How many $500 drivers can you sell?
How many $300 putters can you sell?
The simple answer is not enough to stay afloat in the case of mega-golf retailer Golfsmith, based out of Austin, Texas.
Edwin Watts already went under once and was resurrected, barely.
But Golfsmith with 150 stores in the U.S. is the Titanic of the golf retail world.
It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 14.
It hired investment bankers Jeffries to find a buyer, good luck with that.
How does 25-cents on the dollar sound?
How do you pay the rent on some of these 35,000 square feet mega-stores? The answer is that you don’t.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, which got rid it its massive 10,000 square foot pro-shops within their stores, may be eyeballing a lot of the Golfsmith locations. Golfsmith does have a lot of great, very expensive locations, expensive in terms of rent they pay in some of these large, big-box retail centers.
Nike saw the writing on the wall and is exiting from the low-margin world of golf equipment.
Adidas has Taylor-Made up for sale.
It’s a crisis, for sure, and not a lot of people within the industry will admit it.
Fact is, they can’t sell enough $500 drivers and $300 putters to pay the bills.
Simple as that.
4 Comments
beege
It is sad, Tom, but when you(the golf business) hammers golfers all day long with new equipment 4 times a year, then telling golfers the game is very hard to learn, very expensive to learn and play and voila at some point push does not equal shove.
My system is the total opposite–its not that hard, not that expensive—make it easier to be golfer friendly—that will eventually be the good that comes out of the bad.
Tom Edrington
If everyone would just move up to the right set of tees, this game would be a lot easier…..my neighbor has no business playing the blues, yet his does, can’t drive it far enough to be there….that simple. If the white tee are good enough for Nicklaus, they’re good enough for me!
hrfdez
I guess the state of golf is not as good as the powers to be make it sound like? Or, equipment is just getting outrageously too expensive.
I still have my original set of Titleist AP1 irons, their first release. I haven’t got a reason to upgrade after all these years. I still have my Custom SC 009 putter at the good old weight of 330g at 35 inches, haven’t got a reason to change.
The only thing I changed was my driver after years of using the same Ping G15, I went for the G30, just because. To be honest, didn’t have a need for it, lol….
I think a lot of equipment hoopla is just that, hoopla.
Tom Edrington
Well said, I can count the times I’ve changed equipment. I’ve used the same putter for 15 years, Ping Zing with iso insert….Ping irons and like you, finally left a G10 for a G30. Yes, too much stuff out there, too expensive because they have to overpay for all these staff players on tour.