 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Golf club medic
By PIPER JONES CASTILLO
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- Bob Van Sweden was traveling the world as a bodyguard for rock bands -- Bon Jovi, Sting, Journey and Bryan Adams -- but in 1992 at a concert in Spain, he was stabbed. He came home to St. Petersburg to convalesce and he bumped into a former Boca Ciega classmate, Alison Souza. They fell in love. He wanted to build a friendship with her father. "Play golf with my dad," Alison told him. During that round with Tink Souza, Van Sweden broke a 7-iron. "I was a beginner golfer, frustrated, and I bent it over my knee." He took the club into the Golf Shop of Gulfport for repairs and had an epiphany. "I was fascinated on just what could go wrong with clubs," recalled Van Sweden, now 34. "My grandfather and my uncles were all carpenters, and I never was. It (club repairs) intrigued me immediately. It was like I found my handyman craft." In July, Bob Van Sweden's Golf Repair Center will open, moving from a 300-square-foot room inside Pro Line Golf on Fourth Street N to a 700-square-foot storefront at 2605 Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) St. N. Van Sweden will expand his business to include new golf clubs, balls and accessories as well as a consignment center. "There are up to 40,000 golfers in St. Petersburg, and this area needs a place where golfers can get repairs done as well as finding used equipment," he said. "Maybe you've been looking for that Cleveland Wedge that you'd have to pay full price for in a retail store, and we'll be able to sell it at a lower price." Van Sweden said that even before he received his diploma from Boca Ciega High School, he had wanderlust. He was a teenager when a family friend helped him land a part-time job as a luggage boy, traveling with Journey. He moved to California full time after graduation. At 21, Van Sweden became a bodyguard, licensed in armed security. His first assignment was with the heavy-metal band MegaDeath. He lived in Beverly Hills and drove his Harley-Davidson on the Pacific Coast Highway when he wasn't on tour. St. Petersburg was just a place for holiday gatherings, he remembers. A confidentiality agreement prohibits Van Sweden from talking about the stabbing, but he says the experience was life-changing: "I immediately came home to recover. Next thing I knew, I was back for good, in love, and ready to settle down." Van Sweden, unemployed and still recovering, found himself in Gulfport frequently, visiting the Golf Shop. "One day the owner said, "If you're going to be here, why don't you help me fix some clubs?' " Van Sweden recalls. "I learned reshafting, regripping and adjusting from working there." After a year at the Golf Shop, Van Sweden received a small loan from a relative to begin his own business. He worked out of Play It Again Sports on Tyrone Boulevard. After three months, he moved to Pro Line, a 10-year-old business with stores in St. Petersburg and Naples. "I've been at Pro Line for almost six years. The type of customer that comes in this store varies from weekend golf warrior to executive," said Van Sweden, who is spending $30,000 on his new store. "We wish Bob well," says Jeff Jones, owner of Pro Line, who built the repair room at his store for Van Sweden. "He knows a lot, and he'll do fine." Van Sweden also studied golf repair through the Golf Club Makers Association of America, based in Austin, Texas. "There's a fine line between a real professional golf repair man and glue jockeys." Van Sweden believes that to successfully launch his store, he needs to beat his estimated monthly overhead of $1,300. "I think I'll be able to do it. I've established my name, and there's a need for a store like this. For example, I have one customer who breaks his pitching wedge every weekend. Every Monday morning, he's waiting for me to get his club reshafted." Does he miss the rock 'n' roll years? "I miss the 30 seconds before the band goes onstage, and the electricity that goes on backstage. I miss eating breakfast in Paris and the next day being in the Netherlands, but the definitive moment for me was when I met my wife. I realized then that I could settle back in St. Petersburg. Nowhere else has ever been home to me like St. Petersburg is."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
