Middle Atlantic PGA
The Professional February, 2016
In this Edition...
Welcome to the new look of “The Professional”
Letter from the President
PGA Profile: Steve Greiner
PGA Junior League Golf
Career Column
Spring Meeting
Chapter News
The Professional
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Letter from the President Matthew Schulze, PGA
Dear MAPGA Members and Apprentices, With spring only a few weeks away according to the Groundhog, everyone hopefully is preparing to get the new season started. After attending the PGA Show for the first time in a couple of years, I was encouraged by the energy and enthusiasm of the attendees. The PGA Show is always a time to finalize plans for new programs or some additional upgrades before the season gets underway. The Board has also been busy in the off-season working on improving programs and creating more opportunities for the membership. Early in December the Board got together to conduct our annual planning session. The planning session gave us the opportunity to review each of our programs and initiatives. The conversations were passionate and many new ideas were vetted as ways to engage and encourage the fraternal aspect of our Association. We have many ideas and plans to keep our Section well situated into the near future; I hope you will be pleased with the changes. The Spring Membership meeting is at the end of this month; please mark your calendars to attend (February 29th). Once again at the spring meeting we will honor our Annual Award winners and celebrate their accomplishments within our Section. The Spring Membership meeting is also another way to network and connect with our fellow PGA Members. The Awards Banquet follows the Spring Meeting on March 5th and this year the event will be hosted at Belle Haven Country Club. It will be a great night and we look forward to honoring the award winners. If you’ve never attended this event, I urge you to consider attending. It is a night to remember for all in attendance. Finally, please feel free to contact me at Kingsmill Resort if there is anything I can do for you or anything you would like to discuss about the Section, the PGA of America or the Golf Business. I am excited to continue to serve the membership over the next two years, it is truly my honor. All my best, Matthew Schulze, PGA Email: Matthew.Schulze@Kingsmill.com Cell: 757-345-8099
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Middle Atlantic PGA Foundation & Folds of Honor Foundation Present the
2016 Military Pro-Am July 18, 2016 The Courses at Andrews 18-Hole Team Scramble Opening Ceremonies Begin at Noon
Field: 36 teams of one Active Duty military personnel, three Corporate Sponsors and one PGA Professional Each Pro-Am guest will enjoy: 18-holes with a Professional and one Active Duty military personnel One (1) Pro-Am Gift Bag for each player All-inclusive food and beverage experience during Military Pro-Am PRICE: $1,000 per team (three amateurs) $300 Professional Appearance Fee Sponsorship opportunities available $250 - $5,000. Contact MAPGA Foundation Activities Director Liz Cooper, PGA at 540-720-7420 x116 or lcooper@pgahq.com for more information.
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The Professional
Questions or interested in starting at PGA Junior League Golf Team? Contact League Manager Mike Aldrich, PGA at maldrich@pgahq.com
Player Development
A Message From Mike Aldrich, PGA & Liz Cooper, PGA On Feb. 16/17 at Springfield Golf & Country Club, Mike O’Donnell, Senior Director of Player Development for the PGA of America will lead an interactive workshop. During the day and a half, you will accomplish the following: Create a clear vision of what success looks like at your facility Connect with the reasons that motivate consumer behavior to engage your golfers Learn the basics of solid player development programming Develop executable ideas that have a measurable impact on your facility Sign up for the PGA Player Development Workshop and improve the lives of your coworkers and the golfers you serve.
Reinvent yourself, reinvigorate your staff and engage your golfers at a higher level. Reconnect with everything that you love about the Game and Business of Golf. An opportunity to have a real and positive impact on the lives of the people around you and the economic health of your facility. Register Here: http://bit.ly/1mgBjOH
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The Professional
Section
Upcoming Events
Spring Meeting The 2016 MAPGA Spring Memebership Meeting will be held at the Fredricksburg Expo Center from 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. PGA Professional Mike Adams will speak following the event.
Mike Adams, PGA
The electronic version of the Meeting Booklet, which includes the reports of the Officers, Committees and Staff is available online here: bit.ly/1SKegKL
Mike “The Swing Dr.” Adams, a nationally renowned golf instructor will be presenting following the MAPGA Spring Meeting from 1-5 p.m. Adams has been in every GOLF Magazine Top 100 Instructor and Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher list that has ever been produced.
Shoutouts Congrats to Leighann Albaugh, PGA; Mike Dickson, PGA: Carlton Dove, PGA; Linda Gaudi, PGA; and Michelle Holmes, LPGA for being named to the U.S. Kids Top-50 Teacher list. Jim Estes, PGA; Chris George, PGA; Bernie Najar, PGA; Trillium Rose, PGA; Adam Smith, PGA; and Chuck Will, PGA were all recognized as 2015 GRAA Top-50 Growth of the Game Teaching Pros. Six of the top-50 are from the MAPGA Section!
Awards The 2016 MAPGA Awards Banquet will be held March 5 at Belle Haven Country Club in Alexandria,Va. More than 14 awards will be given including Section Professional of the Year, Teacher of the Year and the President’s Award.
Kinloch and River Bend were honored for GRAA Top-50 Private Club ranges. Fox Hollow was named Top-50 Public Range and Dulles Golf Center was named a Top-50 Stand-alone Range.
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PGA Profile
Steve Greiner The Fort Belvoir Wounded Warrior Golf Program has served veterans and their families since 2008. Established by Fort Belvoir Golf Club Head Professional Steve Greiner, the program not only teaches golf, but helps it become a part of the veteran’s rehabilitation. Soon after Steve Greiner, PGA was hired as the Head Professional at Fort Belvoir Golf Course he decided to give back to the Army community he now worked in. Inspired to create a rehabilitation program surrounding golf at his own course, Greiner started the Fort Belvoir Wounded Warrior Golf Program. Each year Greiner and the Fort Belvoir Golf Course host more than 150 veterans and family members for its Wounded Warrior Golf Program. The program offers free lessons each fall and spring to help troops overcome physical, social and psychological trauma from active duty. For two hours a week, Greiner and his team teach, mold and perfect the golf skills of its program’s veterans, many of which have physical limitations. The range balls, clubs and lunch are provided free every week with wounded veterans playing for free at the course whenever they like. Greiner’s program has been named an Army “Best Practices Program,” and has received accolades and visits from The White House, members of Congress
and golf legend Jack Nicklaus. President Obama has personally visited the program on nine different occasions and Greiner and his wife Marty were personally invited to be official greeters at the White House President’s Cup reception. Partnered with groups such as the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, the AW2 Program and various community outreach programs, Greiner is able to identify and provide support to as many wounded veterans as he can. In 2010, Greiner was bestowed a Wounded Warrior Challenge Coin signifying honorary membership into the Warrior Transition Battalion as “one of their own.” He was also the MAPGA’s sole nominee for The PGA of America’s National Patriot Award in 2012. Today, Greiner continues his work with the Fort Belvoir Wounded Warrior Golf Program and is highly involved in Fairfax County, Fort Belvoir’s Youth Services and Get Hooked on Golf junior programs.
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Career Column Don Sweeting, PGA
As we head toward the busy season, most PGA Golf Professionals are so occupied with taking care of their many duties that updating their resume or thinking ahead to a future job change is the farthest thing from their minds. However, the next few months are a great time to acquire new skills, experiences, and responsibilities that can make you more attractive to potential employers. This is especially true for Assistant Professionals who may be ready to look for that first Head Professional position this fall. Naturally, you should be doing everything possible to improve your operation and make your facility more successful, and it’s a good idea to document the areas where you have been responsible for a positive change. Maybe you have implemented a new marketing program that increases rounds played at non-peak times by 15%; instituted a pace of play program that cuts 10 minutes off the average playing time; developed a new junior clinic format that increases participation from 50 to 75 golfers; implemented a new pricing policy that results in a 20% increase in sales; or added the use of a new video teaching program that helps 25 of your students lower their handicaps. For the purposes of enhancing your resume, it’s important to be able to quantify your accomplishments with statistics and percentages as much as possible. In addition to tracking improvements for your facility, check into the education opportunities to build skills. The PGA offers many opportunities including specialty certifications. Also your local community college offers continuing education classes to improve your skill or develop new ones. Technology skills are becoming more and more important for you and your facility. If you are a Head Professional, make an effort to work with your Assistants and allow them to gain experience in some of the areas that their future employers will be looking for, such as: • Developing and managing budgets • Hiring, training, and managing personnel • Open-to-buy planning, meeting with vendors, and purchasing merchandise • Tournament operations, rules, and course set-up • Teaching methods, clinic development, club fitting • Meeting with committees and facility management Provide them with feedback on how they are doing, and make sure you are available for support and to answer their questions. This will not only pay great dividends for your staff members when they finally obtain their “own” Head Professional positions, but it should make you more productive as well. In addition to your accomplishments on the job, make sure to keep a list of your involvement with PGA committees, competitive golf highlights, church or school activities, community service, charity and fund raising events, speaking to local civic groups, working with children (coaching, Boy Scouts, etc.), and any continuing education programs you attend. Items such as this can have a positive impact on the people who read your resume and could help separate you from other candidates. It’s never too early to think about your next resume “update”, and you’ll be happy to have this information at your fingertips when you begin the process. Good luck, and don’t hesitate to contact me if I can assist in any way. Don Sweeting is an Employment Consultant for the PGA of America and can be contacted at (704) 440-8025 or by e-mail at dsweeting@pgahq.com.
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Chapter News Southern Chapter With a new year many of us make resolutions that if followed through on will make us a better person by improving ourselves, our family or our community. My challenge to each of you would be to make a resolution to get more involved with your Southern Chapter in 2016. If followed through on I can guarantee that you will see improvement in your chapter, you facility and yourself. By thinking about your fellow PGA golf professionals and how to help them improve you will only help and enrich yourself along the way. The southern chapter leadership is forming committees to help improve ourselves, our facilities and our chapter in the following areas: Employment and Club Relations, Public Relations, Education, Handicapping, Junior Golf, Player Development, Rules, and Tournaments. If you have ever thought about getting involved in one of these areas please contact any member of your southern chapter board and we will be more than happy to discuss with you what would be required and also share with you all that our involvement has meant to us. -Andy Weissinger, PGA
Northern Chapter The 2016 Northern Chapter Spring meeting and Pro-Pro will be held at Bulle Rock GC on Monday, April 4th. The program for this year’s meeting will feature two panel discussions: one on Customer Relations and the other on Merchandising. The discussions will be led by award winning PGA Professionals from within our Chapter. This will be a great opportunity for each of us to take home information to help us grow and be better professionals. Save the date, find a partner and let’s have a great start to the 2016 season. I encourage each of you to take advantage of the MSR Monday on February 22 at the University of Maryland Golf Course. A wide range of topics will be covered and it is a chance to share ideas and best practices with your fellow professionals. Our Section, Chapter, Sr Association and APA Tournament Committees have put a lot of effort into finalizing the 2016 schedules. I know we are all busy, but let’s find the time to get out and play this spring! -Jeff Maynor, PGA
Central Chapter Save the date! Our Central Chapter tournament season will kick off with the Spring Meeting and Pro-Pro event on March 21, 2016 at International CC. I hope that many of you can join us to catch up with your fellow professionals and get in one of our first rounds of golf for the year! Our tournament committee has been hard at work setting up the rest of our events for the year over the past few months. Many thanks to our tournament chair, Geoff Montross, PGA and his committee; Zach Allen, PGA, Scott Shapin, PGA, and Glenn McCloskey, PGA. The next education event in our chapter is coming up next week, the Player Development seminar at Springfield CC, February 16-17. We saw a preview of this great seminar after the Fall Section Meeting-it is guaranteed to be a great resource for you to learn a few new ways to promote your events and generate revenue for your club or business. I hope to see you there! If you have any suggestions for future education events in our Chapter, please feel free to contact me or any of our board members. -Lynne Hunter, PGA
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