By Ed Travis
PGA Tour Superstore (PGATSS), the largest golf-specific retailer in the U.S., continues to have record sales while expanding the number of locations and says clubs, apparel, and accessories specifically for women are an important focus to fuel additional growth.
In an exclusive interview with PGATSS CEO and President Dick Sullivan, he described how the company is working to erase the traditional male-centric approach to golf retailing and the ongoing program to create a woman-friendly experience in their stores. This initiative is already producing impressive results.
To illustrate Sullivan related the grand opening of a new store in Fairfax, Virginia, last August, they saw more women’s apparel being sold than men’s, a complete reversal of the usual pattern.
Consumers respond to retailers with a large stock of aggressively priced inventory, plus friendly and knowledgeable salespeople. This of course applies to golf, especially when targeting women golfers, many of whom are looking for help purchasing equipment, plus they are demanding functional, yet stylish apparel.
Golfers of both sexes are drawn to PGATSS’s size with locations up to 50,000 square feet with multiple hitting bays, computer simulators for lessons, or practice, adequate inventory of equipment, shoes, clothing and anything needed to improve enjoyment of the game.
As the pandemic changed everyone’s life, golf quickly became the perfect antidote for cabin-fever as an outdoor activity, in which the entire family could participate. The number of golfers and number of rounds saw a dramatic rise of roughly 3 million in 2020 and the National Golf Foundation is forecasting the number to be higher in 2021. A major part of this increase was due to women finding the game fun and recent data shows about 40% of new participants on and off course are women.
According to Sullivan,
“Thirty four percent of the new women golfers are under 18 years of age, and we plan to encourage them with more in-store events such as clinics. Women’s golf apparel has become a reflection of their lifestyle. Women are shopping for and choosing functional apparel with a more relaxed wardrobe.”
In addition to golf, fitness and wellness spending is exploding. Wardrobes are more casual and leisure attire is more acceptable on and off the course.
“Get Golf Ready” is a series of six one-hour group sessions for novice women golfers. The goal is to make women more comfortable with golf jargon, etiquette, and rules. Participants are taught the basic swing and clubs are provided, if necessary.
PGATSS is the official retailer of the nationwide Women’s Golf Day and a sponsor of other programs introducing women to the game. Showing the across-the-board commitment is a slogan the company often uses, “Girls Got Drive.”
Additional support is also provided to several other organizations dedicated to bringing more women into the game including “She Who Golfs,” “Fore the Ladies,” and “Women on Course”
Sullivan was candid about the company’s struggle during the pandemic.
“All our stores were closed for 54 days during the Covid pandemic, but every vendor was paid on time and not a single employee was furloughed.”
Inventory and supply chain concerns were an issue in 2021, leading to some items being in short supply.
“Push carts and package club sets for women and juniors, were going out the door as soon as they came in.”
At times extraordinary efforts were called for to meet customer demand. Sullivan told of taking delivery of several thousand wedges without grips to speed up deliver. Making lemonade from lemons, PGATSS due to the lack of a stock grip meant that each wedge’s grip could be customized for the individual golfer.
Speaking of the bounce back from being hit with the problems from closure and inventory supply Sullivan said,
“We were able to have a rapid recovery, quick pick up and there was no slow down going into 2021.”
Addressing the future of PGATSS Sullivan related,
“We did as much business in the first half of 2021 as all of 2019, which was a record year and projections for 2021 have been increased 20 percent.”
PGATSS continues to grow, by the start of 2022 there will be 50 stores nationwide with plans to add as many as 10 each year. A National Hiring Day was held in early November to find the new employees required to adequately staff each location.
Sullivan closed our interview with,
“We are most proud of overcoming traditional barriers in golf retail, while keeping our culture and attitude to be customer friendly.”
