Philip E. Young

Philip Endicott "Skipper" Young (December 1, 1885 - June 17, 1955) was the founder of Titleist.[1]

Personal life

Young was born on December 1, 1885, in Dorchester, Massachusetts to Rev. George H. Young, a Unitarian minister, and his second wife, Elizabeth,[2][3] the daughter of Augustus Bradford Endicott. He had a sister, Eleanor Guild.[2][lower-alpha 1] The family moved to Dedham, Massachusetts when Young was a child.[2][3][1] Young earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the class of 1909.[1][3][2]

With his wife, Edith (née Ames), he had a son, Richard, born in 1916, and a daughter, Edith, born in 1911.[3][4][lower-alpha 2] He also had two sisters, Eleanor Guild and Shelia Young.[3] Edith grew up about a half a mile away from Young.[2] They both attended the Dedham Public Schools and were childhood sweethearts.[2] The couple was married in 1910.[2]

He lived at 8 Fort St. in Fairhaven and spent his winters in Coral Gables, Florida.[3][2] He was a member of the Wamsutta Club and New Bedford Country Club in Massachusetts, and the Riviera Club in Florida. He died on June 17, 1955.[1][3] He was an avid sailor.[2]

Career

Early in his career, Young worked for Goodyear.[4][2] In 1910, Young started the Acushnet Company with the financial backing of Allen Weeks, a fraternity brother from MIT.[4][5]

When playing a round of golf with his dentist, Young missed a putt.[6][7][8] Surprised, Young believed the miss was caused by the weight of the ball and asked his dentist friend to x-ray the ball.[6][7][8] The x-rays confirmed his suspicions that the rubber core was off-center.[6][9][7][8] Young took x-rays of more golf balls and found similar results.[6][9][7] The off-center cores made the balls prone to erratic shots.[6][7] Young then developed a way to create golf balls with perfect cores.[6][7][8] Young founded Titleist in 1932 as a subsidiary of the Acushnet Company.[4][10][1]

Notes
  1. According to family lore, Young's grandfather was a horse thief.[2]
  2. Young's daughter later married David H. Harris.[2]

References
  1. "Dedham native Philip Young named to Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame". The Dedham Times. Vol. 29, no. 21. May 28, 2021. p. 13.
  2. Young, Richard B. (1991). A History of the Acushnet Company: The First 70 Years (PDF). pp. 4–6. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  3. "Philip E. Young". The Boston Globe. June 18, 1955. p. 13. Retrieved May 29, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
  4. Boyd, Brian (August 29, 2010). "The Acushnet Co., offspring celebrate century of helping soldiers and golfers survive and thrive". South Coast Today. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  5. "Moving Innovation into the World". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. August 14, 2015. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  6. Fry, Erika (October 28, 2016). "The Maker of Titleist Golf Balls Failed to Impress Wall Street". Fortune. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  7. "Titleist". Hans Lemmens Golf. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  8. Sabino, John (February 7, 2017). Golf's Iron Horse: The Astonishing, Record-Breaking Life of Ralph Kennedy. Simon and Schuster.
  9. Sohoni, Ajay (August 17, 2021). The Digital Frontier: How Consumer Companies Can Create Massive Value Through Digital Transformation. John Wiley & Sons. p. 161.
  10. Echikson, William (2009). Shooting for Tiger: How Golf's Obsessed New Generation is Transforming a Country Club Sport. Public Affairs. p. 69. ISBN 9781586485788. Retrieved 22 May 2018. titleist + 1932.
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