Taiwan Today

Taiwan’s golf equipment industry is embracing AI while setting its sights on the next generation of players.

In northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu County, Guanxi Township’s Yusan Elementary School students eagerly anticipate their favorite activity each week: a golf class at the nearby Sun-City Golf Course, one of four professional courses in town. There was a time when the school, located in a remote area, was almost shut down due to its falling student roll. Thanks to support from the golf course and coaches, Yusan is now an education center for the sport and is recruiting a steadily growing number of pupils.

  Golf equipment company Duma Bear Sports Co. (DB), headquartered in Taipei City, offered the school the assistance it needed to start coaching. Its name means Formosan black bear in the indigenous Bunun people’s language, in honor of the protected endemic species that schoolkids in Taiwan know and love. DB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vincent Tsai (蔡博舜) is the second-generation owner of the family business specializing in original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and original design manufacturing (ODM) of clubs and bags for international brands like U.S. Kids Golf. DB then started original brand manufacturing (OBM) in the early 2010s as the company thrived.

As a major promoter of youth sport, DB goes the extra yard via regular grassroots cooperation with local schools like Yusan. The company helps fund the annual National Junior Golf Championships for elementary students organized by the Ministry of Education’s Sports Administration-supported The Golf Association of the ROC (GAROC), with the latest edition taking place in March at Hsing-Fu Golf Club in New Taipei City. “A continuous injection of youth is the basis for development of the sport and the business environment,” Tsai said.

Currently, OEM and ODM are still the mainstay for Tsai’s family business and many other Taiwan golf equipment manufacturers with production bases both at home and overseas. From north to south across the country there are top-notch innovative manufacturers who supply the world’s golf equipment markets, and many have done so since the 1980s, constantly refining and improving their products. Major players include Fusheng Precision Co. headquartered in the northern city of Taoyuan and supplier to prestige brands such as Callaway and Wilson. It is the world’s largest producer of golf club heads, nowadays a high-tech object made of titanium, stainless steel and other high-strength alloys. Headquartered in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City is Advanced International Multitech Co., a composites manufacturer and pioneer of the carbon fiber golf shaft. Dynamic Precision Industry Corp., also headquartered in Kaohsiung, was Taiwan’s first ironwood golf club head exporter and is invested in both German and Japanese companies. In the southern county of Pingtung is the headquarters of O-TA Precision Industry Co., which focuses on R&D of club heads, graphite shafts and club assembly. Then, in close proximity to excellent golf courses in the southern city of Tainan, Scanna Co. produces one-, two- and three-piece range and tournament balls and supplies Under Armour, Walmart and The North Face, among other sports equipment retailers.

Business Links
These firms, with their extensive experience in transnational production and management practice, have established comprehensive up- and downstream supply networks allowing them to gain substantial orders from Australia, Europe, Japan, South Korea and the U.S. In total, golf accounts for the second largest revenue in Taiwan sporting goods—with more than 90 percent of products bound for export—following fitness and home gym equipment. Figures from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) Department of Statistics show golf equipment production revenues rose from NT$11.1 billion (US$383 million) in 2018 to NT$16 billion (US$552 million) last year. MOEA analysis found contributing factors include backsourcing from China and international rebound in anticipation of lifting COVID measures.

  GAROC Vice Chair Tony Chen (陳茂仁) believes the upswing in golf will continue, underpinning his group’s six-year golf development project that teed off last year with a NT$1.35 billion (US$46.6 million) budget. Initiatives include integrated promotion of Taiwan-made golf products and brands at domestic and foreign sporting goods trade shows in Australia, Canada, Europe and the U.S. These are undertaken in collaboration with Taiwan’s embassies and representative offices while pulling in overseas compatriot communities known to include keen golfers. “In addition to our routine work building a player base and organizing various levels of contests, we use high-end targeted business models with branding and added value to help our world-class products develop their full market potential,” Chen said.

In today’s digital era, business expansion requires information and communication technology (ICT), according to computer scientist Herbert Lien (連俊宏). As a manager in the Innovation Design Division of the government-supported, Hsinchu-based Industrial Technology Research Institute’s (ITRI) Central Region Campus in Nantou County, Lien joined a sports-related systems development project funded by the MOEA’s Department of Industrial Technology in 2018. Two years later he began leading a team focused on golf, and over the past two years, the team has cooperated with a number of ICT companies, golf coaches and golf course operators to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted systems for golf players to improve their swing posture, among other applications. “They can practice in front of their mobile phones, and our system will compare their postures with those collected from thousands of coaches and professional players at home and abroad,” Lien said.

Play Through
This year Lien’s team is extending its partnership to manufacturing giants like Fusheng, which export to the world’s largest golf market and top destination for Taiwan exports—the U.S. “There will be accelerated integration of AI into golf equipment and accessories such as clubs, gloves and shoes with sensors recording players’ performance data,” Lien said, adding that a major target group is beginners, estimated at around 2.6 million people out of 33 million U.S. players last year. “They benefit more from apps to enhance basic skills like balanced arm, leg and body movements,” he said.

Lien echoes Chen’s optimism about continuing growth of the sector alongside the relaxation of pandemic control measures. “In countries like the U.K., golf was one of a handful of sports for which government bans were lifted first because it’s played outdoors with proper social distancing,” he said. In Europe, Japan, South Korea and the U.S., pre-pandemic golf began undergoing one of the greatest booms in decades, especially within the younger generation, he added. He cited Japan as an example, where the 20 to 25-year-old age group saw 25 percent more growth than other demographics. As the youth constitutes the main force behind the global surge in golf’s popularity, that generation’s familiarity and readiness to embrace high tech accounts for the increased acceptance of indoor simulator environments and is a crucial factor in driving the local golf industry’s future business and manufacturing strength. “Incorporating the Internet of Things into the sport is key to sustainable development,” Lien said. “We also provide technological support to established golf enterprises by implementing high-tech solutions and helping foster industry-related startups.”

  As the public and private sectors continue to embrace digitalization, Taiwan is well placed to maintain its significant role in global golf supply chains due to the ingenuity of firms like DB. For CEO Tsai, his company’s unique logo of a bear striding forward represents the power and focus needed to craft new OBM models, including ultralightweight golf clubs incorporating decades of manufacturing expertise. “With so many years of OEM and ODM under our belts, now we’d like to see something with our own name,” he said. This is certainly par for the course, given Taiwan’s exceptional golf industry combined with its superb capability for innovation.
 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw