Golf—Played in America

Golf is picking up, as the 2008 season kicks into gear.

This is very good news for those of us in businesses that support, and benefit from golf. However, with the economy reportedly on a downward trend, and fuel prices creeping up, what will this mean for the golf business overall in 2008?

Since, the recent report from the PGA on April 16th being declared National Golf Day cited a direct impact of $76 Billion Dollars per year attributed to golf, and $195 Billion total economic impact in the US annually, there is good rationale for “golfing our way out of a slow economy”.

In addition, the fact that over $3 Billion is raised for charity in the US through golf each year means that there are people counting on you playing golf, and becoming involved with local charity tournaments.

The people who operate golf courses are just the front line of those involved in the industry. There are many more, from those in manufacturing of golf related products, like ourselves, to those who are employed by golf retail, food & beverage, travel, hotels, rental cars and the like…who all benefit from when people play golf. In addition, MOST of those jobs are within the countries they serve.

I read on a web site devoted to the subject of American jobs that (based upon when there was only 293 million people living in the US), if each would spend just $20 per month on products made in America, there would be five million new jobs created. That staggering statistic is even more staggering now that we are more than 300 million strong.

Do you want to help the economy…Take a swing at it!

After all, golf is a game that is played in America.

Golf Trade Shows Can Be Exciting

My business partner Bill and I first displayed our product Gotta-Grip using the trade show booth you see in the picture below. This was built by the company that was marketing our product at the time.

In case you are wondering if this is real wood or not, it is real; and real heavy too. We set this booth up three times with the help of our friend Gary & crew from Legend Marketing Group (actually the first two times we helped Gary).

As you can see it is a small replica of a pro shop replete with slat-wall, a podium, electric outlets to run the machines to capture trade show attendee information...the works!

A total of nearly 50,000 eager promotional products distributors filed by this booth, and many who sell logo products to golf tournaments stopped by to say, "what's that...does it clean grips, hold golf balls?" We would then explain that our product was a grip conditioner, and demonstrate it as many times as we could in a three-day period at each show.

What you can't see in the above picture is just how darned heavy the thing is...

I was always nervous that the wall (about 275 lbs.), would come crashing down like the house in the Wizard of Oz , leaving nothing but a bunch of legs and shoes visible to those passing by looking on in horror. Luckily that never happened.

We did meet a lot of great people, and got to show Gotta-Grip to thousands of eager promotional products distributors; who would in turn, order samples to show their golf tournament director, and corporate clients.

Now that we're settling in marketing our product for 2008, we will no longer be requiring four refrigerator-sized crates, fork lifts, dock workers to haul us into place. But I guess I look at the picture now with fond memories.

We offer black product now, perfect for displaying the multiple color logo options, instead of the different color samples in the picture.

As for trade shows, we started adding videos to help make sure everyone walking by gets a full understanding of what Gotta-Grip does.

How Did We Get Here? (In the golf business)

Remember the first time you went golfing with your father, brother, or uncle? I still can recall my father giving me all the typical instructions and warnings that fathers give their sons that first day out on the course. "Stay with me, when I say duck—you duck!”. “When Paul [my dad’s golfing buddy] misses a shot, really, really, duck...and watch out for flying clubs, etc."

Well, I was 8 years old then and my father not only loved the game of golf, but it was in part, how he earned his living. He was an announcer and sports director for WBBM (CBS affiliate in Chicago, IL), and the year was 1964. My father, Joe Foss was a very good golfer and was very excited about the prospects of teaching his love & skill for the game of golf to my brother Jay and me.

As fate would have it, he suffered a severe stroke in the prime of his career and he was unable to continue working, or playing the game of golf, he loved so dearly. We still have the oversized get-well card that was signed by the touring pro's playing in the Western Open that year; including signatures from such greats as: Billy Casper, Chi-Chi Rodriguez, (a young Raymond Floyd), Tony Lema, Gene Littler, etc. Although left paralyzed from the stroke, dad could still give my brother and me verbal golf instructions…and he followed the tour on TV and radio until he died in 1982.

The golf clubs that once seemed so big to me became the set I played with for years, but I assure you they never achieved the same scratch-golf numbers that once adorned the scorecards when my father wielded them so gracefully. Nonetheless, golf has always appealed to me as a game that is enjoyable no matter what the skill level or social economic status you have attained.

Although the clubs I learned on were tour blades, the (leather) grips had lost their luster long before my brother or I had learned to play, so we never really knew the difference until we got older and sampled new clubs…WOW what a difference! When my wife became pregnant with our twins in 1991, I bought my first set of new clubs. Soon after that, the new clubs I used the most (driver, 7-iron, pitching wedge, etc.) started to lose the new feel on the grips. I used to sand them with sandpaper to get that "feel" back, but soon found out that you can only take away so much material from the grip before it becomes "unusable". There was nothing but pine tar, bee’s-wax or, re-gripping available on the market, which were messy and picked up dirt on the grips. Re-gripping is the best option, but you cannot always do that before a round.

I thought if I could find the right material and develop a method (tube that is always on the golf bag when/if you needed it for applying that new feel to golf grips ON THE GOLF COURSE instead of having to take them out of service twice per year, I might have a business. I would be doing a service to all the golfers like me who want consistency in every shot, but don’t necessarily re-grip their clubs every season, as they should. After trying to market the invention in 2002 with little money, I all but gave up on the product…until my partner Bill stepped forward.

Bill O’Connell is a brilliant insurance executive, and is a very smart businessman, who happens to love golf too. His company sponsored an event at the International in Denver in 2003, and he asked if he could get some of my product to give "as golf gifts" at his hospitality tent at the event. It was a little magical...Similar to the Post-It Notes story, soon after the event, people were calling him saying, “Where can I get that?” He ended up buying the patent, trademark and offered to have me join him in marketing the product.

Bill took Gotta-Grip to an old acquaintance that happened to be the Chairman of a parent company of a large promotional products manufacturing supplier. They too, saw the benefit of Gotta-Grip. We had licensed them the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell through their distributors in the Ad Specialty, Promotional Products market (an 18 billion dollar per year market), for custom-embroidered golf gifts at tournaments, and as sales gifts.

When Mr. O’Connell retired from the insurance industry in 2007, we decided to begin marketing Gotta-Grip ourselves. We are the suppliers to promotional distributors who call on corporate, promotional, and charity tournament markets.