The tradie mates who hit a hole in one with business idea

An Instagram page that celebrated crap golfers has turned into a multimillion-dollar business for two Adelaide mates.

It started as a golf-themed Instagram page in 2014.

A year later they printed up a few hats to sell.

Last year Golf Gods turned over six million dollars.

This year there are plans to open a warehouse in the United States to better cater for the insatiable appetite for their novelty golf gear in America.

Not bad for a plumber and glazier based out of a warehouse tucked in behind the Edwardstown Bunnings.

Dale Smedley and Shaun Trevallian started the company with an initial tip-in of $1000 each and a gut feeling that there was a golfing market that wasn’t being catered to.

“We had no idea what we were doing,” Dale says.

“Shaun’s computer’s keyboard didn’t even work. We were literally bootstrapping it.”

Golf Gods directors Shaun Trevillian and Dale Smedley, the Adelaide larrikins who founded a novelty golf company that’s become a global hit. Picture Emma Brasier

Dale’s wife became suspicious of the amount of time the pair was spending together huddled around a computer and jokingly accused them of making homemade adult movies.

They said they were playing World of Warcraft.

But there was a reason for their secrecy in the early days.

“We didn’t want our friends to like and follow us just because they were our mates,” Dale says.

“We wanted to make sure what we were doing would stand up by itself.”

The pair disagree on exactly when they started slinging merch through their Instagram page. Dale says it was when they hit 20,000 followers, Shaun reckons it was more like 2000. Either way, it soon became obvious they were on to a winner.

“We sold ten hats, built a website, sold a hundred hats, and now we’re selling 20,000 hats every couple of months,” Dale says.

“We have sold to just over 100 countries this year.”

Shaun says the fact they neither came from a golfing background has actually worked in their favour, allowing them to cut through the stuffier, more conservative side of the sport with their novelty shirts and … well … dick putters.

“We’re not golfers – we were footballers and cricketers, and we have a different attitude towards golf,” he says.

“We only played to have a few beers with our mates. As we started to grow the business we discovered that there were a whole lot of people who played golf like we did and didn’t take it seriously at all but nobody was catering for them.”

Dale agrees.

“The golf clubs were targeting the 20 per cent of the market that take golf really seriously and ignoring the 80 per cent who wanted to have a hit with mates and have a beer,” he says.

Especially in the US, there are a lot of people who like to play golf that way.

“And I think the clubs are realising that they need to attract the younger generation or the club just becomes a walking graveyard. The young people buy the beers, they buy lunch, they’re not splitting a bottle of red between six of them. It’s a changing sport with a younger demographic coming through.

“And young blokes these days are putting more time into their golf outfits than the outfit they’re wearing out to dinner with their wives.”

Many of the Golf God products parody the biggest brands in the sport.

It’s risky business, given that many of these brands are worth billions and have entire teams of lawyers on speed dial ready to come down hard on anyone they think might be infringing their copyright.

Golf Gods directors Shaun Trevillian and Dale Smedley, the Adelaide larrikins who founded a novelty golf company that’s become a global hit. Picture Emma Brasier

The Titlist/Titties hats are no longer, and the Hack Daniels range has also been assigned to history.

Dale says most companies can see the humour in it and don’t come after Golf Gods too hard.

“There is some stuff we can’t sell anymore because they’ve hit us with cease and desist letters,” he says.

“But we know the process. Most companies just want us to stop and don’t want to take it to court. If it’s a product that doesn’t sell well we just stop, if it is a big seller we’ll try to drag it out a big and sometimes we’ll come to an arrangement that might involve donating to charity.

“We did an Up and Down Birdies range that played on the In and Out Burgers logo and they shut that down the next day. But it’s just trying to get a laugh and letting people know that you know you’re s. t at golf.”

Shaun says that if the company had a spirit golfer it would be John Daly, the “drinking, smoking, club-throwing player who was always fun to watch”, but even Daly’s people came after them when they used his likeness on products. As did Tiger Woods.

“But John Daly’s alcohol company sponsor out golf events now, so that relationship is still fine, and it was only about six months after that that Tiger’s foundation asked if we could donate an inflatable dart board so it’s not like they’ve cut us off forever.”

The pair, who now employ more than a dozen people, say Covid put their expansion plans on hold, but now they’re ready to dive headfirst into the US market, with plans for a warehouse in Arizona in 2023.

“The Americans expect very quick delivery, so being able to ship anywhere within America within two days, that will be a game changer for us,” Dale says.

“We probably don’t stop and reflect much,” Shaun says. “But it has been incredible.”

“When you’re at a PGA golf event in America and you’re seeing people wearing your hats and your shirts, it does trip you out,” Dale says.

www.golfgodsonline.com