Nickent Golf Out of Business
Thursday November 19, 2009
Nickent Golf is out of business. Golfweek's Gene Yasuda reported today that Nickent laid off the last 22 of its employees this week and is preparing to liquidate.
I liked a lot of Nickent's clubs, particularly the drivers it was making in the 2003-2005 range, along with its fairways and hybrids. The Pipe putter drew some modest attention, too. The company did a lot of growing in that period and up through 2007, including hiring tour players and getting quite of a few of its hybrids into play on the Nationwide, LPGA and Champions tours.
What happened? Yasuda explains:
The equipment maker's fortunes turned in early 2008 when it made an ill-fated gamble on the nascent adjustable-driver market. Hoping to make inroads into the driver category, Nickent pushed aggressively to be among the first to unveil a conforming driver that could easily swap shafts for immediate play.... But neither its driver, nor the product category as a whole, captured much consumer interest. Then, in the second half of 2008, the economy tanked. The combination proved fatal for Nickent.
Comments
I really is a shame that Nickent had to bite the bullet. The writing was on the wall since about April this year, so it’s not really a surprise out of the blue.
I was very fond of their recent hybrids, and I thought they were popular enough to provide some turn around for the company. From what I read Nickent will be sold in pieces, including the patents. I hope to see the quality hybrids live on, although quite likely under a new name.