laughing and joking and drinking beer on the golf course. Shooting good rounds and putting a good score together also makes the game more fun. To do that you have to have the technology and the right products, which COBRA Golf provides, to make the game easier to play, and make it more fun to play. The better you play, the more fun you have.
B9N: Will the Apple model of planned obsolescence ever change in golf?
IB: I think as an industry, we need to do a better job at trying to get back to extended life cycles and give some normality to the life of golf, because consumers have started to question how long their ‘new’ product will be ‘new’.
B9N: Is there a different strategy?
IB: We’re the first brand — I’m talking about COBRA here, to really bring color to life in golf clubs. We’re giving consumers a choice. Technology is always going to be key, and we’re always going to make bigger and better products, even with the constraints and the confines of what the USGA and the R&A put upon us. We’re always looking at new materials and new ways to gain in the performance category.
B9N: You were talking about golf being lifestyle-centric. That’s what Back9Network is all about.
IB: Back9Network is providing a real bridge between golf and lifestyle. It’s all about how you enjoy the game and how you get to do things around the game. And the things that you see every day that you might not think about are a part of golf.
That’s a real freshness to us in understanding that there’s a new angle to golf, which everyone lives and breathes by.
It (Back9Network) is making it more inclusive. It’s breaking down the barriers to golf. It makes it seem like it’s a fun place to be.
Golf has to evolve. We’ve got to come back to the game with an enjoyment message. That its more fun to play, more fun to be around. It’s an exciting opportunity for the future, to see where we can go.
B9N: Looking to the future.
IB: Personalization and ownership is really where we see the future of golf, leading the charge to look good on the golf course —look good, feel good, play good is relevant to everybody. If you look great and you’ve got great product then there’s an element of confidence that comes with that. And that’s very much where we believe our wheelhouse is. Cool stuff that works.
Back9Network is one of those examples of where there’s a different model to be had to try and bring life to golf outside of the historic televised golf product of live golf, instruction and discussion on tour play 24/7.
It’s refreshing to have people trying to do things differently.
Related Link: COBRA GOLF Unveils FLY-Z Family Of Clubs
More COBRA PUMA GOLF Links:
– COBRA PUMA GOLF Is Heading To Outer Space
– Graham DaLaet Signs With PUMA GOLF
– PUMA Helps You Bring Music To The Course
– COBRA PUMA Extends Relationship With Lexi Thompson
– Back9 Gear: COBRA BiO CELL Drivers
– Gearing Up: COBRA Baffler XL Hybrid
