Following its best year on the European Tour, which yielded 13 victories, Callaway has announced an expanded line up of players for 2016, including Australian Marc Leishman, eight-time Major champion Tom Watson, and a number of new signings for both the European and Challenge Tours.
The company has also re-signed world No.6 Henrik Stenson and South Africa’s Branden Grace, who is currently ranked 15th. Grace, along with fellow staffer Argentinian Emiliano Grillo, is switching from the European Tour to play on the PGA Tour in 2016.
Callaway will have 19 staff players on its books in Europe this season, including 2015 Race to Dubai runner-up Danny Willett, two-time winners last year, Thomas Pieters and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, and five other pros who tasted success in 2015 – James Morrison, Alex Noren, Pablo Larrazábal, David Horsey and Kristoffer Broberg.
They are joined by previous Callaway players Marc Warren, Matteo Manassero, Oliver Wilson, Thomas Bjorn, Gary Boyd, Alvaro Quiros, Chris Paisley, Craig Lee, Matt Baldwin and Sebastien Gros, while among the company’s new signings is Welshman Stuart Manley and France’s Thomas Linard.
In addition to players competing on the European Tour, the Callaway stable will include Andrea Pavan, Ben Stow, Toby Tree and Todd Sinnott, who will be competing on the Challenge Tour.
Both Leishman and Watson will use Callaway clubs and balls, as well as Odyssey putters.
In the ladies game, Callaway is continuing its sponsorship of New Zealander Lydia Ko, who celebrated becoming the youngest ever world No.1 in 2015, aged just 17.
Callaway topped the ‘most wins’ table in 2015, as the leading brand in categories including driver (17 wins); fairway wood (20 wins); hybrid (9 wins); utility iron (7 wins); irons (14 wins), and wedges (45 wins); while players using Odyssey putters bagged 21 wins.