Walk through the golf shop at TPC Louisiana and you’ll see a basketball hoop, neon lights and a vast array of T-shirts, hats and headcovers bearing New Orleans-themed logos. Customers range from seasoned golfers to college students from nearby Tulane University, but the main star is the Big Easy itself, according to Head Professional Alex Abbruzza, the 2026 PGA of America Merchandiser of the Year for public facilities.
“Nothing makes me happier than when people walk in and say, ‘This is the coolest golf shop I’ve ever been in,’” Abbruzza says.
“New Orleans is the most unique city in the country, and that vibrant culture is the heart of our merchandise strategy here at TPC Louisiana. We treat our shop not just as a place for golf items, but as an extension of the local spirit.”
Though New Orleans is now home, Abbruzza spent the early years of his life in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, Washington. He started playing golf with his father at age 12 at the local public course, Willows Run Golf Complex, and “quickly got the bug for it.” Two years later, he became a caddie at Sahalee Country Club in nearby Sammamish, thanks to the nudging of friend (and now PGA of America Member Alex Mroz), and the day he turned 16, began working in outside operations at Willows Run while also playing three years of high school golf.
“Golf is all I’ve ever done, and pretty much the only career I’ve really ever been interested in,” Abbruzza says.
That realization led to his decision to enroll in the PGA Golf Management University Program at the University of Idaho, which included three-month internships at Willows Run, Teton Springs in Wyoming and Seattle Golf Club. Toward the end of his senior year, he did a seven-month internship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where he worked for PGA of America Professionals Bill Hughes, Matt Borocz and Brian Riddle, and Merchandise Manager Chris Tully. A pretty big leap for a kid who had never been east of Denver.
“Sawgrass is obviously one of the most prestigious public facilities in the country, and I realized this was the world I wanted to be in,” says Abbruzza, who was hired as a full-time assistant there after graduating in 2014, the same year he was elected to PGA Membership.
“I also had the chance to work on the merchandise tent during The Players Championship, which was massive.”
Three years later, he left to take his first head professional job at Bayou Oaks at City Parks in New Orleans. At age 25, it was a great opportunity, as the South Course had just opened along with a new golf shop.
“It was my first chance to take full ownership of a retail experience and something I became passionate about,” he says. “It was a challenge; people don’t walk in their local municipal course expecting to buy merchandise. We had to be different and create a shop people wanted to shop in.”
Another chance to step up came in May of 2021, when Abbruzza became Director of Golf at TPC Scottsdale, which was closer to Sawgrass in terms of shop size and volume. Not only did he learn from “two great PGA of America Professionals in Brad Williams and Doug Hodge,” but he also worked with Director of Retail Michelle Seman.
“We did a lot of outside-the-box things: My favorite was creating a new secondary logo, the roadrunner, that they still use today,” he says.
After a successful couple of years at TPC Scottsdale, Abbruzza had a chance to return to New Orleans when the TPC Louisiana Head Professional job came open in mid-2023. With the support of GM Luke Farabaugh, he took an underperforming shop that would do $586,000 in sales that year to new heights with alternative logos celebrating New Orleans events, brands and culture. In 2025, shop sales surpassed $1 million, and that combined with record sales from the club’s annual Zurich Classic of New Orleans brought total yearly merchandise revenues to $2.2 million.
Abbruzza attributes this dramatic rise in sales to the creative spirit he and his staff members bring to the shop every day. He leans heavily on local partnerships, working with a range of graphic designers – many of whom are from Louisiana – who help translate cool concepts into apparel and accessories for the golf shop.
“From crawfish boils to the festival season in the spring, everything about Southeast Louisiana drives us,” he adds. “We strive to create items that guests won’t find at any other golf shop.”
This strategy has worked so well in driving headwear sales that Abbruzza decided to expand it to headcovers, which are gaining traction as collector’s items for golfers. He created a display that spans an entire wall and includes headcovers with crawfish nets, potholes and beignets (pronounced “ben-yays”), a type of deep-fried French pastry widely known as a signature food of New Orleans. And in addition to a successful group of core apparel brands like lululemon, Holderness & Bourne, Greyson and Rhoback, the shop also does well with a local company called Alon that makes New Orleans-themed polos with unique designs.
Abbruzza and his staff are also featuring hats and headcovers on Instagram, where UPC New Orleans has 7,000 followers, and some of its posts have received 1,000 or more shares. “There’s a link to our online store in our Instagram bio, and we surpassed $60,000 in sales this past year,” he says. “It’s been a lot of fun to grow the site.”
Abbruzza also credits his three assistants with encouraging him to “take some swings” with products, from oversized boxy oversized T-shirts to Mardi Gras ball markers and voodoo doll pin flags – which have all been home runs for the shop.
“We are leaning into the incredible culture that exists in the city and the unique aspects of NOLA being incorporated into our merchandise operation. It has created a one-of-a-kind golf shop that doesn’t look or feel like one you might find anywhere else,” he says. “Our continued goal is to be a golf shop that truly represents this special city.”
