by Alan Hopkins – Kansas City Tee Time, Feature writer. Published previously in KC Tee Time
leader on the links
Meet Pam Shaheen, Golf Travel Promoter Extraordinaire escorting tours, publishing golf guides, attending golf shows and more for 25 years
If it’s Tuesday, you might find Pam Shaheen on a golf course in New Orleans. Or Calabash, N.C. Or any course on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Shaheen promotes golf. Gregarious, energetic, passionate and fun-loving, she’s extremely good at what she does. So good, in fact, she’s arguably impacted golf tourism more than anyone – male or female – over the last 25 years. Shaheen spreads the word by escorting golf writers from all over the U.S. and foreign countries on 5 and 6-day media junkets to golf destinations in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina and Michigan. Writers have come from as
far away as Asia and Europe to play a different course each day and get a taste of what each destination offers. “I’m primarily in the tourism business; golf happens to be the Pam Shaheen Photo by Tim Corser
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draw to the destinations that we have specialized in,” says Shaheen (pronounced SHA-heen), the coowner of Atlanta-based Crossroads Marketing, Inc. “We host Golf Media Tours to further assist our existing clients in getting the word out.” But that’s just one aspect of the business. Marketing and advertising are at the top of the list; golf travel guides are published for multiple states; and Crossroads’ own program, Let’s Golf, is tied to consumer golf show representation and its nifty publication, “Let’s Golf Destinations.” ”Pam is a wealth of golf marketing knowledge coupled with always being a ‘Bucket of Sunshine,’ “ says Mary Williams of Louisiana’s Audubon Golf Trail. “You just cannot miss when doing projects with Pam.” An extrovert who has been known to climb atop a golf cart or race wheelchairs, Shaheen’s affinity for bright, multi-colored Loudmouth pants is exceeded only by her love of the New Orleans Saints football team. Shaheen shares ownership of Crossroads Marketing with Mary Beth Gabriel in a partnership that merged their diverse talents into 25 years of success. “I graduated from Tulane University with a degree in Mass Communications and proceeded to work in marketing and advertising in New Orleans,” says Shaheen. “Mary Beth has a degree in Visual Communications from Loyola University New Orleans and spent time working in her family’s jewelry business. “I knew sales, marketing and advertising but I lacked the organizational and creative side which she had. While we were combining our talents to work on freelance projects in the early 1990s, we got the opportunity to work for Fairways Golf Company in Mobile, Ala., the first company to package golf trips along the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Ultimately, we determined that side of the travel business was not for us so we started Crossroads Marketing in June of 1997 to handle marketing and publishing for golf destinations.” Shaheen handles the sales, marketing and public relations; Golf Central • Volume 23, Issue 3
