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The new golf superstore at Silvermere that was once a boxing gym
A new premium-brand store opened at the Surrey site is now open, adding another string to the bow of Europe’s busiest golf retail complex
WHEN Elevated at Silvermere opened in March, it marked another significant point in the timeline of a complex that has become Europe’s busiest golf retail site.
Before the new store took shape, Managing Director Terry Sims PGA, who joined Silvermere in 2013, wanted to convert spare space into something new, but how to fill it was the next question.
“I had a gym next door. That was virtually my only landlord relationship, and it was a boxing gym,” Sims said.
“An opportunity came to terminate it. So I did, and we sat on it, and then we decided what we're going to do about it. We just thought, ‘What are we good at here?’ We're not good at everything, but we seem to be quite good at retail.
“It's another opportunity to do a different zone of revenue. The men's store and the ladies store are full. We saw 18 men's brands downstairs, 18 ladies’ brands, and there's no room.
“But it had to be different,” he added. “We didn't just want to cannibalise upstairs. I put it out to the staff. I said, ‘We're going to turn this into retail. What shall we do?’
“Quite a lot of people responded and Joe the manager - he's the one who said, ‘I think we should go high end’. Our strap line is premium, limited, desirable, and with those three things, it doesn't have to necessarily mean it's expensive.”
“We've got a successful business. It's much easier to bolt something new on to a business that is doing quite well ”
Elevated was planned in January 2024 and delivered in March 2025. Using his vast experience in fitting shops, Sims also acquired the services of we.are.sdi to deliver the design.
The premium brands in Elevated at Silvermere include Manors, Malbon, Vessell, Macade, Greyson, Jones, GFore, Stitch, Peter Millar, True, Adidas Originals and Oakley. It can be found on the top tier of the Cobham-based site in Surrey.
Silvermere was founded by Doug McClelland PGA who retired in 2020 after 40 years in business. He employed 25 PGA Professionals in that time, who have contributed to what is a flourishing venue that also has a 52-bay Toptracer range, a Shoe Studio with Planet FootJoy and custom fitting centres.
It was the collective effort of the staff at Silvemere who brainstormed several names for the new store, before landing on Elevated.
“We put it out to all of the staff and you should’ve seen some of things we got back!” Sims said.
“The first name we really liked was ‘Turn Left’, and it was going to be a connotation to a plane, so you turn left to first class – we were going to call it ‘Turn Left at Silvermere’. We all really liked it, but we realised we already had another shop with the word ‘left’ in it, with Left-Handed Golf. I couldn’t have two.
“Top Tier was next. But I said imagine if a customer asked,’ Where’s the Top Tier Store?’ And you go down the corridor and it’s upstairs, it’s on the top tier of the range. So Top Tier is on the top tier. We just can’t.
“That’s age for you. That’s why I’m grey because you can definitely see when you’re about to make a mistake. I think we could’ve done one or two of those things, and then we decided one word was better than two.”
Sims completed his PGA Professional training between 1988 and 1995 at Wentworth. He became the Director of Golf at Kingswood in 2000 and four years later, he started Left-Handed Golf – an equipment platform dedicated to what it says on the tin.
Sims took Left-Handed Golf to Silvermere when he relocated, which was a significant step for a venture he started during his time at Kingswood in Tadworth.
The offering for left-handed golfers, plus the wide range of ladies clothes as well as men’s, is something that Sims believes Silvermere excels at the most.
“There used to be a left-handed shop in London,” he explained.
“I was the Director of Golf at Kingswood and I owned the shop for two years. It was pretty obvious there was no growth. It was only going backwards as a traditional pro shop.
“I thought that if I'm going to do this for a medium to long time, I need to do something that no one else is doing. There's a lot of really, really good PGA pros doing really good stuff, and they're specialising in coaching or fitting or corporate days.
“I had a left-handed pro at the time, and the guy in the left-handed shop was actually a member of Kingswood as well. I thought let's try this, it makes sense. We bought the URL up about 10 minutes after. It cost a tenner and off we went. We opened about six weeks later and like every business, you don't make a profit for four or five years. That's the way it is.
“A lot of madness, driving around the country, going to Scottish golf shows, London golf shows, Birmingham golf shows and taking adverts everywhere, activity on the internet.
“We managed to be able to do a lot of things pretty well,” he added. “Two things we do better than anyone else are minorities. By that I mean in play rate, left-handed golf is a minority and ladies golf is a minority.
“I think we do ladies and left-handed golf better than anyone else, 100% in my opinion, and then we do the rest of it pretty good.”
52
bays on the driving range
Silvermere Fact Box
four
custom fitting studios
eight
qualified custom fitters
22
PGA Professionals
Largest stockist for FootJoy in Europe
For what is already a hotspot for golfers and golf clothing customers, Elevated at Silvermere has added another solid string to its bow, and has taken Sims back to when Left-Handed Golf first took off over 20 years ago.
With more space and further plans to expand the retail offering, there is never a static moment at Silvermere which has been built into a position where innovation and further layers can always be added.
“It's been amazing,” Sims said.
“Elevated and the opening is the most similar thing I've done to Left-Handed Golf and the fact that people come and say, ‘You've got Manors, Macade’. I think we’re the only stockist of Macade in Britain.
“The three Ms – Macade, Malbon and Manors – are our three biggest-selling brands so far.
“We're lucky. We've got the opportunity to innovate,” he added. “We've got a successful business. It's much easier to bolt something new on to a business that is doing quite well.
“We're not creating greatness. If you were trying to open Elevated as a stand-start in a high street, or brand-new at a golf club that didn't have much traffic, it would probably fail. We've got enough time and all of the customers.”
