WILLOWBROOK, ILLINOIS | Nick Sherburne was a younger teen when he began taking part in golf. His house course was a historic nine-holer within the city of Downers Grove that’s greatest often known as the positioning of the unique Chicago Golf Membership, which Charles Blair Macdonald, the daddy of golf in America, based in 1892. And the teenager fell arduous for the sport.
When Sherburne turned 16 and will legally drive a automotive, he expanded his golf horizons by taking a job at Cog Hill, a 72-hole public golf facility some 15 miles to the south that hosted the Western Open on its Dubsdread Course, also called No. 4, for 16 straight years beginning in 1991.
“I used to be there from 1998-2000,” recalled the now 42-year-old Sherburne. “I labored the vary and bag drop and I received to play golf totally free on programs 1 and three.”
He additionally helped out with the Western Open, and Sherburne remembers watching the tour vans for the key golf gear producers driving onto the ability so they may tweak the woods, irons and wedges of the PGA Tour gamers who have been competing.
“I requested my boss, head golf skilled Jeff Rimsnider, about these vans and puzzled why Cog Hill didn’t do the identical kind of factor for our gamers,” he mentioned. “Jeff advised me that almost all of them both didn’t have the time or cash to spend on a membership becoming or didn’t respect how a lot one would possibly assist their video games.”
Quickly after, Sherburne bought his first new set of golf golf equipment. “They have been Titleists, and I paid half with my very own cash and borrowed the remainder from my grandmother, who made me pay her again with curiosity,” he mentioned. “Then, Jeff match me for them.”
Thus was born a fascination with golf golf equipment and the becoming course of. And it led Sherburne down a path that quickly had him working for an area club-fitting outfit known as EJL Customized Golf that by 2009 he’d come to personal in full. A yr later, when he was solely 27, he co-founded a brand new enterprise that has since grow to be the pre-eminent membership fitter within the sport.
Its title is Membership Champion, and it was born from the concept that correct fittings are simply as priceless to leisure golfers as they’re for tour professionals and elite amateurs. Sherburne additionally believed that the arrival of launch displays and new applied sciences in shafts, grips and clubheads introduced a fantastic alternative for a course of that had grow to be much less about artwork and principally about science and approach. That’s what led him and his companions, Joe Lee and Keith Financial institution, to step into that realm, elevating $3.5 million and growing a marketing strategy that seemed to open as many as 30 becoming studios throughout the nation.
To say that Membership Champion, whose tagline is “Higher Match … Decrease Scores,” has exceeded its expectations can be an understatement. And it has achieved to the unbiased club-fitting house what Topgolf has achieved within the realm of off-course golf leisure. Which is to dominate.
Contemplate that previously 15 years, Membership Champion has amassed a community of 137 studios within the U.S. and one other 11 in Canada, England, Scotland and Australia. They common 2,500 sq. toes in measurement, and every one has entry to some 60 golf manufacturers and provides greater than 65,000 hittable head-and-shaft combos.
Most have two bays, although some have extra, such because the flagship house in Willowbrook, which has 5. The studios usually characteristic two fitters, however the firm will add a 3rd if gross sales in a location surpass $1.5 million yearly. Its closest competitor, True Spec Golf, has 40 studios.
Membership Champion’s devotion to using essentially the most superior applied sciences in its fittings additionally stands out. Amongst different issues, that has meant utilizing synthetic intelligence to tremendously streamline the method of discovering the clubheads and shafts that work greatest for particular person golfers from what’s an unlimited universe of choices.
Membership Champion, which is headquartered on this suburb southwest of Chicago, can be crushing it financially. Final yr, the corporate produced annual revenues greater than double what they have been pre-COVID, in 2019. Most of that cash comes from becoming charges, which vary from $50 to $400 per session, and the golf equipment that it sells from them. “And 89 p.c of our matches find yourself with a sale,” mentioned Sherburne, who carries the title of govt vice chairman of operations and designed the becoming system that the corporate makes use of.
Waiting for 2025, he expects revenues to rise one other 3.5 p.c.
To make certain, the scale of the enterprise and its progress via the years is spectacular. And greater than the rest, that’s the results of the constantly top quality of its membership fitters, every of whom have “graduated” from a monthlong coaching program that’s so rigorous not everybody passes.
The corporate calls it Membership Champion College, and Sherburne is its “dean.”
Steve Pelisek, the president of Titleist golf golf equipment, is amongst those that are impressed with the corporate’s fitters, who now quantity practically 400.
“Nick has excellent of us becoming for them, and Membership Champion works arduous to coach and outfit them correctly and ensure they’re prepared,” Pelisek mentioned. “And so they do an excellent job of serving to severe golfers choose the gear that performs greatest for them.”
Membership Champion’s devotion to using essentially the most superior applied sciences in its fittings additionally stands out. Amongst different issues, that has meant utilizing synthetic intelligence to tremendously streamline the method of discovering the clubheads and shafts that work greatest for particular person golfers from what’s an unlimited universe of choices.
“We name it our AI fitter co-pilot,” mentioned Sherburne. “It permits us to be sooner and extra environment friendly and efficient.
“Golfers can solely swing so many occasions throughout a membership becoming. And our full bag fittings usually final three and a half hours. With this know-how, which we created with a world enterprise and know-how consulting agency in Chicago known as Inspire11, we take Trackman information from practically a million swings monthly and distill that right down to actionable data that will get our crew to the answer sooner – and with out sporting out our prospects.”
The corporate did so nicely after its founding that in 2017, the founders offered a majority of the enterprise to a personal fairness group out of Boston for lower than $100 million.
“They held onto us for 18 months or so, throughout which period we opened up one other 15 or 16 studios and cleared out our debt,” mentioned Sherburne. “Then, they flipped us to a bunch in Los Angeles for twice what they paid.”
“We’ve been with them for six years, and we all know they are going to ultimately promote us,” the co-founder added. “It’s that method with each non-public fairness agency. There’s a whole lot of curiosity in our enterprise as a result of the corporate is doing very nicely. However we expect we will get our EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] to slightly higher spot.”
Speaking to individuals like Pelisek from Titleist in addition to to Sherburne, the daddy of three younger kids, it’s clear that what units Membership Champion aside is the standard of its fitters. And that stands to cause given how a lot they commit to that a part of their enterprise.
“It’s a really thorough course of, nevertheless it needs to be as a result of we’ve to have the suitable individuals in every of our studios,” mentioned Sherburne, who’s the final particular person to interview each fitter the corporate hires and stresses that they’re all skilled to be model agnostic. “What our fitters are doing are relationship gross sales, not transactional ones, and we want them to be excellent at them.”
Membership Champion brings every potential fitter to firm headquarters for a month. “The primary two weeks are classes which might be held behind an precise becoming heart that’s simply down the street from our headquarters and canopy procedures in the way in which we match and product information,” he mentioned. “Then for the subsequent two weeks, they’re working within the entrance of the home, with seasoned fitters who’re taking good care of precise prospects. Finally, they run a supervised match of their very own. And in the long run, everyone will get a report card.”
Most make it via, he provides. However some don’t.
“We determine we make investments about $15,000 in every of the individuals we herald to Membership Champion College,” mentioned Sherburne, including that the corporate employed 140 new fitters in 2024. “However it’s so price it as a result of we get actually good individuals within the course of who do rather well from the beginning. And the price of the coaching usually pays for itself within the first week.”
There’s a lot happening at headquarters as nicely, for that’s the place all of the golf equipment are constructed after which packed and shipped to prospects.
“We now have 38 individuals working full time right here throughout peak season, and possibly 40 half time,” mentioned Sherburne. “And they’ll construct and ship roughly 2,300 golf equipment a day when issues are at their busiest.”
It appears to be busy on a regular basis at Membership Champion, and Sherburne expects that to proceed, with the hope being so as to add possibly 15 home studio areas yearly in years to come back.
With that ambition, everybody else is simply preventing for second place. And a distant one at that.
Prime: Membership Champion makes use of the newest know-how to assist their shoppers get simply the suitable match for his or her golf equipment. Courtesy Membership Champion
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