Big Berthas’ Popularity Grows--Among Thieves

The pattern was always the same.

Thieves smashed the window of a golf shop and, while the alarm wailed, they cleaned out the Biggest Big Bertha and Great Big Bertha drivers in a matter of minutes.

“The second time they came to my store, they took only the left-handed Berthas,” said Sam Gannaway of Pro Golf Discounts in Birmingham, Ala. He lost 130 of Callaway Golf Co.’s popular club in the two burglaries.

“We had them on video and they went right to the Callaway section and pulled the left-handed Biggest out of the racks, which were hard to get at,” Gannaway said. “It was clear they had a shopping list.”

Thieves after Big Bertha drivers have pulled off dozens of smash-and-grab burglaries, mostly in the South, in recent months, and some shop owners suspect that competitors with problems getting the Callaway clubs are behind the crimes.

Edwin Watts, one of the largest golf retailers in the country, on Monday posted a $25,000 reward for the conviction of those stealing from his stores.

“Somebody big in the retail business is behind these thefts,” he said. “It is somebody with a retail presence and an export presence.”

Watts, who has 40 Edwin Watts Golf Shops in nine states, said he has had seven break-ins since June and three in Florida this month. In all, he has lost $500,000 in Biggest Big Bertha and Great Big Bertha drivers.

“These are smash-and-grab robberies that take three or four minutes,” Watts said. “The people know what they are going in after, and I believe they have buyers lined up before they go in.”

But officials at Carlsbad-based Callaway said they doubt that legitimate retailers frustrated by an inability to get clubs are buying the stolen merchandise.

“The idea of them getting so desperate for shipments is not valid,” company founder Ely Callaway said. “All of our major accounts have gotten clubs and have been able to reorder. The supply is under demand, but not that short.”

Callaway said his company does not sell to stores known to market knockoffs or counterfeit equipment.

Nationwide, the clubs of choice for golf shop thieves are anything made of titanium--the most expensive clubs--with the Big Berthas, the most popular driver on the market, the biggest target.

At least nine burglaries or attempted break-ins have occurred in Roseville and Rocklin, near Sacramento, since July. All were smash-and-grab jobs aimed at titanium clubs.

“They sell for $400 to $500 each, and a burglar can sell them for half that price on the black market,” said Pat McDonald, an owner of Golf USA in Roseville, a shop that was burglarized twice last year.

“We think the burglars have cased the store prior to the crime,” said Brian Vizzusi, a Rocklin police detective investigating four burglaries of a single shop. “They seem to know exactly where the titanium clubs will be. They’re in and out of the place in less than a minute.”