Golfers Take Aim at Obama, Romney at Ace Golf in Brandon

For a time last week during the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Ace Golf in Brandon made national news, with two large banners placed in the driving range depicting larger-than-life head shots of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

"The national press doesn't tend to do us much good [as a local business] but we enjoyed it and the customers enjoyed it," said Ace Golf owner Bill Place. "It didn't hit me until Monday of that week to put the banners up. I can't believe all the television stations we had out here."

The convention hoopla has since waned but the banners remain, and will remain standing until the General Election in November.

The questions remains, though: Are golfers driving shots "for" the candidate they support, or "at" the candidate they dislike?

"I guess some are shooting at them and some are shooting for them," Place said. "They can shoot in whatever direction they please. Some people like to shoot way off to the left and some people like to shoot in the right direction."

Either way, he added, "it gets people talking about the candidates."

As for Place, his allegiances are not hard to determine.

"I got to choose the pictures," he said. "I have to say that Romney's is probably a little more flattering. We put him a little right of center, which is where I thought [Bill] Clinton was, who I actually supported for president. I put Obama out in left field, where he belongs, in my view."

Place has been in business in Brandon for 20 years. His family owned Ace Golf on Kings Avenue celebrates this anniversary milestone on Nov. 15. The family also owns Ace Golf in Riverview, Pebble Creek Golf Club in New Tampa and the Wentworth and Crescent Oaks golf clubs in Tarpon Springs.

As a small business owner, Place said he is not better off today than he was four years ago. How he's made it through a tough economy, he said, is like everyone else has: "I work harder, I work longer, we cut expenses."

"We can't hire the way we can when the economy is good, and that to me is unfortunate," added Place, who said he has a profit-sharing plan that gives back to his employees up to about 35 percent of net profit. "We wouldn't have employees if we didn't treat them right and share with them what we make."

This is not the first time Place erected a larger-than-life banner depicting a person in the news at his golf range in Brandon.

"We did something a little similar when we did a banner of Osama bin Laden, as part of a fundraiser for the Silver Shield Foundation after 9/11," Place said. "People who didn't play golf wanted to shoot at it. They'd drive by and say, 'I want to take a shot at it.' It probably helped our business by introducing more people to golf."

Ace Golf in Brandon, at 820 South Kings Ave., is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. In addition to the driving range, Ace Golf offers golf lessons and has batting cages, a miniature golf course and a golf pro shop.