The COVID-19 pandemic hit golf shops and retail stores across Canada like a punch in the mouth when it blindsided us last March.
Then, after mild weather allowed an early golf season In Ontario this year, a stunning provincial government decision in mid-April to shut down golf courses, was like deja-vu – golfers could feel the pain all over again.
There has to be brighter days ahead, right? Just look at what happened when golf courses were open in 2020 – courses were getting record numbers. Long-time golfers golfed. Casual golfers golfed. Beginners golfed. Even with protocols in place at golf courses, which dampened some of the social experience, the great outdoors was a great place to be with so much stress all around us. It was tougher than ever to find a tee time with such demand. Golf equipment sales were through the roof, so much so that manufacturers couldn’t keep up with the demand.
To get a feel for what’s happened in the past year-plus, we reached out to golf shops and retailers across the country and here’s what they had to say.
NORTHVIEW GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB
Surrey, B.C.
Head professional, Greg Pool, said the golf shop and retail sales have tackled hurdles. The facility has been kept open to only golfers with tee times or lessons, or restaurant goers, with health and safety in mind. Occupancy in the golf shop has also been reduced, with the payment of green fees limited to one person per foursome.
Asked if sales have suffered and if consumer buying habits have changed during the pandemic, Pool said: “With the hurdles faced, we have still seen a positive increase in retail sales thanks to the demand for tee times. Equipment, ball and glove sales, have all been great. Apparel sales have been challenging at times, but with additional promotions offered each month to incentivize mass purchases, we have been able to draw many consumers in to that.”
It’s a Titleist/FootJoy shop, with the Titleist’s TSi line and FootJoy’s Premiere Series getting plenty of attention.
Asked if there was any change in apparel buying habits, Pool said: “Last year we moved five sale racks outside as well as a shoe display, which we continue to do this season. Outdoor purchases have helped us greatly as people are, of course, more comfortable outdoors than they are in an indoor retail shop during the pandemic. Generally speaking, all of our brands have been equally strong, from adidas and FootJoy, to Puma, Galvin Green and TravisMathew.”
Asked about long wait times for ordering golf clubs, Pool said: “There have been many challenges with wait times, which continues to be a challenge. I was walking out of a Costco not long ago and overheard a manager speaking about delays they have been seeing in China with manufacturing. The issues the golf industry has had are certainly not industry specific which helps the conversation with the consumer.
“There is certainly disappointment about wait times as their clubs are usually a want and not necessarily a need purchase, but they remain optimistic and the demand for clubs seems to only be increasing at the moment.”
Rounds at Northview, which has 36 holes, have increased about 50 per cent over the previous season.
KEVIN HAIME GOLF CENTRE
Ottawa, ON
Golf Centre owner, Kevin Haime, a former Canadian National Teacher of the Year, said his business was knocked for a loop last March. An Ontario shutdown closed his range/teaching facility for more than two months.
“From a business perspective, we had kind of accepted the fact it would be a devastating year,” said Haime. “I’m 31 years into the business so we could survive that devastation. We thought we’d maybe lose a couple hundred thousand dollars and we’d have to dig ourselves out of that hole over the next five to seven years. We really thought that until we opened. And when we opened, it was like getting into the ring with Mike Tyson, it hits you in the face. Once we opened, golfers were very excited to finally be at a facility. They knew they couldn’t travel so they were spending money on golf.”
And once they were given the green light to open …
“It was a very, very busy May 16 through the end of the season, to the point where it would have been an average year, not a record setter, despite losing two critical months in our business.”
And while the Golf Centre was often packed, there were challenges in making the facility safe.
“Big picture-wise, I think every business, whether it’s golf or not, has had to institute protocols and basically re-invent,” said Haime. “You still have to give the customer a good experience. You still have to move product; you still have to be able to sell.
“We have gone to a full reservation system after 31 years of drop by and hit a bucket. We will not be going back. It’s been a positive. Allowing people to pre-book has been a good business move for us. We learned something quite beneficial out of a pretty difficult situation.”
The customer experience thing has changed, out of necessity.
Said Haime: “One of the difficulties for pro shops in general: people love to hang around the shop and chat and you develop relationships. Then into the conversation, the customer may say, ‘Hey I want to try this wedge’ or ‘I like that putter.’ A lot of selling in the golf business is done with relationships. At our place, we’ve always kind of done that, but at a lot of golf courses, they wouldn’t have done it as much and they’ve got to go to that model now.
“It has to be appointment based to keep staff safe and keep customers safe.”
Demand for appointments for getting fitted for golf clubs had skyrocketed, heading into the latest shutdown, which forced Haime to close the doors April 17, along with facilities across the province.
“The problem is getting to everybody,” said Haime. “There are two fundamental problems. No. 1 is fitting the customers all in; there’s such demand. No. 2 is getting the equipment. The supply chains have been decimated. I couldn’t order grips from companies because they didn’t have any extras. Most companies are sold out of golf bags.
“Going into the second year of this thing, you can really see supply chains are struggling, but they’ve done an admirable job trying to cope. Between the increased demand by consumers and the difficulty in supply, it makes for challenging times. We’ve gone from an industry where you’ve promised custom sets to people in five to seven business days, maybe it’s up to two weeks. Now it’s four weeks to 16 weeks.
“There are challenges. Some of the shafts aren’t available. You’ll fit a guy and he falls in love with a certain shaft. The company calls a week later and says they’re out. I keyed in a golf shaft for a customer the other day and it said I could get it Aug. 9 and here we are in April. You have to pull an audible and find a different shaft that’s acceptable for the customer.”
The waiting time might be the most important factor for somebody ordering new clubs.
“Price is not the main conversation at the end of a club fit,” said Haime. “That haggling, ‘Can you throw in a free wedge, can you give me a free lesson if I buy the clubs,’ all of that conversation has gone away. The conversation has shifted to, ‘When can I get the clubs?’ If they say they’re going to think about it, I say, ‘Don’t think too long because they might be unavailable.’ I think we’re going to see shortages this year.”
Patience, said Haime, is important.
“Companies are desperate to get product out to sell; they’re in business to make money,” he said. “They want to provide the equipment. And the fitters want to make the sale. Everybody wants happy customers, but there are limits to what’s do-able. People need to be patient.”
GOLF CENTRAL
Halifax, N.S.
A golf retail store in Halifax and under new ownership, Golf Central has seen its sales rise, rise and rise the past several months.
“Sales have been amazing,” said Golf Central’s Pat Logan. “It would be even better if we could get all the product we want. If we could get the inventory quicker, it would be even more awesome. We fully stock something like we have the past 15 years and it’s gone within five days.”
Fitting customers for golf clubs has been off the charts. The store has been fully booked every day since January, with a two and a half-week wait well into April.
The shop has dealt with challenges, including wait times for equipment to arrive, and has been adjusting on the fly.
Said Logan: “When we’re doing fittings, we have to be very conscious when we can get it. We’re getting lists from most of the brands. A lot of times when we’re doing fittings, we have two choices: we look at what timelines are there. It could be as simple as a shaft change: ‘That shaft isn’t there, but this one is similar and we can get it.’ Grips can be an issue and sometimes you have to swap into another one. With some products, it’s 6-8 weeks, some are July or August before we can get them.
“Golf bags are nonexistent, golf (push) carts, forget about it. Shoes have been pretty good, but they’re just slow to get here. Clothing is OK so far. The equipment brands, it’s tough for them to keep up with the demand.”
When it doesn’t have something on the shelf, the store is taking contact info and giving customers a call when the item arrives. That’s just good customer service.
Being in the Maritimes, the pandemic situation hasn’t been as tough as in some of Canada’s provinces, in particular Ontario and Quebec.
MORGAN CREEK GOLF COURSE
Surrey, B.C.
Director of operations, Tom Doull, said he sits in his office and fields complaints about why people can’t get tee times and why the course is not opening the driving range to the public.
Through the pandemic, Doull said business has been unbelievably good.
“I’ve been in business 25 years, I’ve never seen this happen,” he said. “We’re setting new records. Business was pretty good before COVID, but this has been like we’ve shoved it full of steroids.
“The language everybody in the golf business is speaking right now is ‘What can I do to retain this?’ Our programs are all about, ‘OK, we’ve got this great base of customers, let’s retain as many as possible.’ ”
The course is open year-round. In December and January, they can only get between 100-120 people on the course each day. More than 400 people a day were trying to book. In the summer, the course can get 300-320 golfers out.
“Every night, there are about a thousand people trying to book tee times,” said Doull. “It’s a real challenge.”
Pro shop sales have been good in a lot of categories. Particularly hot are beginner-intermediate sets (particularly for women) and Clicgear push carts. Callaway Reva sets are so popular it’s tough to keep them in stock. The shop will bring in more than 25 Clicgear carts and they’re gone in two weeks.
“We stock fairly heavily, particularly in golf clubs and golf shoes,” said Doull. “We’re a Callaway shop. We’ve got the Callaway Performance Centre here, the biggest one for Callaway in Western Canada. But we’re fully set up for all the brands. We have full fit carts.
“Callaway seems to be doing better than most (for getting equipment out). Four to six weeks is pretty good, but there are things where the wait is three or four months. We tell the customer, ‘If you’re willing to wait, that’s OK.’
“We had a customer come in and he wanted to get two drivers – one for down south and one for here. He’s left-handed. When we put it in the system, it said five weeks, but it came in two. The companies are doing right by underpromise and overdeliver. They’d rather be wrong that way.”
Doull said, for the most part, golfers have closely obeyed the rules.
“Once in a while I have to step out of the office when I hear some traffic in the shop,” he said. “We have a maximum of two customers in the shop at once.”
Will there be changes moving forward?
“The mobile check in is a perfect example; more and more people will use it,” he said. “It’s like checking in for your flight, you get that reminder the day before. Most people probably do that now.”
The course has also put a greeter in the parking lot and is building a greeting centre which will be open by mid- to late-summer.
How was the course affected early on in the pandemic?
Said Doull: “A year ago, we were closed for aeration 4-5 days, (when COVID hit) and we stayed closed for another two weeks. We used those two weeks, to figure out, ‘OK, how do we operate? What do we need to do?’ Once we opened, it was something different every day. It was definitely a challenge. You have to think quick on your feet. We’re still doing that, but it’s become a bit more of a regular thing.
“We’ve limited the number of people in the shop. We’re not too concerned with people touching, we wipe everything down. Staff are all wearing masks; we have sanitizer everywhere.”
