Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Krueger and David Jones.
Gary and David, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
David and I met playing on the golf team at Texas A&M. After pursuing professional golf on the PGA Tour and other interests after school, we saw a niche opportunity in this part of the golf industry that enabled us to stay connected to golf and our friends in the golf business.
We immediately realized the need to focus on the golf ball retrieval side of the business to secure supply, and this ultimately led to our expansion of this effort across the US.
Has it been a smooth road?
We had our 25th Anniversary of PG Professional Golf in 2017, and we’ve had plenty of challenges to overcome along the way. I think the largest challenges have come when we’ve added or lost large customers over time. Responding to large increases in sales put a lot of pressure on our retrieval and production capacity. Two years ago, The Sports Authority and Golfsmith went bankrupt and the loss of those sales was a substantial challenge to overcome.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the PG Professional Golf story. Tell us more about the business.
We are the World’s Largest Golf Ball Recycler, selling over 40 Million recycled golf balls a year. We sell recycled and refinished golf balls to big box retailers like Walmart and Academy Sports, golf pro shops and direct to consumer via www.lostgolfballs.com. I am proud that we have developed a tremendous group of dedicated employees who have successfully grown this niche business. As a company, we have a passion for golf and commit to providing excellent quality products.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Golf courses capacity was overbuilt around 2000, so the industry has been right-sizing ever since by closing facilities. This has put substantial pressure on the entire industry. It appears we may be getting close to leveling off, so the strong companies appear to be the survivors. I’d say all of us in golf are cautiously optimistic that better times are ahead.
Contact Info:
- Address: PG Professional Golf
12505 Reed Road, Suite 150
Sugar Land, TX 77478 - Website: www.lostgolfballs.com; www.pgprofessionalgolf.com
- Phone: 281-491-4653
- Email: garyk@pgprofessionalgolf.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostgolfballs/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LostGolfBalls/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lostgolfballs
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