Clubs to Hire, a golf club rental service for travelling golfers, announced that it has served almost 40,000 sets of clubs to repeat clients and members in the past year, as the business sees tremendous bounceback from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Following significant investment in its staff, equipment, and vehicle fleet, the company is in a good position for further growth.
The company offers its services to golfers travelling to 17 locations in Europe, Asia, and South Africa, allowing them to rent golf clubs at their destination for affordable rates of €40 to €80 a week, instead of flying in their clubs from their point of origin or renting more expensive clubs at the resort.
Customers can book their golf club rentals through the Clubs to Hire website at least 24 hours before arrival, and the company’s staff can meet them at the airport or deliver the clubs to their hotel. Customers can also visit Clubs to Hire’s shop at Faro Airport in Portugal, where they can pick up the equipment on the spot. Clubs to Hire offers an extensive variety of golf equipment from top manufacturers in almost every configuration on the market, which also allows golfers to try out new equipment or brands.
According to Tony Judge, founder and CEO of Clubs to Hire, the company provides a more affordable and convenient way for travellers to play golf overseas, as airlines are charging increasingly higher rates to fly heavy and oversized golf bags. He says many of Clubs to Hire’s customers are golfers whose bags haven’t arrived, especially amid more frequent incidents of missing baggage or flight delays in the post-pandemic period.
Clubs to Hire was established by Judge in 2010, opening its first location at Faro Airport, the gateway to Portugal’s primary tourist hub in the Algarve. Over the following years, it gradually expanded into other resort destinations in Southern Europe, with most of its customers flying in from Ireland, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Like all travel and tourism businesses, Clubs to Hire was severely affected by the shutdowns caused by COVID-19 in 2020.
Once air travel restrictions were relaxed in 2022, Judge invested almost €1 million into Clubs to Hire, expanding its product inventory with the top golfing brands, bringing in more staff, and purchasing additional delivery vehicles. This strengthened Clubs to Hire’s capability to serve the fast-growing number of customers resuming their golfing trips.
“We have made a substantial capital investment in the company to meet increasing demand from golfers as travel picked up again. It’s estimated that around 2,000,000 golfers head to the Mediterranean’s hottest golf destinations each year, which shows the tremendous potential of the market. This puts us in an excellent position for growth, and we’re seeking to expand our services to more new locations. Clubs to Hire aims to make more golfers realise that they don’t need to go through the hassle of flying their clubs overseas and risk them getting lost or damaged, allowing them to focus on enjoying their games and the rest of their holiday,” Judge says.
