Golfsmith printed one of those 'better than toxic' beats today. Still awful by nearly every metric, but "better than company plan" (whatever that means). Nonetheless, it suggests potential stabilization in the golf space, that has been one of the Achilles heels for DKS.
Check out the gaping hole between comp trajectories for each of the retailers below on a 1 and 2-year basis in the charts below. My usual cynical self would point to HIBB being unrealistic. But the reality is that I think HIBB numbers are not only doable, but beatable. That leads me to ask the question as to whether the gap between the two is justifiable.
DKS has Golf Galaxy, which has been dogging it. But that alone did not have enough juice to drag down the comp by 8-10%. Now with the potential for golf stabilization? I haven't been a fan of DKS in a long long time. In fact, I never have been. I still like HIBB better for many reasons. But as noted 6-weeks ago, I think DKS has finally set the bar low enough to start beating again.
