Colorado PGA Members Continue to be on the Front Line of Growing the Game

Colorado PGA Members, Associates, and Friends,

The Colorado Section and its charitable arm PGA REACH Colorado are off and running for the 2023 season The focus this offseason was all about the PGA Member. Every decision and conversation included questions such as, “How do we staff the junior golf programs appropriately and still at the same time enhance our PGA Member focused staff?” and “What additional programs and initiatives can we provide to add value to the PGA Members?” and “how do we continue to grow our partnerships for the good of the PGA Members?”

The concern for me, when you go through the above process is that, of course, we can provide all the services, programming, and initiatives in the world, but it doesn’t matter if our Colorado PGA Members don’t find them useful So, I was excited to see the initiative that the Board of Directors took under the leadership of President Cathy Matthews-Kane The new governance model created six main committees and twelve sub-committees, which added over 30 new Colorado PGA Members to the governance process At the end of the day, we can’t be everything for everyone and I know that However, we are much closer to achieving this now, with more voices coming directly from our PGA members on the direction of the Section and Foundation Our Section is and always only will be as good as the engagement rate of our Members

Engagement is such a powerful word in our industry It can be beneficial to both a person’s career and life The team at the Section office has really taken that word to heart this year We have engaged our PGA Members through committees, we have engaged new and returning Section partners to enhance playing and education programming, we have engaged our PGA REACH Colorado Trustees to focus on the growth and enhancement of community initiatives, and we have re-engaged our junior golf members through the new pathway that should have lasting effects on our game. We are excited to see the “Return on Investment” with these engagement tactics, both tangible and intangible that we can bring to all PGA Members throughout this season.

Finally, for the past few weeks, I have been fully engrained in listening to “The Fire Pit Podcast” with Matt Ginella More specifically, I have been glued to the series “The Club Pro Crisis,” which brings in many guests such as Seth Waugh, Suzy Whaley, Brian Soule, and many PGA Members across the country to get their take on the situation we have at hand in our business - more demand than supply. A few takeaways that I have had is that number one, PGA Members are true givers and this hurt us during the times of COVID. We woke up and realized that in a time of chaos, we could be that beacon of hope and still show up to work every day with short staffing just to put smiles on others' faces This, unfortunately, then became the norm Number two, we are the only ones that can change this situation and should work on it together, collectively, to change the culture But it doesn’t have to be done with a negative connotation Focus on the positives And number three, we are so fortunate to be in the golf industry and teach others the game we love But, at the same time, we are humans