Dick's Sporting Goods No Longer Blaming Golf For All Problems

I love the shopping experience at Dick's Sporting Goods, but longtime readers know how revolting I found it that the chain of sporting goods stores blamed the state of golf after going all-in on Taylor Made's three-drivers-in-one-year strategy.

So it was nice to see them at least not dump on the state of golf in their latest conference call and even suggest that the lowly "sport" of hunting was the real drag on sales (as golf stabilized). Overall, Dick's is taking a huge stock price hit and may still be feeling the karma after-effects for having blamed golf for all world problems.

From Tomi Kilgore's story, whcih was accompanied by, quite charmingly, a Callaway ERC II. Nothing like featuring turn-of-the-century drivers! (Thanks reader John for sharing this.)

The sporting goods retailer’s stock DKS, +0.51%  plunged 12% in active afternoon trade Tuesday, putting it on track to close at the lowest level since January 2012, after the company’s disappointing results and outlook. The stock has tumbled nearly 40% since the April 4, 2015 record close of $58.98.

Same-store sales at its Golf Galaxy stores declined for an 11th-straight quarter, but the company said that overall, sales of golf equipment and apparel increased and golf margins improved.

Chief Executive Ed Stack explained on a Tuesday conference call with analysts that while Golf Galaxy “ran a little behind” the results seen in Dick’s branded stores, Golf Galaxy represented only about 3% of the company’s total business, according to a transcript provided by FactSet. Stack said he saw reason to be optimistic on golf, given strong sales of new products, such as the M1 driver from TaylorMade and Callaway Golf Co.’s Big Bertha.

Stack said the golf business still won’t be a big growth area, “it’s just we think we’ve stopped the bleeding, so to speak, but it will be much more profitable.”

That's better!