The Brentwood Borders closed last year as part of the corporate bankruptcy. Golfsmith will fill the Brentwood Place storefront.

Golf specialty retail store expected to open in late spring
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
Golfsmith, the nation’s largest golf specialty retailer, is expected to add Brentwood to its growing list of locations later this spring. A lease has been executed with Baker Storey McDonald Properties, manager of Brentwood Place shopping center. Golfsmith will take over the former Borders bookstore location.

The Brentwood store will be the third Golfsmith in Tennessee, and one of 10 new Golfsmith stores the chain expects to open in 2012, according to information released by spokesperson Lynn Luczkowski. A new store will open soon in Chattanooga. A Golfsmith Superstore is already open in Memphis.

According to the company website, Golfsmith was founded in 1967 by Carl and Barbara Paul in their Edison, N.J. home. Inspired by a custom club maker who had built him a tailor-made set, Carl Paul recognized an unfilled niche in the golf industry: the design and distribution of custom golf clubs and their components, along with instruction about how best to assemble them. The company’s first catalog was typewritten with hand-drawn illustrations.

In the early 1970s, Frank Paul joined his brother’s family business, and it moved to Austin, Texas The first Golfsmith storefront was a components showroom housed in 6,000 square feet of unused army barracks. In 1975, the Pauls embarked on their first consumer retail expansion by creating The Golfsmith Store accessory catalog. In 1976, the company first grossed more than $1 million.

Golfsmith operated primarily as a catalog-based business until 1992. That year the company moved to its present headquarters location, a 40-acre campus that includes the corporate offices, a practice range, a 30,000-square-foot Golfsmith store, and 240,000 square feet of shipping and distribution facilities.

Golfsmith's aggressive retail expansion began in 1995 with the opening of retail stores in Houston, Denver and Dallas.