Carl’s Golfland Loses Its Leader, Carl Rose, Jr.
The vibrant Rose passed on January 11 at age 65
By Tom Lang
Carl Rose, Jr. and the Carl’s Golfland he eventually led to prominence locally and nationally were both born in 1958. And while the golf retail giant rolls on, Carl, Jr. has passed away, leaving us all on January 11.
That first year, with baby Carl on the way, his parents, Carl, Sr. and Donna, made the leap from running a grocery store in Pontiac to owning and operating the only driving range in the region. It wasn’t long until Carl, Jr. began picking range balls in elementary school and eventually, about three decades ago, took over the day-to-day operations for his parents and built Carl’s Golfland into what we know today.
At a recent Celebration of Life for Rose, Jr. at the wonderful Saint John’s Resort – which is adjacent to the second Carl’s Golfland that opened in Plymouth in 2000 – COO Casey Baker started the celebration festivities by saying, through raw emotion felt for the loss of his leader: “I have had a lot of conversations with many people the past week since Carl died, and the ongoing theme was, ‘God sure broke the mold when he made that man’.”
‘Passion’ was also an ongoing term used abundantly from those sharing their stories of Carl, Jr. that day – passion for his family, passion for the business, passion for helping others. There are numerous examples over the years of how Carl would help complete strangers who were in a tough spot. His passion for the business manifested itself in vendors having to take the short end of some tough deals, or staff leadership taking some wrath – but the same passion drove the positive care he showed for employees that was often over the top favorable for young people.
I wrote the feature content for the Carl’s Golfland annual magazine from 2010 through 2019. My involvement with Carl was not as deep as many people, so my personal stories are limited. But one stands out. When club fitter Ryan Johnson was in the final round of the 2015 Michigan Amateur Championship played at Plum Hollow in Southfield, Carl was there following along. I was covering the tournament for the Detroit Free Press, and when Johnson won, Carl beamed, and behaved with as much pride as if Johnson was his son. It was support like that which many staff have expressed made it special to work for, and with, Carl, Jr. He had genuine passion for his staff and treated them like family.
Amateur golfers were at the forefront for Carl, Jr. He developed the First Club for Kids program that gives every junior golfer their first club for free. Carl also supported the GAM’s amateur programs in many ways for many years.
While golf has gone through its ebbs and flows over the last 65 years, the one constant at Carl’s Golfland has always been customers’ access to a full-size driving range, so trying any club before purchasing it became the staple. And the upgraded range in Bloomfield Hills in 2017 became the first in the nation equipped with TrackMan Range. About six years before that, Carl, Jr. added the Launch Pad state of the art club fitting center. The store has consistently been in the national rankings for top 100 retail golf operators for decades. Almost 250 people are employed by Carl’s Golfland.
“The connection between Carl and the game reaches so much deeper than a business relationship,” said Bill Hobson of Michigan Golf Live. “Like his dad, Carl, Jr. poured himself into making sure golfers of every level had a home when they came to the Golfland. In an era of big box, impersonal transactions, Carl thrived by providing an unrivaled personal touch.”
Carl, Jr. was heavily into power sports like snowmobiling, boating and racing cars. The phrase work hard, play hard defined Carl to a ‘tee’, including the sport of golf now and then. Carl leaves behind his loving wife Tiffany, and children Ella (19) Jake (17).
“Carl’s beaming personality and ability to make every customer and vendor feel like a part of our Golfland family is built into our culture,” Baker said. “Carl had a vision to build a strong, experienced team who at any time could continue running the company without interruption.”
In true fashion, while more than 500 people gathered to say their goodbyes on Jan. 21, across the parking lot at Saint John’s, golfers were preparing for their upcoming season at the store he built, just like Carl said it should be – business as usual.
