The Paint Wars Of 2011: "It's odd that a once-proud company is resorting to tactics like this."

Mike Stachura reports on an epic spat breaking out between Callaway and Taylor Made over driver performance.

Callaway fired a salvo at its crosstown nemesis by placing a full-page ad in USA Today extolling the technological virtues of its new RAZR Hawk with a clear-as-day dig at TaylorMade's white line. It's taken the Sesame Street-like tone of TaylorMade's R11 ad campaign ("One of these things is not like the other") and turned the landscape into something right out of a political attack ad.

Love the quote from Callaway's flack, Jeff Colton:

"It all is a stimulus to an interest level and conversation, where maybe the two leaders in the category go head to head and maybe that generates a little more interest," he said. "It's aggressive, but we don't think it's risky aggressive because the product stands for itself."

It's aggressive, as opposed to risky aggressive. Did you make note of that?

Colton's counterpart at Taylor Made, Bob Maggiore, fired back:

"Comparing the R11's superior combination of adjustability technologies against their forged composite construction isn't a fair fight-for Callaway. It's odd that a once-proud company is resorting to tactics like this. It feels desperate.