David Maher: Yes. Your question really strikes to the heart of our target consumer. This dedicated golfer. They’re passionate, they’re resilient, their middle income and above. We do acknowledge we’re coming off some historical highs in terms of participation and purchasing in the last couple of years. So I think we’re a bit guarded on our expectations for 2023. That said, here we are in early August and rounds are terrific, right? Up 5.5%, approaching record levels. I think I saw were within 1% of the record of 2021. So our consumer — Acushnet’s target consumer is well engaged. The categories for us that are strongest are balls and clubs. And I think they’re responding well to our performance stories on the ball front and the club front.
So we’re really pleased with the golf consumer and, in particular, this dedicated golfer, which is really the sweet spot for the Acushnet businesses. Like everybody, we’re watching carefully in terms of purchase levels and participation levels. But to this point, what we’ve seen has been positive. And I’d add to that, we’ve seen some share pickups around our portfolio, which add to our story.
Operator: Our next question is from Randy Konik of Jefferies.
Randy Konik: I guess, David, another — a follow-up to the last question. Just I guess what’s surprising you most about the continued strength of the industry? Where have you — because you’ve obviously seen this all for decades and you’ve always been measured and tempered. What’s surprising you most about the industry at this point?
David Maher: Well, Randy, I would say we’ve been — you know how we operate. I would say we’ve been careful and conservative with regards to participation coming off historic highs, right? There were ballpark 150 million more rounds played in 2021 than they were in 2019. And obviously, a whole lot changed in ’21 as compared to 2019. We’ve been carefully monitoring how the sport holds up as the world either returns to the old normal or finds its new normal. And what we’re very pleased with is despite a return of a lot of pre-COVID activities, golf has held a very strong place in people’s prioritization of their time and money. So the strength and vibrancy of the game is, I think, something we’re all real pleased to see coming off such historic high levels.
We were cautious and careful and felt that, hey, this meaningful step-up was terrific, but we ought to be careful about, do we hold on to all of it and we’re holding on to certainly a whole lot of it, which we feel good about. And I think the core of it is people are fitting golf into their lives in a more meaningful way today than they did 3, 4, 5 years ago. And then the final component of that would be you’re also seeing an industry that 5 years running has added golfers, right? We’ve added participants in a decade before that. We couldn’t say that. So I think near $1.5 million in the U.S. alone over the last 3 years. So while not everybody is playing at the level they may have played at 2, 3 years ago, that’s clearly in the U.S. more than offset by incremental rounds from new participants.
So again, not the biggest surprise, but the biggest observation is how well and strong the game is holding up as compared to our, I think, rightfully conservative expectations coming off the very high watermark of 2021.
Randy Konik: Very helpful. And then just lastly, can you give us some perspective on where customization is from your perspective on the industry right now? And maybe just when you look at your own business, the amount of custom that you’re doing or fittings, I should say. What’s the incremental lift that you’re sort of seeing just ballpark-ish on, let’s say, ASPs or gross margin or anything of gross profit dollars? Because I think that’s another area that’s been kind of a good leg for the industry and yourself and your company in particular, just curious of kind of what are those trends you’re seeing? Where do they go and obviously provide some incremental lift to revenue and profitability as well.
