Do You Need a PGA Pro Part 2!
There was certainly a heated response to my article last week about whether clubs should engage PGA pros or not? 40 people commented on the site, another 30 started a Linkedin discussion and my personal inbox was flooded, mainly with hate mail!
Firstly I would like to make it quite clear that in my original article I did not give an opinion on the matter but merely quoted conversations I had with owners who where equally split on the subject.
For the record I am in fact in favor of hiring PGA Professionals and will be at the show this week with a bunch of my PGA friends (Yes I do still have them) They where as astonished as I was about the negative and PERSONAL nature of the responses I received!
So then why even publish the comments of detractors? Because the conversation is going on anyway behind the scenes, on chat sites and at industry events so you might as well take it out front and make a strong case in favor of PGA Pros which I think the majority of the comments did!
See you at the show!
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It is a shame that comments were directed personally at you. I feel the people that did that do not understand the concept of fair exchange. The discussion would not be going on if clubs got all they can out of Professionals. It is up to the Manager to write it into the Pro’s contract to get the most out of them and it is up to the Pro’s to open their eyes and realise they need to use their skills to get golfers into clubs and build memberships. I am a PGA Pro and our club membership is full, but we all work hard to keep it that way. I think it is good that provocative discussions are posted because it wakes people up and helps people realise they need to change.
Martin-
Thanks for the follow-up report. We need to shed light on any problem that may affect the plight of golf facilities and the subsequent employment of PGA Professionals, this is the only way to approach the problem, look at it truthfully and react appropriately. The PGA of America would be well served to focus on the betterment of their product, the PGA member and apprentice and programs to grow the game and the industry will react favorably, any other efforts (in my opinion) or only woindow dressing and totally self serving.
Martin,
I agree totally. I work at a facility that has multiple PGA Professional’s and I don’t see a “PGA touch/promotion” that can show value to the customer. Maybe it is a lack of self promotion on my pro’s part but there needs to be that piece to show their value in the market place. I know it is there but I’m not sure the customer knows what it is that differentiates our course from our neighbor course that kicked out their PGA Professional ten years ago.
Well, let me add to the firestorm a little. I’m sure you can get a retired GM executive that would love to run a golf program, an executive, skilled in mgmt.,profit/loss(bankruptcy)you get my point. On the other hand you could have a trained PGA Golf Professional, who is an expert at the game and the business of golf. The PGA has a nice one page ad that depict’s the 37 badges/hats that a PGA Professional wears. Who would you want running your show? Someone who was trained to do it or a cheap substitute that is taking the minumum wage position so that he can play golf for free.
Not every PGA Professional fits every facilities dynamics, but when the fit is developed to fit the needs of both parties, it is usually a fit of a lifetime!
Bill
Your one comment sums up the issue “A PGA Professional who is an expert at the game AND business of golf.” Therein lays the problem. The many PGA Professionals that I have been involved with (I am not one) do not have the “business” knowledge/expertise required to run a profitable full golf operation. However, they do have the knowledge to teach the game which is critical to growing our industry and they do it well. I am from the ever growing golf club operators that have migrated from the “hospitality industry.” Why, because we have acquired the skill set that allows us to excel in customer service, inventory controls (both product and tee times!) and operations management that allows to run a profitable business. These are the critical elements that owners/corporations are now looking for to run the daily operations of a golf facility. When the PGA begins to teach business classes as a major and as it pertains to business operations (not just golf) only then will a first year PGA Professional become a viable candidate as a true General Manager of an entire golf operation instead of supervising just a golf shop or relegated to teaching clinics.
Interesting conversation. I have been in the PGA program and out of the program because of the rule changes made at the 2009 PGA show. I was a second time around golf professional with over 10 years experience the first time, and was in the fourth year the second time. For the record, I am a big supporter of the mission of the PGA, but not a big believer that they deliver the goods. What other business puts their apprentices in the position of living on minimum wage and spending a minimum of 10K to become members, only to find that they are not equipped to do the job they were training for. Most PGA professionals are not as good of players as the top 20 – 30 players at their facility and don’t really care, they have lost their love and passion for the game. I do not see a great many of them growing the game with clinics, fittings, etc., rather they are looking for the equipment companies to do it for them. I don’t see them involved with the different clubs at their courses, or in the local business community as well. This is not an indictment of all PGA Professionals, just an observation of the ones I have been around. When I left the golf business the first time around I ended up in the restaurant industry, another 24/7/365 occupation, except it wasn’t just confined to daylight hours. The same complaints that come from the professionals also came from the managers that couldn’t make it in the restaurant industry. The bottom line in both industries is that you do what you say you are going to do, and do it better than the other guy, then you will be quite successful. This is what PGA membership should mean, and what the organization should be striving to create in their apprentices.
Steve,
I am NOT in the golf business currently but have been trying to purchase a couple of golf clubs as of late. Your point about the PGA program is dead-on!
I can’t imagine spending the kind of money and time it takes to actually become a PGA professional, and then be subjugated to 50-60 hours per week for what works out to minimum wage when it is all said and done? In talking with young aspiring Pro’s, I can’t fathom the number that will basically work for nothing for years just to one day be the head cheese? Is it pride or love or something else, because I know few assistants that LOVE to go to work every day after a year of cleaning carts, checking in players, and closing when the last cart returns.
And to Bill’s comments…what makes the PGA program so special that a person NOT in it can’t do well or the person that participates has such a distinct advantage? Because I got a degree in Marketing/Business a few moons ago doesn’t mean I can run a business? It means I can finish what I start and have an INTEREST in business – Period.
I will go back to my mantra: Most of the pro’s/Gm’s I meet running clubs were hired to maintain, manage, and pinch pennies, not grow them, and unfortunately that is the challenge today at 95% of the facilities not in the top 100.
Most have no clue what kind of web traffic they have, how many unique users come to their site per day, how to capture them, what to do if they did capture them, what to do when a new member signs up to integrate them into the club,, how to have a full calendar EVERY month like the TENNIS pro does, why people join, why they stay, they don’t have a detailed list of prospects, they don’t know how to market to them month over month, they can’t remember the last guest they met on the 18th green and invited to lunch…but they can tell you to the penny what their budget runs?!?!?!
The PGA of America has completely “lost their way”. The PGA has turned into a organization of overpaid staff members and turned the golf profession into one of “clerks”, failing to “protect” the golf profession, creating way more PGA “initials” than positions (28,000 plus “PGA initials”, 9,000 “green grass” golf positions with those initials).
Twenty years ago, Corporate PGA Members gained control of the PGA and those officers, changed the purpose of the PGA organization, allowing corporate (greed) to “take over” a multiple of golf facilities and turned the PGA into a organization producing “PGA initials”, “clerks”.
The PGA, rather than promote entrepreneur/owner types, as the organization was founded, and assisting members with finding golf facilities that wanted help, now spends more of their income on paying staff, staff “perks” and PGA officers, than their own PGA members.
These same “PGA staff” can not even promote the PGA in a way to find sponsors for PGA events. Sad!
I have read the responses on this and part 1 and have to say as a Manager and PGA member, I can see both sides. The PGA as any other organization has members that are excellent at what they do and others that leave much to be desired. It is up to the person that is doing the hiring to choose a professional that has the strengths that are needed for the job they are hired to do. We evaluated our needs and worked with PGA to find a candidate that fit those needs. Our Golf Professional has been with us for seven years and because of his personality, expertise in teaching and running golf events our membership and participation has grown in a time when other clubs are having difficult times. You have to define what is desired in the position and then hire to fill that desire.
Since I have been the General Manager there has been an increase in the bottom line of over $140,000 because of closer watch on expenses but more importantly a continued growth in membership as a result of making the Club a place where members want to be and bring their friends.
Both of the PGA members at our facility have just signed long term contracts and our members are very happy to have PGA members there.
Now we are finally getting somewhere! Nicely put Joe S. The truth needs to come out regarding the management of Golf. Discussions like this forum, that allow for frank, unemcumbered discussion create progress.
There has been an elephant in the living room of Golf for a long time and we have all been ignoring it. By not creating a sense of responsibility to the game of golf for all of the Associations involved in its operation. We have created a management model that is failing.
The existing Collective Associations involved in the game of Golf have to begin to retrain and reinform their members of where that future is, instead of racing to get their piece of the financial pie.
The owners and Boards of Directors of Golf Courses have to be dictating more clearly what it is they expect from their golf courses and their management staff.
The collective Associations should then adapt their education programs to accomodate what the owners and golfers want. Not the other way around!
Associations do not tell the golf business what it needs, because they don’t run the businesses, they are to provide the industry with credible and knowledgeable employees.
If the PGA wants to be the “go to” Association of Golf, then it should begin by “under promising and over delivering”, based on first hand knowledge and what I am reading and hearing across the country, it is the opposite.
GCSAA trained and educated members in a lot of cases are as capable of being the Managers of Golf facilities as the PGA member is.
It is these two associations that need to put their differences aside and work toward a solution to provide golf with the professional individuals the industry requires to run the business into the future.
This may take a completely different way of thinking by those Associations and their members! The reality is, if these two Associations continue to fight over their territory in golf, its the game that loses.
Forums are only that, Forums. True face to face discussion in a format that is facilitated well, allowing passion and understanding to be the focus is the only way something will come out of any of this.
The “Symposium on affordable golf” Held in Pinehurst was a vehicle for this, unfortunately the turnout didn’t truly reflect all the parties represented by golf. Talk is cheap action is everything!
I agree with a few of the above replies. It seems to be the norm for many of he courses in our area for a PGA PRO to also be a GM. After 11-years in the golf magazine publishing business and working with well over 100 golf courses, I have only experienced a handful of PGA PROs that are truly capable of being a GM.
You can’t teach someone to be creative, either they are or they’re not. Very few are great or even marginal sales people, most are terrible marketing people, have little or no ability to create or implement long-term marketing campaigns and most spend very little time visiting or preforming basic PR services with customers. Spend little times visiting customers out on the course, but are very good at sitting in their office for 8-hours on emails and Facebook.
I do not see a great many of them growing the game with clinics for juniors or women or anyone, fittings, etc., rather they are looking for the equipment companies to do it for them. I don’t see them involved in the local business community promoting their course. This is not an blanket presumption of all PGA Professionals, just an observation of the ones I have experienced.
If I owned a golf course I would hire a GM that is from outside the golf industry. That GM would have the option of hiring a PGA PRO who was capable of designing a season long clinic programs, tournaments, leagues and proactive ideas to grow the patron base of my course to name only a few of the basic criteria of that position.
Always room to improve for those willing.
I appreciate your follow up and no offense was taken by me. I have to agree that the PGA National has lost it’s way a bit and become a huge buracracy. The strength of any organization is the framework it provides and ultimately the membership and people on the ground. I will agree there are PGA Members who do the PGA disservice – as in any professional organization there are some bottom feaders. Those that choose to strive for the highest levels will succeed with or without the PGA – that is just how the free market works. The PGA credentials DO give a great deal of legitamacy in all cases to that person however. By and large any facility that wants to grow its business needs a competent PGA rofessional on its staff in a position of influence – whether it be GM, DOG, HP, or Instructor. These people can learn F&B alot quicker that a F&B manager can learn golf management.