Going for the Green

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While ICOG carries 4,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) -- roughly five times as broad an inventory as the typical pro shop -- it also provides a level of service that larger stores lack. Maxwell can afford to offer such service because he's not depending for his profits on sales of commodity items at discount prices. He is trading, rather, on the lore of the game. A third of the store is given over to art, gifts, and furniture, much of it one-of-a-kind and generating gross margins north of 60%. Some of it is found by special request. "You never see this stuff in other stores," marvels Erik Pedersen, who has been selling for Izod Club for 13 years and has seen the inside of many a golf shop. "I'm looking for some bookends," he muses as he gazes wide-eyed across the shop. He turns and finds a pair on a nearby shelf. "These will do fine," he says, undeterred by the $85 price tag. Golf, he explains, is "a game for a lifetime, in which people are willing to invest."

While ICOG may be seen as a store for the hard core, Maxwell estimates that just 70% of his customers actually play the game. The rest are friends and relatives of players, who buy them gifts and help feed their addiction. Some shoppers are trying to decorate whole rooms in a golf motif.

Skirting the Rough. In Roger Maxwell you sense a gambler. He seems willing, eager even, to break the rules of retailing -- an impulse all the more remarkable given the current hard times in retail. In a world where sales per square foot and inventory turnover matter all the more, Maxwell seems dismissive of such considerations. Asked what rent he pays, he replies, "I don't know off the top of my head." Well, has he designed the store to flow in a certain way? "Nah, I just slapped some golf things together. It looks good, doesn't it?"

Maxwell peppers his speech with imprecise words like touch, feel, and smell. He talks often about "selling sizzle."

In fact, that notion underlies his strategy. Lure the committed golfer in, intrigue the nongolfer. John Maitre, one of Maxwell's managers, says: "People who come in here see golf and feel golf. That gets them into a buying mood."

Most astonishing, ICOG has floor space that other retailers might consider wasted. An area designed to look like a club maker's shop at the turn of the century grosses about $800 a month in low-margin club-regripping work. Pausing in front of the workbench there, Maxwell allows: "I've been told, 'Roger, close it up. That's unproductive space.' I say, 'No, no, no. This is a fun area. I don't want to lose it.' "

Even more improbable is "The Men's Locker Room." Complete with four showers and hand towels laid out neatly at a spotless sink, the space resembles a country-club locker room. Maxwell waves a hand at a rack of 15 green blazers hanging in the closet, each of them the size worn by one of the last 15 winners of the Masters Golf Tournament. Small brass plaques mounted over each jacket give the golfer's name and the year of his victory. Maxwell says, "We've sold maybe 11 or 12 of these Masters Greens jackets. That's not a lot, but what I'm really trying to convey is an aura." The autographed photo of Ben Crenshaw, the 1995 winner, has yet to sell at $800. There's a "Women's Locker Room" as well.

Maxwell admits that ICOG attracts "a lot of lookers," who don't always become spenders. (On the other hand, some items that aren't intended for sale wind up sold. Customers buy the prop bottles of hair tonic from the sink in the locker room. Someone bought one of the couches in the spike shop.) The prices at ICOG can be intimidating. Hefting a $1,900 hand-painted porcelain pitcher, Maxwell answers the begged question: Who does buy such an item? "Some country club will come along and buy it. I don't worry about that." And then, of course, there is the 415-pound 15-foot-long driver, which goes for $25,000. Maxwell, imparting a positive spin, says: "To tell you the truth, I hope it doesn't sell. It causes too much conversation."

A Fair Lie. ICOG opened for business last September 23 and generated sales of $1.5 million in its first six months of operation, while more than 15,000 people visited the store. Once cash began to flow, Maxwell persuaded his banker to lend him $350,000 at a rate of 10% for working capital, bringing the total capitalization of the business to $1.4 million. The $810,000 Maxwell had sunk into inventory secured the note.

For 1996 Maxwell initially projected revenues of $2.4 million, or about $200,000 a month. But sales in January and February totaled $496,100, and in March they accelerated further, to more than $14,000 a day, causing Maxwell to raise his projection to $3 million. He had originally estimated his gross margin for 1996 at 45.5%, but that, too, at 47.5%, was running higher than projected. (See "The Financials," below.)

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