Central Chapter Newsletter June-July

PRESIDENT ’ S NOTE

March Madness and the impending trip down Magnolia Lane mean that golfers will be chomping at the bit to hit the links or check out the newest equipment. While these next few months will fly by, it is important to try and make an impact at your facility and especially to track it. Golf Professionals are really good at growing the game, club fitting and up-selling merchandise. We are not the greatest at tracking these results so we can implement quantitative statistics into our resumes or simply show our employer the value we have.

The reason I mention this now is that if you take the time to determine an easy tracking method such as an excel spreadsheet, google doc or an empty page in your lesson book, and start from the beginning you’ll be more likely to keep accurate records. It is really hard to wait until we can catch a breath and try and compile these numbers in a meaningful way. I’ll be the first to admit I have to improve in this area. We are making it a staff contest and tracking fittings that result in sales as a leader board at Springfield. By putting a fun spin on it, hopefully it’ll keep us all invested in keeping score! Each season you should try and bring something new to your club or facility. Here are some suggestions:

• Take on a new program like PGA Golf Day or PGA Junior League Golf and run with it.

• Take the time to attend an educational event in our Section or one put on by a club manufacturer.

• It could simply be setting a goal to play more golf or to play with a variety of members that you haven’t done before.

• Be creative and run a fun format event at your facility like a Par 3 tourney, Tee It Forward Scramble or maybe start a league.

Middle Atlantic PGA Professional of the YearJosh Tremblay, PGASpringfield Golf & [email protected]

SOCIAL CORNER - - PETER LABOURDETTE, PGAThe social committee is happy to announce it’s second event. We have arranged for a fun night of bowling, food and drinks at Kenwood Golf & Country Club on Thursday, March 27th. The event will start at 6:00 pm and run until about 8:30 pm. The price will be $20 per person, which

includes, shoe rental, 3 games of bowling as well as appetizers, and pizza. A cash bar will be available so make sure you bring some spending money. We are encouraging members of the Central Chapter to bring their significant

others to partake in this fun evening. For those who have never bowled at Kenwood there are no ten pin lanes, only duckpin. If you are accustomed to regular bowling then you are in for a whole new experience. The best part about duckpin is you get three tries instead of only two!

June/July Edition

President’s Note

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Professional Golf Management Interns can be an asset if utilized properly! I write this article as an alumnus of the Penn State PGM Program and I know that there are different perceptions out there of the type of PGA professionals this new educational foray is producing. While I agree that it seems increasingly challenging to get the most out of the younger members of our staff, I’ve found great success in supporting and utilizing interns.

These young men and women are aspiring professional and they are driven. Yes, sometimes a little cockiness needs to be curbed but I think many of us will be better off with more “career-oriented” individuals on our teams. Over the past ten plus years, I’ve hired and employed over 30 of these students from probably ten different universities. Some of them have worked almost entirely on the outside operations and others have spent their whole time in the golf shop.

Especially with schools like my alma mater just a few hours away or upcoming University of Maryland Eastern Shore in our section, I think it’s easy to tap these schools and their

NATS! NATS! NATS Washington Nationals Game

JULY 31st Page 2

Improving Club Repair…

By Daniel Bengtson Page 2

The Collegiate Opportunity

By John Glorioso Page 4

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The Central Chapter Championship was played May 27th at Piedmont Club. Our champion Billy Hoffman ended up holding on for a one shot victory over Brendan McGrath who charged with a 33 final 9. Said Hoffman on dealing with pressure, “I was one of the earlier groups to tee off so after the first 18 I was

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internship coordinators with your club’s needs. Setup interviews at the PGA Show or take a day and go to the school to interview several students. Your members will enjoy getting to know these motivated fresh faces. And who knows, they may teach you a new thing or two while they are learning from you and your team.

Hoffman takes both Chapter Championship and Chapter Pro-Am

Cont. Page 3

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Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2016

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JULY 31

Central Chapter PGA Professionals

Get Your

Tickets!!

We still have tickets available for the July 31st game

against the Phillies.

Please contact

Pete Labourdette to reserve yours now.

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As our facilities approach the summer season, I would like to share some improvements of the club repair services at my current facility, as well as, the benefits it provides to our club and membership. When I first began at the Burning Tree Club there was a basic club repair service provided to membership, and the re-shafting portion was outsourced. In the proposal that I made to our General Manager and Head Professional, I had to research the cost of building and stocking a fully functional club repair lab. Also, I developed a list of benefits the new lab would provide to our membership. These benefits included an improved turnaround time on requests, a broader array of services and supplies, and a new source of revenue for the club. The highlighted benefit was the improved turnaround time for our members. An improved turnaround time is a great way of showing the customer you care about them, and it shows that your operation can be dependable.

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With the new club repair lab underway, we then began to expand the service into our club fitting which included our new launch monitor. These improved services had a positive impact at our club because it brought more members to the driving range and created a fun new way to get fit for clubs. Also, if a member wasn’t looking to get new clubs we are able to fit them to their existing clubs correctly. Then we could adjust their existing set to their personal specifications. Being able to provide a full club repair service and tying it in with our club fitting services has helped the professional staff provide a great service to our membership. My hopes for sharing this experience with you are that it motivates other professionals to improve and expand services within their facilities. If anyone has any questions or comments about improving their club repair services, please feel free to contact me.

By Daniel Bengtson

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in the lead but I thought there was a good score out there. I continued to stick with my game plan for the final 9 holes and did well with it but had a few 3 putts. I knew if I shot even or better on the last 9 I would be right in the thick of things. I birdied 8 to get it to one over par and pared number 9 to shoot 37. Once I turned my card in I was surprised to see I had the lead. So I never really felt any pressure.”

A few weeks later we got to play our annual Central Chapter Pro-Am at Stoneleigh where Matt Hess and his team welcomed 28 professionals and their 3 amateurs. The course was in great shape and Billy took advantage. “Whenever I play in pro-ams I like to bring members that like to joke around and have a good time because it really relaxes me and I don't think about playing golf as much.” When asked how he keeps his foot on the gas when he is going low he replied, “When I'm playing well I try to enjoy the moment and believe that I can birdie every hole. The moment that I try to "get to the clubhouse" I'm done, I know this from past experiences. I have a game plan and when I stick to it and it works I shoot good scores. I'm good at not checking my score constantly during a round (I knew I had a good score going at Stoneleigh but I didn't know I shot 64 until I added it up.) I put value on each shot and try to hit the best shot for that situation.” Congratulations Billy!

Montross and Team win Central Chapter Pro-Junior. Matthew Ryan wins Pro Purse. Country Club of Fairfax was host for this years Central Chapter Pro-Junior held on June 30th. We had

a total of 25 professionals each bringing 3 juniors in support. The course was in fabulous shape and

Matthew Gallagher, head golf professional and staff were

exceptional in making everyone feel welcomed. Montross’ team of

George Duangmanee, Curtis Holland and Isabel Hansen put

together a solid round shooting a team 2 BB net score of 122. Jim Estes and his squad fired a gross

score of 139 to take home the gross title.

Matthew Ryan took the pro purse

with a 68.

Congratulations to all those who played especially the juniors.

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1 Hoffman, Billy 590.45

2 McGrath, Brendan 538.62 3 Estes, Jim 408.33 4 Montross, Geoff 389.48 5 Kinn, Daniel 336.29 6 Bogdanoff, Steve 320.22 7 Grier, Ashley 316.43 8 Joo, Yong 286.22 9 Shapin, Scott 285.47 10 Graham, Kent 261.85 11 WenPetren, Steve 237.46 12 Labourdette, Peter 230.06 13 Lindell, Jay 218.13 14 O'Leary, John 215.23 15 Newsom, David 205.08 16 Bowers, Phil 201.69 17 Busse, Brice 189.90 18 Donahue, Jerry 184.14 19 Anderson, Brian 179.22 20 Ryan, Matthew 158.11 21 Moser, Dustin 155.26 22 Mankulish, Gary 147.33 23 Benkovic, John 130.89 24 Schoenfeld, Jonathan 123.98 25 Purpura, Scott 123.38 26 Steigelman, James 121.66 27 Nathlich, Chris 119.55 28 Barillo, Mike 119.24 29 Dolan, Sean 118.96 30 Moseley, Chad 113.67 31 Lintelman, Bud 113.58 32 Tucker, Tyler 110.23 33 Duggan, Sean 109.07 34 Gaffney, Tim 108.15 35 Thomas, Blake 106.35 36 Aldrich, Mike 104.66 37 Melideo, Tom 104.31 38 Farewell, Mike 103.99 39 Brogan, Timothy 101.86 40 Clark, Steve 98.76

41 Bucklin, Andy 95.07

42 Bengtson, Daniel 91.78 43 Ahrnsbrak, Mike 89.32 44 Hughes, Pleasant 88.03 45 Ferguson, Rob 87.14 46 Bennett, Jim 86.82 47 Goff, Monty 86.00 48 Bell, Michael 83.63 49 Scott, Greg 83.28 50 Kremer, Kevin 82.46 51 Heiberger, Andrew 82.27 52 Miller, Steve 81.74 53 Forman, Jeff 80.30 54 Hess, Matthew 77.56 55 Miller, John 75.29 56 Sciorra, Cary 75.08 57 Tremblay, Josh 72.87 58 Veress, Evre 71.95 59 Bosdosh, Steve 68.31 60 Rhodes, Fran 68.31 61 Guttenberg, Mark 66.09 62 Danielson, Steve 63.87 63 Fischer, Mike 63.87 64 Fitzgerald, Jim 63.87 65 Johnson, Marty 63.87 66 Marr, Joshua 62.35 67 Pius, Michael 61.14 68 Ruddo, Tim 60.59 69 Stassi, Peter 58.85 70 Dufty, Jay 57.73 71 Keefer, Nicholas 57.72 72 Allen, Zach 57.46 73 Hardin, Andrew 55.78 74 Hogan, Ben 55.68 75 Burk, Richard 52.70 76 Schneider, Matthew 49.80 77 Ferguson, Frank 47.61 78 Harrell, Adam 47.61 79 Shelton, Jeff 47.61 80 Phillips, Glenn 45.46

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24,243; 4,477; 14,564; 157; 14

By John Glorioso

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Just a bunch of numbers to start an article? A Binary Search Algorithm to create the perfect golf swing? No, that’s way beyond my brain capacity. Those numbers are:

• 24, 243 – Total PGA Members as of May 2014 (PGA Links) • 4, 477 – Total Apprentices in the PGA (PGA Links)

• 14, 564 – Total Operating Golf Courses in the United States (National Golf Foundation)

• 14 – Courses that opened in 2013 (NGF) • 157 – Courses that closed in 2013 (NGF)

For all of us who aspire to be Head Professionals at a golf club, these numbers do not seem to add up in our favor. We definitely have a supply and demand issue in terms of the amount of openings that are/or become available each year, and the amount of qualified PGA Members who go through the interview process to obtain these positions.

As we have seen over the past few years, the golf industry is changing. More and more golf courses are closing, more positions are being consolidated, and thus, there are fewer opportunities for us to forge ahead in our careers. The answer to this point has been to introduce various initiatives to bring more individuals into the game. Whether it be the First Tee Program, Play Golf America, Get Ready Golf, or our new Golf 2.0 program, a lot of effort has been put into attracting golfers to the game, and rightfully so, but that is a long-term solution that will not necessarily address the issues we are facing in regards to opportunities within our field. Until these programs can begin to reverse the trends of the past 10 years, we need to look at different avenues and approaches to promote ourselves and all the training we have gone through to join this great organization and continue to be the leaders in the industry.

It is at this juncture where I believe the PGA, and us as its members, need to begin to look at the non-traditional roles in the industry and begin to branch out with our expertise to create more opportunities for ourselves as the experts in the field. When it comes to expertise in the industry, we need not look any further than a PGA Member. We have been trained through bookwork and real life experiences to be competent managers in any role that is required at a golf facility. Besides the obvious role of running and maintaining golf course facilities and golf operations, and being the most qualified individuals to teach the game, the avenues to our success are not limited to these roles. As we can see in our classification of members, there are many roles that

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we have not even started to put our stamp on. Some of them being, General Managers at clubs, operating and owning golf ranges, being on site PGA members at retail stores, and even focusing on club fitting and sales, or club repair. These may not be as glamorous as being the Head Professional at XYZ club, but it does provide us with other means of giving our expertise to the masses. Deep down, most of us want to be that Head Professional at any course and with it the glamour of being called “Pro”, while knowing that we are one in a few that holds down those positions. It commands respect when it comes to our industry, but in reality, unless the men and women who have mentored us through our years in the business step down, or move on, we all patiently wait our turn.

Another avenue for us which I find interesting and challenging, is coaching. I am not talking about individual coaching, or teacher/student coaching, I am discussing team coaching in golf. I look at this route, and I am amazed at the people who I see running golf teams at even the lowest level of the team game, high school. I personally coach a high school team and at tournaments or “matches”, I look at my opponents, and their “coach”, and have seen, retired teachers, swim coaches, basketball coaches, parents with kids on the team, health teachers, IT instructors, and all the while watching them coach a team with gifted players who more than likely received their instruction from us, PGA professionals. This is by no means disparaging any of those individuals, because they too are taking time from their lives to help the same people we do. However, it really makes you wonder? How can it be that these young boys and girls, playing golf at a high school varsity level, do not have a coach/mentor with them during their season who knows what it is like to stand over a 5 footer to win? Or knows what the pressure of playing that final hole in a tournament setting will do to you? Why are there not more of us, even as apprentices who have gone out there and offered our services? Oh sure, it’s not like we are going to go to our boss and say, “hey boss, I’m quitting because I just took over the high school program down the street with its measly stipend”. No, but it does give us a voice in the game. It gives us an opportunity to mentor these players, these kids, who more than likely, if they are good enough to compete at that level, have some aspiration of playing at the next level. We have the means to help them get better every day, and honestly, it gives us the opportunity to generate more students for ourselves.

Now you’re probably asking; do I really want to be a high school golf coach? Probably not, but this leads into what I believe is one of the biggest opportunities for

Deep down, most of us want to be that Head Professional at any

course and with it the glamour of being called “Pro”

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us to expand as an organization. College Golf! According to the Junior College Scoreboard, there are currently 1781 colleges in the United States that have golf programs. That’s all levels of college, from Division 1, to NJCAA, Men’s and Women’s. In Division 1 alone, there are 515 programs. Did you know that out of all those jobs, there are only 169 A-12 (PGA Members) and 7 B-12 (PGA Apprentices) running those programs? So that’s 176 positions held by PGA members or apprentices. Less than 10%.

Pretty low figures for an organization that are the experts in the game…. Now, does everyone aspire to be a golf coach? Absolutely not…. Does everyone have what it takes to be a golf coach? By no means, but I do think that we are all in this business because we love the game, and we are here to give something back to the game. What better way than to be involved and in touch with the future players of this game? Whether they want to be PGA professionals, tour players, or use their talents for the game to get an education? We can definitely make an impact on the game.

So having said this, how do we begin to integrate ourselves into this field? We do it the old fashion way, we network, we ask, we volunteer our way into assistant jobs, or we take high school jobs, and we meet college coaches, and of course, we Google…. We have to start somewhere. The longer we go as an organization that believes the answer lies solely in getting more people playing the game, the more out of touch we will become with the non-traditional roles that golf professional play, and we will continue to be that one resume out of a hundred who hopes to get our dream job.

“If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” John D. Rockefeller

We are the PGA of America, 27,000 dedicated men and women promoting the game of golf to everyone, everywhere. We should not leave any avenue closed that will continue to make us the leading voices in the industry.

Less than 10% of College Golf coaches are PGA

Members

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Central Chapter Newsletter June-July