Ely Callaway

With a twinkle in his eyes and a captivating Southern drawl, Ely Reeves Callaway, Jr. (1919-2001) was a man of extraordinary charisma and insight, leaving an indelible mark on both the world of golf and the broader landscape of 20th-century American business. After successful careers in textiles and wines, at the age of 63 he founded Callaway Golf Company in 1982 in a garage in Palm Desert, California, and began a remarkable journey that would change the golf industry forever. Callaway Golf Company was the culmination of Ely’s career in business and his lifetime obsession with golf. At the heart of Ely’s success was the iconic Big Bertha driver, introduced in 1991. Big Bertha revolutionized the sport, making it more accessible and pleasing to players of all skill levels. Under Ely’s direction, Callaway Golf’s accelerated pace of technological innovation, combined with relentless new product creation and brilliant marketing, disrupted the industry and helped grow the game into a mass global sport. Ely was a man both of his time and ahead of his time. He was one of the first corporate titans to warn about the decline of American industry as far back as the 1950s. He championed civil rights and equal opportunity for higher education beginning in the 1960s and 1970s with the UNCF. He put into practice his belief that good ethics is good business, and he was the antithesis of the “greed is good” corporate ethos of his time. Though the Callaway name is still synonymous with golf, the man himself has largely been forgotten. This memoir, begun in the 1990s and now completed by his son, Nicholas, and co-editor Andrew Moorhead, preserves Ely’s legacy for this and future generations, capturing his unique voice, values, and spirit, while offering invaluable wisdom on the unconquerable games of golf, business, and life.