Best Pro Shop Seen or Unseen

[Steve_Roths]

I have a friend who is designing a clubhouse for someone and he was asking me what are some of the better pro-shops that I have seen.  He is trying to come up with some ideas.  Off the top of my head this is what I came up with:

Sand Hills
Friars Head
ShoreAcres
Pine Valley
Bandon Trails

After brainstorming about this I realized all of mine were small and quaint (for lack of a better word).  If you were going to design your own or copy someone elses what would it look like?

[Steve_Roths]

Also do you prefer a pro shop in the club house or in its own seperate building ala National or GCGC?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Steve,
There are many resources to search for architectural ideas but it all relates back to what the owner wants from the structure/s.

 

[Bill Shotzbarger]

Eastward Ho also has its pro shop as a separate building.

I like how Manufacturer's G&CC and Yardley (PA) CC have their pro shops directly behind the first tee, a pseudo-Merion feel.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Following what Shivas said about shops being "conducive to sales" you've got to see the Pro shop at Farmington CC. It stands alone and has its own name, "The Little Red Clock Shop" although it should be renamed the little red chock  shop as it is usually filled to the rafters (literally) with equipment, clothing, crystal, etc. There is also plenty of storage space, room in the back to give a lesson and space underneath for the carts.
The only reason that the Pro, John Murphy, doesn't get Merchandiser of the Year each and every year is to keep all the remaining Pros in CT. happy.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Steve

Is this a private or public course?

Steve

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

This one is lost on me as well. I mean I have found great pro shops in every shape, size and location. I will say that noone should model one after the temporary one at Friars Head, not that there is anything wrong with a temporary one in a barn. The courses mentioned with the above so called great pro shops happen to be great courses but I am not sure the pro shops are a model for anyone past or present.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Steve Roths,

How do you evaluate and rate the pro shops at NGLA and Shinnecock ?  Both the old and the new ones ?

[Steve_Roths]

This is for a public course/resort.  Kind of a lodge type place for a retreat resort.

Pat- I don't exactly love either pro shop at Shinney or National.  I like the exterior look of Shinney, I just thought that they didn't have a good set up on the inside.  As for National, I thought it was out of place just a bit and I also didn't think they had a great selection or variety.  

[Lawrence Largent]

The Honors pro shop is a very nice one and they have about anything under the sun clothing wise.

Lawrence

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Spanish Bay has a great one as well if you are looking at that market.

[Brian_Sleeman]

I'll nominate Tobacco Road for having one of the coolest pro shops I've been in, very much in keeping with the theme of the whole place.

[ForkaB]

Muirfield's is the best.  Just an old geezer who will sell you a sleeve of past-their-sell-by-date ProV1s along with your large gin and tonic.

All the others are just poor WalMart (or Gucci) imitations.

[Bruce Katona]

Public or Private, your professional would like to site the shop in a location where he/she can have visual control over the 1st tee from the shop.  That being said, insuring there is enough storage space for dry goods and bag storage(if private) are the next keys.  Next, public or private course?  This is key to final design (trophy space, handicap computers, point of sale systems, etc).

As you see, this is part of what I work with on a daily bais for my employer ( a golf course owner/operator).

Do you have an architect on board with come club experience.  It makes it much easier as an experienced architect will ask you all of these questions.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Steve,

With all due respect, your friend is going about this the wrong way.  The pro shop design needs to have its size, space and flow planned first, with whatever decorative ambiance he decides on to come later, much as feature design comes after routing.

So, the rustic feel of SH might not work at all in another area.  The aesthetics should tie to the course itself.  Your preconcieved notions of a "quaint" shop might not be right for him at all.  I remember going to NE on a potential project.  With me was a Dallas based CH architecture firm.  We played golf and talked philosphy for a while.  The CH architect kept talking about fabulous "wet areas" he would build him, and I could sense the Owner was getting uneasy, and he dropped some hints, but the architect wouldn't stop.  Finally, in NE directness, but also very polite, he told the architect that New Englanders don't parade naked in front of their friends!  A few minutes later, he suggested that a Dallas firm probably couldn't understand the regional nature of the design and politely dismissed us both from the project.

As someone pointed out, what kind of course he will have may determine the space needs for merchandise, as will the quality of his logo and overall experience.  Very few buy shirts from Tiddly Links Muni, but many buy if the course is an overall great experience.

From hanging around many pro shops and looking at it from an operators perspective, I can tell you most think they got shortchanged on actual counter space (even if old shops also have limited space) as well as office and storage space.  New ADA laws also mean you can't store stuff upstairs w/o an elevator, as a wheelchair bound employee couldn't fulfill his/her needs to get new merchandise down.

Design is also affected by the type of off season, if any.  Some places like to be able to downsize to one person, which means centralizing the food and shop operations in the center.  Where there is no off season, vision to the first tee is usally the primary determinant of where to locate the pro shop.

So, a lot of things go into the design before you try to replicate the aesthetics of another place.  

[Bob_Huntley]

Frankly, is there a better feel for what is exciting about one's golfing experience than squeezing around the "stuff" at Cypress Point. Add to that Jim Langley, Keith and Casey who are courteous to a fault.

I would hazard a guess that their revenue per square foot is as good as it gets.

By the way, Jim Langley is retiring in December.

Bob

[Patrick_Mucci]

Steve Roths,

What do you think about the pro shop at Bandon/Pacific Dunes ?

[Lou_Duran]

CPC came to mind when I saw this thread.  Fully concur with Mr. Huntley.  Where would a schmoe like me be invited to the small storage room and allowed to sift for an umbrella?  It will be hard to replace Mr. Langley, and wish the club well in that regard.

Colonial CC in Fort Worth has a larger, more modern retail operation that also has a nice variety, great service, and an inviting feel.

Bethpage has an intersting pro shop that only deals with merchandise, and probably is the lesser for it (the tee times and green fees are handled very impersonally- bordering rudely- by the state in a separate building).

Pebble Beach is reputed to do huge volumes, particularly with the Asian segment.  Unlike CPC and Colonial, I didn't find it that inviting.

Do people really like the merchandising specialists, sometimes rather attractive young ladies, as opposed to the old-line pros and assistants?  

[Tommy Williamsen]

What makes a good pro-shop for me is not the merchandise but the people. When I was a kid I played out of Ft. Meade GC in Maryland.  The head pro was Carl Rasnic.  The ass'ts were Bill Sporre and Lou Graham.  I spent as much time in the shop as on the course.  We talked golf, instruction, life and just had fun.  The only shop that comes close to that same feeling is Musgrove Mill with Jeff Tallman as head pro.  You just want to be in the shop whether or not you buy anything.

[Stan Burton]

steve,
from an operators point of view...
the best possible situation would be to see the 1st tee, 9th green and 10th tee from the pro shop counter.  the next item would be size of the shop and that should be determined on the number of rounds they project to play and how often they can turn their inventory.  tell them to double the size of their storage room, i am sure it is too small (they all are).

stan

[TEPaul]

"I would hazard a guess that their revenue per square foot is as good as it gets."

Bob:

If per square foot Cypress's pro shop out-sells PVGC's I'd be positively shocked. PV's pro shop is no bigger than a medium sized bedroom, if that.

[Sean Leary]

"I would hazard a guess that their revenue per square foot is as good as it gets."

Bob:

If per square foot Cypress's pro shop out-sells PVGC's I'd be positively shocked. PV's pro shop is no bigger than a medium sized bedroom, if that.

Does Cypress not have any price tags on any of the merchandise, like PVGC?  It was a little disconcerting going to the counter not knowing what the pile I had in front of me was going to cost.....

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Several of my friends have awesome pro shops in the metro-NY area, but the best shop in the area based upon serving the members and selling goods has to be Scott Paris's shop at Plainfield CC.  Incidentally, the tree removal was very well done--the course should have moved up in the rankings.

[David Lott]

Best pro shop I ever saw was at Eagles Mere, Pa, c. 1955. It had:

Free tees.
Almost new Spaulding Dots rescued from the woods and for sale at $.40 each.
A great view of the mountains.
A big, red coke cooler chilled with ice from an ice house, full of Coke, Dad's Root Beer, Orange Soda and Birch Beer, all at ten cents each.

Never to be surpassed. Never.

[Bob_Huntley]

Tom Paul,

I've been to both and CPC is smaller.

Bob