NEWS
Fairway Skins Co. announces the addition of three new sales representatives -- Jackie Hutchinson, Jean Johnston and Anthony Maglio.
Bite expands its footwear line with the release of the After-Golf sandals.
Dunning Golf staff players John Senden, Zach Johnson and Brian Gay recorded top-15 finishes at the PODS Championship.
Sergio Garcia and TaylorMade-adidas Golf extend their endorsement agreement. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
FEATURE
Fairway & Greene success hard to quantify
By Vartan Kupelian
GPA Fashion Correspondent
Todd Martin finds it difficult to assess the impact the 2004 Ryder Cup had on Fairway & Greene's soaring growth over the past few years.
"The PGA of America does not allow a lot of commercialization," said Martin, who was named president of the Connecticut-based apparel manufacturer in November, 2006. "We're not allowed to use our involvement in any way. For instance, we couldn't run an ad in the New York Times and say Fairway & Greene is the official outfitter of the Ryder Cup.
"So it's hard to measure the impact of (the Ryder Cup), but we always viewed it as something that enough of the right people were seeing and it translated into business."
They did, and it did.
Martin is son of the company founder, Rick Martin, who sold the company to a Canadian private equity group. In 2004, on the eve of the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills Country Club -- the most recent on American soil -- Rick Martin said the only thing that surpassed the thrill of being selected by United States captain Hal Sutton to supply the shirts and sweaters was the sense of honor that accompanied it.
"I would have done it for nothing," Rick Martin said in 2004. "I told the PGA of America that."
Today, his son echoes the sentiments.
"It was a tremendous experience," Todd Martin said. "Obviously, much like the players, any time you have the opportunity to work with a team and players representing your country it's a tremendous honor.
"Hal Sutton is a gentleman, he was very decisive about what he wanted and he allowed us to provide him with colors and stripes we felt most appropriate for the U.S. team."
Sutton's U.S. team looked a lot better at Oakland Hills than it played.
The significance of team uniforms at the Ryder Cup reached a crescendo in 1999 at The Country Club in suburban Boston. There, it became a focal point when American captain Ben Crenshaw's team showed up for the final day, facing an uphill battle, wearing a most unique shirt featuring team portraits of previous U.S. teams and images of America's greatest golfers ever.
The competitive instincts of the heated competition between the United States and Europe have spread into all areas, including apparel in recent years. Dressing well, looking smart and making a fashion statement has become a game within the game at the Ryder Cup. Fairway & Greene, with its quality products that emphasize substance and style, was the easy choice for Sutton.
That chapter of the Fairway & Greene history is over and the company is moving forward by continuing to do what it does best, according to Martin.
"We've been on a tremendous growth curve over the last 10 years and that still continues," Martin said.
"The biggest success story in our company is product quality and our distribution - keeping it green grass only and servicing the golf professional. By remaining green grass only, the company realizes it will be limited to those channels. We could grow our business ten-fold if we were to go off-grass but that would shortchange the golf professional who brought us to where we are today.
"If Pat Croswell (the PGA Professional at Oakland Hills) wants a brand he can call his own, we're ready to provide it for him."
With the focus firmly in place, the objective is to grow the company within those parameters.
With hard goods being squeezed into smaller spaces in pro shops, professionals are looking to apparel to enhance margins and profits.
"The goal is to get more shelf space in the pro shops," Martin said. "Golf professionals are having to rely more and more on soft goods to make money.
"Each club has its own unique constituency it speaks to. Our goal is to be a good partner with the PGA pro and not forget who we are as a company. History is littered with companies who got away from their core business, who moved too far away from the focus.
"We know the ceiling is going to be limited but there is plenty of opportunity to continue to grow our business."
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