Carl Rose, Sr. took a chance on golf when he opened Carl’s Golfland in 1958.
Some 60 years later and counting, Carl’s is celebrating its place as one of the most successful golf retail stores and practice facilities in the country.
Rose, Sr. was a kid when his passion for the game of golf developed. It started when he was a caddie at Pontiac Country Club. He learned the game looping the bags of some great local amateurs and used his caddie privileges to play the course on Monday mornings, sometimes running between holes to fit in as many holes as possible.
When he was 30 and working at his grocery store, he had a chance to buy a driving range on the outskirts of Pontiac. Carl and his late wife, Donna, had four young children, so it was a tough decision. But they decided to go for it.
Golf was growing in many ways at the time.
“Dwight D. Eisenhower, our president, was an avid golfer,” Rose, Sr. said. “Arnie’s Army was becoming a nationwide craze and golf was now being shown on television for the first time. It seemed like every day on the front pages of the newspapers there was a story on golf and that helped things take off.
“We went through many years where I always had a month that was better than the same month the year before. That was how golf was growing, and we happened to catch it at the right time, where the growth prospects were really good.”
It was very common in that era for people to buy all of their golf equipment from the golf pro at a golf course or private club — so Carl’s Golfland, an off-course store and driving range, was far from traditional. Many people were skeptical of adding the retail part of the business. In fact, the gentleman he bought the first range from said, “Stay out of the golf equipment business — you won’t be successful.”
“Well, I didn’t know about that,” Rose, Sr. said. “But I did know one thing: A golf club won’t spoil in three or four days like food in a grocery store does.”
Carl’s also broke tradition in 1966 with the decision to remain open all year long when Michigan golf courses and pro shops closed in the cold-weather months. Soon he had customers looking for Christmas gifts and new equipment in advance of the spring season.
From the early-1960s to late-1970s, Carl’s Golfland had a 9-hole par-3 course where many people first taught their kids to play the game. Carl’s was extremely progressive for the times, being one of the first locations in the country to light the course so people could play until 11 p.m.
Carl’s Golfland has gone through numerous building expansions and remodels since the ’70s, coming a long way from the original 1,000-square-foot building at the Bloomfield Hills location. The current Carl’s Golfland is now 43,000 square feet of golf retail and home of carlsgolfland.com, a first-class golf website serving golfers worldwide.
Try it Before You Buy it
While both Carl’s Golfland and the golf industry have ridden ebbs and flows over the last 60 years, a constant at Carl’s from day one has been customer access to a full-size driving range. Carl’s recently upgraded its range in Bloomfield Hills, making it the first in the nation equipped with a TrackMan Range system. (see related story in January edition of MGJ.)
“Live ball flight on the range has always been a real tie breaker for us in this industry,” Carl says. “Our customers can come out and not only see and touch the new equipment, they can hit it on the range to see how it performs.”
Carl’s Golfland wants to help every golfer perform at their peak. See how at www.carlsgolfland.com.
