Clubstohire.com to enter lucrative US market

Clubstohire. com, an Irish-based golf club rental business run by former Mount Juliet executive Tony Judge, will next week enter the lucrative US market with operations in Florida, Arizona and Nevada.

Clubstohire, whose founding backers included former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley, rents golf clubs to visitors at golf destinations across Europe, and it also recently entered the markets in Africa and Asia.

The company, which has annual revenues of more than €3 million, will next week offer club hire to tourists flying into Orlando, as well as Las Vegas and Scottsdale, a golf Mecca in Arizona.

Customers will pay from about €80 per week to hire clubs delivered to their hotel or resort and collected before they fly home.

Mr Judge said the company was eyeing further US destinations and was also considering opening up in the Caribbean as well as expanding in Europe.

He said the company was taking a cautious approach to its US expansion, and was pencilling in revenues of up to €750,000 in its first year there.

Last year Clubstohire rented 75,000 sets of clubs at an average transaction price of about €50. It hopes for more than 10,000 transactions in its first year in the US.

Mr McGinley, who had not yet responded prior to publication, appears to have wound down his involvement in the company for the moment. Mr Judge would only say that the golfer’s “contract had ended”.