Driving revenues

We believe we need to see more PGA Professionals in ‘rainmaker’ roles at their Golf Facilities. They should be focused on building the revenues the industry badly needs. We need “more golfers, playing golf more often” to ensure we have a vital and healthy industry.

If we examine a small area of influence a PGA Professional has, and examine it from the bigger picture of ‘Golf Facility revenue’, then we start to see just how much more can be made of the PGA Professional.

Many PGA Professionals and much of the management at Golf Facilities see coaching as a “revenue” source for the PGA Professional. Some go a little further and see it as a service their members expect.

We see coaching as a fundamental component of the strategies for increased Golf Facility revenue, increased rounds and participation, improved retention and new member introduction.

Those who monitor the details of golfer activity, such as Michael Leemhuis, Chief Executive Officer,
Congressional Country Club, have access to data highlighting that:

Golfers trying to play better golf, will play more golf, spending more time at the Club and making greater use of the Club’s facilities;
There is a direct relationship between playing better golf and having more fun playing the game, and a direct relationship between enjoyment and retention;
A golfer who is in a coaching program will:
- Almost certainly play better golf,
- Is committed to playing better golf,
- Increase the rounds of golf they play in the next 12 months by almost 20% on average,
- Renew their membership

Golf Facilities who open up their academies and coaching programs to non-members will create a stream of future members. Peter Myers, PGA Professional at Hainsworth Park Golf Club in Yorkshire, United Kingdom, introduced 155 new members to the Club in the 13 months from January 1st 2011 to February 2012. Many of them introduced to the Club via Academy coaching programs and events.

The conclusions from analysis of participation data are:

We need to work to inspire as many golfers as possible to want to play better golf – the more committed a golfer is to improvement the more likely they are to play more golf and the less likely they are to leave the game;
Coaching is a really effective way to engage with the golfer base – it provides a route to improvement and greater levels of enjoyment – increasing the rounds and participation,
It is easier to convert golfers committed to improvement into greater levels of participation if they are in coaching programs and these golfers do NOT require discounted offers to play the game – they are inspired to want to play.
It is easier to retain golfers who are in a coaching program.

Inspire, Engage, Convert, Retain are the four basic steps of customer management employed by the world’s leading brands.

Coaching is just one way that a PGA Professional can be deployed to strengthen the community at a Golf Facility. There are many other ways that a PGA Professional can influence the revenues by: “inspiring more golfers to want to play better golf, having more fun with more people becoming more committed to their club and the game itself”.

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