No 19th hole for Cal’s Caddyshack

Owner closes golf shop to seek greener links, but he’ll still be available for repairs and custom fittings.COSTA MESA -- Cal’s Caddyshack owner Jim Pooler is leaving the retail business, but he’s nowhere near having swung his last golf club.

Pooler closed his Newport Boulevard golf shop Monday to take a new job, leaving local golfers wondering where they’ll get the kind of customer service and personal attention for which Pooler is known.

“It’s a bummer. He’s been around forever,” said Andrew Thompson, a PGA pro at the Costa Mesa Country Club. “We refer everybody to his shop.”

Now they’ll have to go elsewhere for their golf supplies, but if they don’t mind a drive they can still get Pooler to custom-fit and repair their clubs. In February he will become the fitting and repair specialist at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo.

Pooler started the shop 15 years ago, with Cal Stilley as his financial partner. Stilley owns the property the shop occupies, but Pooler bought out his share of the store and became the sole owner five years ago.

As he told one customer Monday, he’s best at fitting and fixing clubs, and the retail end of the job was bogging him down.

“The retail industry has changed dramatically since I first got into it,” Pooler said. “It’s gone obviously very big-box.”

Technology also has helped rapidly change golf club fitting in the last few years, and Pooler finds that exciting. At his new job, when a player hits a ball, Pooler will be able to use computers to figure out the ball speed, launch angle and rate of spin to pinpoint the best size and type of club for that person.

Because of those changes in the industry, Pooler decided to move on, but his customers will miss the less technological side of his services.

Scott Smith of Huntington Beach dropped in Monday after his wife saw the sign about the store closing. At Cal’s Caddyshack, Pooler would ask about your golf game and let you mill around without pressuring you to buy things, Smith said.

And Pooler’s an expert, Smith added, explaining that at the sporting-goods chain stores, “Most of those guys, they probably don’t even play golf.”

For Mary Bigelow of Costa Mesa, who visited the store twice Monday, it was the customer service that set Pooler’s shop apart.

She often bought gifts for her husband there, she said, and the prices were always good.

“They even Christmas wrap,” she said. “It’s like a hometown store.”

Pooler encouraged the next generation of golfers, collecting used clubs and bags to donate to Costa Mesa and Estancia high schools.

He also gave time or money to a number of charity golf tournaments around town.

Some of the leftover inventory will be donated to the Assistance League of Costa Mesa, and some will be sold on EBay, Pooler said.

He’ll start his new job in a couple of weeks, but the change is bittersweet because he’ll be losing many of his customers.

“This business has always been about people to me, and when business was bad, I could always count on the good interaction with my loyal customers,” he said.

20060131itxi9kncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Jim Pooler is closing his beloved store after 15 years to work at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo.