Business Week Online Names Entrepreneur’s Golf Podcast Top 10 in Sports Category

Business Week's online edition named 10 sports podcasts, including Golf Gear News, as the best on the web. The Business Week Online writer called it a "newsy, offbeat podcast that blends golf headlines with regular features such as golf for women and interviews with obscure and overlooked equipment manufacturers. The day I tuned in, I even got the lowdown on Annika Sorrenstam's new boyfriend.”

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) April 2, 2006 -- A biweekly podcast by Bruce Stasch, owner of Apex Golf Enterprises, has been cited by Business Week Online as one of the country’s best sports podcasts.

The business magazine’s March 8th online edition named 10 sports podcasts, including Stasch’s Golf Gear News, as the best on the web. The Business Week Online writer called it a "newsy, offbeat podcast that blends golf headlines with regular features such as golf for women and interviews with obscure and overlooked equipment manufacturers. The day I tuned in, I even got the lowdown on Annika Sorrenstam's new boyfriend."

Stasch’s show was also a featured podcast on Podcast Free America www.podcastfreeamerica.com) and ranks as tops in the golf category on www.podcastalley.com, the web’s largest directory of podcasts. The same site ranks his podcast in the top 2 percent in overall popularity.

A podcast is an audio or video file distributed from a website that can be downloaded by computer users and listened to on a computer or portable mp3 player like the iPod. Stasch’s first foray into becoming an online broadcaster came last year when he began a blog, a web diary, which showcased interesting golf industry news covering everything from Golf Galaxy’s conquests to the follies and triumphs of professional golfers.

"I decided late last year to start a podcast after blogging for six months," he says. "I started out with just a simple microphone but quickly upgraded the operation with better sound and phone interviewing equipment. The Golf Gear News show has quickly grown to around 500 listeners and I just released my 11th episode. This show seems like a natural extension of what I’ve already been doing in the golf business."

The Golf Gear News show is a bi-weekly 20-25 minute broadcast with segments like Golf of the Weird, She Golf’s Too, Mythbusters, Golf Around the World and Interviews with the Guru conducted by Stasch, the self-described Golf Gear Guru.

Golf Gear News supports two of Stasch’s e-commerce businesses. The primary one, www.golfknockoff.com, allows buyers to "clone" golf clubs of such popular brand name manufacturers. The other components of golf clubs – shafts and grips – are also sold on the site but are primarily brand name products. The clubs are then assembled by Stasch’s suppliers in the United States and shipped around the world.

A second site, www.clubbuilders.net, offers similar products to clubbuilding professionals who can buy at a volume discount. "We developed this site after seeing that 20 percent of the customers of www.golfknock.com were clubbuilders and were buying the components and assembling the products themselves," he explains. “This site offers a clubbuilder a much larger selection than any of our competitors."

Stasch points out that golf components represent 60% of all equipment sold. The sites saw component sales grow last year by 198 percent over 2004. Overall sales grew 7 percent last year in a down market, he says.

In addition to selling golf equipment online, Stasch owns Apex Marketing Group, a web developer and designer for small and medium-sized businesses.

About Apex Golf Enterprises: Is the holding company for Golf Gear News, a podcast for everything golf, Golfknockoff.com, an online retailer of clone golf equipment and Clubbuilders.net, a retailer of golf components to clubbuilders. The company is based in Minneapolis. Golf Gear News can be found at www.golfgearcenter.blogspot.com

About Bruce Stasch: He is the owner of Apex Marketing Group and has a background in business development, marketing and advertising. His Twin Cities firm has provided marketing services to major companies like IBM, ITT, Best Buy, United Healthcare, DataCard and 3M. He has played golf for more than 10 years and gives himself at least two mulligans per round.

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