The Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Company Is Not Dead Yet

Ben Hogan's website is back up, sort of.

It seems like the old boy isn't dead yet.

Hogan President and CEO Scott White says the website went back up Thursday so Hogan can continue to sell clubs direct to consumers.

"The phone has been ringing off the hook by "serious golfers" who are just now realizing our situation and want to buy clubs," White told MyGolfSpy.

"We're trying to raise short-term operating funds via the sale of existing inventory, while attracting new, long-term investors simultaneously. It's a challenge!" - Scott White, Ben Hogan President/CEO

White says it's still the company's intention to emerge from its voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a leaner, more efficient and profitable entity.  To that end, Hogan has moved into a much smaller space - Callaway's old Tour Shop offices - and they're making clubs daily.

"We have only a handful of full-time employees, but we have re-employed a dozen or so craftspeople and assemblers on a contract basis to build clubs."

If you go to benhogangolf.com, much of the website is functional, but most importantly the "Buy Now" function is inoperative. White says that's because the Buy Now function is tied to its old operating system, which is no longer in use.

If you want to order clubs, you'll need to do so either by phone (844-52-HOGAN) or via email -- customerservice@benhogangolf.com.

Hogan announced its re-entry into the golf equipment world in January of 2015, introducing the Ft. Worth 15 irons and TK 15 wedges. The company added to the line in 2016 with the game improvement PTx irons and the VKTR hybrids. But last August, company founder Terry Koehler announced he was stepping down from his roles as President and CEO and was replaced by White. At the time, Koehler said his departure was a voluntary retirement.

On January 3rd of this year, Hogan dropped the bombshell that it was laying off its entire Sales and Marketing team, as well as much of its office staff and assembly department. At the time White said the move was a voluntary initiative to restructure the company into a "leaner, more efficient" operation, and that assembly staff would be brought back gradually on a contract basis. Sources told MyGolfSpy that Hogan had not paid many of its suppliers for quite some time.

Less than a month later it learned that Hogan had filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and had shut down its website, along with all of its social media accounts.

This is the first sign of life from Hogan since the end of January. The company is far from out of the woods, but it has a pulse.

from MyGolfSpy http://ift.tt/2oxkfd2