In the end, it’s all about “the stuff.” Now in its 40th iteration, the Chicago Golf Show® presented by the CDGA will unofficially kick off the local 2025 golf season, Feb. 28-March 2, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. The highlight for many will be the incredible deals on golf clubs, apparel, shoes and all manner of golf accessories. In other words, “the stuff.”
Yes, you can get free personal golf lessons from Illinois PGA instructors. You’ll get a free round of golf courtesy of GolfVisions, which runs a dozen courses in the area. You can get tips from Tiger Woods’ former coach Hank Haney on the Main Stage. You can watch as various Chicago Bears receive instruction from some of the top teachers in the state. And you can try to sink the Longest Putt at two different greens operated by the CDGA Foundation. But in the end, you’ll probably be looking for a good deal on a new driver, putter, set of irons or shoes and apparel from top brands in the industry. In other words, “the stuff.”
No one has more “stuff” than Andy Kitchen, head of Maple Hill Golf out of Grandville, Michigan, eight miles from Grand Rapids. Kitchen, 48, hasn’t missed a Chicago Golf Show since he was 21 and his company’s footprint now is the Show’s largest retail-only space at 4,500 square feet. Kitchen and his crew of 18-20 employees travel to eight golf shows each year, mostly in the Midwest during the winter.
“We’re the Home Depot of golf,” declared Kitchen, who operates the business with his brother Bob and father Rich, who founded the operation and now mostly winters in Palm Springs. “Our M.O. is we bring everything, and we discount everything. It’ll be a combination of the very newest models – Callaway, TaylorMade, Cobra – and last year’s models at bargain prices. Like the Cobra LTDx driver. We’re selling it for $159 whereas it was selling for $499 18 months ago. People can pick up a new driver without breaking the bank.”
Maple Hill carries everything from drivers, putters, metal woods, hybrids, golf bags, shirts, shorts, slacks, shoes, range finders, GPS, lasers, gloves, umbrellas, starter sets, junior sets, wedges, airline travel bags, tees, ball markers, you name it. The one thing they have in common is discounts.
Even highly-desirable new products are discounted. High-end brand name putters, such as Scotty Cameron, Bettinardi and L.A.B., will be for sale at the show for a 10-20% discount off store and website retail.
“Putters are a big category for us…I sold a putter for $580,” Kitchen said. “I think people are starting to get keen to the fact that there’s technology in these putters that helps you make more putts or at least leave it closer to the hole. You really can’t put a price on that.”
This year’s best deals might be on golf bags.
“We have better deals on golf bags than I think we’ve ever had,” Kitchen said. “I bet we have 5,000 golf bags. It’s supply and demand. A lot of these manufacturers took the COVID boom, when they didn’t have enough product, and then went overboard and just kept making product. Within a span of two years they’ve gone from not having enough to having too much. When there’s too much, that’s where Maple Hill comes in. We can make an offer on a couple thousand bags and make a killer deal. We’ll have golf bags available for well under $100. We’ll have some of the major name brands in the $150-$200 range. That’s normally a $300 product.”
When it comes to shoes, Maple Hill will have 2,000 pairs on site, including big brand names like FootJoy, Adidas and Puma.
“We’ve got all sizes – 7 to 15 – wide widths and plenty to choose from. We’ll sell a ton of them there.”
Each show he does has a different personality, Kitchen said.
“The Chicago show does a good job of promotion and getting people through the door. I know Chicagoland is big into golf. There are a lot of courses and people are pent up all winter. The Chicago show falls at a great time. Spring is right around the corner. People are itching to play, to touch golf stuff, look at golf stuff, talk about it and buy it.”
Kitchen sees many of the same customers each year. “I definitely see a lot of familiar faces. I’ve got a couple of hundred that I know by name,” he said. “But I’ve got a ton that I know by face. I know I sold a guy a driver last year, a set of irons, or every year he comes and buys something from me. A lot of these guys are golf junkies and they love to come to the show each year and pick up whatever they need.”
It might come as a surprise to some, but Maple Hill gets 90-95% of its product from the manufacturer. The rest comes from golf course pro shops looking to liquidate inventory before next season.
“We get just about everything we have from the manufacturers – golf equipment, apparel, shoes – and the products come with manufacturers’ warranties…We’ll have apparel from FootJoy, Adidas, Puma, TravisMathew, Callaway. We just bought 8,000 shirts from Under Armour…”
Kitchen’s father bought Maple Hill Golf Course, a nine-hole executive course in Michigan, in 1978 with the help of his own father. When Andy and brother Bob got into the business full-time in the late ‘80s, the focus changed to retail.
“My dad started to step out when the internet age came along. We have our own website, our own store, the golf shows. We’ve put six additions onto our building. We still have the golf course. We give lessons. We have a club fitting center. We have junior golf.
“We have so much stuff and so many deals that I feel like no matter how much space we get we’re still always trying to cram every last square foot with stuff, because we have a lot of variety. We have a lot of buys and we try to cover every category.”
Good news for Chicago Golf Show attendees.
“There isn’t anything we don’t have,” Kitchen said. “I think our customers appreciate that.”
