It had to happen sometime. Legendary Acushnet Company (parent of Titleist and FootJoy) Chairman Wally Uihlein will retire effective Jan. 1, 2018. Uihlein started with the Acushnet Company in 1976 and has been leading the company for the past 30 years. He will be succeeded by current Acushnet Co. COO David Maher.
Uihlein, whom many consider the most powerful (and successful) executive in the golf industry, is the last of a breed of golf company leaders that at one time included the Ely Callaway, founder of Callaway Golf Co., Gary Adams, president of TaylorMade Golf and the man who first successfully marketed the metal wood, Karsten Solheim, founder of Ping Golf and the man who changed the way putters and irons were designed, and Gary Adams, founder of TaylorMade Golf and the man who first successfully marketed the metal wood, and Bob MacNally, president of now defunct Tommy Armour Golf Co.
Uihlein’s retirement will come a little more than one year after he led Acushnet’s public offering and one year after the retirement of longtime FootJoy President Jim Conner. Uihlein’s long work hours and dedication to the Titleist and FootJoy brands were well known inside and outside of Acushnet’s headquarters in Fairhaven, Mass. Nobody over the past 30 years has known the golf industry better – or had a greater impact on it from the executive side than Uihlein, who will remain on Acushnet’s board of directors and serve as an advisor to the chairman.
