IS THERE LIFE AFTER THE CUT?
By Jeff Hopper

Not every good business is about location. Just ask Gary Hallberg.

 Hallberg, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, found himself at the mercy of professional golf's unpredictability five years ago and needed a big idea in a hurry. Hallberg had a young family, and after losing his Tour playing card, he knew that he was facing the need for a stable income.

 "I needed to do something. I had a conversation with Bobby Clampett—you know, Bobby's involved in a lot of things," Hallberg recollects. "We got to talking about this idea to do pro-ams on Saturdays."

 Typical pro-am events at PGA Tour stops fall on Mondays and Wednesdays, which can make for a crowded week for the professionals. Then, if a player misses the cut, he is done by Friday with little to show for the week.

 But the idea that Hallberg and Clampett came to during that crucial conversation added an attractive dimension for players who had missed the cut: stick around for Saturday, play a relaxed pro-am at another local course, and pick up enough to meet expenses for the week. The additional money the event generated would go to charity. Thus, the Saturday Series was born. At least in theory.

 "We thought this could work if the tournaments and the Tour went along with it," Hallberg says. "So I spent the next year traveling around the country in snow storms and bad weather talking to the tournament people."

 The tournament people liked the idea. And the Tour supported it, too. Hallberg had suddenly gone from golfer to businessman.

 "Here I was a professional golfer, and I went to Office Depot and bought some pencils and some envelopes and started a business. I spent a lot of hours with papers spread out on the floor, and we just got things started."

 But even that was a struggle, not unlike the one Hallberg had encountered on the Tour. It wasn't easy meeting expenses. Hallberg got financial help from fellow Tour player Scott Hoch and then from corporate sponsors, sometimes barely staying afloat.

 "If you knew how close this was at times...," Hallberg remembers. "We couldn't meet payroll, I couldn't make mortgage payments for several months at a time, but my hope and my prayers were that it would still work. I just said, 'Lord, if this is what You want, it will happen.' And then a check would come just in time and we would keep going."

 Today, Hallberg Golf Productions has a small Colorado-based staff that works to put the Saturday Series together. The weekend events, which are priced lower than the earlier pro-ams each week, are a favorite among corporations entertaining their clients. But many individuals who just want the opportunity to play with the pros also show up, and by the time the season is over, the Saturday Series has generated as much as $3 million for charity.

 "It's a lot more than I could give by myself," says Hallberg.

 Local charities designated by tournament committees are the usual recipients of the money raised at each site. And in addition to the Saturday events, Hallberg Golf Productions provides two special opportunities: the Caddyshack Invitational in conjunction with Murray Bros. at the World Golf Village in Florida and a weekend at the highly regarded Bandon Dunes in Oregon.

 Hallberg himself still enters what PGA Tour events he can, and he intends to play the Buy.com Tour throughout 2002.

 All of which makes him a very busy man.

 "I'm a professional golfer, that's three jobs in one," says Hallberg in practiced calculation. "I run a business, that's another three jobs in one. I have my family, that's two or three jobs in one. We've started redoing our house. I have about 10 or 12 jobs."

 But Hallberg also keeps his priorities intact. "I talk to my pastor, who helps me keep accountable. We go to church as a family when I'm home, and my wife (Shirley) goes with the kids when I'm not. We get the kids out with me when we can, too. My daughter will come out with me for 10 days this season, they will all come out for three weeks, my wife will come out (by herself)."

 Hallberg also credits his cell phone, which solves not only the problem of juggling all those jobs, but also that matter of location. For no matter where Gary Hallberg is in his travels, that big idea remains. And it's an idea that a lot of people buy into every week.

This article originally appeared in the Links Letter, April 2002.

GARY HALLBERG

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