A few things Michael Breed said when I spoke with him got me thinking (dangerous, I know).

Golf Channel’s resident swing-fixer suggested all vendors are going to follow Hopkins Golf’s lead and sell primarily via the internet and we’ll see an environment of “direct buy across the board.” He felt the approach would be particularly effective with millennials and highlighted the fact that customization and a bevy of options will be the order of the day.

I spoke with Tim Walsh, Vice President of Sales for Hopkins, about Breed’s comments and was surprised to find out the company is presently shifting sales from online-only to the brick-and-mortar world of select pro shops and high-end distributors. And while sales through the company’s website will remain a key component, the approach was only meant to be the beginning of Hopkins’ sales strategy, not its totality.

Check out my conversation with Walsh below. Topics are in bold with Walsh’s replies beneath.

Greg Hopkins’ goal at the beginning

[Greg Hopkins] wanted to establish the company online first and then go to retail. He didn’t want to have the golf professional and the retailers pioneer the brand…a lot of advertising on the Golf Channel. Vijay Singh…he got a lot of his fellow players using the product. And he [Hopkins] did a great job: He sold 20,000 wedges in 15 months.

Vijay Singh’s 52-degree Hopkins wedge with a Heel Grind.

Greg took a unique approach. There really wasn’t anything unique available to the consumer as far as tour grinds and things like that. Most companies had three bounce offerings and that was it. So when Greg came out with this seven-grind system…everyone else took note.

The company’s new sales strategy, targets

We were looking at the challenges the golf retailer and the independent professional faced, and we wanted to address those challenges. And for us, it came down to three things…overdistribution of product…short life cycles…and shrinking margins.

We’re just going to be available in the green grass channels and select independent retailers. It’s kind of the same model you see with the high-end ski companies. We want to have a high-end, premium line and go head-to-head with top companies. We’re hoping to become the No. 2 player within the next 24 months, and we think that can happen based on what’s happening with some of the other companies in the wedge category.

We have all the key retailers now and some of the top golf courses in the country. We have a tight distribution model…life cycles are going to be similar to Titleist…two-to-three years.

And then on the margins side, this is important: If you look at what’s happening in golf, a lot of the big companies are operating in the red right now, and it’s very difficult for them to get out of it. So what they’re having to do is shrink the margins to the retailers, and they’re tightening up commissions for the reps.

Our model is very different. Greg basically knocked out a major layer. Our assembly plant is in the [Mira Loma UPS Distribution Center]. It’s a very large, beautiful tour department inside that facility. All our engraving machines are there. We have 15 UPS employees trained to build our clubs. What’s cool about that is, if on a day we only need 12 employees, the other three have duties within the building, so we only pay for the time they spend building our clubs. And when we go into the off-season, we don’t have to lay anybody off. And when we go in-season, we don’t have to gear up. So at the end of the day, our margins aren’t 45 points, which is the average for the larger companies, we’re over 70 percent. That enables us to give that back to our golf professionals and our retailers when everybody else is going in the opposite direction.

When Greg started originally, it was strictly online. Now that we’ve shifted to this new model, we’re going to have probably less than 15 percent of our business being online. But that portion of our business allows us to give…retailers those high margins.

The golf professional is really important to our success going forward. I launched a program just in the last couple of months where we’re partnering with every one of the PGA sections, and we’re going to donate three percent back to whatever initiative they choose…most of its going to be junior golf driven.

And it’s a boutique brand where not everyone’s going to have it. There’s nothing more frustrating to a golf professional than when someone comes in to demo their product and two days later they show up with clubs they bought at a big box.

How things will look at the retail level

At the retail level, we wanted to simplify this whole process. When a customer comes in and they look at all these different bounces and grinds, they don’t know what they’re doing and the sales associates are confused as well. So when you see our product in the shop, you’ll see a sole sticker…it’ll say exactly what the grind is, and then there’s a brief description of what that grind does. Then we created a display, and it’s strictly an informational display…with shots of each of the seven grinds with more of an in-depth overview of the grinds. So the customers can look at it an fit themselves into the right grind.

And we’re the only company that’s going to have a 30-day guarantee on the fit in the stores, not just online. It’s not on the shoulders of the golf professional at retail…we’ll take it back and we’ll send out the right one.

Grinds for all?

98 percent of golfers have never tried anything beyond a standard grind. And when they do, it can be game-changing, because the majority of golfers need more effective bounce. And we have some offerings that nobody else has. Our number-one SKU on the Champions Tour is the 60 Wide. Kenny Perry has used it…Bernard Langer…that’s the grind for anyone north of a 10 handicap. It makes it so easy to get out of the sand and the thick rough.

The issue in the past has been, those types of wedges are so ugly, you wouldn’t even put it in your bag…whether it’s an Alien or a Sure Out. But this one’s beautiful, and it’s really kind of taken on a life of its own.

When you look at what’s happened in drivers over the last few years…most golfers are playing too little loft and now they’re realizing it because TaylorMade and other have done a nice job of educating the customers…the same thing holds true in getting to the right grind…it really can be a game changer.