Region's golf entrepreneurs playing through the rough

So Walsh and his fellow founders of Green Friendly Golf Co. put their entrepreneurial scrappiness to work.

"We said, 'Who do golfers rely on most?' Their caddy," Walsh recalls. "So we donated about 350 belts to the Professional Caddies Association." Before long, big names like Chi Chi Rodriguez, Ben Crenshaw, and Dana Quigley were sporting the $39.95 leather belt. "We've never had to pay a golfer."

Just as golfers can't resist the lure of the links as the weather turns warm, some entrepreneurs are drawn toward the golf industry, with its typically spendy, passionate, and gadget-oriented customers.

But even as the region's golf entrepreneurs are focused on designing unique, must-have products or offering alluring online discounts, they may not be able to dodge the effects of the economic downturn: Retailers are reporting decreasing sales, courses are closing, and attendance at this year's big merchandise trade show was down.

Last month, Callaway Golf Co. chief executive George Fellows predicted that sales of golfing gear will sink 15 to 20 percent in 2009.

Massachusetts is home to some of golfing's biggest brands, like Titleist and Cobra, both of which are owned by a division of Fortune Brands that is based in Fairhaven; New Bedford-based Ahead Inc., which makes golf shirts and caps; and Top-Flite golf balls, made by Callaway in Chicopee. But the New England region is also home to smaller companies focused on developing niche products or selling golfing equipment online.

GolfEtail.com, founded in 2001, focuses on selling heavily discounted products like clubs, shoes, and golf bags, with headquarters in Springfield and a distribution center in California. West Bridgewater-based 3balls.com differentiates itself by refurbishing and selling used golf equipment and also offering close-outs of new merchandise through its own site and via Amazon.com and eBay auctions. It originally grew out of the pro shop at the Pine Oaks Golf Club in South Easton, and now employs about 60 people (a mix of full timers and part timers).

"Order volume and purchase size has gone down a little bit, and customers seem like they're still being very careful as to where and when and what products they spend their money on," says 3balls general manager Alex Choi. "But we're back into the golf season, and we're hoping buying will pick up."

David Dubé works days as a physical therapist, and on the side runs Windham, N.H.-based Beacon Ridge Golf LLC with his brother, an auditor. Beacon Ridge sells a $129 product called Club Armor, a lockable cover for a bag of clubs that is made of Kevlar and is intended to deter thieves who might have an eye on your Big Bertha 5-iron. But with so few similar products on the market, Dubé says it has been tough to generate awareness. Though he ran television ads last year to promote Club Armor, the product isn't yet selling well enough to allow him to quit his day job.

James Rourke, a former meter reader turned entrepreneur, also is just now dipping into the golf business. Earlier this month, he received his first batch of 5,000 units of a multipurpose divot tool he calls the Stiletto Green Tool. Like a switchblade, the metal forks of the tool pop in and out. While the $15.95 tool is intended primarily for repairing turf that has been damaged by a drive, Rourke says, "You can also use it to hold your cigar while you're driving, or you can lay the handle of a club on it, so the handle won't get wet."

Rourke, whose business is based in Worcester, says it has been hard to get a loan or line of credit from a bank. With no other options, he has invested about $60,000 so far in launching the business, relying on his savings and 401(k).

"We've pumped out a lot of money," Rourke says, "but we're gonna get it back."

Tim Yeaton says that new memberships are actually up 20 percent this year at his golf course in Goffstown, N.H., in part because he has put in almost $1 million in improvements, like newly paved cart paths. Yeaton, who did well when Dell Inc. acquired his last company, EqualLogic Inc., snapped up the 18-hole course at a bankruptcy auction last year for just under $3 million. "My partner and I thought it would be nice to own a business like this on the side - it's like our gentleman's farm," he says.

Walsh's Green Friendly Golf Co. seems to have begun carving out a defensible niche: Its belt is carried by Brooks Brothers, Nordstrom, and Dillard's. Walsh says the company has already passed a million dollars in annual revenue, and is "slowly approaching $5 million," all with just three full-time employees, a 1,500-square-foot warehouse in Rhode Island, some part-timers who help to fill orders, and contract manufacturing partners in the United States and Asia.

Business is down a bit in 2009, he acknowledges, but orders from tournaments and overseas customers - which are typically large - has been helping the company sustain some momentum.

Green Friendly is now starting to branch out into other products. A line of antifungal, antiodor socks made from bamboo fibers are on the way, and the company recently began selling a stainless steel shoehorn with the PGA logo on it. Walsh says the official licensing deal didn't require a large up-front investment, but that the company pays the Professional Golfers' Association a small royalty on all sales.

"Our thinking has been that if we wanted to expand in the golf business, we needed to be with the PGA, and needed that recognition," he says. "So now they highlight us at their tournaments, and sell us in their airport stores. It has given us legitimacy."

And lots of pro golfers, he adds, still wear the belts.

Scott Kirsner can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com.