Carl Paul, Golfsmith co-founder and devoted clubmaker, dead at 83

It’s hard to imagine a time when custom club-fitting didn’t exist, but before Carl Paul came along, golfers lived in just such an off-the-rack world.

Paul, the enterprising Golfsmith co-founder who died Friday at 83, was a giant in the golf-equipment retail space, chiefly for the role he played in helping golfers to customize their gear.

Paul was born in New Jersey on Jan. 24, 1940, but grew up in Texas, where he also attended college, receiving a B.S. in General Engineering from Texas A&I (now, Texas A&M Kingsville) in 1963. He worked as a civil engineer in Pennsylvania before taking a job with the Federal Power Commission in New York City, where he received an invitation to play his first round of golf.

Paul’s engineering expertise convinced him that better club design could help him improve. He devoted a room in his two-bedroom apartment to club-tinkering, taking apart clubs, sanding down the heads and putting them back together. Thus began Paul’s club-making business, which he pursued on nights and weekends.

In 1970, Paul and his wife, Barbara, created and sent out a mailer for golf-club parts — the first catalog of its kind. When order demand outpaced the Pauls’ capacity, Paul and Barbara invited Paul’s brother, Frank, to join the business.

In 1973, they relocated to Austin, Texas, where they settled in an unused Army barracks before ultimately expanding into a compound that became the headquarters of Golfsmith International, Inc., in 1992. Legendary teacher Harvey Penick hosted two- and three-day golf schools at Golfsmith, and the Golf Clubmakers Association was founded there.

The Paul family sold the company in 2002, when it had 1,200 employees, 35 retail stores and the biggest golf retail and component catalog circulation in the world. In 2016, Golfsmith was acquired by Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Paul is survived by Barbara, his wife of 58 years, three daughters and seven grandchildren. You can read his obituary here.