Tour van service comes to Mountain Falls Golf Course in Pahrump

Now golfers in Pahrump can take advantage of having a full-service tour van, the same type of service professional golfers have on the PGA tour.

Joel Metcalf, the owner of Club Clinic, said he has a special agreement with Elite Golf Management, who manages four golf courses in Las Vegas, as well as Mountain Falls Golf Course. Metcalf wants to bring tour van services to Pahrump.

“I have been coming out here to Mountain Falls for the past two weeks on Tuesday,” he said. “I go out, greet the golfers, and I tell them I offer all the services a PGA tour van offers. I can grip a whole set of golf clubs while you eat and have a beer.”

Metcalf loves the game of golf and has been working with club repairs for the past 20 years. He worked for Golf Galaxy in Las Vegas, where he managed that store.

“I was also a sales rep for many years,” he said. “The golf professionals used to do all this work. Over the years they turned this type of work over to mom and pop golf shops. Those shops, he said, were passionate people about golf. What happened is all those shops have gone away and have been bought out.”

He says nowadays these jobs have been taken over by inexperienced professionals.

“It is more of a job and not a passion with these workers,” Metcalf said. “I was working in Las Vegas repairing clubs. How I got into my own business was I noticed over the years that the ‘personal touch’ that golf shops used to have was gone. I got into this business wanting to bring that passion and personal service back.”

Metcalf wants to bring service back to the golf course

“Golfers don’t have to go back to the retail stores to get service,” he said. “You can get all the service at the golf course now. We come out to the golf course and partner with the PGA golf professionals and say, ‘We will be an extension of you.’ You will have access to a tour van just like a PGA golfer.”

Metcalf drives his customized service van right up to the course and services customers while they eat or play golf. He services the following items: golf spikes, loft and lie adjustments, broken shaft repairs, shaft upgrades, grips, loose heads, head rattles, head buffing and club lengthening/shortening.

Randy Mudge, general manager and golf professional at Mountain Falls, said Metcalf was doing this at other Elite Management courses when they asked him to come out here.

“We thought we would try it out here to see what kind of spark of interest we would get out here,” Mudge said. “The first two weeks has been all right for him. The concept is a great idea. He can go to a business and the guys there can plan on bringing their clubs to him and he can work on them while they are at work. We do grips here but he does all kinds of things we can’t do.”

Pahrump golfer Charles McCallie liked the concept and the convenience of the service provided by Club Clinic.

“I met him (Joel) last week and had him put some grips on for my wife because she has arthritis,” McCallie said. “I am back with her today to practice and so we will have the grips put on. I like the convenience of it.”

“I have a weekly special on grips and this week it is Royal Grips,” Metcalf said. “Well, this golfer came in named Danny Edwards, who is a professional golfer, that just happened to start the company Royal Grips. He was playing here and asked me for 12 of them.”

Mudge can now size shafts to fit golfers and then Metcalf can do the work right there at the course and it usually can be done in one day.

Metcalf said he starts his day in Pahrump at 8 a.m. and is here until it gets dark.

For more information, contact Metcalf at 702-797-0111.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com