Happy Holidays to all of the great professionals in the Central Chapter and I hope that 2015 is even more prosperous for all of us. I want to start out by congratulating Vice President Mike Thomas on his new position at the Golf Club at South River. Unfortunately, his new facility is in the Northern Chapter so he will be exiting his post as VP and Lynne Hunter will serve as VP/Secretary for the remainder of the term. Thank you to Mike for his years of service and support during our time on the board together and on behalf of the entire chapter, we wish you the very best.

There will likely be the annual shifting of jobs throughout our section during this off-season and to be proactive, make sure your boss knows how valuable you are to the operation. For assistants, make a point to have a performance review with your boss so you know where you can improve and come to that meeting prepared to share ideas for the coming season or let your supervisor know what areas you would like to

emphasize in the coming year. For Head Professionals, utilize the Revenue Scorecard on PGALinks to create a report that you can share with the GM or Director of Golf. These practices will also lead you to be able to update your resume and keep improving for when you will need it next.

Hopefully, many of you will be traveling to Orlando for the 2015 PGA Merchandise Show. Make sure you have a plan before you go and leave some time to look for new products and ideas as your customers and members will certainly want to know what the next hot item in golf is! One service to look at is Golf Genius Software for your tournaments, leagues and golf trips. I just met with them and they can make our jobs easier and help us as PGA Professionals continue to wow our members and move forward with technology!

Central Chapter Newsletter

Year End Wrap-Up President’s Note

The importance of

being a good club

fitter.

By Brian Anderson

In this edition…

Less is More

By Pleasant

Hughes

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YOUNG AMBASSADORS

BY SHAUN STRAND

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING A GOOD CLUB

FITTER By Brian Anderson

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A great way to improve both your hard good sales and lesson revenue is to improve your club fitting skills. Having a Trackman or FlightScope system at your facility allows your membership to feel like they are getting the true “tour experience”. A lot of club fitting is about specs and details, but it is important for us PGA professionals not to forget that the goal of a fitting is to help educate the golfer and translate into better performance. Once we take someone through a proper fitting, the individual should see immediate results which boosts your credibility.

In my experiences, most people feel that they simply cannot afford custom fit golf clubs; a common myth that many consumers have. By simply explaining the process and offering the fitting as a free service, you will not only boost your

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sales in the pro shop, but also be able to build upon that experience and create lesson revenue from it. At Columbia Country Club, we started a program titled “Friday Night Fits”. Each Friday from 3-7 PM, I take our FlightScope and fitting carts up to the driving range and over complimentary readings and fittings to our membership. Since 2012, we have increased out club sales by over 20% and have had many inquires about club repair services such as re-shafting and loft/lie adjustments.

There are many ways to educate yourself on the ins and outs of club fitting and the process itself takes only 30-45 minutes, or roughly the same time as a golf lesson would. Increase your bottom line and add credibility to your persona by become a good club fitter next season.

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Although they are sometimes overlooked, high school golfers are an important constituency for our facilities, and nurturing those students can be beneficial for both the course and its young patrons.

These young players tend to spend significantly more time at the golf course than the average golfer, both practicing and playing. As a result of this extra time, they also spend significantly more money than the average golfer: on range balls, green fees, lessons, food and beverage, and items in the golf shop. As they grow physically and their mechanics improve, many will also need

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MAPGA.COM

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Early in my career as a golf instructor I eagerly tried to impart all my knowledge of the swing onto my students. Frustrated by inconsistent results, I soon came to realize I was missing the big picture. While I was confident in my assessment of each and every one of their swing flaws, I failed to give the students a digestible amount of information while setting realistic and achievable goals. The average country club member does not want, nor do they respond well to, a long term plan that requires the practice habits of the average PGA Tour member. Once I learned to simplify my approach, I became much more successful in lowering my students' scores and increasing their enjoyment on the course. As instructors we should act as a calming factor, instilling confidence and focusing the student's thoughts. Most students come to a lesson with far too much information; they have received tips from their spouse, friends and even The Golf Channel. Their answer to every miss hit is a mere Google search on an iPhone away. This mixed bag of information, with no true idea of its application, is detrimental to their success. In contrast, I start each lesson with the simple question, "Where does the ball go?" Our quickly identifying the student's biggest concern allows us to lighten their mental load by discarding unnecessary thoughts while building a specific, narrow and achievable plan. The course of action must center around a clearly understood physical motion to practice, a method for practicing and the ability to evaluate one's progress.

LESS IS MORE

BY PLEASANT HUGHES

I start each lesson with the simple question,

"Where does the ball go?"

Central Chapter MSR Monday

Springfield Country Club

Monday, February 2nd 8:00am-4:00pm

$40

Registration Closes Wed., January 28th

Going to the show?

Make sure you post to the

Central Chapter Facebook page to

keep your fellow professionals up to

date!

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Nam nec

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to upgrade equipment as well as their wardrobe.

By virtue of being young and dependent upon families for transportation and support, high school golfers provide the opportunity for us to engage the whole family. Parents often want to participate in their child’s activities and younger siblings want to take after their older sister or brother. Golf then becomes an activity that the whole family can do together. Even if these players do not continue competing after graduating high school, golf often remains an integral part of their lives.

These youngsters make excellent ambassadors for the course: they are our own personal marketing team for both the teaching profession and the facility as a whole. When traveling to tournaments within their conference, one question they will inevitably get asked is “where is your home course?” That alone can be a powerful thing. It spreads word-of-mouth and can garner more interest in the course and the teaching professional. In addition, younger kids often look up to these golfers and strive to be like them, thereby perpetuating the cycle (in a good way).

From a teaching perspective, these can be the most satisfying students to work with. Not only do they take lessons for a number of years, they are particularly motivated to improve their place on the team and perform well in tournaments, and of course to impress the gallery of parents at each event. Because of that desire, they tend to practice more than your average golfer. Quick improvement is fun to watch, and to be a part of.

Developing high school golfers can build life-long relationships that benefit the golfer, the family, the teaching professional and the facility as a whole.

Congratulations Brendan McGrath on wining the 2014

11  Busse,  Brice   319.62

12   WenPetren,  Steve   317.60 13   Labourdette,  Peter   317.30 14   Lindell,  Jay   308.80 15   Newsom,  David   304.61 16   Graham,  Kent   290.72 17   Bowers,  Phil   266.67 18   Hughes,  Pleasant   254.74 19   Moseley,  Chad   238.67 20   Schoenfeld,  Jonathan   235.53

1  McGrath,  Brendan   856.11

2   Hoffman,  Billy   843.58 3   Montross,  Geoff   705.41 4   Estes,  Jim   435.00 5   Joo,  Yong   415.80 6   Grier,  Ashley   401.02 7   Bogdanoff,  Steve   387.56 8   Shapin,  Scott   365.60 9   Kinn,  Daniel   336.29 10   O'Leary,  John   330.21

TOP 20

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The 1st Inaugural Seniors vs Juniors event was held at Stonewall Golf Club in Gainesville, VA on an extremely cold November day. The format was 18 hole alternate shot match play. 3 points were awarded

per match for front, back and overall. To earn an invite to this event the Juniors had to make it based off of the Central Chapter POY list standings while the Seniors made it off of the Section Senior POY. The

Juniors were no match for the cagey veterans who won 9 -3. Captain Montross was berated by his team saying that we shouldn’t have let them tee off from the forward tees. Well, you live and learn and I’m sure

we’ll rectify this next year. After the round we enjoyed conversation over some good eats and a few libations. We all felt that this was an event we will take into the future as trend setters for our section.

Winning Senior Team Fran Rhoads, Marty O’Rear, Glenn McCloskey, Marty

Johnson, Mike Fischer, Mike Farewell, Clark Sisson, and Joe Max

Losing Junior Team Pete Labourdette, Billy Hoffman, Brice Busse, Ashley Grier, Scott Shapin, Steve Bogdanoff, and Brendan

McGrath (yes, he is a junior)