It’s May, so it’s time for golf’s two biggest publicly traded companies to let the world know how they’re doing. Both Acushnet and Callaway released their Q1 financial statements last week and, as always, they make for fascinating reading.
As we’ve told you in the past, each company has its own unique style in presenting its financial results. Acushnet tends to be fairly straightforward and matter of fact while Callaway always has a twist in how it writes its headlines.
This year’s Q1 financials continue that pattern.
Before we dive into the five biggest takeaways from Q1, we do have to satisfy corporate and hit you with our editorial-mandated CYA disclaimer:
We are not, nor do we claim to be, financial experts, investment counselors or Wall Street-level business analysts. We’re simply golf industry geeks who like to read.
Given the fact that you actually clicked on the link for this article, we’re going to presume you’re a golf industry geek, too. Friends, we’re nothing if not inclusive so we invite you to join us as we geek out together and dig through these reports.
#1: Callaway is clearly thrilled to be “just golf” again
Maybe it’s just me but the sheer joy of being free and clear of Topgolf was practically dripping off Callaway’s Q1 financial press release. Topgolf wasn’t mentioned by name but, man, is Callaway glad to be out from under that particular structural overhang.
“The team and I have now had the opportunity to fully refocus on this business over the past several months,” Callaway CEO Chip Brewer told investors last week. “We are energized by the longer-term opportunities we see.”
Callaway is a very different company today than it was a year ago. Last May, it sold off its Jack Wolfskin brand. In November, it sold 60 percent interest in Topgolf, making it private equity’s problem. That transaction was finalized in January and Callaway used the $1.1 billion in proceeds to pay off term debt and buy back $200 million in stock.
“These moves returned us to a cash-generating, pure ‘play golf’ company with a terrific balance sheet and a plan to return capital to shareholders,” said Brewer.
All of those good vibes translated to net sales and net profit. Callaway reported Q1 sales of $687.5 million, a 9.2-percent increase over last year, as well as $138.2 million in net income from operations, up 34 percent from last year.
That profit number is a bit of a stretch, however. Note it says, “net income from operations.” It should make investors go all ga-ga but it ignores accounting stuff such as, oh, taxes, equity investments and other trivial things like that. The actual net income for the quarter was a still-respectable $93.1 million. That’s a humungous jump from last year’s $2.1 million Q1 net income but that number was skewed by a BIG one-time loss from discontinued operations.
#2: Acushnet just keeps swimming
Acushnet is like Joe Friday.
Just the facts, ma’am.
(Ask your parents. Or maybe your grandparents.)
Golf’s biggest OEM reports Q1 sales of $753 million, up more than seven percent from last year. Net income was $81.4 million which is actually down 18 percent year over year. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, however. The 2025 Q1 profits reflected a one-time non-cash pre-tax (not to mention heavily hyphenated) gain of nearly $21 million related to a discontinued FootJoy shoe joint venture in China.
Golf equipment led the way for Acushnet. Titleist golf club sales jumped nearly eight percent to $224 million. That increase was fueled by the new Vokey SM11 wedges and T-Series irons. Second-year driver, hybrid and fairway volumes were down, despite sharp driver discounts early in the quarter.
Golf ball sales were up nearly 10 percent to $234.5 million for the quarter. Acushnet says the increase was due to higher volumes of the new AVX, Tour Soft and Velocity golf balls, as well as higher average selling prices for the second-year Pro V1 models.
Golf gear (bags, gloves, accessories) was up nearly 11 percent due to higher volumes in golf bags and higher selling prices across the board. Acushnet says those increases were partially offset by lower volumes in its Club Glove travel product category.
#3: FootJoy is still a problem
We hate to sound like a broken record but Acushnet still has a FootJoy problem. FootJoy has reported declining sales in nine out of the previous 13 quarters. Last year’s Q4 sales were actually up five percent year-over-year but the company said at the time that increase was solely due to higher average selling prices. Volume was down across the board.
Q1 of 2026 is more of the same for FootJoy. Sales reached $181.5 million which, no matter how you slice it, is a lot (Callaway apparel, by comparison, sold $102.7 million in Q1). The problem, however, is that when you factor in changing exchange rates year over year, sales were actually down 1.3 percent. Acushnet cites lower volumes in footwear sales as the main culprit, partially offset by higher selling prices across the board in all FootJoy categories.
In Acushnet’s 2025 financial report, CEO David Maher said FootJoy has been going through a long post-COVID correction period where it was forced to close out extra inventory. Additionally, Maher says FootJoy has been harder hit by tariffs than other Acushnet business units.
Last week, Maher cited the new FootJoy Pro/SL and Premiere shoe lines as contributors to Acushnet’s overall performance. Despite that, however, FootJoy sales remain in a funk that’s now into its fourth year.
Still, at $181.5 million, FootJoy is moving a lot of shoes, shirts and quarter-zips. The apparel world is different now, though. New apparel and footwear competitors pop up weekly and are fighting for your dollars. They’re taking market share where they can get it and legacy brands like FootJoy are the obvious target.
#4: Callaway sells golf clubs, Acushnet sells golf balls
That’s a bit of an oversimplification but, hey, I didn’t make up the numbers.
Callaway reports Q1 golf club sales of $380.5 million, a 12-percent increase over last year, thanks largely to the Quantum metalwood line. Acushnet, as mentioned, reports $224 million in club sales. For what it’s worth, Titleist is breaking a long-standing tradition by pushing its GTS metalwoods launch into Q2 this year instead of the traditional Q3 time frame. That’ll certainly give Q2 sales a kick in the pants but it’s kind of like cutting off one end of a blanket and sewing it onto the other end. It doesn’t make the blanket any longer.
On the other side of the coin, Acushnet remains the king of golf balls with $234.5 million in Q1 sales. Callaway, on the other hand, is reporting $105.6 million in golf ball sales, only a 1.6 percent increase over Q1 of last year.
There’s a reason for that, however. Callaway says volumes were intentionally reduced due to the elimination of low margin SKUs. That impacted topline sales numbers but wound up benefiting the bottom line. Callaway does say its green grass market share for golf balls hit an all-time high in Q1 at 23.9 percent.
#5: Both companies are bullish on 2026
Both companies share healthy optimism for the remainder of the year. In fact, Callaway is increasing its net sales outlook to as high as $2.07 billion. Additionally, the company says it’s expecting $50 million in tariff impact for the year. That’s down from the previous forecast of $75 million.
Perhaps most importantly for the company’s economic health, Callaway continues to work on improving gross margins.
“(That) includes rationalizing lower margin portions of our business and increasing the length of certain golf equipment life cycles,” Brewer told investors. Whether that means Callaway will shift to two-year life cycles for drivers and other metalwoods, we don’t know. The tea leaves, however, suggest it might be possible.
One other note on gross margin improvements hidden in the report: you can expect “select price increases” on some products.
Acushnet, as is its nature, isn’t jumping on any Q1 bandwagons just yet. It’s merely reaffirming its full-year outlook and holding steady on approximate 2026 sales of $2.625 billion to $2.675 billion.
Both Callaway and Acushnet say they’re monitoring the geopolitical climate, raw material costs and tariff uncertainty. Commodity pricing and petrochemical cost pressures are definite headwinds for both companies.
Callaway and Acushnet Q1 financials: Final thoughts
For all its corporate steadfastness, Acushnet stock pricing has been a bit of a head scratcher. On Jan. 2, Acushnet stock opened at $79.95 per share. Barely a month later, it peaked at $103.29, a nearly 30-percent increase. Even at the time, analysts didn’t think Acushnet could sustain that price, let alone that growth. By late March, it dropped to under $90 per share before rebounding. It closed at just under $86 last week when the Q1 report came out. Right now, it’s around $88.
Callaway stock, on the other hand, dropped to as low as $5.87 last summer. It’s been on a steady rise since the Topgolf sale was announced and hit a high of $18 during trading on Monday.
We said it earlier but it bears repeating: No one, and I mean no one, is happier about selling off Topgolf than Callaway’s leadership.
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