How Titleist Educates a Global Golf Fitting Team with Intellum

Titleist, a renowned brand in the golf industry, has consistently focused on providing premium experiences and products for dedicated golfers worldwide. To do this Titleist employs golf fitters—individuals who are trained to sell custom-fitted golf clubs at on-course golf pro shops and selected off-course golf specialty and sporting goods stores worldwide.

Education is core to what Titleist has done for decades, because skilled fitters leads to better experiences for golfers.

“It's important that our fitters around the world have the right information, the right technique, and the right process to fit people,” shared Brett Porath, Vice President of Club Fitting at Titleist. “The knowledge and skill of the fitter greatly influences the golfer’s fitting experience. That’s why we put so much attention toward product education and fitting education both online and in-person.”

Challenge

Because club fitting is a crucial aspect of Titleist's strategy, Titleist invested in online learning very early on. The company had been using eLearning to supplement their face-to-face training workshops. Their learning management system (LMS) at that time was an open-source solution, customized and operated by a third-party vendor. But by 2011, Titleist had outgrown its LMS. Further customizations would be too expensive, and the user interface on the existing platform wasn’t intuitive.

As Brett put it, “We answered many service calls that dealt with ‘What should I press next?’ ‘Where should I go?’ and that was a concern, because we’d rather answer questions about our products and methods than how to use the system.” 

To solve these problems, Titleist started looking for a new solution.

“Our idea was to move to an LMS provider that really had the user interface (UI) nailed down, so we could spend our time working with our expertise, rather than trying to become LMS experts.”

Titleist needed a platform that was refined and robust. When they put together the criteria for their search, it included the following: 

• Good uptime (99.95%)—regardless of how many learners log in
• Scalable to grow with their global education program
• Globalization and localization capabilities
• Smooth learner experience
• Ease of administration
• Accessible

To find the right LMS partner, Titleist looked at other education programs to see who kept coming up among the best providers. It was during this search that Titleist learned about Intellum.

Solutions

Intellum was one of three final solutions the Titleist team vetted. To make a final decision, the team created sample accounts, uploaded courses, and “literally tried to break the system, or at least find out what the pitfalls were for each of a few different solutions,” Brett shared. 

Intellum stood out in this process for its focus on the end-user, simplicity, and ease of administration. The final decision to partner with Intellum was driven by its ability to deliver a smooth learning experience—ensuring accessibility and providing a foundation for efficient content distribution.

“Every friction point is a problem for the learner and reduces their use of the platform. We needed a platform that was easy to use and easy to administer—and Intellum has delivered that.” Brett Porath, Vice President of Club Fitting at Titleist

Results

The partnership with Intellum has yielded significant results for Titleist:

Titleist’s learner base has more than doubled in size—without the need for 2x the headcount and without seeing a decrease in learner engagement. In fact, the majority complete each course that’s started. This sustainable growth has allowed the team to scale their program to educate more golf fitters around the world, without sacrificing the quality of the experience. 

The Intellum Platform also enabled Titleist to expand globally, with courses translated into 20 different languages. The combination of language localization and an easy-to-use administration interface proved instrumental in doubling Titleist's user base without a proportional increase in resources.

The combination of Intellum Platform and Evolve, Intellum’s content authoring tool, has made course creation and administration more efficient. This efficiency has allowed Titleist to allocate resources effectively and tailor content to meet the diverse needs of learners.

And beyond the product itself, Titleist has remained with Intellum for over a decade due to consistently high uptime, great support, competitive pricing, and a focus on building strong relationships.

“In the end, our goal is well-trained partners. Well-trained fitters make a world of difference to the consumer experience, and ultimately to our brand's perception in the marketplace. Education is incredibly important to us as a company, and Intellum’s been a great partner in bringing that to life,” shared Brett. 

What’s Next for Titleist University

Intellum's partnership with Titleist has not only addressed their initial challenges but has become an integral part of their global education strategy. By providing a platform that prioritizes the end-user experience and simplifies administration, Intellum has enabled Titleist to focus on its core mission of delivering top-notch golf club fitting experiences. The success of this long-term collaboration reflects the importance of a reliable and user-friendly online learning platform in enhancing global training initiatives. As Titleist continues to grow, Intellum remains a trusted partner in their pursuit of excellence in golf club fitting education.

Titleist University will continue to dovetail and complement in-person training programs and to expand language translations so learners learn in their native language.

The team also plans to produce microlearning content, in hopes of providing a more consistent and ongoing stream of information that helps retail sales associates help golfers.