The Solution People

Local tandem has made their company
a fixture on the PGA and LPGA Tours

By Gary Larrabee

Psssst. Don’t tell anybody. But one of the country’s up-and-coming quality golf awards and gift companies is based right here in the heart of the North Shore.

Tournament Solutions (TS), located on the old Wadsworth School campus near interstate Rt. 95 in Danvers, has grown from a $250,000 business in 2002 to a multi-million dollar enterprise in 2009. Its services and products are in demand by everyone from the PGA and LPGA Tours and the United States Golf Association to a veritable slew of one-day outings held across America.

“We’ve grown fast,” says Danvers native John Lawrence, a former Danvers High, St. Anselm and Salem State hockey player who started the business in the fall of 2001 with Peabody native and former business associate Pam Berube.

“It was just the two of us in a very small space at the start. Now we have three additional staff people, five independent sales reps who cover the entire country, and warehouse space in Danvers, Peabody and Fayetteville, Tennessee.”

Tournament Solutions may not yet be the Titleist of the golf award and gift industry, but give Pam and John time. The company recently signed a three-year retail licensing contract with the PGA TOUR which gives them prominent placement of their products at the Players Championship in May, the Travelers Championship in Connecticut in June, the Tour Championship in September, October’s President’s Cup in San Francisco and Wendy’s Three Tour Challenge in November.

Moreover, Tournament Solutions will be heavily involved at June’s U.S. Open at Bethpage in Long Island providing pin flags, collector’s pins and glassware, as well as at the PGA Championship and the Solheim Cup in August. TS recently renewed its contract with the PGA for this year and next.

“We’ve been fortunate in selecting the right product lines, from $5 money clips to $2000 Tag Heuer watches, for our catalogue (32 pages, all color) so that we’re attractive to all levels of golfers,” says Berube, who had worked with Lawrence in a previous company before they decided to team up on their own.

Their clientele extends as high as Tiger Woods as TS has an established d connection with the Tiger Woods Foundation. The rapidly expanding TS fan club also includes 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger, who made a special request for Sterling pocket knives as gifts for his team’s caddies and who wore throughout Ryder Cup week TS’s “Player’s Pin.”

Add Padraig Harrington to the list as well. After winning the PGA Championship last year, Harrington ordered from TS one thousand pin flags, most of which he signed and donated to various charities. They were shipped directly to his home in Ireland. Victorious Ryder Cuppers Kenny Perry, J.B. Holmes and Chad Campbell purchased quantities of the same item after their win at Valhalla. Outside of hard goods and apparel, TS had a twenty percent market share of all other sales at the Ryder Cup. John and Pam were on site for 17 days. TS sold out of 15,000 replica flags at the Ryder Cup merchandise locations and delivered 5000 more for corporate orders.

TS also has garnered a prominent niche in the celebrity tournament market, as well as in lower profile but handsomely profitable markets. It provides pre-ordered merchandise to an average of 12 events a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, according to Lawrence. They may be for member-guest events or for charity outings. Their products include money clips, ball markers, divot tools, jewelry, silk ties, crystal, timepieces, writing instruments, women’s bags, albums, clocks, pewter, silver, trophies, leather goods and pretty much every imaginable accessory a golfer needs or craves.

This year, with the downturn in the economy, Lawrence and Berube are cautious in their outlook, but growth in recent years confirms they’ve got a good thing going. The company had 50 percent growth in 2007, 30 percent in 2008. TS even has two full-time consultants who handle its China-based manufacturing portion of the business.

“Pam and I complement each other well,” Lawrence said. “I’d worked in corporate America for 16 years in finance, marketing and sales before we joined forces. Pam was in the restaurant industry and sales for many years.”

“I seem to have a grasp of what our customers want (everything is customized) and where we can most efficiently get them manufactured (much of it in China),” Berube said. “I’m more the person who knows the operational side. John knows the golf side of our business, how to deal with the various clients we deal with, from head golf professionals to golf industry executives. And, we seem to agree when major decision time rolls around.”

“I always felt I had the skill set of an entrepreneur,” Lawrence added. “I saw the void in high end, brand name gift and award products to the golf business, so I jumped in with Pam, and she filled in our pipeline of products to provide the industry one-stop shopping for every conceivable event.

TS’s revenue is 65 percent from the golf club/resort course side, 35 percent from professional events. The PGA of America, which runs the Ryder Cup, the PGA Championship and the McGladrey Team Championship (involving 23,000 golfers), is its largest customer.

As a national company, Pam and John do a ton of traveling. Ten days at the U.S. Open, annual meetings of the various golf organizations, Tiger’s annual November tournament in Arizona, the annual PGA merchandise show in Florida, several LPGA, PGA and USGA events each year. Tournament Solutions also sponsors two events annually for the New England and Mid-Atlantic PGA sections, and provides products for celebrity events put on by Clint Eastwood, Justin Timberlake, Eric Dickerson, and the Tiger Jam in Las Vegas.

“The travel can be difficult, but it’s exciting, rewarding and good for business,” said Lawrence. “The travel also helps us promote new products to the golf industry, like Tumi luggage and Trek bikes. High end companies come to us for access to the golf world, like Bullova, Movado, even Weber grilles.”

Work doesn’t leave a lot of time for John, 49, and Pam, 40, to play golf or follow other pursuits, not with growing children and supportive spouses. But they pick their spots. Lawrence is back at Ferncroft as an initiated member and Pam has been dabbling in golf for a few years.

“Our time is all about business now,” notes Berube. “Our time to play golf will come later.”

Full Slate
Tournament Solutions of Danvers is involved with eight different PGA, LPGA and USGA tournaments this year. Here’s a look:
• May – Players Championship – TPC Sawgrass (FL)
• June – US Open – Bethpage Black (NY)
• June – Travelers Championship – TPC Cromwell (CT)
• August – PGA Championship – Hazeltine (MN)
• August – Solheim Cup – Rich Harvest Farms (IL)
• September – TOUR Championship – East Lake (GA)
• October – Presidents Cup – Harding Park (CA)
• November – Wendy’s 3 TOUR Challenge – (NV)