Gotta-Grip Golf Blog

The next time you are standing over a put, or moreover, a drive off of wet grass, look at your golf shoes...and you will have Ernie Sabayrac to thank for your firm footing.

I guess you could say I go way, way, back in the golf industry. All the way back to 1967. My first job in golf began at age 12, shining shoes at a private country club.

Back in those days, kids could work at an early age on weekends, with their parent’s permission. I used to ride my bicycle, get a ride from my mother, or, occasionally ride my mini-bike on Saturday & Sunday, trekking the 5 miles to the club in the Chicago suburbs. (At least two of the aforementioned items would get a kid, and/or their parents thrown in jail these days.)

Although my beginnings were humble, I quickly rose up the ladder in the industry; within a year, I took a job picking up golf balls at a driving range, which lasted for the next two summers.

However, it would be some 27 years later, while working in the software industry that I became re-familiarized with the golf business. We had a software game featuring Greg Norman at the company I worked for, and I was chosen to represent the game at this “trade exhibition” in Orlando Florida called the PGA Merchandise Show. It was winter, I lived in the Chicago area, and nobody had to twist my arm to go.

I got to meet many people at this show, including golf legend Gary Player, renowned golf instructor Jim McLean (he was signing books at the booth I was in), and many more industry professionals.

When you attend a trade show, and stay in one of the “show hotels”, they broadcast information about the show to your in-room TV. The morning the show started, I was watching to see if I could learn what to expect that first day before heading to the booth. A story about a wonderful man, a legend in his own rite, came on.

I have told stories about seeing that segment for years now. The man’s name was Ernie Sabayrac. At first, I was confused about the mention of ‘The Ernie Sabayrac Lifetime Achievement Award’ ceremonies, because I had never heard of this person. Something kept my interest enough to keep watching, and a very inspirational story unfolded.

You see, Ernie was a guy who had a vision. It was said that one of his claims to fame was that he was thrown out of every golf course pro shop in the country, at least once, while trying to market the first retail “spiked” golf shoes. This probably did not happen literally, but makes for good listening. Nonetheless, Ernie Sabayrac persevered.

He eventually sold some shoes and a lot more. The line that stuck with me from the show was when pro shop owners would tell him “We don’t sell golf shoes here”; he replied with “of course you don’t, because you don’t HAVE ANY here”.

Eventually the sales pitch must have caught on, because Ernie Sabayrac ended up selling shoes for the company that became Footjoy. He also was able to convince pro shop owners in the 1950’s to start carrying other items known as “soft goods”, like golf gloves, golf shirts, golf accessories, etc.

His total contributions to golf, golf fashion, and pro shop revenue are inestimable, but the lessons that his life teaches anyone who works in sales are even greater.

Ernie Sabayrac died in 1997, the year after I attended my first PGA Merchandise show, three years after the creation of the Ernie Sabayrac Award for Lifetime contributions to the golf industry.

Past winners include Gary Adams (founder of TaylorMade), and Ely Callaway (Callaway Golf), to name a few of the 14 recipients (including Sabayrac, the Award’s first recipient).

Anyone up for this award has some big golf shoes to fill.

Here's a complete list of past recipients:

1994 Ernie Sabayrac
1995 Bob Rickey, Gary Adams
1996 Dick Tarlow, Karsten Solheim
1997 Joe Phillips, Bob MacNally
1998 Ely Callaway
1999 Jim Ireland
2000 Jim Vincent
2001 Jim Butz
2002 David Branon
2003 Thomas Crow
2004 Patrick O’Grady
2005 Ed Abrain
2006 Ron McPherson
2007 Nancy Haley