When Danny Rainbow was pursuing a degree in Sports Management at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in the early 2000s, he had to decide where to do an internship during his final semester. Would it be at University Ridge Golf Course in Verona, Wisconsin, outside his hometown of Madison, or with the University of Florida basketball program in Gainesville, Florida?
“I knew I wanted to do something in sports and had come to this critical point in time – a fork in the road,” says Rainbow, PGA, Director of Golf at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and the 2025 PGA of America Merchandiser of the Year for resort facilities. “When it came down to it, I had enjoyed working in golf so much and couldn’t walk away from it. I chose University Ridge.”
Rainbow started playing golf in elementary school and as a teen took a job as a caddie at Nakoma Golf Club in Madison, while playing on the Madison Memorial High golf team. He moved up through the ranks of outside service at University Ridge and – after graduating in Sports Management in 2003 – was hired full time en route to being elected to PGA of America Membership in 2004.
At University Ridge, a public course and the official home course to the University of Wisconsin men’s and women’s golf teams, he worked with GM/Head Professional Mike Urben, PGA, and Merchandise Manager Amy Lee Olson, learning about both the management and merchandising sides of the business.
“Mike gave me the foundation for what I needed to know as a golf professional, and Amy was very good about having young professionals do displays, sit in on buying meetings and help with orders and receiving,” says Rainbow, who was elected to PGA Membership in 2004. “I’m very fortunate in that wherever I’ve been, I’ve had great people to model.”
Olson left University Ridge in 2005 to take a position at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minnesota. She told Rainbow about an Assistant Professional opening, and in 2007, he followed her there to work under PGA of America Hall of Famer Jock Olson. After just a year on the job, he was offered the GM/Head Professional job at The Meadows of Sixmile Creek, a public course just outside Madison. Rainbow had an opportunity over the next seven years to run all facets of the golf shop — a good steppingstone that made him feel confident when SentryWorld came calling in 2015.
“SentryWorld is the kind of place that once you get here and work at this facility, you don’t want to leave,” he says. “Sentry Insurance, which owns the property, is very supportive and embraces golf in the company values and everything we do.” Those values are expressed in 17 service standards instituted by SentryWorld GM Mike James, PGA, who has been instrumental in Rainbow’s development over the last decade. They are aimed at offering “truly world-class service” through practices like greeting guests properly and walking them through the shopping experience. Success in the golf shop is also about keeping displays fresh and having a good flow of merchandise. Rainbow always strives to keep a finger on the pulse of which products are in demand, something that has changed drastically since 2022, when SentryWorld transitioned from being a public to a resort facility with a 64-room boutique hotel built alongside the 18th fairway of the championship golf course.
“We have almost none of the same vendors we did five years ago and continue to monitor what moves, what doesn’t and what guests are asking for,” Rainbow says, adding that the lineup has transitioned from mostly athletic lines to upscale brands like Peter Millar, Holderness & Bourne, Greyson and G/Fore for men and Greyson, G/Fore, J.Lindeberg and adidas for women.
“Our facility has undergone quite a transformation, and we now schedule our tee times at 20-minute intervals so the course won’t be overcrowded, conditions are impeccable and golfers can enjoy a relaxed pace of play.”
SentryWorld has also been concentrating over the last two years on design, application and placement of its logo – a flower icon that celebrates the 16th hole, which has 50,000 flowers planted on it annually. As the resort becomes more popular and the logo more recognizable, management has added an option with just the icon and no text and has developed an extensive set of guidelines, using more subtle, tonal logos on many lifestyle items.
“We evaluate each piece to determine if the logo should be on the chest or sleeve, how big it should be and whether it should be the club colors or more tonal,” Rainbow adds. “When you get the logo right, it really adds to the attraction of the piece.”
He also takes a chapter out of Amy Lee Olson and Mike Urben’s book, making shop employees part of the merchandising operation by encouraging them to sit in on meetings, select lines, build displays and share what they’re hearing from guests about products they like and other information.
“The more involved they are, the more of a sense of ownership and pride they feel,” Rainbow says.
Another boost to the SentryWorld operation came when it hosted the 2023 U.S. Senior Open Championship. Since the facility owned the merchandise concession, Rainbow was tasked with coordinating the buying and logistics for the merchandise shop. To make sure they were prepared, staff members attended the championship in 2021 and 2022 so they could walk through the merchandise shops, take photos, meet with buyers and familiarize themselves with best practices
“Having not done something like this before, it was a substantial undertaking,” Rainbow recalls. “Thanks to our outstanding team and lots of thoughtful planning, we were able to execute a highly successful championship merchandise concession.”
All these things have led SentryWorld to nearly triple golf shop sales in the years since Rainbow arrived, and he largely attributes that to the club’s service standards and how they have enhanced the customer experience.
“We want customers to walk out feeling like they were treated very well,” he says. “We’re confident in the products we have to sell, but we also want them delighted by our service and hospitality.”
