The Darrell Survey helps consumers navigate a myriad of choices in golf equipment. Phil Inglis, Getty Images
The company that generates the data that enables golf equipment companies to make claims about professional tour equipment usage is in a serious dispute with the PGA Tour, one that could bring an end to a decades-long business arrangement.
The Darrell Survey conducts weekly equipment counts on the PGA Tour and other circuits and sells the data it collects from players to golf equipment companies. This helps ensure that tour pros are abiding by contractual equipment-usage agreements, and it also enables equipment manufacturers to make marketing claims about usage of their implements among the best players in the world.
The Los Angeles-based company, owned since 1980 by Susan Naylor, employs people to stand on the first and 10th tees at professional and amateur tournaments to collect usage information. On the PGA Tour, it has done so under what is essentially a handshake agreement.
In February 2025, the PGA Tour approached Naylor…
Data dispute – Global Golf Post
