Hartsville South Carolina Pro-Shop???

[Carolina Crushers]

Hey, my name is Joshua Hester. I am PDGA#64118, I have been playing disc golf for almost a decade and completely love it. I am now residing in Hartsville, SC and have recently been looking into buying land (7-10 acres) to build a private 9-hole course. I will eventually set-up a house and live on the land as-well. However, starting out, I will build the course, then add a pro-shop. What concerns me is if I should add the pro-shop. The course I will build eitherway, even if it is never opened to the public. In a 20 mile area, I have only 3 courses. All of which are lacking the quality I am used to (moved here from Charleston, SC). When I went on PDGA.com, I did a player search and it only showed 4 registered players in Hartsville SC. The four players were my wife, my son, my daughter and me. lol. However this concerned me about opening a pro-shop. I realize that many disc golfers never register with PDGA, but I at least expected to see 10-12 other members.

If you are in or near the Hartsville area, then let me hear some feedback, or if you have suggestions or comments. I do realize that online is the easiest way to go, however most companies like Innova, Discraft and Dynamic Disc are easier to get with a brick and mortar location. Innova according to their website will not take anymore "online only" stores. What would you suggest?

 

[DavidSauls]

Buy enough land for an 18-hole course. A pro shop at a 9-hole course far from any disc golf populations, isn't going to draw much business. Doubtful at an 18-hole course, either, but at least you'll get some travelers checking out the course.

 

[Shuie]

I personally wouldn't build a pro shop, not at first at least. Being in a dead zone myself, I built a semi-private 9 hole course and the amount of visitors I get to this day still are no more than 20 new throwers a year. Keep in mind that when Shu pond was put in the ground I had to drive 20 minutes either way to get get to an meh 9 hole course or a meh 18 hole course. Any ways back to the pro shop thing. After a couple of years, I bought a stack of like 50 legacy thinking i could sell them/use them at leagues. It took me like 2 years to get ride of all it, I got all my Rivals for free though!!

Long story short, I doubt you could attract a big enough customer base. I would try to see what the actual DG community is like there first.

 

[sjberry2017]

I wouldn't start with a pro shop, especially in that area (my dad is originally from Latta and I have a lot of family still down there) as it's a disc golf wasteland. There's Pim Farms, Coastal Carolina (or UCLA, as my family calls it [Upper Conway, Lower Aynor]), and that's about it. I know there's someone who was on these forums a little while back trying to get a nine hole course built in Darlington as well.

What I would do is start with the nine hole course but definitely get enough land to expand to 18, and get an Innova Dealer account. There's a guy up around Anderson, SC, who does this, and basically runs a "pro shop" out of his trunk (he's also one of the big movers and shakers for disc golf in Anderson). I would do something similar like him: have a small inventory of a few really popular molds (and some great beginner discs if you're trying to grow the player base down there), and make occasional runs to the Innova warehouse in Charlotte after getting orders from the local players on what they want. The pro shop could come later once the player base grows, but just carrying a little stock and making order runs could definitely help grow the player base.

Also, good luck! I know the land down there is pretty flat, but the old forests have enough interesting trees to make a great course

 

[kmelton]

Did you put in your course yet?

 

[Carolina Crushers]

We have decided against building it at this time. Unfortantely shortly after my post, i have had some health issues. I have diverticulitus and psoriasis that keeps me in pain on and off. In 2019 i played disc golf maybe 3 times. So far this year i have played 4 times. Fingers crossed for 2020 being a year of good health.