Golf boom boosts PGA Tour Superstore's expansion on Long Island
A PGA Tour Superstore in Charlotte, N.C. Credit: PGA Tour Superstore
A pandemic-related golf boom is helping PGA Tour Superstore swing into its third location in New York State..
The golf equipment and clothing retailer will open a 40,000-square-foot store in the Mayfair Shopping Center on Jericho Turnpike in Commack in late summer, PGA Tour Superstore spokeswoman Megan Mahoney said.
The stores also sell tennis and pickleball equipment.
“This growing chain brings something completely new and different to Mayfair Shopping Center and undoubtedly will be a tremendous draw for golf and tennis enthusiasts in the community,” E.J. Moawad, a senior leasing representative at Levin Management Corp., said in a statement. Levin is a Plainfield, New Jersey-based real estate firm that manages leasing for the shopping center.
There are 60 PGA Tour Superstores, including one in Westbury and one in White Plains. Eight new stores opened last year and eight more are being added in 2023.
The Commack store will employ 40 to 50 people, Mahoney said.
Started in 2004, PGA Tour Superstores offer a host of interactive playing options, Mahoney said.
“Our practice-and-play hitting bays is an experiential enhancement we added to our stores at the end of 2022. They include a more social atmosphere where friends and family can play together,” she said.
The Commack store will have four golf simulators, a 1,300-square-foot putting green, six practice-and-play hitting bays, custom golf club fittings and certified teaching professionals, she said.
Averaging 40,000 to 50,000 square feet, PGA Tour Superstores are operated by Golf & Tennis Pro Shop Inc., a subsidiary of AMB Sports and Entertainment that is headquartered in metro Atlanta.
AMB is owned by Arthur M. Blank, who co-founded The Home Depot and owns an NFL team, the Atlanta Falcons; a Major League soccer team, Atlanta United; and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
From 2020 to 2022, PGA Tour Superstores added 17 stores, and sales rose 90% chainwide, in part because of the public’s increased interest in golf during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mahoney said.
The changing landscape regarding why and how people are playing golf is helping the sport’s popularity, too, she said.
“People are playing more for fun and social aspects,” said Mahoney, who added that players are experimenting more with golf in different formats, such as with indoor golf course simulators.
In the first quarters of 2021 to 2023, the number of rounds played at golf facilities nationwide averaged 17% more than the average during the same periods in 2017 through 2019, before the pandemic, according to the National Golf Foundation, a Jupiter, Florida-based trade association.
The PGA Tour Superstore in Commack will occupy most of the space vacated in 2021 by a Best Market grocery store, which occupied a 60,300-square-foot space at 84 Jericho Tpke.
Bethpage-based Best Market sold 27 of its stores, including all 24 on Long Island, to German discount grocer Lidl in 2019.
Lidl closed the Best Market in Commack in February 2021 for renovations and conversion to the Lidl name, but later decided to open the new Lidl in a different, smaller space in the shopping center.
The Mayfair Shopping Center is a 222,000-square-foot property whose other tenants include Planet Fitness, The Crushed Olive, Bagel Toasterie, Rite Aid, Capital One, Outback Steakhouse and Verizon.
A pandemic-related golf boom is helping PGA Tour Superstore swing into its third location in New York State..
The golf equipment and clothing retailer will open a 40,000-square-foot store in the Mayfair Shopping Center on Jericho Turnpike in Commack in late summer, PGA Tour Superstore spokeswoman Megan Mahoney said.
The stores also sell tennis and pickleball equipment.
“This growing chain brings something completely new and different to Mayfair Shopping Center and undoubtedly will be a tremendous draw for golf and tennis enthusiasts in the community,” E.J. Moawad, a senior leasing representative at Levin Management Corp., said in a statement. Levin is a Plainfield, New Jersey-based real estate firm that manages leasing for the shopping center.
There are 60 PGA Tour Superstores, including one in Westbury and one in White Plains. Eight new stores opened last year and eight more are being added in 2023.
The Commack store will employ 40 to 50 people, Mahoney said.
Started in 2004, PGA Tour Superstores offer a host of interactive playing options, Mahoney said.
“Our practice-and-play hitting bays is an experiential enhancement we added to our stores at the end of 2022. They include a more social atmosphere where friends and family can play together,” she said.
The Commack store will have four golf simulators, a 1,300-square-foot putting green, six practice-and-play hitting bays, custom golf club fittings and certified teaching professionals, she said.
Averaging 40,000 to 50,000 square feet, PGA Tour Superstores are operated by Golf & Tennis Pro Shop Inc., a subsidiary of AMB Sports and Entertainment that is headquartered in metro Atlanta.
AMB is owned by Arthur M. Blank, who co-founded The Home Depot and owns an NFL team, the Atlanta Falcons; a Major League soccer team, Atlanta United; and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
From 2020 to 2022, PGA Tour Superstores added 17 stores, and sales rose 90% chainwide, in part because of the public’s increased interest in golf during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mahoney said.
The changing landscape regarding why and how people are playing golf is helping the sport’s popularity, too, she said.
“People are playing more for fun and social aspects,” said Mahoney, who added that players are experimenting more with golf in different formats, such as with indoor golf course simulators.
In the first quarters of 2021 to 2023, the number of rounds played at golf facilities nationwide averaged 17% more than the average during the same periods in 2017 through 2019, before the pandemic, according to the National Golf Foundation, a Jupiter, Florida-based trade association.
Making space in Commack
The PGA Tour Superstore in Commack will occupy most of the space vacated in 2021 by a Best Market grocery store, which occupied a 60,300-square-foot space at 84 Jericho Tpke.
Bethpage-based Best Market sold 27 of its stores, including all 24 on Long Island, to German discount grocer Lidl in 2019.
Lidl closed the Best Market in Commack in February 2021 for renovations and conversion to the Lidl name, but later decided to open the new Lidl in a different, smaller space in the shopping center.
The Mayfair Shopping Center is a 222,000-square-foot property whose other tenants include Planet Fitness, The Crushed Olive, Bagel Toasterie, Rite Aid, Capital One, Outback Steakhouse and Verizon.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
