Day: December 24, 2024

When I was a much younger man, I used to play some golf, but considering that my goal was to someday play bogey golf (one shot above par on every hole, or a score of 90 on a par-72 course), I clearly wasn’t very good. As my sons reached the age where they chose to play pretty much every team sport, even when I wasn’t one of the coaches, it still fell on me to drive them to and from every practice and most every game. Golf was the one thing in my life at the time that I felt comfortable giving up, because of how long it takes to play an entire round, much less practice or take enough lessons to improve. 

When Tampa Palms resident Scott Strunk started advertising his company Good 5 Golf with us, it wasn’t 100% clear to me whether he was selling golf apparel or lessons or both or what the significance of “Good 5” was — at least until I read his explanation on Good5Golf.com. 

For those of you who love to play the world’s most humbling game, you may already be that bogey golfer I aspired to be, which likely means you’re hoping to play scratch golf someday. 

If so, I’m sure you’ve experienced that feeling when you could’ve easily hit a double bogey, but you either hit a nice shot from out of the woods or sunk a long putt that allowed you to still hit a 5 on a hard par four and someone said to you, “Good 5.” (Or, for me, “Great 5.”) 

Well, Scott says that was the motivation for calling the LLC he founded with his childhood friend from rural New Jersey, Jorge Arroyo, in September of this year. 

“I had just gotten a bogey on a par 4 and my friend said to me, ‘Hey, Good 5,’ and that was it for me,” Scott says. “I said, ‘I’m going to start a golf brand called Good 5.’” 

The company’s motto on his ad, is “Good 5 is for the golfer who accepts bogey with grace, style and comfort. It’s better than a double. It’s a Good 5.” 

Nearly three short months later, Good 5 is the locally owned company that sells top-quality golf caps in a variety of styles — from the super-popular “rope caps,” with the rope crossing the top of the brim, to trucker-style and peached cotton twill caps, all embroidered here in Tampa with the unique Good 5 logo. The company also sells heavyweight golf T-shirts in all of the same colors as the hats, so you can mix and match them all. 

“We will be adding golf polo shirts, in both men’s and women’s styles, in the future,” Scott says, “but right now, we’re just focusing on hats and T-shirts.” 

He adds that what he doesn’t want is to put his logo on “some cheap polo shirts that fall apart after two washings. This brand is about quality, and we’re still looking for the right polo shirts at the right price.” He also says he also plans to put the logo on ball markers and maybe even golf tees and golf balls in the future, “if things go well.” 

Scott notes, however, that Good 5 probably won’t be getting into adding golf shorts or pants anytime soon, “because there are just too many sizes, fits and styles to deal with.” 

He also says that sales are going pretty well, but he started advertising Good 5 in these pages because, “I purchased quite a bit of inventory (from Oregon-based Richardson Sports), “most of which is taking up most of the space in my office. In order to get hats of this quality at a reasonable price, you have to buy quite a few at a time. Let’s just say that my credit cards are all pretty much maxed out.” 

Fortunately for Scott, whose background is in computer sales and who still has his “day job” with a company that sells high-end gaming computers, “Unlike computers, shirts and caps kept in plastic won’t go bad in six months or a year or become what I call ‘aged bananas.’ It’s better to have too many than to run out of stock. We have a lot of friends who’ve bought them and everyone so far loves them.” 

‘I Really Want To Do This’ 

Scott says that when he first told Jorge, who still lives in New Jersey, that he was planning to start a golf apparel company, Jorge said, “You do realize that’s a really competitive business, right?” 

Scott countered, “I know, but I’m at the age now where I don’t just want to think about doing things in the future, I want to actually do them. I really want to do this and I really want it to do well. But, if it ends up not making money, I guess that’s OK, too.” 

So, Jorge, who had sold a company and was always interested in a good idea, agreed to partner with his long-time friend. They purchased the domain name “Good5Golf.com” and Scott says they realized, “We need a really cool-looking logo — which I think we have. — and the right brand with the right marketing. I worked with a local company that I know from Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club to (he has lived in Tampa Palms since 2019) help me source some of the hats and T-shirts and I created the website. So, we’re going full steam ahead with this Good 5 Golf brand.” 

Scott then enlisted his 25-year-old daughter Ashley — who was on the golf team at her high school in Boca Raton and then at Eckerd College — to handle social media for the business and Good 5 Golf was born. 

He notes that, “The reason the logo only says ‘Good 5’ and not ‘Good 5 Golf’ is because I really want this to become a ‘lifestyle brand,’ not just a golf brand. Good 5 can be about anything.” 

A Military Tie-In? 

Scott says that his father enlisted in the Navy and served as an intelligence officer in the Vietnam War. “I was born in Key West because my dad was stationed there,” he says. 

In addition, George Miragliuolo, another one of Scott & Jorge’s friends from their K-12 school (which had only 23 kids in their graduating class), did multiple tours of combat duty in the military, so he hopes to someday have an opportunity to partner up with a charity that provides service to military veterans. 

“We’re trying to figure out how we can honor veterans in general,” Scott says, “and we want to tie in with one of the great veterans’ charities going on out there. But we haven’t figured out how to do that yet.” 

For more info about Good 5 Golf, visit Good5Golf.com. You also can follow the brand on Facebook and Instagram @Good5Golf. And, if you use the code “NewTampa” from the ad below, you’ll save 25% off your purchase. So remember, “It’s better than a double. It’s a Good 5.”