Golf professionals are, as the name suggests, expert players and tutors, people whose knowledge of the playing side of the game is vastly superior to virtually all of the members of the clubs to which they are attached.
But playing lessons and occasional tournament prizemoney only ever provide so much, and in many ways, the club Pro Shop is their bread and butter. But there’s a catch. Pro Shops come in all shapes and sizes, from sprawling layouts the envy of many on the high-street, to those akin to a pop-up store where every inch of space is a prized possession. And having these stores set up in a way to maximise their potential is a task that’s alien to most head pros, as is the idea of having the time to devote to the task.
This is where Michael Green Golf Merchandising (MGGM) come in. Founded by Michael Green – a golf enthusiast and elite amateur player with over 12 years’ experience in retail management in both Ireland and the UK – in 2022, Green recognised that presentation and layout were areas in which many Pro Shops were sadly lacking and he saw an opportunity to combine his passions into one.
“We started out by approaching Gavin Kavanagh in Delgany,” said Krizandra Lane, another merchandising specialist who’s been involved with Green from the ground floor, “and he thought it was a really good idea because there was nothing out there for a PGA Pro to reach out to for help with merchandising the store. Then Brian Cosgrove at Newlands gave us the first real in-store opportunity and it was the day before the Captains’ Drive In and the feedback he got the next day was just extraordinary.”
From these humble beginnings, MGGM now have 51 clients, spread across all four provinces and the testimonials of these clients suggest that that client base is only likely to grow moving forward.
One such client is Gavin Lunny at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club, who’d previously been head pro at Naas for 13 years before moving to his present location in 2020, and he recalled Michael and Krizandra cold-calling one afternoon.
“Within a very short space of them describing what they were offering, I told them that they had a great business model and that I wanted to sign them up as soon as possible,” he said. “They’re experts on that side of things, they know retail better than we do, and to have them coming in every month to merchandise the shop, to make sure it’s looking sharp, give me some advice on stuff that I maybe don’t need or stock that I could do with more of is very, very helpful.
“We have a serious time deficit because of the general day to day responsibilities that a club professional has with our own coaching and fitting businesses, etc. So, getting around to some of the things that might seem a little bit futile but are very important is challenging and certainly the merchandising of the shop is something that most pro shops tend to struggle with.”
Cian McNamara at Monkstown is another who thinks MGGM have worked wonders at his business having been recommended their services by Cosgrove.
“Brian is a good friend of mine and initially he was very impressed with their service and their work ethic, so I said ‘if it’s good enough for Brian, it’s good enough for me,’” McNamara explained, “and since Michael and Krizandra have come in they’ve really transformed the shop into a retail store and they’ve helped merchandise the product to a level that myself and my staff wouldn’t be able to.
“It’s had a really positive impact on my business and at the golf club in general. The way in which they were able to take all the stock and merchandise and present it in a manner that actually creates more space, makes it more visible, eye-catching, and much more attractive – it’s just so professional and they train my staff and myself how to maintain it.”
Though the merchandise displays and shop layouts are a big part of what MGGM do, it’s far from the only string to their bow, and they apply different sets of metrics to each individual challenge.
“Every store you go into is different,” Lane said, “and each unique store has its kind of its own unique challenges and that’s what you address. Like for instance, a store could have 1800 members, another could have 600 members. You could have a high percentage of women; another could have a low percentage of women. A golf professional could be under pressure to increase his ladies’ range and might not know exactly what way to go about that because golfing for ladies is relatively new in the industry.
“What’s the age profile of the customers, what brands will work best, how many people actually work in the shop? We take all of this into account.
“But you could break it down into two main goals really; We want professionals to increase their turnover so that they’re not stuck with a lot of stock at the end of each season – that when it comes to Autumn/Winter, we want them to have barely any Spring/Summer left.
“And, then the other aspect is that we want members and guests to be able to shop more freely, to be encouraged to shop more in their actual pro shop because, even if a product might be €5 more expensive, at the end of the day it’s crested, it’s belonging to your club, it’s supporting your club and it’s supporting your professional.”
One of the widely believed myths is that similar to large-scale grocery stores offering better value than your local convenience store, the best value is to be found in large chain stores, but that’s not the case.
“The first thing that any club professional will do is check online to ensure that they’re being competitive with the pricing,” McNamara explains. “And if we can’t be competitive with the pricing, which very rarely happens, then we’ll speak to the rep or the supplier, find out why our prices aren’t aligning and we’ll find a way to be competitive.”
But matching prices is only half the battle – presentation may not account for the entire other 50 percent, but it’s a large portion and the proof is there in black and white.
“I’ve seen a big uptick in my business,” McNamara goes on to say, “and a huge increase of purchases not backed by a voucher. A lot of the sales before came from members who’d won a voucher or were exchanging a prize, but now we’re getting so many more just because a member has seen the product, likes the way it’s being marketed and wants to buy it and that’s largely down to the way it’s presented by Michael and Krizandra.”
For more information or to get in touch with MGGM visit www.michaelgreengolfmerchandising.com or email: michael@mgcgolfmerchandising.com
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