Watt, Haas, Scheyd win Merchandiser of the Year Awards

Oct 16, 2018

Watt Wins Private Merchandiser of the Year

Riverside, Iowa – Steve Watt of the Glen Oaks Country Club has been named the 2018 Iowa PGA Private Merchandiser of the Year. This award is presented to the PGA Professional who demonstrated superior skills as a merchandiser in the promoting of golf at a private facility. 

“I am incredibly humbled and honored to be awarded the Private Merchandiser of the Year award by my fellow PGA Professionals.  It takes a team to be successful and with that in mind I would like to thank my Staff, my Membership, General Manager Jeff Strahl and the Investors of Glen Oaks Country Club for their continuous support and providing me with the opportunity.  This is truly an honor and really means a lot to me and I do not take it for granted.”

The Glen Oaks Country Club pro shop has frequently been mentioned as one the best looking private shops for members to see and navigate through the merchandise. Watt has a simple framework that has gotten his shop this praise. His framework is based around providing an energetic shopping experience that utilizes human senses, providing high quality merchandise, fair and respectful pricing and outstanding member service to all.

As a result of this framework, Watt has seen an increase in many different aspects of his shop. His merchandise sales are up over 3% with an increased gross profit at 32.29%. He has also seen an increase in his special-order volume, up 20% from last year. 

Watt’s meticulous attention to detail about continuous movement throughout the shop and the high demand to keep his shop in tip-top shape has made him one of the most successful merchandiser in the Iowa PGA Section this year. He demonstrates close attention to his shop’s display with nightly cleaning, upbeat music, display tables and mannequins to show creativity with products, customized folding and staff training. 

In addition to his shop’s aesthetics, Watt also combines timely promotions that helped his sales this year. The combination of seasonal selections that includes a mixture that members cannot get anywhere else along with affordable prices, brands, colors and styles have appealed to all his members. The Glen Oaks foot traffic and Watt’s ability to push strategic promotions have kept a steady rotation of products in the shop, which the members of Glen Oaks appreciate.   

Steve is not only devoted to the Iowa PGA Section and its members, but he takes great pride in running one of the most successful golf shops in Iowa. Having already won the Horton Smith Award, this marks Steve’s second award in 2018. The Iowa PGA is grateful to have such a determined individual in its Section and serving on its Board. We are happy to announce Steve Watt as the 2018 Private Merchandiser of the Year.   

Haas Wins Resort Merchandiser of the Year

Riverside, Iowa – Bryan Haas of Blue Top Ridge at Riverside has been named the 2018 Iowa PGA Resort Merchandiser of the Year. This award is presented to the PGA Professional that demonstrated superior skills as a merchandiser in the promotion of golf at a resort. 

“Accepting the Merchandiser of the Year award is truly an honor.  This is a team award that will be shared with our staff here at Blue Top Ridge,” said Haas. “We would not be able to achieve the levels of sales or the level of quality products on our sales floor without our team of Professionals. I would like to thank Michael Canfield (Merchandise Manager), Chris Gault (Merchandise Supervisor), Mike McNamara, Kevin DeNike, Anthony Schug and Jacob Schultz for all of their help and dedication to our stores success.”

Due to the poor weather that Iowa experienced early in the golf season, Haas’s year started out slow. His creation of a PopUp Golf shop in the off season jump started his season and created retail sales that he otherwise would not have. Haas’s retail sales are up 15% year to date. He credits his strong Professional staff that work to maintain a premium level golf shop that offers a great mixture of merchandise for this year’s success. 

The Blue Top Ridge golf shop is divided into three even sections with three prominent clothing vendors. This creates a defined look to the store and creates unique marketing and brand opportunity with each of their vendors. In addition to his shop’s sectional layout, Haas creates displays that capture golfers, which creates a need for them to come back to the store after their round. 

Another great aspect that drives the golf shop at Blue Top Ridge is its inventory mix. Its current mix consists of three clothing vendors, FootJoy, Oakley and Fennic. Haas is also testing Travis Mathew this year in his shop. In addition to clothing, the Blue Top Ridge golf shop also features equipment from a variety of different vendors, including Titleist, Callaway, Ping, TaylorMade, PXG and Cobra. 

Bryan and his staff focus on creating a great shopping experience for each person that walks into the Blue Top Ridge pro shop. It is clear that they have achieved that goal yet again, as this marks Bryan’s fourth time winning the Iowa PGA Resort Merchandiser of the Year. 

Scheyd Wins Public Merchandiser of the Year

Riverside, Iowa – Ron Scheyd has been named the 2018 Iowa PGA Public Merchandiser of the Year due to his success at TPC Deere Run this year. This award is presented to the PGA Professional that demonstrated superior skills as a merchandiser in the promotion of golf at a public facility. 

“It is an honor to accept the Merchandiser of the Year award on behalf of our team at TPC Deere Run,” said Scheyd. “It represents years of hard work, relationship building, and a team of buyers, interns and golf professionals working tirelessly to be the most creative, efficient and innovative they can be.  Throughout 2018 the group has excelled greatly in the areas of hard goods, corporate gifting and most importantly during the John Deere Classic to drive revenue and present clean, diverse assortments of merchandise.  It is very special to be recognized, and we would like to extent a special thank you to the Iowa Section PGA for their support, guidance and leadership.”