Armed with a catchy name when it launched its canned cocktail business in 2019, Connecticut-based Links Drinks will celebrate its fifth anniversary this July in style.
The company now has three versions of its vodka canned cocktail drink – called a transfusion – and is available in 16 states at upwards of 5,000 locations, including more than 500 golf courses.
“We really wanted to own the golf market and that has been our selling point from the start, that is our niche,” says owner Fred Evanko.
“A transfusion has always been a popular golf club drink, but we were the first people to put it in a can,” he added. “Being a career salesperson I liked the selling point of having a built-in customer base, which was very beneficial. And the golf courses kind of do marketing for us by selling our products.”
The 12-ounce classic is a mix of vodka, ginger ale and grape juice.
Two additional ready-to-drink cocktails called the Front Nine (vodka, ginger ale and orange juice) and Back Nine (vodka, ginger ale and cranberry juice) complement the original classic version and are now about 30 to 40 percent of the Links Drinks business. In 2024, the company introduced a variety eight pack with a golf ball dimple design on the outside of the carton.
It appears Links Drinks was one of the businesses surrounding golf that benefited from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Golf courses were booming during Covid and grab-and-go products were very popular and still are,” Evanko says. “It is convenient and certainly on the golf course it helps with pace of play and there is less waste.”
Evanko also points out that Links Drinks is a great fit for golf tournaments.
“You can just throw it in a cooler and not have to hire a bartender out on the course,” he says. “And it’s perfect for a halfway house and beverage cart business.
“I would say I was surprised how the category itself has taken off,” Evanko added. “When we were at the PGA Show in 2020 there were a handful of other ready to drink canned cocktails on the market but nobody even knew what the words ‘ready-to-drink’ was. You would go into a liquor store and they would have a handful of products and now it’s a full on category. Canned cocktails are the fastest growing segment of the liquor industry. It’s now very competitive, but more products and more competition seem to be better for everyone.”
GOING NUTTY FOR GOLF
A vast majority of the golfing public across the globe live in virtual anonymity, on rare occasions carding a hole-in-one or maybe breaking 80. These accomplishments are surely moments to cherish by you, but few others.
It was to that end that Ron Garland created the Golf Nut Society in 1986.
“What I was really trying to do was give that 15 handicapper who’s never going to win the club championship, never going to win the state amateur, never going to win a Tour event just 15 minutes of fame,” Garland says. “The original intent of the society was humor and recognition.”
Members who joined for $15 in the mid 1980s received an Entrance Exam score and bonus points for things not covered on the exam.
“That drove both the humor and recognition,” says Garland, who would from those exam score totals name a coveted “Golf Nut of the Year.” He also would send out a newsletter naming a “Golf Nut of the Week” and “Golf Nut of the Month.”
“The exam basically asked questions concerning areas of your golf commitment,” Garland says. “Questions like ‘Have you ever been threatened with divorce over golf or have you ever played during a tornado?’ I just did it for humor and wanted to give people a chuckle but they took the exam seriously, and they would complain that they deserved more points. So, I created bonus points and I would keep track of all of this on a spreadsheet.”
Through a mutual friend, Peter Moore, the creator of the NIKE Jumpman logo and numerous other iconic sports logos, Garland grew close to Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest NBA player ever who has a passion for golf. Garland convinced Jordan to join the Golf Nut Society during a round of golf, and Jordan was named the Golf Nut of the Year in 1989. He has his own page on the Golf Nut Society website.
There was a comical give-and-take between Garland, affectionately known as the Head Nut, and Jordan about entry into the Golf Nut Society.
“I told Michael I would give him a free membership and Michael said, ‘no, you don’t understand man, you have to pay me to be a member,”’ Garland recalls. “And I said, ‘No, you don’t understand man, I can’t afford you.’ We all had a good laugh. But he said ‘Yeah, sign me up.’ And every time I would see him after that I would ask him what he had done to get you more points?”
There is even a Golf Nut Society Hall of Fame that includes comedian legend Bob Hope.
“Just go to the Hall of Fame page and scroll through the guys and you’ll just shake your head and say, ‘there’s no way all of this is true,’ but it is,”’ Garland says.
In 2005, the society’s membership reached around 4,000. The Golf Nut Society still exists today, but membership is free and Garland, who turns 77 in July, has shifted gears slightly in 2024.
“I transitioned from the Golf Nut points system to Substack and post general stories of interest to golf nuts as well as the occasional opinion piece,” Garland says. “ The Celebrating the Game Substack is as the title implies; stories about the history and traditions of the game, including historic people, trends and events in the game.”
Garland has also penned a successful book called Golf Nuts – You’ve Got to Be Committed. It was published in 2002 and to date it is in its second printing and has sold more than 50,000 copies.