American golf under new ownership.

Oddsocks

Oddsocks

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So it appears Peter jones from dragons den has just completed the acquisition of American golf from Endless.

Is the the beginning of a rebuild to what it once was or the start of American golf being similar to sports direct, licence fees for cheap product baring main stream logos? Hopefully as he’s a golfer himself it will be the later.

www.golfmagic.com

Dragons’ Den star and his investment group acquire UK retail giant American Golf

Peter Jones completes acquisition of £135m American Golf business.
www.golfmagic.com www.golfmagic.com
 
AG is a bit of a weird one, in recent years they’ve cut back so much in the quality of clubs and gear in stores. They still have some larger shops with better variety but they’re few and far between.

Hopefully he can turn it round and bring it back to where it once was as it’s always nice to have a local shop you can go to.
 
They used to fill a much needed gap - lots of people weren’t members of clubs and went to AG for their clubs and clothing

But the likes of Druids have took a huge chunk out of their market

AG won’t be getting the high end clothes that you see in many clubs , the likes of Glenmuir and FJ and in a lot of clubs as well and then there is online

AG needs to look at someone like Under Armour or FJ and get their stores stocked with them
 
@Lucifer MorningStar - a range near me used to have an AG but as mentioned above it went down the own brand relabelled tosh and pre covid crashed and burned big time. Given its attached to a range, has around 15 courses within 20-25 mins drive and is on the edge of SE London it shouldn’t have happened.

The manager realised the opportunity and renamed the shop taking over the lease and restocked it back with your key brands and it’s always busy. It shows it wasn’t about the cheapest stuff to get going, simply sticking it with brands customers want.

I do wonder if it’s still AG owned but relabelled under its own nabe transferring stock in fronted flag ships that you mention.

The only other decent national was direct golf and I remember them disappearing also.
 
I hope they do well. Ive a relative works for them, so hope they do reinvent themselves.
But imo they still have too many physical stores on the ground, compared to big online competitors, eg....clubhouse golf, scottsdale golf to name but 2.
In the north east alone, we have 3 shops within a 20 mile radius, so thats too much, physical shops cost money. In our case, 1 big superstore would be a better solution.

Anyway, im sure Peter Jones has a plan.
 
The most recent time that I was in an AG shop, I bought a Ram Tour Grind 64° brand new for £39.
This was 30 years ago. The shop in Leicester is still there.
🧐
 
moogie said:
I hope they do well. Ive a relative works for them, so hope they do reinvent themselves.
But imo they still have too many physical stores on the ground, compared to big online competitors, eg....clubhouse golf, scottsdale golf to name but 2.
In the north east alone, we have 3 shops within a 20 mile radius, so thats too much, physical shops cost money. In our case, 1 big superstore would be a better solution.

Anyway, im sure Peter Jones has a plan.
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The one at the Metro Centre would be the obvious one, lose the one in Gosforth. Saying that, I hate the road system to get into the Metro site, I miss the turning so often, have to go around again 😄
 
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About 7 or 8 years ago when I'd just got back into playing AG had a second-hand outlet near me that had a huge selection of clubs that people had traded in - it was next to a range so you could try two or three clubs before choosing the best one to buy. I loved that place, bought quite a few things from there. Then they closed it down and I've never seen them do it anywhere since.
 
Orikoru said:
About 7 or 8 years ago when I'd just got back into playing AG had a second-hand outlet near me that had a huge selection of clubs that people had traded in - it was next to a range so you could try two or three clubs before choosing the best one to buy. I loved that place, bought quite a few things from there. Then they closed it down and I've never seen them do it anywhere since.
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My nearest one used to have a bargain bucket, literally a large bucket / bin with 2nd hand clubs in. You were happy to take a gamble with these, you often got a good bargain. I certainly used it a lot in my early days, as did my son when he was starting out. Long gone now, as is your place. A shame.
 
Orikoru said:
About 7 or 8 years ago when I'd just got back into playing AG had a second-hand outlet near me that had a huge selection of clubs that people had traded in - it was next to a range so you could try two or three clubs before choosing the best one to buy. I loved that place, bought quite a few things from there. Then they closed it down and I've never seen them do it anywhere since.
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Was this around they were time they were doubling the value of clubs taken in part exchange? Have them a huge amount of used clubs that they’d overpaid for and caused them loads of problems
 
SteveW86 said:
Was this around they were time they were doubling the value of clubs taken in part exchange? Have them a huge amount of used clubs that they’d overpaid for and caused them loads of problems
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I think it was probably just after that, yeah. But I wonder what they normally do with clubs they take on trade-ins anyway? I don't see many AGs with second-hand sections these days. Having a big outlet to flog seemed a good idea to me.
 
Orikoru said:
American Golf is already like Sports Direct - instead of Sondico and Slazenger it's Stromberg, Greg Norman, Fazer, Benross etc across every store. The only way is up in my opinion, I haven't bought a thing in an American Golf for years.
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None of the AG stores in my region are like that. I regularly buy stuff from my local AG....we only have 1 other non club based golf shop in my immediate area and one other around half an hour drive away...the guys in my local AG are decent and helpful and I'm happy to pay a little bit extra to help support them and drive a bit of local competition. Nothing wrong at all with with Stromberg and Greg Norman brands, the latter is especially good at the price point.

Arthur Wedge said:
AG needs to look at someone like Under Armour or FJ and get their stores stocked with them
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My local AG has plenty of Under Armour and FJ products in stock.

The only thing I'd fault my local one for is not having a great range of putters in stock.
 
nickjdavis said:
None of the AG stores in my region are like that. I regularly buy stuff from my local AG....we only have 1 other non club based golf shop in my immediate area and one other around half an hour drive away...the guys in my local AG are decent and helpful and I'm happy to pay a little bit extra to help support them and drive a bit of local competition. Nothing wrong at all with with Stromberg and Greg Norman brands, the latter is especially good at the price point.


My local AG has plenty of Under Armour and FJ products in stock.

The only thing I'd fault my local one for is not having a great range of putters in stock.
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My local one’s similar. Can’t remember exactly which club brands, but I’m sure they stock TM, ping and titleist, all of the lines. Clothing too. Yes they have the cheap stuff but also the more well known stuff you mention.

I only buy from there when I receive the £10 birthday voucher and it’s usually on their rife gloves! It’s at merry hill shopping centre, so I pop in for a browse when we go shopping, passes the time!

I did buy a set from there years and years ago, before I was properly bitten by the golf bug. Jack Nicklaus something or other and a putter. Awful. Remember hitting 2 putts, both went in and the chap said ‘looks like it’s that one’!
 
timd77 said:
My local one’s similar. Can’t remember exactly which club brands, but I’m sure they stock TM, ping and titleist, all of the lines. Clothing too. Yes they have the cheap stuff but also the more well known stuff you mention.

I only buy from there when I receive the £10 birthday voucher and it’s usually on their rife gloves! It’s at merry hill shopping centre, so I pop in for a browse when we go shopping, passes the time!

I did buy a set from there years and years ago, before I was properly bitten by the golf bug. Jack Nicklaus something or other and a putter. Awful. Remember hitting 2 putts, both went in and the chap said ‘looks like it’s that one’!
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Their Rife branded Cabretta Leather gloves are superb for £8 a pop....far more comfortable than Footjoy or Titleist gloves retailing for 50% more (and some) and retain their shape far better.
 
nickjdavis said:
None of the AG stores in my region are like that. I regularly buy stuff from my local AG....we only have 1 other non club based golf shop in my immediate area and one other around half an hour drive away...the guys in my local AG are decent and helpful and I'm happy to pay a little bit extra to help support them and drive a bit of local competition. Nothing wrong at all with with Stromberg and Greg Norman brands, the latter is especially good at the price point.


My local AG has plenty of Under Armour and FJ products in stock.

The only thing I'd fault my local one for is not having a great range of putters in stock.
Click to expand...

The one in MK seems ok , well stocked and has a lot of the top brands clubs wise and trolleys etc

Clothing there is a mix
 
These stores really need to bolted onto a Toptracer or Trackman enabled range (realise all current Top Golf venues have AG attached). Haven't brought anything from AG since Lockdown. Really sad writing that as used to pop in on numerous occaiosn during year before 2020.

Really hope Peter Jones turns this iconic brand around. If anyone can do it, he's the man. Will definitely pop into my 'local' store when the weather cheers up.
 
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