The Middle Atlantic Professional
Newsletter Date: May 2015
The e-newsletter of the Middle Atlantic PGA Inside This Issue: President’s Perspective: Using Available Resources to Grow the Game Section Direction: Utilizing PGA PerformanceTrak Eyes on Employment: Delegation Player Development Discussion: Narrowing the Gap
After a slow spring, the weather is finally picking up and the golf season is in full swing. Continue doing your part in growing the game of golf. Be sure to take advantage of the countless resources The PGA of America, as well as the MAPGA provides.
Hokie Fest & Maryland Day; New MAPGA Mini Mulligans Tour; Club Car Pro-Preident Recap 2015 PGA Golf Day; Nominations for 2016 HOF Chapter Chat
Important Dates: May 25– Section Office Closed Memorial Day May 26– Southern Chap Champ The Federal Club June 1– Northern Chap Champ Woodholme CC June 2– US Sr. Open Qual Lake Presidential GC June 8– Facility Champ Mountain Branch GC June 15– Spring Pro-Scratch Chartwell CC June 28-July 1– PGA PNC Philadelphia Cricket Club July 3– Section Office Close 4th of July Holiday July 6—Delta Dental SOVA Open Qual & PGA Last Chance Qual Augustine GC July 7– Match Play Final Stage River Bend Club July 7– PC Deadline
President’s Perspective: Using Available Resources to Grow the Game Dear MAPGA Apprentices,
Members
and the MAPGA (we only received 18 Remember, your involvement is applications)? key to growing this great game. Please strive to become the golf I hope this If you have answered “yes” to all ambassador at your facility! message finds all of these questions, keep up the of you very busy at great work and please share your Finally, the MAPGA Tournament your facilities. This success stories with us. If you schedule is in full swing and its slow spring has answered “no” to any of them, time to get out and play golf. A sure not helped then let’s get going. Please get on great start is in your Chapter with moving the needle with board with initiatives within Golf Championships. If you are more regard to increasing play. As we 2.0. This has become a game of a team event player then you all know, our industry has been changer in our industry. It offers a have many opportunities in the very flat over the last 10 years. variety of programs such as Get section’s Pro-Scratch, Pro-Net or Pro-Am or Pro-Pro We get 3 million new golfers Golf Ready, PGA Junior League, many tournaments. Remember always annually and lose around the PGA Sports Academy, Tee it to thank all our sponsors for same amount. Forward, Welcome to Golf Month, their gracious support at each So what have YOU done to help Family Golf Month, Patriot Day to event. change this trend? Are you doing list a few. You are not expected to your part to grow this game? Are do every program, but we ask you Have a great season and please you the leader at your club in to find one (or more) of them that feel free to contact me at player development? Are you fir your facility, and then jmrbgcc@aol.com or by phone 703-759-2640, using all the resource the PGA of aggressively make it happen! America and the MAPGA have for you to be successful? If cost is an issue, did you apply for a Player Development Grant from
John Madden, PGA MAPGA President
The Middle Atlantic Professional—May Professional—November 2015 2014
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Section Direction: Utilizing PGA PerformanceTrak Thanks to your participation, we received 18 applications for the MAPGA Player Development Grants. Your Board and Staff are very excited to be able to offer this program to help our members grow the game. The Player Development Committee will meet later this month to determine the grant recipients, which will be no easy task. Please keep these grants (as well as the Junior Golf Grants) in mind as you plan your efforts throughout the rest of the year and into next year. We are hoping to see many more applications next year- let’s make the committee have to work hard on their decisions!
five responses. The 2015 information will be populated on the tool this week.
-Congrats to Dirk Schultz, PGA. In his first event from the Senior Tees (he doesn’t look a day over 49), Dirk shot a 28 on the back nine on his own ball (three putted for par on par 5 16th) at Lakewood during the Club Car Pro-President. Watch out, Senior pros!
Are you utilizing PGA PerformanceTrak? Only about WHAT’S NEXT? 38% of our facilities are right now. -We are now into our busy Click Here for an example of the tournament season, with our monthly reports. This is a great junior golf season to start in tool for you to be able to explain about a month. I know this is national and local trends for your busiest time as a PGA rounds, weather and other key professional, as well. I hope performance indicators. In my you can find the time to do all opinion, this data makes you more that you have on your plates, valuable to your owners, Boards, and please let us know if there GMs, etc. Please report your data is anything we can do from the monthly (or assign it to an Section office to make your assistant as a learning experience) lives easier. Also thanks to your to help yourself and your peers. participation, the MAPGA was first SHOUT OUTS among the 41 -President Madden and I look Sections i n forward to traveling to French C o m p e n s a t i o n Lick, Indiana this week to Survey return, with 80% s u p p o r t o u r t h r e e P G A completing the online survey. Professionals who qualified for Very respectfully, Please utilize that valuable the Senior PGA Championship. information that has been We will be there rooting for Jim compiled for you. CLICK HERE to Estes, John Francisco & Rick Jon Guhl view Survey results, as you can Schuller. Congratulations on the Executive Director query the information in many accomplishment and good luck. different ways. My hopefully helpful tip: Always start big, then start dialing down the parameters. For example, start by querying Head Professional Compensation in the Middle Atlantic Section. Then, perhaps narrow it down by Chapter or Facility Type, etc. If the survey returns less than five responses for your exact needs, it is unable to give you information. By starting big, you will know when you are getting down to almost
CENTRAL
NORTHERN
SOUTHERN
MAPGA Staff (540) 720-7420
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jon Guhl, ext. 125 DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Stacey Smith, ext. 121 TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR Jeremy Greiner, PGA, ext. 124 JUNIOR GOLF DIRECTOR Bob Heintz, ext. 128 PLAYER DEVELOPMENT Liz Cooper, PGA ext. 116 MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR Kelly Lawson, ext. 126 COMMUNICATIONS Eric Southard, ext 101 TOURNAMENT INTERN Cassie Lowell, ext 115 JUNIOR GOLF INTERNS Claire Connolly Claire Castetter Michelle Goda
The Middle Atlantic Professional—May Professional—November 2015 2014
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Eyes on Employment: Delegation As
Don Sweeting is an Employment Consultant for the PGA of America. He can be contacted at dsweeting@pgahq.com (704) 440-8025
we move into the heart of the golf season, you may find yourself thinking on many occasions “There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to get it all done!” To deal with the workload and continue to be productive, it is critical for any manager to learn the ability to delegate. Effective delegation can free you to focus on the areas of your job where your skills, expertise, and personal supervision are needed the most. Handled properly, it can also motivate your staff, increase their productivity, enhance their skills, and help them feel more a part of the team.
EMPLOYMENT CHANGES Simplify your life and submit your employment changes electronically through the PGA's ONLINE CHANGE FORM at PGALinks. Electronic submission is fast and helps you avoid any applicable fines by reporting changes within ten days of your new status.
The first step in effective delegating is choosing which items need your involvement and which items can be delegated. For each task or project, ask yourself the following questions: -Is it something that your employer expects you to handle yourself and requires your own personal attention? These responsibilities should never be delegated.
direction on how you would like it that you don’t think they can do the done. job. -Is it something you do not need to be doing yourself? These tasks To create a positive cycle of s h o u l d a l mo s t a l w a ys b e delegation, make sure your employees have a clear delegated. understanding of how you want the It is inevitable that many of the items work done, a target date for you delegate will be routine completion, the time available to do paperwork and other mundane the work, and any training or tasks. Even though these are guidance that might be needed. For necessary to most golf operations, ongoing programs or activities, you don’t want your employees to monitor progress with “routine feel that you are just dumping more checkups” so you can provide busywork on them. Try to assign feedback to the responsible After a successful meaningful projects and areas of employee. responsibility as well, so you can give project is completed, praise the your staff members the opportunity employee for a great job and let to be creative and use their own others at your facility know how well initiative. . the employee handled the assignment. Hearing how well they Keep in mind that delegation will have done is a wonderful motivator often fail if you assign a project but for any staff member, and they will do not provide clear directions or be eager to move on the next training on how the work is to be assignment and will continue to be done, and then find that you are an asset to you and your facility. disappointed when the project is not completed to your expectations. As a result, the next time you may feel If you are a professional who feels compelled to do the work yourself, you were hired to do all the work rather than delegate it and risk yourself, try making better use of another “failure.” This will lead to your staff and learn to delegate – increasing frustration for you and a everyone will benefit! feeling on the part of your employees Don Sweeting is an Employment Consultant for the PGA of America and can be contacted at (704) 4408025 or by e-mail at dsweeting@pgahq.com.
-Is it something you are doing yourself, but could also be done by someone else? In most cases, this type of work can be assigned to a staff member, with proper
Know Your MSR’s The current MSR cycle will come to a close on June 15, 2015. All PGA Members (except A-3, A-5, Retired, and Life Member) are required to satisfy the following MSR’s in order to remain in good standing with The PGA of America: 54 Total MSR’s 36 of 54 must be PGA Required MSR’s You may check your MSR status through the home page of PGA.org
The Middle Atlantic Professional—May Professional—November 2015 2014
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Player Development Discussion: Narrowing the Gap What
if there was a really simple approach that would allow you to evaluate every activity at your club to discover if your golfers really want it? If it seems like an insurmountable goal, to deliver only the products and services that your customers actually want. It can be simple and the information you get is invaluable.
The first step is to be aware of the fact, that while you are knowledgeable, experienced and intelligent PGA Professional, you probably view golf through your own personal filters and values. Many of us (PGA Professionals) play golf as a sport, as a means to compete and measure ourselves against our peers. Whether this manifests itself in annual runs at the PGA Championship, the Chapter Pro-Pro, or a friendly Nassau with your members, competition is at the root of our love of golf. This competitive aspect of the game resonates with some amateurs as well, regardless of their skill level. We all know these characters at the club; they are always looking for a game, know everyone’s handicap, and regale the 19th hole regulars with his story about “taking $5 off the Pro” in 1992.
Mike Aldrich, PGA is the Player Development Regional Manager for D.C., MD, & VA. He can be contacted at (703) 728-9033 maldrich@pgahq.com
The question you are left with, “What percentage of golfers fall into the competitive category?” How many golfers play for social connection and entertainment purposes? Can you measure how many of members or customers at your facility fall into this category? Here is an easy way to get an idea of where your customer base stands. A golf professional put this sign out at his women’s kick-off luncheon and asked each attendee to place a dot in the area that best represents why they want to play golf. The attendees ran the gamut from non-golfers to the 18 Hole Women’s Champion. Most notably, there are only four dots to the competitive side of the middle of the chart. And these were strategically placed (by the women) very close to the center. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out where most of the men, women, and juniors at your club fall? Think about how easy it is to fill up the more social events. Do your Member-Guests, Member-Member, Home & Home, Parent/Child and Spring Scramble have more robust sign ups with less effort than your Women’s Club Championship or A-Team? I remember working my entire staff at Poolesville and sinking considerable resources to sweeten the Men’s Championship in an attempt to fill the field. However, the appropriately named Frostbite Open, a fun Scramble in November and the Night Golf Tournaments filled after putting up a sign and mentioning the event to a few of the “party-people.” Take a look at every instructional program and playing opportunity to determine if what you offer is close to what your golfers want. You may be surprised at how successful this approach can be.
The Middle Atlantic Professional—May Professional—November 2015 2014
MAPGA Board of Directors OFFICERS President John Madden, PGA River Bend Golf & CC Vice President Matthew Schulze, PGA LPGA Kingsmill Championship Secretary J.P. Lunn, PGA Sabre Golf
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Hokie Fest & Maryland Day Attract New Golfers The
MAPGA was at Virginia Tech for the Spring Football game on Saturday, April 25. The ever-popular Golfzilla attracted a lot of families despite the cold and rainy weather. Even the Hokie bird got hooked on golf! Thank you to PGA Professional Chris Lovrine and Virginia Tech Women's Golf Team Members Amanda Hollandsworth and Allison Woodward for your helping with this consumer event. Golfzilla also made an appearance at Maryland Day at the University of Maryland. Over 500 people came out and took a shot at Golfzilla. Head Professional Jeff Maynor, PGA with volunteer PGA Members Lee Carroll, Jon Magarace, and Joey Walker as well as Paul Livelli, Director of Junior Golf at the University, were on hand giving lessons and promoting the game of golf. In all, over 70,000 people attended Maryland Day.
Honorary President John Malinowski, PGA Ocean Pines Golf & CC
Consumer events like these are a great way to introduce people to golf who are typically not exposed to the sport. The success of these events is dependent on local PGA Professional support. The idea is that the local PGA Professional will promote themselves and their programming during the event therefore building their business.
DIRECTORS Mark Beran, PGA Butch Butler, PGA Brian Dix, PGA Peter Gardner, PGA Lynne Hunter, PGA John Lyberger, PGA Jeff Maynor, PGA Josh Tremblay, PGA Andy Weissinger, PGA
MAPGA Announces New Mini Mulligans Tour The
MAPGA is excited to announce the Mini Mulligans Tour. This new tour is a developmental tour, targeted towards beginner juniors ages six to nine. Six to seven year olds will play 3-holes and eight to nine year olds will play 6-holes. All play will be from the Gold Family Tees.
There is no membership fee. Entry fees are $25 dollars for the six-hole division and $12.50 for the three-hole division. Entry fee covers golf and lunch following the event. The tour will consist of 8 events in the Greater DC & Baltimore areas. Each event will have tee times starting at 9 a.m. and finish by noon. Please CLICK HERE for more information.
Great Turnout for 2015 Club Car Pro President The Club Car Pro-President, presented by Polo Golf and WeatherBug, was held at Lakewood Country Club in Rockville, Maryland on Monday, May 11th. Forty-four MAPGA Professionals participated with the Club Owner, President or Director of their facility as a two-person team. Each player received a gift bag that included a Club Car portable phone charger, a Polo Golf Shirt, Bose ear buds, 12 Titleist Pro-Vs, and a MAPGA hat. The team of Dirk Schultz, PGA and Pat Steiner of Beaver Creek Country Club on winning first place in the Gross competition after they shot an impressive 10-under par 62. Schultz, in his first event from the senior tees, shot a back nine 28 on his own ball, including a three putt par on the par five 16th. In the Net competition, the team of Jeremy Hyjek, PGA and Laverne Mitchell, representing Kingsmill Resort, shot nineunder par 63 to win first place. Following the round of golf, players attended a coat and tie dinner and an awards ceremony provided by Lakewood Country Club and Chef Matthias Wieter. Chef Wieter and his staff had five serving stations that included a flame throwing torch that was used to cook steak (CLICK HERE to see it in action), paella, chicken with vegetables, a taco bar, and a full spread ice cream and dessert bar. As players enjoyed their meals, Executive Director of the MAPGA Jon Guhl handed out awards and raffled off numerous gifts, including tickets to the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits and the 2015 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Westchester Country Club. Thank you again to our sponsors Club Car, Polo Golf, and WeatherBug for all their support as well as Lakewood Country Club for their generous hospitality.
The Middle Atlantic Professional—May Professional—November 2015 2014
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PGA Golf Day: Golfing for a Cause As
mentioned at the Chapter Spring meetings, we are following up with you on information about one of the Section’s fundraising events for 2015 – PGA Golf Day. This is a golf marathon where participating MAPGA Professionals commit to playing 100 holes of golf to raise money for the MAPGA Scholarship Foundation, and a charity of your choice. The Middle Atlantic PGA site is at www.pgagolfday.com and MAPGA Professionals can start registering. Please follow the steps below to access the MAPGA site and complete the registration. 1. Go to www.pgagolfday.com and click on Middle Atlantic in the map; Now you are on the MAPGA home page for PGA Golf Day. 2. In the left-hand column click on Player Registration. 3. Complete the registration form. Click here to see an example. a. In the name area, be sure to add both your first & last name followed by PGA for PGA members. b. Enter your charity of choice as well as their logo – most logos can be accessed on the internet through Google Images. c. Insert at least $2,500 as your fundraising goal – a higher goal is encouraged. d. Edit the text for your fundraising page to reflect the charity you are benefitting. 4. Once your form is complete, agree to the terms and submit the form. You can now access your personal account by using your email address and password. On your player profile page, you have the option to edit any of the information that you inputted during the registration process. Also, remember to personalize the “Thank You” area which can be edited in the “My Page” area of your profile. Once you have your page just the way you want it… PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE! Send emails to friends, family members, colleagues, etc. linking them to your PGA Golf Day profile where they can make donations. Also, consider utilizing facebook, twitter, linkedin and other social media sites
Nominations Requested for Hall of Fame Class of 2016 Nominations are now being accepted for consideration for the MAPGA Hall of Fame Class of 2016.
Nominees must meet the following
minimum requirements:
Must be a PGA member in good standing and at least 60 years of age OR deceased. Must have been a PGA Professional for a minimum of twenty years Must have been an MAPGA member for a minimum of ten years
To review the full eligibility criteria and submit your nominee for consideration, please CLICK HERE. Nominations will be accepted until Friday, June 5, 2015. If you have any questions or difficulty completing the form, please contact Stacey Smith at ssmith@pgahq.com or 540-720-7420 x121. **Nominations for Section Awards will be requested later in the summer.
The Middle Middle Atlantic Atlantic Professional—May Professional—November The 2015 2014
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Central Chapter Update by President Josh Tremblay, PGA The Central Chapter Pro-Junior will be held at Brambleton Golf Course on Monday, June 22nd. For safety reasons we will not allow teams to pile an entire team into one cart. Teams must either walk, or they can take two carts with the professional driving one and either a parent or a junior (with a driver’s license) driving the other. Also, all participating professionals will be asked to bring in three items for the prize table and that way all of the juniors will walk away with a prize! If you’re considering running for a position on our Central Chapter Board, please give either Lynne Hunter or me a call to discuss. It is a very rewarding process and I encourage those who have the desire to get involved! Finally, PGA Golf Day is a great way to raise money for a great charity as well as the MAPGA Foundation. There are many ways for PGA Professionals to make this happen and we want to get back to our $50,000 mark from a few years ago. We need your help to make this a reality!
Northern Chapter Update by President Mark Beran, PGA The Northern Chapter Championship, supported by Page & Tuttle and Brooks Brothers, will be held on Monday, June 1, 2015 at Woodholme Country Club in Pikesville, Maryland. The deadline to register for this event will be 12:00 PM on Wednesday, May 27, 2015. This is also your opportunity to qualify for the Delta Dental State Open of Virginia (additional $25 fee). Click HERE to view the BlueGolf Tournament Information Page. Also, new this year is the Northern Chapter Match Play. This event will be open to Northern Chapter Members and Apprentices with playing privileges and in good standing as of the entry deadline and as of each match. The entry deadline is 12:00 Noon on Wednesday, May 27th. Players are to schedule their matches on their own. The deadline for each round will depend on how many players enter the event. The event will finish by early October. Please CLICK HERE to register
Southern Chapter Update Using PGA Junior League to Grow the Game By: Eric Layton, PGA the Director of Instruction at The Country Club of Virginia
It
is no secret that “growing the game of golf” is single most important objective for any PGA Professional, and it is easy to see the outstanding effect that PGA Junior League has had in accomplishing that goal. The ripple effect of having more junior golfers can also be used to grow the game through other demographics.
At The Country Club of Virginia, we decided to use the excitement and momentum of PGA Junior League to grow the family interest in the game. First of all, we decided to have an all girls team and because of outstanding support from the parents, we had 16 girls register. Many of the girls had been reluctant to compete in the past, are more comfortable with the team format and are doing really well! As of today, they are 2-0 on the season. We also have a group of volunteer mentors from our 18 holes ladies group here at the club. They come to practice and walk three holes with the girls to help them understand the rules and format. More importantly though, they’ve formed relationships with the girls and have become role models for them as they grow up in the game. Secondly, we sent a targeted email the mothers of the 55 players in PGA Junior League and offered a Get Golf Ready class especially for them. We realized that most of our father’s play, but the mother’s, by and large, do not. The three week class was offered just as a way to let them try out the game and see if they like it. The response has been good, so we will offer more classes in the summer. Finally, we installed 2 sets of U.S. Kids golf tees in the fairways of our Westhampton Course. The longer of the two sets are the PGA Junior League Tees, but we also encourage our Get Golf Ready participants to play those tees as well. Playing a shorter course is always something we’ve encouraged, but having official tees has added a level of credibility to that concept. They don’t feel like they are just teeing it up in the fairway anymore. I would encourage PGA Professionals at all facilities to do PGA Junior League and Get Golf Ready if it is feasible. The net affect will be increased traffic and usage at your facility by the entire family, and at a private club, increased usage leads to a sense of increased value in their membership, and that is what we all strive for.
The Middle Atlantic Professional—May 2015
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MISSION:
The mission of the Middle Atlantic PGA is to promote growth in the game of golf, to provide ongoing education and professional development for our members, and to actively improve employment opportunities for PGA Professionals across the region.
VISION:
1 PGA Dr. Stafford, VA 22554 Phone: (540) 720-7420 Fax: (540) 720-7076 E-mail: midatl@pgahq.com
The Middle Atlantic PGA… a member-driven association providing leadership across the golf industry.
PGA Professionals: Experts in the Game and Business of Golf
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THANK YOU TO OUR 2015 PARTNERS DIAMOND LEVEL
Club Car The PGA Tour PLATINUM LEVEL
Delta Dental
National Car Rental
OMEGA
GOLD LEVEL
Bridgestone Golf HITT Contracting Signature Golf Travel
E-Z-GO GolfMDs Lindsay Automotive Group NIKE Golf Sunice TaylorMade-adidas/Ashworth SILVER LEVEL
Bushnell Callaway Celtic Golf COBRA PUMA Cutter & Buck EP Pro Gear/Under Armour Golf Genius Hole-in-One U.S.A. Jani-King Martin Golf & Gennec Golf Mizuno North Coast Golf Shows Oakley Page & Tuttle PiMac Sales PING POLO Sterling Cut Glass Tournament Solutions WeatherBug BRONZE LEVEL
Bose
AHEAD Headgear ALSCO GolfMax Heritage Creations
Antigua Origins of Golf