Matt Blois – branching out with a unique service philosophy

I first wrote about golf professional Matt Blois in 2020. The Canadian’s driving skills had become a YouTube must-see in dozens of videos for Tour Golf Experience, the club-fitting company owned by Ian Fraser. 

By the time I met them again at the 2023 PGA Show, Fraser had expanded to more locations in Canada. Shortly thereafter, Fraser also agreed to be Club Champion’s presence throughout Canada.

Blois decided to take a different path, however, as discussed in our wide-ranging interview at the 2024 PGA Show.

“There was certainly nothing wrong with the scenario presented to me to stay – [they] offered me a contract for a year, [and that] would have been totally fine. I just looked at it and went, ‘OK, at this point in my career, is this what I want to do?’” Blois said. “I decided that if I wasn’t going to do something on my own then, then when would you do that? As good a time as any.”

He also decided not to choose between fitting or coaching. Why not combine them?

“I felt there was a marketplace for people that want to improve but find the traditional routes of that to be one-dimensional. There’s no shortage of places to go for a very good fitting. There’s a ton of extremely good teaching and coaching professionals. I’m exposed to the extremes of both. I know what equipment is capable of, and I know what good coaching can do, but they are not independent of each other. I developed my own personal opinion – that is, equipment should really be complementing. It’s really the cherry on top,” he said.

Blois continued, “I thought about a concept for a studio where if someone just walked in the door and they had time with me, and we just took the session in whatever direction it needs to go.” 

For example, if a customer came in thinking about replacing wedges, a short session might suggest working on technique as a better first use of their time and money. Fittings would come later.

“Once I decided this is a place people would want to go, I wanted to make this happen as quickly as possible,” Blois said. 

That decision led to the next big step – location, especially with commercial property in Toronto in rare supply.

His studio is the kind of box he wanted, only bigger, at 20 feet high, 26 feet wide, and 100 feet long. His family helped renovate some of it, complete with a hitting bay, cameras, launch monitors, and inventory and storage for club fitting.

Blois is especially proud of his camera installation. “I think probably the best money I spent money is high-speed cameras. They’re synched with every shot. As soon as you hit a shot on Foresight GC Quad, it triggers the camera buffer. I see the exact same swing and all the data side by side,” he said. 

The videos speed up analysis and coaching: “Awareness is gained by someone seeing properly, not seeing a rough little iPhone video but like a proper capture, synched up. I know exactly where they struck the ball on that swing, face angle, club path, everything,” Blois said.

He keeps several club models available, including “all the major ones,” as well as Haywood, a Canadian manufacturer that sells direct-to-consumer. Blois also added aftermarket shaft makers including Fujikura and Graphite Design. 

Blois knows his customers’ price sensitivity: “You don’t have to be in the thousands of dollars to buy a good driver. There’s stuff that is better in the aftermarket world. But as you know, stock shaft options have gotten a lot better also. There’s a lot of people that just say, ‘Listen, $700 to $800 is what I have to spend on this, please stay within that,’ and it's no problem.”

Blois is pleased with his growing business since the soft opening of golfliberty.com.

“It’s nice to see my philosophy developing into a pretty good business plan,” he said. “Having somebody come in because they trust you, and they want to see you regularly for coaching, and equipment is always going to be mixed in there anyway, it’s turning out to be a sustainable model.” 

“Sometimes someone will send me a note or a review. I’m hearing what it’s been like for them. It’s really been almost a bit of a relief. Is this really something that somebody wants? To me, what I’m hearing from people is that they’re enjoying a place where they can go,” he said.

Local club competition results

The Mulligan’s Pointe Ladies League played a Low Gross/Low Net game Sept. 17.

Diane Braver won first gross in the first division, with Karen Feuchtenberger in second and Maxine Ansbach in third. 

L. York won first gross in the second division, with Stevie Scales in second place and Donna Dolce in third.

Joanne Foster won first net in the first division, followed by Tammy Findlay in second and Sue Brady in third.

Kathy Marks won first net in the second division, with Rita McConnell in second place and Jackie Chennuta in third.