Pro resigned

[drawboy]

Sadly at our booking on night last evening our pro announced his resignation from the club. Very sad but he said it was due to the economic climate at present and not enough support from members. He had got into a typical position of not being able to carry quality stock in the shop because no one was buying so the shop became less attractive to window shoppers and passing trade was at an all time low.
I'm as much to blame as anyone, I even buy my tees off the internet but with club jumpers at £60.00 and only one set of irons in the shop plus a mix of just novelty visors with fake hair and a choice of 5 pairs of shoes, and balls at full rrp can a pro survive this current climate of internet bargain prices?

 

[USER1999]

Lessons?

Ours must make a mint from lessons.

 

[thecraw]

Ebay and t'internet kills the Pro's.

Becoming a decent teacher and building your reputation as a teacher is the way forward as Murph says.

I got shafts from Gamola last year which the pro said he couldn't have got cheaper at cost price from his supplier.

 

[Imurg]

A good Pro has to make his money through lessons surely?

I don't know what ours lives on, very rarely see him giving lessons, the shop doesn't sell much but he's always around.??

 

[NWJocko]

Interesting point.

At my place the pro's don't even have anything to do with the shop. They run their golf "academy" and pretty much spend all their time giving lessons/coaching.

They will order you new clubs (have access to a buying group for competitive pricing) or regrip/check lie etc on existing clubs but don't have the expense of keeping stock etc.

 

[Dodger]

£60 for a club jersey??!!

Was his name Naveed?

 

[thecraw]

Dodger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easy Tiger.

 

[TriggerTech]

Invent a putting aid and storm the chinesse market

 

[Oddsocks]

Pro shops like all shops now need to work on volume of sales at lower margins instead of the old 30/40% markups. If your working on volume sales you can work on lower margins, for exmaple 20% on 20k instead of 40% on 10k.

One of the best pro shops ive been to is the one at holetye, its small, packed with stock and cheap. he works on voluime sales. I paid 30.00 for 3doz dx3's, the cheapest online was ebay at 36.00 for 3 doz.

Ebay is cripling the retail trade, id like to see ebay become non commerical use only, but we have made it the monster it is and its here to stay. Our own greed is putting 100's of business's out of business... simple.

 

[Aztecs27]

Our own greed is putting 100's of business's out of business... simple.

Whilst I agree with everything you said, the above point is true, but it doesn't help when it's so flippin' expensive to live here now. Meaning people don't have the disposable income they used to so they're looking to pay the cheapest price possible for everything.

If petrol wasn't so expensive, I'd have around £1000 extra a year.

 

[Alex1975]

Our own greed is putting 100's of business's out of business... simple.

With respect this is rot, the customer is king and if the vendor can not offer the best deal then they go out of business, life is that simple. Do I owe my club pro something? I pay to be a member of the club, they do not pay me, I am a customer, if you want my business then you will have to work for it, like every company I ever buy anything from.

I dont get my backy from the local corner shop, I would love to as I want to keep them local for my wims but backy is not a wim buy and Tesco sell it alot cheeper.

If these pros that are all going out of business used there business heads they would stock there shop and have a good internet presence, there own site and an ebay shop for 2nd hand clubs.

As Imug said, his pro shop is empty, as is ours, it just smacks of giving up.

We dont owe these people who are making no effort anything.

 

[stevek1969]

£60 for a club jersey??!!

Was his name Naveed?

you've met our pro then thats what we call him .ours makes a good living from lessons as he's a good teacher and also has a well stocked shop,if it aint in the shop he can get it for you and he'll price match so its a no brainer at times.

 

[thecraw]

I think the Scottish pro's are better off though Steve with the buying power of TGI.

 

[GB72]

No deals to be had at my club either. There is not any nearby large golf shop competing so everything is sold at RRP. Even when an item is put on sale it is at least 20% more than the internet price. I am not even looking for an exact price match but I rarely agree to pay full retail price for anything these days (cannot afford to if for no other reason) so to get my custom then I am looking for at least a bit of a discount or some effort to move towards the price I find it for online. There is not much in the way of fitting options either so I am no better off than if I bought online. That is the way of the world now and pro shops are going to have to cope with it same as everyone else.

 

[nickyboy2011]

i believe our pro makes a killing of lessons, JUST FROM JUNIORS! because our club is 110% focused on them he gives loads of kids lessons. but as for the shop, its the same old gear all ashworth clothing, nice but pricey! and all tacky second hand clubs that have been there for ages. i support him as much as possible bought my shoes from there because i needed new ones at the very time so he was lucky otherwise AG or DG would of had my money but all he does is sit there on his laptop haha!

 

[jammydodger]

I went into our shop the other day and asked them to tot up my account. He said £68 credit. I found he had 2 dozen proV1's on sale at £70 so I said will you call it quits if I take those 2 doz balls , he said sure if you give me the other £2

I basically said stick it up yourself and took dozen new zstars for £60 and a few packets of tees. Complete knob he is and i've spent probably nearly £1500 in his shop since I started playing again.

 

[kev_off_the_tee]

SHOP, we dont have a shop.

We have a room where a club commitee member or secretary stands and makes sure everything runs ok. Fair enough he sells energy drinks and chocolate bars and takes money off visitors but no clubs, clothing, shoes.

There isn't a pro at our place either, but the membership board is pretty full so I reckon all of the above would do well.

There is an agreement with the Pro at Hobson GC for discounts though.

 

[Alex1975]

I went into our shop the other day and asked them to tot up my account. He said £68 credit. I found he had 2 dozen proV1's on sale at £70 so I said will you call it quits if I take those 2 doz balls , he said sure if you give me the other £2

I basically said stick it up yourself and took dozen new zstars for £60 and a few packets of tees. Complete knob he is and i've spent probably nearly £1500 in his shop since I started playing again.

Thats crazy!! What a prat.