US Golfsmith Stores

[tallpaul]

To stave off boredom during a business trip to the US, I've been hunting out all the local golf stores to peruse in the evenings. Last night I visited the local Golfsmith store and it was incredible. The range of goods and facilities this store had were truly astonishing.

Apart from stocking pretty much the full range of everything from all the major brands (clubs & apparal) it had a full indoor coaching and practice area. This included a 6 hole artificial putting green, short game area (complete with bunker), and a 6 bay 'virtual' driving range.

3 of the 6 bays were fitted with launch monitors and were completely free to use. The pratice area was stocked with demo clubs from a large selection of the ranges on sale. I was free to spend over an hour comparing stats on all sorts of clubs. The range was even stocked with AD333 balls.

Oh, and the store sold tennis equipment too so there was a full-size indoor tennis court to try racquets on.

I'm not aware if anything like this exists in the UK, but my local AG and DG stores don't compare. If you are in the US and one of these is local, I recommend taking a look.

 

[Ethan]

Where in the US are you?

In my opinion, Golfsmith is generally so-so, and Edwin Watts stores are much better with a lot more stock and varied lines we don't see here. EW is only in the south and east, though.

 

[tallpaul]

North Carolina. There isn't an Edwin Watts nearby, unfortunately. What impressed me most was the no pressure approach to selling where you could try whatever you wanted and see the results for yourself. It was great to be able to hit all sorts of clubs I'd never tried without feeling that I was wasting a salesman's time.

 

[Fraz]

I wasnt hugely impressed with the Golfsmith or Edwin Watts in Orlando, Golf Galaxy and Dicks Sporting Goods were the winners for me!

 

[BeachGolfer]

The comparable store to Golfsmith in Canada is Golftown, same deal with bays and launch monitors - if there is one free, just walk with a handful of any club (they tape em up) on their shelves and start slamming away. They also tailored stock depending on the cultural make up of that neighbourhood: big Asian community, racks of Homna, Miura etc and I kid you not, some gold plated!!! at eye popping prices. Oh, always have a massive demo sale (made up from that years rental gear of the local big shot clubs) the first Saturday in November in advance of which, people kipped in their cars to get at the front of the line up.

Up until 2010 Golfsmith had a Canadian retail arm, they closed and cut all stock to 50%, cheaper than shipping it back south apparently. By pure coincidence, I was in the mainly clubmaking Toronto store when they put up the 90% off signs!!! Kids and candy stores!! Among other stuff, bought 3 sets of iron shafts, more than a dozen various driver shafts and enough grips for the lot!!

 

[Ethan]

I wasnt hugely impressed with the Golfsmith or Edwin Watts in Orlando, Golf Galaxy and Dicks Sporting Goods were the winners for me!

Golf Galaxy and Dicks are usually not great. There are a number of EW stores in Orlando. The one to go to is on Turkey Lake Road. That has a wonderful range of stock including stuff you don't see in other branches.