Brazen thefts having big impact on golf industry

Smash-and-grab robberies at golf retail stores, big and small, have reached epidemic proportions. In 2022, the country’s biggest golf retailers, Dick’s Sporting Goods/Golf Galaxy, PGA Tour Superstore and Worldwide Golf Shops, reported 900 crime events. Club thefts have cost retailers $6 million, five times what it was in 2019. In a feature article in Golf Digest (July/August 2023) writer Mike Stachura cites several elements fueling this surge: prices of clubs have risen sharply (e.g. $600 drivers); it is stealing “easy money” with luxury products that hold value; golf stores had limited staff during the pandemic; due to liberal laws in some states like California, brazen robbers know they aren’t going to get stopped. Maybe the biggest factor is golfers are flocking to discounts on expensive golf clubs, particularly on online selling sites, where sellers of stolen goods can hide behind a digital mask.

“Those committing retail crimes vary from individuals stealing a driver or two … to criminal networks that feature burglars with assignments for late-night smash-and-grabs that lead to hundreds of the newest drivers and putters stolen in minutes,” Stachura says. And it has gone from smashing window glass and busting doors down to ramming large trucks into sides of buildings, disintegrating whole walls.

Thefts don’t just happen at big retail stores. They happen every day when some guy leaves his loaded golf bag in the bed of his pickup and stops to pick up a burrito. The lesson is simple: don’t leave golf clubs uncovered in a car or truck or SUV, or from an open trunk. Bags and clubs are even taken from golf course racks when players go into the shop to check in. Airlines don’t “lose” clubs.

Even the little retail shops are getting hit hard. My son, who works at a specialty club-fitter in Dallas, told me of a recent late-night break-in where the back door was forced open with a crowbar and thousands of dollars of merchandise was stolen. Locally, just a few years after they opened, the door at Red Hawk Golf Club’s pro shop was busted and thousands’ worth of clubs were stolen. It was speculated a former employee was the culprit, but never proven. Sonoma Ranch G. C. suffered a similar loss because the interior gate to the pro shop was breached. Again, it was believed the thief was a former employee but never proven.

I have personal experience involving smash-and-grab break-ins. In the early 1980s I owned an athletic footwear store in suburban Detroit. In the span of 18 months there were two smash-and-grab robberies and an 8 p.m. armed robbery. I asked the police about keeping a guard dog in the store, and they replied, “You’ll just have a dead dog on your hands.” That’s when I knew I had to get out of retail. Two years later, I moved to New Mexico to pursue my dream of becoming a clini-cal/sport psychologist.

There is evidence, including surveillance cameras, that orchestrated golf retail store break-ins are tied directly to organized crime syndicates like drug cartels, mafia groups and gangs. Earlier this year at No Bogeys Golf, a top 100 club-fitter in Laguna Niguel, California, suffered a pre-dawn break-in that took only four minutes, and resulted in the loss of 100 driver heads with a retail value of over $60,000. Because of the ease of selling to discount-hungry golfers, organized criminal groups consider high-end golf clubs their “cash cow.” (Unknowingly buying stolen property is not a crime.) Kyle Cullum, the owner of No Bogeys Golf, told Stachura, “My insurance came through, but because insurance companies in California can raise the rates on you, I’m hearing they can just drop you.”

One member of an anti-crime task force says, “It’s not about the thefts any-more. The problem is the (consumer’s) appetite for buying from unauthorized sources.” It’s now like a whack-a-mole game.

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