SOUTHWOOD GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB, Winnipeg, MB
With his shop nominated as retailer of the year, head pro Andrew Steep, who came on board early in 2017, said: “We don’t have a huge retail space, we probably do maybe between a quarter of a million dollars to $350,000 in sales in a year.”
So they’re obviously making good use of the space they have.
As for drivers, Steep said: “I’ve always been a Callaway supporter. My view is a bit skewed. I’ve always been a staff player and always done really well with Callaway. This is an exceptionally good year for Callaway with the Epic. We were absolutely killing it with their driver. You could see right away in the spring, when you saw what kind of ball speed you were getting off them, it was unbelievable. If you got anybody on a fitting machine, that one came out on top almost every time. You get something that comes out that stands out and is that much better. The last thing I think about was maybe the RocketBallz fairway wood; that’s kind of what I compare this driver to. It was that much better than anything else.”
In iron sets, he said: “We did really well with PING; we sold quite a few sets of i200. For the last number of years, Callaway’s kept that Apex iron. It fits so many players – good players to mid-handicaps. It’s done well for us for quite a while.”
In hybrids and fairway woods, he said: “We sold a few Epics, a few Fusions. We did some decent business with PING. We kind of had a late-season charge when the G400 came out; we sold probably four to five drivers and a few fairway woods.”
In wedges, Steep said: “Vokey is always pretty solid. Sm6 is pretty solid; we did quite a few custom orders. Callaway, the same thing with Roger Cleveland making their wedges. A lot of people want forged irons, they want that feel, they go to a Vokey wedge.”
In putters, “Odyssey’s O-Works microhinge face is pretty amazing, we sold some through demo days. PING did pretty well, so did Scotty Camerons as well. We sold a handful of PINGS.”
In golf balls, Steep said: “Southwood has always been a pretty solid Titleist account. We’ve sold a number of Pro V1s; the Pro V1 and VIX are pretty much a staple here. But it’s interesting, Callaway’s making a big charge in that area. Especially in the mid-price point, that Supersoft
ball does really well. And we sold quite a few Chrome Soft and Chrome Soft X. We did a full run through TP5 and TP5X.”
In shoes, Steep said: “We had PUMA, FootJoy and adidas; we pretty much cleaned right through in those products.”
In men’s clothing, the shop sold through adidas and Travis Mathew, with FootJoy also doing well.
In women’s clothing, Steep said: “We did a fashion show at the beginning of the year. We did a couple of really big orders of Cracked Wheat. We did really well with Sunice women’s outerwear.”
The shop pretty well sold through Callaway golf bags, with PING, Titleist and TaylorMade also selling.
Logos are big at the shop. Steep said: “We logo a lot of apparel, our general manager is a big believer. We logo almost all of our clothing.”
For next year, Steep said: “I’m probably going to bring in a little bit higher end. I’ll probably have a section of probably 15% of our clothing and accessories that’ll be higher-end stuff. I think we have a good market for that at our club.
“I have a really good merchandising manager that does a good job with the shop, but we didn’t really get a great chance to do anything this year, everything was already ordered. We’ll probably look to improve that category next year – more things that they do at higher-end clubs in the city – like St. Charles or Niakwa.”
In gloves, it’s FootJoy and Callaway.
SCOTSWOOD LINKS, Elm Creek, MB
GM Clark Sisson said in men’s clothing, the shop basically just does the logoed stuff – with brands like adidas, Antigua and Levelwear in stock.
“We sell some shirts, a bit of outerwear, too. T-shirts and hoodies this year, too. Those seemed to go over well.
“We’re not making money on the clothes. We donate some of them to fundraisers at the end of the year. It’s basically just a branding thing, you just to have something available.”
In golf balls, Srixon (Q-Star and Z-Star), Pro V1, 1X and Velocity are popular. The shop also sells plenty of “experienced” balls.
In gloves, it’s FootJoy and Titleist.
Prodigy headwear, with the logo, does well. So does Titleist without the logo.
THE BRIARS GOLF CLUB, Sutton West, ON
While some pro shops struggle to sell women’s clothing, The Briars head pro Steve Grass said: “We’re a little different than most clubs, we have a strong ladies’ following. It’s a smaller ladies’ membership, but they do buy clothes. Jamie Sadock is by far our best mover. That sells through really well. Sunice does well too.
“With clothing, we’re a pretty big Nike club; they always move very well. For men, Antigua’s not at a premium price point so it does well. Sunice does some really nice stuff, too. Under Armour sells through; people aren’t coming in looking for it, but it’s really nice stuff.”
Also doing well are Levelwear lifestyle pieces.
The course doesn’t have a driving range, but the staff is engaged with custom fitting, with a lot of demand for Mizuno, TaylorMade, Titleist and Callaway.
Said Grass: “Epic – the driver and the fairway woods – did really well, as well as the M2 driver. Actually, M2 everything did very well.”
Vokey wedges were good sellers.
While not a huge year for putter sales, Odyssey did well, with a bit of TaylorMade mixed in.
In golf gloves, Grass said: “The Zero Friction glove, one size fits all; that surprised me a bit. It’s a no-brainer. It’s fantastic. It’s a good- feeling glove, I’ve had a lot of guys comment about it. In the hot weather, it’s cool. We sold through really quick.”
In golf bags, Grass said: “We must have sold 50 this year, it was crazy. It was mostly cart bags this year, but there’s always a strong following for stand bags, too. We did well with BagBoy and Datrek, a Golf Trends product. It’s a great value bag. We brought in 15 or 20 and they were gone in the first couple of months.”
In golf shoes, the FootJoy Pro SLs sold well, so did Nike’s Lunar Vapor Control and Nike’s FI Flex.
In golf balls, the Pro VI and Chrome Soft did well. The most-requested ball was probably the TP5. The shop couldn’t keep them in stock and they were heavily requested. Project (a) is always a big seller and the Burner balls do well.
The shop carries Sundog sunglasses.
The Briars logo hats are a hot seller.
“It’s been a really good year,” said Grass. “Soft goods has been a bit slow, with rounds being down, weather being an issue for everybody. We were down almost 2,000 rounds midway through July; it’s pretty tough to recover.”
DAKOTA DUNES, Whitecap, SK
In the shop, located 20 minutes south of Saskatoon, head pro Davidson Matyczuk said Callaway, Titleist and TaylorMade iron sets all sell well.
In drivers, Epic is solid, so are M1 and M2.
“We don’t do a lot in hard goods,” said Matyczuk. “We do custom fitting primarily through demo days. We’re a very public golf course so we get a lot of tourists and kind of the one-off guys.”
In putters, Matyczuk said Scotty Cameron and Odyssey have been good, along with the Tour Spider.
In wedges, it’s a bit of everything.
In golf balls, Matyczuk said: “That’s been strong out there; we sell a lot. We carry Titleist, Callaway and TaylorMade – pretty much every variety, from your value ball to the top-end ball. TaylorMade hasn’t passed Titleist, but it’s a higher percentage of our sales than I thought it would be.”
In shoes, he said: “We carry FootJoy, I inherited those orders. They’ve done OK, but we may go in a bit of a different direction, maybe ECCO and Under Armour.”
In gloves, he said: “I brought in Under Armour, it was probably my easiest sell. We have Callaway and FootJoy gloves, too.”
In men’s clothing, the shop has found success with PLYR.
Said Matyczuk: “It’s a local company, started by a couple of local guys as a university project. It’s very popular out here. It’s more of a lifestyle brand. They have some golf-specific polos, but they have hoodies and T-shirts.
“I also have the Under Armour connection from the club I was at. Some of the stock we had was Sunice and Levelwear, that kind of stuff.”
In women’s clothing, he said: “We stuck to (Nancy) Lopez and a little bit of Stormtech; there’s not really a strong ladies’ presence here. If one in five are ladies golfers, we’re probably one in 10 out here.”
Logos are also big: “We logo I would say 40% of the stuff. We’ve done Pukka and we’re going to be doing New Era.”
The shop is hoping to do Oakley sunglasses moving forward.
DUFFERIN HEIGHTS COUNTRY CLUB, Stanstead, QC
Speaking about hard goods, Dufferin Heights GM Eric Taylor said: “As far as clubs go, we basically stock only TaylorMade. It’s not an easy business with the big chains. We do a fair amount of business. We don’t do a lot of fitting ourselves; we have a TaylorMade demo day. We generate quite a few sales that way.”
The course is located in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.
In golf balls, he said: “Titleist was by far the biggest seller, but TaylorMade is closing the gap here.”
In clothing, Taylor said: “There are less women golfers here, but we sell more of the women’s clothing than on the men’s side. Nivo is our biggest supplier. We sell some adidas. We want to get into more Dexim. (In men’s clothing), we sell some Sligo, some adidas; we started with Under Armour this year – we didn’t have a lot, but what we had moved well.”
In golf bags, the shop does well with TaylorMade.
The shop sells FootJoy and Titleist gloves.
In shoes, it’s only FootJoy.
In hats, the shop does well with TaylorMade, with some Under Armour in there as well.
Divot tools with the golf course logo do well. Taylor said: “People like a souvenir.”
Oh, and something doing well for the shop: “Battery-powered pull carts, PowaKaddy; we just started this year and we’ve sold quite a few,” said Taylor. “We were surprised how many we sold.”
GRAND PINES GOLF CLUB, Traverse Bay, MB
Head pro Ivan Koop said the golf course, in a resort area, has Titleist golf clubs.
The shop sells plenty of apparel during the course of golf season, probably between 600-700 pieces a year. Antigua is a mainstay, but the shop may freshen up its inventory next season.
Said Koop: “We’re looking to change it up a bit, maybe go with some Under Armour. We’d like to have some of the things kids like to buy. Under Armour has that popularity because of the Jordan Spieths of the world.”
In golf balls, it’s Pro VI, NXT Tour, DT, Velocity, TruSoft and Pinnacle.
The shop sells Titleist gloves and hats.
NHL-logoed apparel, particularly the Winnipeg Jets, are popular in the shop.
