Relic Hunter
One glance at the mishmash of golf memorabilia inside the shop at the corner of Merchant and Richards streets in Downtown Honolulu — where hundreds of golf clubs are assembled in big bunches like shiny metal bouquets, trophies are piled high on shelves, and everything else from hats to head covers are squirreled away in various containers across a plush carpet that’s grassy green, of course — it becomes clear that owner Keith Tanaka is way more than just your average golf enthusiast. For the last 27 years, his store — Roots & Relics — has not only offered one of the most comprehensive collections of golf equipment on the island, it has also been a gathering place for local pros and aficionados to share their love of the game. Which is interesting, because neither “roots” nor “relics” may immediately come to mind when spending time there, and the shop itself originally had nothing to do with golf.
More than 25 years ago, Tanaka was a 41-year-old former deputy attorney general who wanted a new start. Fresh from a divorce, he decided to clear out the assorted collectibles (“layers and layers of junk,” Tanaka said in a 2003 interview) he had accumulated over the years in his old home. His longtime hobby had been to scavenge garage and estate sales for possible treasures; his new goal was to see if he could turn these salvaged goods into cash.
After opening Roots & Relics in 1993, Tanaka sold a medley of antiques and plants — and for five years, he could barely cover the $700-a-month rent. In the late 1990s, he decided to focus his inventory on a different sort of collectible: used golf clubs, which became a huge hit for the downtown business crowd, which flocked in during the lunch hour. That year, he cleared nearly $600,000 in sales (and decided to stick with golf clubs). He was no stranger to the sport. While attending high school at Punahou, Tanaka played a little golf himself and often accompanied his father, George, for games on O‘ahu’s public courses. He later went to law school in San Diego and, by the time he was 25, had developed a fondness for vintage sporting goods equipment, especially decades-old golf clubs. Tanaka returned to Hawai‘i, opened Roots & Relics in a miniscule, 300-square-foot space in Queen’s Plaza on Alakea Street, and hoped to attract interior decorators and antique collectors.
“When we first started, we had more classic [golf] clubs, the old wooden types, more for wall hangings,” recalled Tanaka. He moved to the Melim Building on Queen Street two years later to gain an extra couple hundred feet of retail space, before eventually settling into his current location. Today, Tanaka’s inventory consists of leftover inventory from golf shops on the mainland, manufacturer close-out sales, as well as trade-ins. There’s no shortage of items because, over the decades, the golf equipment market exploded. Consider the golf club, which progressed from the classic clubs that one might prestigiously hang on their wall, to stainless-steel wood iron-and-wood hybrids introduced in the early 2000s, to the state-of-the-art carbon fiber and telescoping steel tube clubs of the modern day. Tanaka stocks it all.
Roots & Relics has become a place where customers know the profit margin is low, and the product turnover is high.
“Our whole philosophy is that golfers are crazy. They always need to have something different,” Tanaka said. “The same customers come in and out ... They’re always searching for that Holy Grail.” Besides what he sells in the shop, Tanaka has a few rare antiquities of his own. One is a hole-in-one trophy from legendary golfer and Masters Tournament co-founder Bobby Jones. Another is a replica of the Scotty Cameron Newport Teryllium TeI3 putter, used by Tiger Woods to win the Masters Invitational in 1997 (and easily worth more than $10,000). It might be surprising to learn that prized items such as these can be found amongst Tanaka’s somewhat crowded shop. But then again, taking a moment to step inside, look around, and make a discovery is a big part of what Roots & Relics is all about.