Par4QC
Thanks for the post. I appreciate it.
Jason was one of my, well, arguably my only Master Distributor back in the day when components were rocking. Some don't know it, but he used to work for me before he went off and started his first component venture in Waterman Illinois.
Eventually starting Diamond Tour in DeKalb with a giant hand painted sign that I used to tease him about, he purchased an old store. A very BIG one. Diamond Tour Golf was the entire bottom floor. Components, shafts, manufacturing, shipping, the whole lot. The entire upstairs was his wholesale pro-line business Hurricane Golf.
Jason very, VERY quickly because the "go to" guy not only for most retailers, but for golf courses and golf reps of many big name brands when he started that business. So, in that store he was running millions out of the basement in components and millions out of the upstairs in closeout/overrun OEM stuff. I had never seen a smoother running operation start and run in such short order.
He outgrew that place. Sold it and bought a much larger building in Sycamore Illinois. So big in fact, that I got lost in it the first time I was there!. So big in fact, that one giant space looked empty to him so he literally went out and bought the bar from his country club and moved it into that part of the building. The entire damn bar! Now he he takes care of the staff on Friday nights after work and more.
He added Sub 70 to all that he had. He added podcasts with golf industry leaders and professionals, he joined another country club out of state just to have a little peace and quiet and runs all of this... and still has time to talk to customers daily.
Not too shabby for a guy who started out sharing half of an auto repair garage that smelled like oil and was cold as balls all winter (and he cost me $500 when I found that cat frozen to the ground at his place, remind me to thank him again for THAT one).
Very proud of Jason, his family, his Dad and all he and his crew have accomplished.
Now, he has decided to add or recreate the SMT line of clubs the right way. It is being done right and it will be done seamless.
History says so and my 25year knowledge of this guy, plus being only a 45 minute drive away knows it to be so.
It is going to be fun again.