Amidst the financial doom and gloom worldwide, it’s as if golf businesses are like soldiers going over the top of the trenches only to get cut down after a few short steps. There are however, the chosen few that avoid the snipers of recession and go on to succeed. I met up with the top three Irish exhibitors at this years PGA show in Florida to issue them their “purple heart” for outstanding bravery in the face of grave financial adversity.
Stephen Riley and Kevin Funnell http://www.premier-licensing.com/
I never knew what I wanted to do with my life when I was still in school. I’m still not sure. When I met Stephen Riley the MD of Premier Licensing from Down, I couldn’t believe it when he told me he gave up life as a PGA pro golfer based in South Africa to pursue a life in sales. One look at his product however and I saw the light. Exceptional quality Liverpool golf bags, Chelsea umbrellas and Manchester United headcovers are just a few of their brand new products on display at the PGA show. “I had a lovely Arsenal headcover on display here too,” Stephen tells 
me, “But Ian Poulter just ran up and nicked it!” “It’s going to be in his bag at the Masters!” adds the brains behind the operation, Kevin Funnell. Having seen the success of branded sporting goods such as in the NFL and collegiate sports in the USA, Riley and his team took the idea and ran with it, straight to the doors of the premierships top teams. So impressed were they at the range and quality of the products, the leading clubs all entered licensing agreements. It wasn’t easy and negotiations to seal the deals took two years. But when Real Madrid and the British and Irish Lions heard that Man. United and co were producing golf merchandise, they excitedly came to Premier Licensing seeking a piece of the action. Premier Licensing now boasts the most complete range of golf accessories for the die hard supporter or the perfect present for the sports mad birthday boy! All the branded products are now available in Irish sports and golf stores but for some real father-son bonding time check out the website http://www.premier-licensing.com/. I tried it and I don’t know who was more excited, my seven year old or me!
Martin Greeves http://www.shaftskinz.com/
Young product designer Martin Greeves from Antrim is the inventor of shaft “skinz”. What are skinz? We are all now familiar with all the colours and patterns on graphite shafts. Well, “Skinz” are a simple way to pimp-up (ahem! decorate) boring old steel or stale grey shafts. The technology behind skinz is not new, it has been used in packaging for many years. For instance every plastic lucozade bottle has it. The decoration on the bottle is simply a plastic “skin” which is heat sealed
onto a blank curved bottle. What shaft skinz does is to bring this technology to golf; all you need is a shaft skin and a hairdryer. Yes, a hairdryer.The simplest ideas are always the best. When Martin Greeves produced his first test batch of skinz, 13 out of the first 15 shops he introduced it to, bought the product. The Golf Channel even loved skinz, featuring it on their show “Fore Inventors Only” where the product made it into the top ten out of 13,000 new golf products. Martin then took his skinz to The Crowne Plaza Invitational on the US Tour and even from outside the ropes, managed to catch the eye of then defending champion Rory Sabbatini, who immediately fitted them to his putter. Five players used skinz in last years British Open and the product is equally popular on the ladies tour. Shaft skinz are now sold worldwide. They don’t affect the club in any way, are funky, cheap and removable in seconds. Who needs Dragons Den when you have Rory Sabbatini to use your product? But the best laugh came when my wife saw me heading off with the hairdryer. “You have no hair” she said. When I explained I needed it for my “shaft skinz” she was pretty horrified. I think you can probably guess the rest. Check out http://www.shaftskinz.com/
Eamonn Kennelly http://www.golfvacationsireland.com/
You would think that only a mad man would want to be in the golf vacations industry nowadays, but I checked, and Eamonn Kennelly the MD of Dublin company “Golf Vacations Ireland” is as sane as they come. Eamonn’s company offers inbound golf tourists a never to be forgotten golfing holiday package which include Ireland’s top links courses. Destinations such as Old Head, Ballybunion, Murvagh and Ballyliffin are all on Eamonn’s itinerary. After verifying his sanity, I learned that the US tourist market is actually on the up again and what I thought were the boom times weren’t actually so. Eamonn gives me a lesson in geopolitics. “In February 2001 we had ‘Foot and mouth’ and the image of burning pyres of carcasses on CNN and the Cliffs of Moher
being shut down didn’t do much for tourism. In September we had 9/11 and then SARS came along, both of which had a huge impact on international travel. Then came the Iraq war and the subsequent drop in the value of the dollar.” Add into the mix the huge inflation in Irish clubs’ green fees at the time and you begin to see why tourism has suffered over the past eight years. Hope springs eternal however and with the dollar now strengthening and the euphoria over Barrack Obama’s appointment still in the ether, Ireland is once again becoming an attractive proposition for golf tourists. Eamonn is optimistic that 2009 will be a good year for tourists to visit and play golf in Ireland. As a big supermarket says “Every little helps” the Irish economy.
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