Fore Love of Game

The Golf Center Has Been Your Local Headquarters for All Things Golf for Nearly 30 Years

By Marla DeFoe

As the weather gets warmer and the grass turns greener, it’s time to start getting back outside and enjoying the beautiful weather while we can. Whether we're camping, gardening, biking, swimming, or golfing, we all yearn for the warm temperatures and the sun shining above.

One of the most popular summer pastimes in our region is golf; and the Golf Center has something for every level of golfer. I sat down with owner Brian Leach, and assistant manager, Nate Bertram of the Golf Center to learn a bit about the past, where they are now, and how they remain on the cutting edge of golf retailers.

The Golf Center first opened as a small pro shop on the site of the former driving range on the south end of Grand Forks in 1992 by a group of former schoolteachers: Bob Leach, Larry Barker, Jim Lies, and Terry Dunphy. Brian learned a lot from his dad. “I remember watching my dad put golf clubs together in the garage,” he said.

Brian wasn’t immediately interested in taking over the store from his dad and partners. After he graduated from UND, he moved away and worked in retail for about eight years. “Dad asked me to move back and manage the store in 1995,” Brian explained. In the early 2000s, Brian purchased the store with his wife, Mary. The store was located in the Columbia Mall for a few years and moved to its current location on Columbia Road in 2009.

The Golf Center has everything you can imagine to gear you up for the game: clubs, bags, balls, shoes, hand carts, and all the accessories. Brian pointed out the apparel to me, including rain gear to utilize when the weather isn’t quite golf perfect. “We strive to give our customers the tools they need to play the best they can,” he said.

Providing outstanding customer service is a top priority of Brian, Nate, and the entire team at The Golf Center. “Be nice. Be helpful. Be knowledgeable,” said Brian. “We offer the latest technology to stay on the cutting edge with golf fitting.”

As the store’s foremost golf club fitting expert, Nate takes the job seriously. “It’s my goal to get more educated every year and see how others do it.” Around

Nate Bertram has a reputation he’s quite proud of. He’s known to most of his customers, and those in the Grand Forks region, as “the man with the fancy shoes.” He is a collector of custom-made dress shoes from all over the world, including Turkey, Milan, the Netherlands and Poland; and they are something to behold.

When he first started working at The Golf Center over 20 years ago, he helped a customer from Canada. She swore she would come see him again when she returned to Grand Forks in about six months. She told him, “I’ll just look for the man with the fancy shoes.” Nate told me that, at the time, the green ostrich shoes were the only fancy shoes he owned, so he started looking for more. She was pleased when she returned months later to find another outstanding pair of shoes on Nate’s feet.

Throughout the years, his collection has grown from that lone, green ostrich pair to a collection of nearly 300 pairs of shoes. You can check out his shoes on his Instagram account @fancyshoesadl.