{"id":1494,"date":"2015-12-18T22:12:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T22:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2015-12-19T18:23:52","modified_gmt":"2015-12-19T18:23:52","slug":"daphnes-got-it-covered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/golf\/equipment\/1494\/daphnes-got-it-covered","title":{"rendered":"Daphne\u2019s Got It Covered"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MUNICH,<\/a>

South African Golfer Ernie Els and his lion from Daphne’s Headcovers.<\/p><\/div>\n

Titleist forges irons that are among the most respected in golf. Callaway makes drivers that inspire confidence. Sun Mountain\u2019s lightweight bags go easy on aching backs, which is much appreciated. But despite all of the great equipment now on the market, only one manufacturer is truly beloved<\/em> – – Daphne\u2019s Headcovers.<\/p>\n

And why not, since most of the company\u2019s products are soft, furry, and come in the shape of pandas, Caddy Shack<\/em> gophers, rakish pirates, tigers, birds, fish, dolphins and as many breeds of dogs as Westminster. They\u2019re on the bags of more than 200 PGA and LPGA Tour professionals, and hackers in the more than 75 nations. And while headcovers don\u2019t exactly shave strokes off anyone\u2019s game, it\u2019s a piece of equipment that protects that $500 driver, and fairway metals and hybrids that cost nearly as much.<\/p>\n

With high quality furs and sturdy threads, all Daphne’s\u00a0headcovers can be hand washed, dry cleaned and come with a lifetime guarantee. From the whimsical to the downright huggable, the company’s products\u00a0also projects\u00a0volumes about a golfer\u2019s cares and personality. And in\u00a0an industry rife with copycats and continuous start-up competition, the original novelty headcover company remains the worldwide leader in its niche, delighting golfers for nearly 40 years.<\/p>\n

Daphne’s is also a nifty and even inspirational back-story about a girl and her mother.<\/p>\n

How Will You Earn The Money?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Little Jane Spicer, a ten-year-old girl in Greater Phoenix, Arizona, got the notion that she wanted a sailboat. In an era before helicopter parents indulged every child\u2019s wish, Jane\u2019s mother, Daphne Spicer, wisely asked, \u201cHow will you earn the money?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jane<\/a>

Jane Spicer<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cToys,\u201d said a determined Jane. \u201cI\u2019ll make toys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two began\u00a0to make toys and sold\u00a0them at weekend arts and craft shows. Eventually, those toys morphed into a line of puppets, which sold well enough that Jane bought herself a small sailboat. But as the mother-daughter business flourished, there was little time for sailing. \u201cWe used to store our designs in the boat,\u201d recalls Jane, \u201cwhich was towed behind my mom\u2019s Volkswagen bus.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Jane turned 16, a customer made an unusual suggestion to Daphne, the concept of turning the puppets into golf club covers, which had never been done. Jane\u00a0bought a patent leather hat box from a nearby Goodwill store and filled it with sample headcovers, and made her first personal sales call at the Arizona Biltmore\u2019s golf shop. Clearly charmed despite a disorganized pitch, the shop manager gave Jane an impromptu course on how to make a better sales presentation. He also ordered a set of golf club covers and gave her two sales leads. \u201cThese are tough but important leads and if you can sell them,\u201d he said, \u201cyou can sell anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jane arrived at her first lead without an appointment, business card or a printed purchase order, and with an idea for a design she had not yet created. The tough cookie placed a huge order. Spicer and her products clearly tugged at the hardest of hearts, and in 1978 she and her mother officially started Daphne\u2019s Headcovers.<\/p>\n

Daphne Spicer continued to run the company while Jane attended college, landed a \u201creal job,\u201d and soon grew disenchanted by a lack of joy and sense of mission in the corporate workplace. Jane quit,\u00a0revived the line of puppets\u00a0and\u00a0spent the next six years making the critters during the week and selling them on weekends at arts and crafts festivals throughout the Western US. When Daphne retired in 1994, Jane purchased the headcover business.<\/p>\n

A year later, Tiger Woods won the Masters with the iconic eponymous headcover, \u201cFrank,\u201d atop his bag. Daphne\u2019s business grew about 400 percent in the next quarter. Jane soon found herself supervising two shifts of 75 employees, and for a time, because labor costs and a shortage of seamstresses in Arizona, had to move manufacturing to Indonesia and China. Today, all of Daphne\u2019s headcovers are made in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Doing Good While\u00a0Doing Well<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom\u2019s mantra, and she told me this over and over, is that we must do good while doing well,\u201d explains the ebullient\u00a0Spicer \u201cWe\u2019re very fortunate in that we can use our work, the products we make, to give to charities we care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Daphne_logoA<\/a>Daphne\u2019s products help support causes as varied as the Sojourner Center in Phoenix, which provides services to women and children seeking refuge from domestic violence.\u00a0\u00a0 They make and give \u201cHope Purple Dolphin\u201d headcovers to the Susan L. Bader Foundation of Hope, to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research. Daphne\u2019s animal headcovers help support Gabriel\u2019s Angels, which brings therapy pets to abused, neglected and at-risk children. And their products are solid fund-raisers for the Australian Koala Foundation, the Animal Rescue Foundation and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, at a time when the political world is going goofy-brained over limiting immigrants, Daphne\u2019s continues to embrace them. \u201cMy mother was an immigrant from England and my father immigrated from Austria,\u201d explains Spicer. \u201cWhen she started the company, she insisted on hiring immigrants to sew our headcovers, so that they could earn a good living without ever having to rely on the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

With nearly\u00a0200 different headcovers available, Daphne\u2019s adds new creatures annually. There are the familiar, such as Ernie Els\u2019 lion, Craig Stadler\u2019s walrus and Australian Aaron Baddeley\u2019s koala. More recent is Bubba Watson\u2019s personally designed Bubba. The company also makes special orders for corporations and country clubs, and welcomes suggestions for custom designs and embroidery.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the Arizona Biltmore is still a client. \u00a0And Jane still sails.<\/p>\n

For more information on Daphne’s Headcovers, go to\u00a0www.daphnesheadcovers<\/b>.com.<\/cite><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Titleist forges irons that are among the most respected in golf. Callaway makes drivers that inspire confidence. Sun Mountain\u2019s lightweight… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":1496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,7],"tags":[969929,3187,969930,53,969920,3038,504,788,969922,112229,1027943,2387,969924,1418,969925,3791,969926,977392,969927,969917,969928,152827],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-equipment","category-personalities","tag-animal-rescue-foundation","tag-aaron-baddeley","tag-daphne-spicer","tag-tiger-woods","tag-westminister","tag-bubba-watson","tag-pga","tag-ernie-els","tag-titles","tag-caddy-shack","tag-sun-mountain","tag-callaway","tag-sojourner-center","tag-lpga","tag-gabriels-angels","tag-arizona-biltmore","tag-susan-l-bader-foundation","tag-daphnes-headcovers","tag-australian-koala-foundation","tag-jane-spicer","tag-american-society-for-the-prevention-of-cruelty-to-animals","tag-craig-stadler"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2015\/12\/Daphnes-lion-Ernie-Els-at-BMW-2010.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1494"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1503,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions\/1503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}