“If you focus on money only, it’ll be a disaster,” says Elford. Replicating anything remotely close to that model in the US would be impossible, so it’s likely you’ll have to do some work if you want to demo Lynx equipment anytime soon. Lynx has seven full-time sales reps, and three full-time demo day guys in the U.K. Great Britain fits into Texas seven times. I can tell you about the Great Britain market, but the American market is completely different. “We’re not coming to America as some arrogant British company that thinks it knows everything. Steph and I knew that when we started this,” he says. “We 100% know there’s an image to change. Elford is keenly aware they’ll have to legitimize the brand in the U.S., having already gone through that process in the U.K. It’s fair to say Lynx still carries the Golfsmith “house brand” stigma. “What we don’t want to do is create a bit of momentum from the PGA Show and then not be able to supply stuff.” “We’re going to start relatively small,” says Elford. Elford and Zinser aren’t releasing any details yet, but they do say you could start seeing Lynx at retail by the end of this month. The first container-load of Lynx equipment is loaded and heading to America as we speak. The sum was unbelievable.”Īfter Golfsmith’s bankruptcy, Elford and Zinser struck a deal with Dick’s Sporting Goods and now own the brand everywhere except Japan, where Lynx is an independent brand, and Canada, where Lynx remains tied to Golf Town. In hindsight, because of the sum, he asked for, it was obvious Golfsmith was in financial trouble. To add insult to injury, Elford says Golfsmith’s asking price was borderline ridiculous. He gave us 20 minutes and looked at his phone the whole time.” Eleven hours by plane for four of us at the cost of $30,000, and he (the Golfsmith exec) forgot our meeting. “We went to have a meeting with them about four years ago,” says Elford. Privately the couple planned toward their ultimate goal of global ownership and had to go through Golfsmith to get it. It’s something we can do together.”īy 2013 the Brangelina of British golf acquired the Lynx brand outright for Europe and set out establishing it as a player on their home turf. When I was offered Lynx, I said to Steph ‘I don’t want to do it unless you want to do it.’ Steph’s very good with money, a very smart, very clever woman, so it’s kind of our baby in a sense. “We have seven children between us, so we’re a nice, big happy family. “It sounds a bit schmaltzy,” Elford tells MyGolfSpy. In 2011 the couple welcomed their 8 th child when they became the official licensee of the Lynx brand in the UK and Europe. They’re a typical British couple, if by typical you mean a 35-year golf industry vet and a published author/noted newspaper journalist/former bank executive with a seven child blended family. Led by a husband-and-wife team from Great Britain, Lynx is locked, loaded and ready for another go.Īnd Now For Something Completely Different Lynx died in bankruptcy in 1998, but like Hogan before it, the brand poised to make a North American comeback. Fred Couples and Ernie Els won majors with Lynx irons, and Couples’ early 90’s T V commercial for the original Boom Boom driver remains a YouTube favorite. You youngsters may think of Lynx as one of Golfsmith’s el-cheapo house lines, but it did have a nice 27-year run as a small but influential premium brand. Dunlop, Ram, and MacGregor were as much a part of that era as Dacron polyester and shoe-kilties. If you’re a golfer of a certain age with a non-substance altered memory of the 70’s through the 90’s, you no doubt fondly recall some of the long-lost brands of the day.
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