Jon Mason, of Lincoln, with bottles of pomegranate berry SwingJuice. The energy drink, introduced in 2006, comes in six flavors.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

An early morning game of golf in 2004 and a friend’s offhand remark led Jon Mason, a former Realtor in Massachusetts who has since moved to Lincoln, into a new business.

Mason, 34, is an avid golfer, and back in 2004 he had just set up an early tee time. He called his golfing partner to tell him about it, and apologized for making him get up early. “That’s all right. I’ll just drink my swing juice and be on my way,” his friend said.

The friend was talking about coffee, or maybe orange juice, but Mason had other ideas. SwingJuice, he thought, would be a great name for a sports/energy drink. “It was like fireworks went off in my head,” Mason said in an interview last week. “This was right around the time that Red Bull and other energy drinks were getting popular ... I’ve always been an idea guy, but I never followed through on anything.” But that very night, he said, he started the process to legally trademark SwingJuice. (His friend didn’t mind.)

Mason thought a drink aimed at golfers could grab part of the immense U.S. sports and energy drink markets. (Energy drinks, such as Red Bull, have annual sales of about $4 billion, while sports drinks have sales of about $7.5 billion.) Mason refers to SwingJuice, which comes in six flavors, as a “hybrid” drink, combining the hydration benefits of a sports drink such as Gatorade and a bit of the boost of an energy drink such as Red Bull.

What’s more, Mason said, golf isn’t the only game that swings. There’s tennis. Baseball. Ultimately, Mason said, SwingJuice should appeal to everyone.

Listed ingredients in SwingJuice include ginseng for energy and stress reduction, ginko biloba leaf extract for concentration and focus, vitamin D, vitamin B12, vitamin B6 and caffeine. Mason said SwingJuice has 62 milligrams of caffeine per bottle, as opposed to 145 milligrams in a cup of coffee. There are about two servings per 20-ounce bottle. “It gives you a little boost without putting you over the edge,” Mason said, adding that SwingJuice uses all natural ingredients and no sodium.

John Craven, editor at Bevnet.com, a Web site that covers the beverage industry, said the idea of a hybrid drink makes sense, because hydration and energy are both necessary elements in athletics. But golf alone, he said, is probably too small a market niche for a beverage company to succeed, although golf could work as a way to get a foot in the door.

Craven also pointed out that sports drink giant Gatorade has made its own run at the golf market, signing up none other than Tiger Woods to sell a drink called Gatorade Tiger Focus.

Wearing a yellow polo shirt with the winged SwingJuice logo, Mason said he spent most of 2004 and 2005 coming up with the SwingJuice formula, while still selling real estate during the day. “I became more or less obsessed with the idea,” he said.

He researched ingredients of the other sports and energy drinks on the market, then had samples made of his ideas that he tested out on family and friends. Eventually he began working with a formulation company in Kentucky, which Mason said prefers to remain anonymous, to help develop the drink.

SwingJuice was introduced in 2006, and since then Mason and a team of four salespeople have been working to get it into as many sales outlets as possible. Mason said SwingJuice is available in more than 100 outlets, mostly in Southern New England, including Whole Foods markets, convenience stores, golf courses — including Newport National, Shelter Harbor and Weekapaug Golf Club — and McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, home of the PawSox. Mason said he is working with a broker, Massachusetts-based Progressive Food Products, to help place SwingJuice with supermarket and convenience store chains. It sells for $1.49 a bottle.

Mason said SwingJuice sales peak in the summer and dip in the winter, with a range between 2,000 and 5,000 cases a month. There are 12 bottles per case. The company’s annual revenue, Mason said, is between $250,000 and $500,000. SwingJuice is made in a plant in New Jersey and distributed from warehouse space that Mason leases in Cranston, while the company offices are in Lincoln. SwingJuice isn’t making a profit, yet, Mason said, but he hopes to be in the black by the end of this year.

SwingJuice has a couple of celebrity endorsements, namely Rhode Island native Paul Konerko, who plays baseball for the Chicago White Sox, and golfer Mark Calcavecchia, who tried SwingJuice at a PGA tournament.

“Athletes seem to like it. That tells me I’m going in the right direction,” Mason said.

SwingJuice is available at some outlets in California and New York — including Bethpage State Park on Long Island, home to this year’s U.S. Open golf tournament — but Mason said the plan is to concentrate on New England.

“We’re still a small business. We’re trying to start out with the [New England] region and then expand,” Mason said. “Everybody thinks that when you start out, you create a product and everyone will want it everywhere. That’s not really the reality.”

For more information, visit www.swingjuice.com.

asmith@projo.com