With more and more people hitting the links, some entrepreneurs are making big bets.
A record 3.2 million Americans played on a golf course for the first time in 2021, according to the National Golf Foundation. It followed 3 million newcomers picking up the sport in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic spread and people looked for more outdoor activities.
Here’s a look at three startups with North Carolina ties that are hoping to ride the golf wave.
SoloGolf
For Raleigh entrepreneur Josh Hein, it’s been a bumpy journey to create a single-rider scooter — a vehicle being billed as an alternative to the traditional golf cart. Hein’s first prototype was lovingly called “The Death Trap.”
Over the years, his team has built — and rebuilt — designs that work, and it’s starting to pay off. Golf courses such as True Blue Golf Club in Murrell’s Inlet on the South Carolina coast have added the ride — dubbed the SoloCart — to its lineup.
Hein, who started the company as a side project while working at Citrix (NASDAQ: CTXS), said the pandemic was when things really started to take off.
“For our business … people actually realized they enjoyed riding alone in a golf cart,” he said.
There have been challenges, particularly in sourcing materials. A key component that typically had a two-month lead time suddenly would take nine months to arrive. But the firm has adjusted, Hein said. It’s sold just under 200 carts so far, but it’s projecting sales to go up 300% over the next year.
Stitch Golf
For Charlie Burgwyn, co-founder of Apex-based golf fashion brand Stitch Golf Holdings, the pandemic brought challenges — particularly in the delays the firm experienced in shipping. Burgwyn is proud of how the firm was able to pivot and create a new process, which benefitted the business for the long haul.
Up until the pandemic, Stitch had booked on six-month cycles. But with the uncertainty of container shipments, it pivoted to looking a full year out instead, shelving products much earlier.
“It was part of our adjustment to really get ahead of Covid and understand there are going to be supply-chain challenges, so we need to be prepared to deal with that,” he said.
Burgwyn estimates business doubled over the past two years.
The firm manufactures items such as golf bags, head covers and polo shirts. It is about to make its bricks-and-mortar retail debut, launching stores in Palm Beach, Florida, and in Dallas, Texas, in the fourth quarter.
Leaderboard Golf
Duke University graduate Riley Pratt didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur. Pratt, a former golf coach who used to hit the links at Treyburn Country Club with his grandfather, worked in finance after graduating from Duke in 2014 — before realizing what really intrigued him was data. He learned to code. Then the pandemic hit.
Like a lot of young professionals, he decided to let his apartment lease expire and moved in with his parents. And it was there the idea for Leaderboard Golf started to percolate. He became addicted to Strava, an app that helps cyclists and runners record their miles.
“I found that I loved the community aspect of it … the encouragement,” he said.
And the more he thought about it, the more he realized a platform like it didn’t exist in golf.
“There’s really no digital place of record for people’s participation in golf, so I set out to build that,” he said. “I was really itching to build something myself, and when that idea clicked I wanted to drop everything and start building. I realized there was a huge market opportunity for this, just building something that focused on what makes golf fun.”
The New York-based startup launched the app in May. As of June 23, it was at about 3,500 users. More than 550 rounds had been posted.
“Most importantly for this stage, the feedback has been really good,” Pratt said.
