Golf Bays UK founder, has been named Sports Retail Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 in the annual SME News UK Enterprise Awards.
It’s a major achievement for the Cheshire-based business, which only started trading four years ago and has seen rapid growth, building a global client base in the meantime. Today, with a stable of over 120 products, Golf Bays UK are leading providers of outdoor and indoor golf enclosure and simulator experiences, providing customised solutions for individual golfers and businesses.
The seeds of the company began four years ago, when the Entrepreneur was working as the resident PGA teaching pro at Woodside Golf Club in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire. By his own admission, he had grown tired of getting freezing cold standing outside giving lessons in all weathers.
His father was an engineer with metal and fabrication expertise, so they decided it would be a good idea to design an indoor enclosure, as a protection against the weather. This was before the days when indoor studios had really caught on and those that were on the market were fearfully expensive.
What initially started out as a side business, hiring out inflatable golf apparatus for corporate days and selling golf screens on eBay, quickly developed.
Today, Golf Bays UK is one of the largest independent, family-run businesses of its kind, manufacturing its own brand products – easy-to-assemble enclosures, simulators and impact screens, spearheaded by the best-selling SimBox range. In addition, the company markets an impressive range of established launch monitor and simulator brands from some of the world’s leading exponents, such as Garmin, TrakMan, SkyTrak and SkyCaddie.
Golf Bays UK currently employs seven staff, including two PGA professionals.
Commenting on the award, GB's said: “The growth of the business has perhaps taken us all by surprise, but it is a vindication of a lot of hard work, developing and selling products that are competitively priced to suit all levels of golfer.
“We entered the market at a time when it probably needed a bit of shaking up, as most home golf studios were extremely expensive. Our aim has always been to make golf more accessible, affordable and enjoyable for both home users and those operating in a commercial environment.
“With a growing, hard-working team, I’m very excited about how we are continuing to develop the Golf Bays UK business, expanding both our products and services for our worldwide customer base,”
