Dick's Buys Golfsmith at Bankruptcy Auction

[Hacker James]

@gregsandiego I am sure you are aware, but as of 2 days ago, Golfsmith in the Valley is still open. I've never been, but would like to use their range, but I believe Dicks and Golf Galaxy in Carmel Mountain Ranch have one as well or at least a sim. Do you know if they will be taken over by Dick's and whether or not the location will close?

[WUTiger]

1 hour ago, gregsandiego said:

Does your Manchester store have the free inside driving range ?

Yes. It has about six hitting bays in a building with a very high ceiling - all with TrackMan type electronics.

GolfTEC also has a unit inside the store; GT appears to have its own bays.

I suspect GolfTECs presence helped this Golfsmith unit stay open.

[jamo]

I'm starting to wonder if the golf big box store industry is about to swing too far in the other direction. The closest store to me is an hour away. By the time all of the Golfsmiths close down, there will be a low single digit amount of big box stores in all of New England. I get that the northeast is a tough market because no one buys golf stuff October through March, but very suddenly have a big empty vacuum of golf stores right now. Sports Authority shutting down and Dicks mostly getting out of golf doesn't help that. 

[gregsandiego]

8 hours ago, jamo said:

I'm starting to wonder if the golf big box store industry is about to swing too far in the other direction. The closest store to me is an hour away. By the time all of the Golfsmiths close down, there will be a low single digit amount of big box stores in all of New England. I get that the northeast is a tough market because no one buys golf stuff October through March, but very suddenly have a big empty vacuum of golf stores right now. Sports Authority shutting down and Dicks mostly getting out of golf doesn't help that. 

I see a new business putting re-grip and other non-mail order services outside of major golf courses.

10 hours ago, Hacker James said:

@gregsandiego I am sure you are aware, but as of 2 days ago, Golfsmith in the Valley is still open. I've never been, but would like to use their range, but I believe Dicks and Golf Galaxy in Carmel Mountain Ranch have one as well or at least a sim. Do you know if they will be taken over by Dick's and whether or not the location will close?

I'll check on Golfsmith and Golfmart which are on opposite sides of I8.

But at home I'm a member of "Players Club" for $30 per month which gives me 2 buckets of balls per day. It was at work during lunch time that GolfSmith was such a godsend.

 

[CarlSpackler]

Sounds like both stores here in Orlando are closing.

[gregsandiego]

15 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

Sounds like both stores here in Orlando are closing.

I'm wondering what the point of Dicks purchase was ?

[CarlSpackler]

15 minutes ago, gregsandiego said:

I'm wondering what the point of Dicks purchase was ?

To kill their biggest competitor. Got news for them. I'm not shopping at Dick's. 

[Pendragon]

10 hours ago, jamo said:

I'm starting to wonder if the golf big box store industry is about to swing too far in the other direction. The closest store to me is an hour away. By the time all of the Golfsmiths close down, there will be a low single digit amount of big box stores in all of New England. I get that the northeast is a tough market because no one buys golf stuff October through March, but very suddenly have a big empty vacuum of golf stores right now. Sports Authority shutting down and Dicks mostly getting out of golf doesn't help that. 

Are you near Golfer's Warehouse in Hartford? 

[newtogolf]

56 minutes ago, gregsandiego said:

I'm wondering what the point of Dicks purchase was ?

They wanted all the patents Golfsmith owned, acquired some merchandise for pennies on the dollar and made sure a competitor wouldn't be around to compete.  Their bid was low, just as it was for Sports Authority, just no one else wants to be in the business right now.  

DSG now owns all the patents that Sports Authority and Golfsmith held, plus MaxFli, Top Flite, and all the other failed golf club and ball businesses they acquired.  

[jamo]

8 hours ago, Pendragon said:

Are you near Golfer's Warehouse in Hartford? 

Nope, I'm in Norwich, so that's like an hour away. I ended up driving to the one in Cranston, RI, which is also an hour away.

(I'm willing to concede that I don't live in a big market. )

[WUTiger]

On 11/5/2016 at 11:49 AM, WUTiger said:

On 11/5/2016 at 9:59 AM, gregsandiego said:

Does your Manchester store have the free inside driving range ?

Yes. It has about six hitting bays in a building with a very high ceiling - all with TrackMan type electronics.

Clarification: The Manchester Golfsmith operation had six test-out hitting bays, plus three separate fitting stations on the other side of the store.

[boogielicious]

22 hours ago, jamo said:

Nope, I'm in Norwich, so that's like an hour away. I ended up driving to the one in Cranston, RI, which is also an hour away.

(I'm willing to concede that I don't live in a big market. )

The Deadzone that is southeastern CT! 

[Pendragon]

On 11/6/2016 at 4:51 AM, jamo said:

Nope, I'm in Norwich, so that's like an hour away. I ended up driving to the one in Cranston, RI, which is also an hour away.

(I'm willing to concede that I don't live in a big market. )

Just curious. That's too far to be convenient, for sure. I ran a Golf Mart (same company...Worldwide Golf Shops) until I retired in 2014. I met some of the Golfers Warehouse guys at meetings. It's a good company with good people.

[Kalnoky]

On 11/5/2016 at 9:02 PM, newtogolf said:

They wanted all the patents Golfsmith owned, acquired some merchandise for pennies on the dollar and made sure a competitor wouldn't be around to compete.  Their bid was low, just as it was for Sports Authority, just no one else wants to be in the business right now.  

DSG now owns all the patents that Sports Authority and Golfsmith held, plus MaxFli, Top Flite, and all the other failed golf club and ball businesses they acquired.  

Interesting. Do you know if this includes Snake Eyes? Snake Eyes makes a cheap-o glove ($10) that works really well for me. That's the only reason I ever wandered into Golfsmith. That place had the stench of death. 

[jkelley9]

Our Golfsmith is not closing. There's a Dick's down the street from it too. Probably because the golf section in the Dick's is DISMAL. Like, really bad.

Our Golfsmith (Greensboro, NC) is huge, has 5 or 6 hitting bays with CG2's (I think that's the type they use) as well as a whole section of the store for the "GolfTek" fittings and such.

I decided to go ahead and buy a bench rise, rubber clamp insert, a nice long roll of double-sided golf grip tape, and some solvent to do all my own grips now. Not because it's going to pay for itself really... it was just inconvenient driving ~25 minutes out to Golfsmith to get them to re-grip something. Even though they only charged like $2 or something plus the cost of the grip. I used to take advantage when I would bring a new club to get gripped and would ask to use the hitting bay and could get some good numbers for about 15 minutes, for free. They were never very busy, so they didn't care. Walking in and just setting up in a bay I'm sure was frowned upon. But I would get some work done and be "waiting" so they didn't care lol. Beating the system! Now I won't be able to do that though :( 

But meh, I save myself 25-30 minutes of driving each time. And if I were to get the clubs cut down (I always do) they don't do same-day. So often I was making the trip TWICE. Not worth it. I'll cut them myself too now.

[Groucho Valentine]

52 minutes ago, Kalnoky said:

That place had the stench of death. 

[newtogolf]

8 hours ago, Kalnoky said:

Interesting. Do you know if this includes Snake Eyes? Snake Eyes makes a cheap-o glove ($10) that works really well for me. That's the only reason I ever wandered into Golfsmith. That place had the stench of death. 

Golfsmith purchased Zevo Golf Company (manufacturer of Snake Eyes) in 2004 along with all of the intellectual property (patents).  I'm guessing those patents now belong to DSG.  

[billchao]

Both of the Golfsmith locations near me are closing. Combined with the Golf Galaxy that closed earlier this year due to lease issues, there will soon be no major golf stores within 25 miles of me.

There are two (3 maybe) DSG within a reasonable drive from me but their golf department sucks.