The big heist - increase in thefts of golf clubs

The dramatic rise in club thefts and what you can do about it there's big money to be made in golf. Not only by making golf clubs, but by stealing them. Thieves have developed a taste for titanium, and it's easy to see why: The latest generation of clubs are big-ticket items that are in high demand, easy to resell and nearly impossible to trace. "Mainly it's Callaway clubs," says Edwin Watts, whose chain of retail stores has been pilfered out of more than $500,000 worth of Big Berthas in the past three years. "But it changes with popularity. It used to be Ping irons." Says Chris Holiday, senior vice president for sales at Callaway: "The problem appears to have increased substantially in the past five years."

Retail shops are the primary targets, with many of the burglaries committed with "smash-and-grab" tactics. "I've been hit about 10 times, five times this year alone," says Bill Turney, owner of Golf USA, a retail store in Houston. In one recent latenight rip-off, thieves wielding a bat-tery-operated Saws-All cut through a door frame and two walls of Turney's shop to steal $15,000 worth of equipment. Turney figures the heist took all of three minutes. "It's a crime of opportunity that occurs within seconds, and it's not sophisticated golfers dabbling in theft, it's sophisticated thieves dabbling in golf," says Jack D. Stephens, president of Securetech Inc., a startup that has introduced a line of locking bag racks to help combat the problem.

Watts believes that many of the clubs stolen from his stores quickly make their way back to other retail outlets in what amounts to a "steal to order" arrangement. "There's no way that young kids are stealing golf clubs on this scale," he says. "They wouldn't know what to do with them, and they'd get caught. It has to be an organized ring among several different groups." Watts is offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to convictions of the thieves.

With a driver now costing upward of $500, and with most golfers toting sets worth $1,000 and more, it's clear that plenty is at stake. Exactly how much is impossible to say. The police and insurance companies don't put golf-club thefts in a separate category or keep nationwide statistics, for thefts either from individual golfers or from retail locations. However, the scale of the problem becomes clearer with a look at how much it costs to replace stolen clubs. Gary Palmer, chief operating officer of ClaimCard Inc., which arranges for insurers to replace lost merchandise, estimates that the replacement value for stolen golf clubs totaled $100 million to $120 million in 1997. (According to Golf Datatech, a research firm, retail sales of golf clubs at on-course and off-course golf shops totaled $1.5 billion in 1997.)

Club thefts are not limited to retail shops. A set of clubs left in an open garage, the back seat of a car or on an airport-baggage carousel is a set at risk of "walking away." At public courses, these days, signs declaring "Do not leave golf equipment unattended" have become nearly as common as admonitions against slow play.

"You see the problem at private courses, too, though they are understandably loath to admit it," says Terry Andre, vice president of sales and marketing at Burton Bag Co., which earlier this year introduced the Niblock, a golf bag that locks clubs in place. "Think of a member-guest tournament, with 120 players, 60 being visitors. You have 60 carts spread out in the parking lot with people milling all over and two assistant pros managing the whole exercise. I wish we had numbers, but the anecdotal evidence is pretty strong."

Ask other golfers at your club if they've been ripped off or know someone who has, and chances are you'll get a sad story of a favorite putter filched or a Big Bertha snatched. A survey commissioned by Securetech indicates that seven out of 10 golfers either know someone who has been victimized or have been hit themselves.

"The thieves will target remote locations, golf shops or driving ranges that are off-course, but they've been so bold as to hit strip malls," says Steve Dodson, former general manager for two Roger Dunn shops in the Sacramento, Calif., area. "It seems like every two or three weeks a golf store in this area gets hit." The costs to retail shops go far beyond the lost dollar value. "We've got alarm systems, grid panels, bars on the doors and windows, scissor-gates on the doors, motion sensors inside. It's like Fort Knox," says Dodson, whose shops had been hit for as much as $30,000 at a time. "It's a tough way to run a business." Stiff competition has kept most retailers from raising their prices to off-set the losses from theft. "I don't know if I can get insurance next year," Turney says. "That's how bad it is."

So where is all this loot ending up? If you don't have reason to look in the mirror, then you may want to take a peek in your buddies' bags. "If there wasn't distribution for the thieves, store rip-offs wouldn't be happening as much,'' says Dodson. "Let's face it, golf is a luxury sport for many people. They want to get a deal, because it's something they don't necessarily need.''

Turney tells of a customer who came into his shop to get a Callaway driver reshafted, adding that he had just bought it for $200. "My response? I said, 'You know that was such a good price the S.O.B. was stolen, and you have the audacity to come into my store and brag about it? Just get the hell out.' ''A number of retailers contacted for this article join Edwin Watts in point-ing suspicious fingers at cut-rate competitors. Retail margins for many of today's high-priced clubs, including the Callaway products, are often as low as 15 percent over wholesale cost. As a result, says one retailer, "There are people out there who'll do any-thing to make a buck." If that means overlooking a shaky provenance or bill of sale, then so be it.

An Asian connection?

Bargain-hunting golfers and unscrupulous dealers aren't the entire problem. Police have long suspected another market for stolen golf clubs.

One example: A series of smash-and-grab burglaries in Atlanta-area golf shops began in the spring of 1997. In all, according to The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, some 10 burglaries were reported, with one heist alone netting $40,000 worth of clubs, primarily Callaway drivers.

Police suspect that a man who served time for the burglary of another area golf shop was shipping the clubs to Asian markets, where a $400 Callaway driver can sell for $600 or more. "That's the only thing we can surmise," Alpharetta Police Lt. Randy Johnson told the Journal and Constitution. "The stuff is not showing up on the Eastern seaboard."

Dale Stanfield, a detective with the Sacramento City Police Department, cites a rise in "takeover robberies'' of sporting-goods stores by recent parolees. "That tells me there's a big problem,'' Stanfield says. "Word is going through the prisons: 'You can take a high-ticket item that sells for $300 to $500, you can't confirm it's stolen 'cause it doesn't have a serial number, the cops can catch you with it and they can't prove it's been stolen, and there's a hell of a demand for it out on the street."

Proposals abound on how to combat club theft. The police and retailers both say the best solution lies with attaching serial numbers to clubs.

Currently, Karsten Manufacturing, maker of Ping clubs, is one of the few golf companies to etch serial numbers on each club and then log those numbers in a database. Are serial numbers on clubs a deterrent? "Absolutely," says Bob Cantin, director of communications for Karsten. "The serial numbers are inscribed by an electronic needle, so the imprint actually penetrates the metal. When somebody tries to sand off the serial numbers, they destroy the integrity of the club." At present, Callaway does not etch serial numbers or other I.D. markings on its clubs-a policy that strikes some law-enforcement officials and retailers as a major hindrance in cracking down on club theft. "If the bad guys know there's a serial number, and we can prove merchandise has been stolen, they're not going to deal it," says Stanfield. "It's just like Rolex watches." Adding serial numbers to clubs, he adds, "would probably stop these thefts not overnight, but relatively quickly."

Not everyone agrees. Callaway included serial numbers on its clubs until the spring of 1997. "We haven't seen serial numbers as an effective tool in any way, shape or form to reduce theft," says Callaway's Holiday. "We've found that the most effective way to reduce theft is to make a product that is not in demand-and we don't want to do that." His advice to Callaway club owners is to use common sense, take care of your clubs just as you would an expensive watch or camera, and never leave the clubs unattended. (For other tips, see sidebar, below.) As Holiday says, "Can you imagine leaving a $1,500 camera on a park bench?''

Perhaps you could, if the camera were lashed to the bench with a lockable, heavy-duty steel cable. That is the theory behind Callaway's joint effort with Burton to market the Niblock.

Terry Andre of Burton draws a contrast between the golf industry and such pursuits as skiing and cycling. He claims close to 90 percent of bike owners commonly use a lock; the figure is about 85 percent in skiing. "Skiing is similar to golf in that you have open, common areas with high traffic, and you leave your high-priced, portable equipment unattended," he says. The difference, of course, is that in golf, less than 5 percent of bags employ a locking device-a percentage that drops to negligible when you take locking travel covers off the table.

The ski/golf comparison is one that drives the business strategy developed by Securetech's Stephens. His company's locking bag racks feature a secured base and a hood that drops down over the top of the clubs. The company also makes individual units for garages and privately owned golf carts. "Eventually it's going to be a given," Stephens claims. "Every place is going to have something like this, just like the ski industry has now."

It's a concept that intrigues retailers as well, some of whom have been searching for a locking display rack that is both convenient for customers and secure against thieves. Turney relates a conversation he recently had with Ely Callaway: "Ely told me, 'I figured out if I made golf more fun for more people, I'd make more money. And I did. Now it's time to make golf less fun for the people who are stealing these clubs.'''

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