News
A former D1 college golfer built a million dollar business in one year
Where do you go when you want to buy, say, a simulator or a launch monitor online? Chances are, if you fire up Google and do a search for your preferred product, you’ll see Rain or Shine Golf in the first page of results.
And if you haven’t shopped for said product in the past three years, you likely have no idea what Shawn Foley’s (no, not Sean Foley) business is. That’s because Foley, a former Division I golfer, didn’t launch his ecommerce golf business until August of 2016…and it’s been massively successful.
As the name suggests, Rain or Shine Golf specializes in every variety of indoor golf product: mats, nets, simulators, GPS watches, rangefinders, launch monitors, putting greens, putting aids, analyzers, etc.
As a Wisconsin native, Foley became accustomed to an environment in which he could only play golf three or four months per year. He was introduced to indoor golf products when his father, a scratch golfer himself, bought the family an indoor putting green.
After college, Foley says
“I worked in insurance for a few years, and I found myself becoming a little bit distanced from the game…working the nine-to-five grind.”
Still, his passion for golf remained strong, and among the many business ideas he considered, one building on his experiences in Wisconsin’s harsh winter. He was kind enough to answer a few questions about starting and sustaining Rain or Shine Golf.
What was your thinking in starting the business, and how did the business develop?
“The main motivation wasn’t even golf necessarily as a starting point, it was more wanting to challenge myself…so I started doing this as a side hustle, so to speak. I started an online business with a friend of mine, and we decided after looking into about 25 different industries. Golf wasn’t the first idea, and we spent essentially a month or two trying to almost prove it wrong, and we kept thinking, “This might really work.” And as we got further along in the process, we just decided we were going to run with it. I’ve been able to stay in an industry that’s so exciting and has an extremely passionate following. That’s helped us see a lot of success.”
What was the decision to pull the trigger like?
“Getting a business off the ground floor, at the time, seems like the most grueling thing in the world. I’ve had the opportunity to start a couple of other businesses, and it’s so intimidating to think of how much time, effort, and money it took to get into this position. It’s a very difficult and slow process.”
What was it like when you started to get some traction?
“I still remember our first sale…it was one of the coolest feelings of my life. I think it took us about a month. We had an ecommerce skill set, my partner and I, we decided we wanted to do golf. We knew we wanted to be in retail…not in wholesale. We were just trying to grind our way into visibility through Google and through social media, and it was a lot of money to get to that first sale.”
“The last year-and-a-half, we’ve been trying to stay out of our own way. The business has grown…I think we saw about 1,000 percent growth in the first year. We’re just keeping our heads down.”
“Starting the business on the side…after we got to Black Friday, I had the feeling I couldn’t keep up with it anymore, and I felt it was time to pull the trigger and do it full time…but I eventually made the decision in April of 2017.”
Tell us about your approach to retail, what’s working, and your approach to stocking products
“The toughest part for us is we are in the high-dollar side, so the toughest part is getting that customer on the front end, so we have to fight to provide the best service and retain every customer we can. We’re almost following a backward model of selling the higher dollar amount item and supplementing it with lower ticket items…we really had to claw our way in and buy our way in with a lot of advertising.”
“As the president of the company, I’m still very involved in the customer service process. We try to provide the best service out there…that’s vital to retaining customers. But we have picked up a lot of one-time customers thanks to our education materials, and we acknowledge the education barrier in golf technology. On the whole, our focus is the long-term customer.
Why the specialization in the product areas you focus on?
“We made the decision to start on the indoor golf side of things, the reason being, my business partner and I both live in Wisconsin. We have been surprised with the amount of traction we’ve gotten with customers who want both the winter experience, but they want the convenience…like customers out in California who don’t want to take the time to go to the course. But we do plan to expand in the future.”
You can find Rain or Shine Golf’s website here.
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Bettinardi BB1 Wide putter review – Club Junkie Reviews
Bettinardi has long been known as one of the best putter manufacturers in golf. The BB line is considered the company’s flagship. This year, Bettinardi took more input from the tour in order to optimize CG placements and refine the feel in the lineup. To optimize the CG and ensure that the sweet sport is in the correct location, Bettinardi engineers reshaped the shoulders and bumpers on the back of the head for better weight placement. The face also features a brand new Perpetual Flymill milling that enhances feel and feedback as well as gets the ball rolling more consistently. You can check out all of the details on the 2024 Bettinardi BB line of putters in our launch report. For a full review check out the Club Junkie podcast on all platforms or on YouTube below.
I have been using a Bettinardi BB8 Wide for the past two years, both previous generations, and really loved those putters. They were the first blade putters I have actually gamed in well over 10 years, so you know I was excited to see the 2024 BB lineup.
The BB1 Wide jumped out to me immediately, because it is similar to the BB8 Wide, just a little softer and with more rounded edges. Out of the box, the BB1 Wide looks great, and I think the new Black Pearl PVD finish has a slight shine to it that looks a little nicer and more high quality than the matte grey from the last generation. The gloss black stepless shaft and bright blue Lamkin grip are solid editions to the whole package and give the putter a little glitz that doesn’t distract. Finally, Bettinardi updated the BB covers to magnetic closure, and I am way too happy about that!
Out on the green, the BB1 Wide frames the ball well and you can easily see that it has a shorter heel-to-toe measurement than the BB8 Wide. From face to back the putter is wide, but I think the stubbiness of the head makes it look a touch wider than it really is. The look from address also greets you with a softer and more rounded look from the bumpers and overall shape of the head. As you would expect the flange is longer and includes a single site line for alignment. I like this setup as a single, longer, site line tends to be what I line up the best. A thicker topline is slightly rolled for a softer and thinner look that blends in well with the profile of this putter head. If you like the larger mallets that have been trending lately then I think you will enjoy looking down at the BB1 Wide.
On the course and the putting green, the Bettinardi BB1 Wide offers a great soft feel at impact, softer to me than last year’s BB8 Wide. Bettinardi’s Perpetual Fly Mill face has deeper grooves that provide this softer feel while still putting a nice roll on the ball. The greens up here in the north are still long and bumpy, but the BB1 Wide provided as smooth of a roll as it could under the conditions. Some playing partners were dealing with big hops and jumps in the first foot of their putts, but I never had that problem with the BB1 Wide. The initial roll limited the hop and skip more than I expected, and I felt like it started the ball on line very well. Aiming the putter was simple and easy as I had the same single site line on my previous putter.
The sole of the BB1 Wide is a little unique as it has a sound slot that runs the length of the cavity from heel to toe. We don’t see a lot of sound slots on retail putters but they are used to fine-tune the sound of a putter at impact. The use of the sound slot on the BB1 Wide definitely increases the audible sound at impact and gives it a slightly more metallic sound. I was a little worried that the sound would have too much “ting” to it or be offensively loud, but I was impressed that it was much more dialed down. Feel off the face was soft, definitely softer than the previous BB line. Now while that softer face is great, it does reduce a little of the feedback on where you struck the shot. You can tell the misses are there but they are a little softer than you would expect from a fully milled putter.
Forgivness with this putter is pretty good, and it will allow you to get away with less-than-perfect strokes. The amount of mass out on the toe and heel make the putter much more stable than a lot of blades. While it isn’t high mallet MOI stable the putter will show you that shots off the toe or heel will stay online well and come to rest right next to the hole. Distance control is precise and you won’t be stunned by a ball that jumps off the face with too much speed or the opposite. Putts on the putting green from the same spot just consistently toll to the same finish line, if they don’t drop into the cup.
Ultimately, a new finish, face milling, and design keep things fresh and high-performance but in a very classic package. Bettinardi did a great job mixing those things to keep the traditionalist and the gear junkies both happy. While the lineup doesn’t feature a massive amount of head shapes, it nails some core designs and should be a big hit for Bettinardi.
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MAGA
May 5, 2018 at 2:24 pm
Make America Golf Again … 😀