The Official Website of the PGA of Southern California

Please note my observations, interpretations, predictions, etc. are not based on comprehensive research before writing this.  These are my very informal observations, concerns and predictions.

Working the past two years with the Lorena Ochoa Golf Foundation has allowed me to spend a lot of time with travel industry professionals.  Learning about some our industry parallels has been very interesting.  The most interesting and concerning of these parallels is their history with third part servers such as Travelocity and Expedia.

Over the past decade these third party servers have grown in power to the point that, I believe, they have an influence on the rates being offered by hotels and airlines.  I have gotten the impression that some hoteliers and airlines regret not addressing the growth of these third party liquidators earlier and harnessing their power and impact.  It may not have been possible, but who knows?

I think the golf industry is heading down this same road – quickly.

I recently heard a story about a golf course that was strongly encouraged to offer a lower rate by a third party tee time liquidator.  The course operator declined to lower the rate and the liquidator responded to the golf course they would probably not be able to sell tee times for this particular course any longer.  This forced the course operator to make a tough decision.  The third party liquidator accounted for a little more than 30% of this course’s tee time sales.  Not wanting to risk losing the customers that booked through this service, the course relented and lowered their rates.

This happened outside of California and in a fairly small market.  Maybe this couldn’t happen in a market the size of ours.  Maybe it could?  I’m worried it will because I think we are generally poor as an industry in the area of yield management.  The people who operate these services are experts in this area.

I’m not sure if there is a solution to this potential problem or not.   Slowing down these third party liquidators may be as futile as fighting the tide.   From a consumer stand point it is very convenient to go to a single site that has everything I need and presented in a very easy to use fashion.  I travel regularly and almost always use Expedia.  I realize hoteliers and airlines would rather have me book through their web site.  I don’t do it, though, because it’s not as convenient, efficient and I’m generally lazy.  It only takes one of my three reasons to drive me to a third party and I’m sure just about every golfer shares at least one of these with me.

The number of golfers who book tee times via the internet is not going to decrease.  Our golf course owners and operators need to get out in front of this.  The best solution for the owners and operators is to; a) become experts in yield and database management or enlist the help of someone  who is, and b) have a great web site, compatible with smart phones, with an amazing booking engine.

I predict this internet thing is going to catch on.  We need to hop on the bandwagon and be as proactive and responsible for our own destinies as we possibly can.   No course operator wants to get a call from someone telling them they must lower their rates or risk losing 30% of their tee time bookings.   Do your best to book your own times and keep control of your business.

I have one more web based suggestion; if your email address happens to be idrinktilligetnakedanddanceontables@knucklehead.com you might have trouble in a job search or being taken seriously in a professional setting.

While I think everyone should end up on a table top or wonder what happened to their clothes at least once in their lifetime (I hear it’s fun), I don’t think this the best announcement for personal branding.

The PGA of America recently commissioned the Boston Consulting Group to conduct an intensive study of the state of the business of golf.  The completed study is published in a document titled Golf 2.0.  As expected, Golf 2.0 is filled with charts, tables, graphs and numbers.

A couple of statistics that grabbed my attention were 1) approximately 75% percent of PGA members reported they conduct PGA programs to enhance the business at their facility and 2) approximately 75% percent of owners/general managers weren’t aware their PGA professionals were conducting PGA programs to enhance facility business.   My reaction to those two statistics was, “Wow!”  My, “Wow” reaction applies to both parties involved.  I can’t understand how such a large percentage of golf professionals can be communicating so poorly with the people who are primarily responsible for how much money we make.  I’m much more surprised at how an owner/general manager could give someone money twice a month and not be intimately aware of what they are paying for.

It was also reported that of the approximately 27,000 PGA members and apprentices, less than 300 have used the annual reporting template available to us on pgalinks.com.   This is a template built for us to report our activities and accomplishments to our bosses.    Less than 300 responses out of about 27,000?  Again, “Wow!”

There are some messages we can take from these statistics.  If these numbers are even remotely accurate, one of the messages I get from these numbers is this lack of communication probably has accelerated the downward trend golf has suffered.  A second message is that if this poor communication continues, it will be a tremendous drag on upward trending.

The simple summation is we need to be talking and the talking needs to take place not at 30,000 feet but at ground level, at the golf facility.  If all of the major golf entities such as the PGA, USGA, LPGA Tour, PGA Tour, GSCAA and any other group with letters and a budget combined their forces and flooded TV, print, radio and social media with golf messages 24 hours a day for a month what would happen?  If that blitz started tomorrow I would say nothing positive would happen.  It would be like sending out invitations to a party but not having a band, bartender or food ready for the guests when they show up.

All of the previously mentioned golf entities and many more communicate regularly and intensely.  The topic over the past few years has been growth of the game.   None of these groups can grow the game.  Only golf professionals at golf facilities can grow the game.  These groups can develop the programs, offer the education and provide the marketing.  We, the golf professionals, have to do the work.

Golf 2.0 is a major effort by the PGA.  There is some great information in the report.  There is also a lot of information in there that all of us have known for a long time.  What’s good about compiling all of this, including the obvious, into an organized report is this report makes it easier to develop goals and plans to achieve these goals.   This is structured and productive communication.

The next level of communication needs to start on the ground, at the golf facilities where the work needs to take place.  The golf facilities need to communicate internally and develop their own goals and strategies to achieve those goals.  Luckily for all of us we can benefit from entities such as the PGA of America who can give us the programs, education and marketing needed to achieve our goals.

It has been an interesting past few months discussing what to do with the proceeds from our investment program.   Through discussions with the membership, we have been able to conduct somewhat of an informal strategic planning session, taking feedback and suggestions from all corners of our Section. 
Some of the recommendations to date have been to:

• Divide a portion between the five chapters.  Each chapter would then contribute at least half of the funds to a selected charity, the other half to support education and meetings
• Increase the number of printed issues of the PROgram magazine to at least 10 per year, up from the current six
• Eliminate registration fees for Section meetings
• Governmental affairs
• Subsidize lunch for players who participate in the golf event following a Section meeting
• Expand the apprentice education program with new opportunities
• Add a SCPGA staff person who would focus on career and operations consulting for our members
• Add a SCPGA staff person who would focus on Chapter activities
• Broaden the education spectrum with more diverse and lower cost program offerings and to include management and operations education to meet today’s business
• Help fund and expand growth of the game programs to cultivate new golfers throughout Southern California
• Increase advertising and promotion budget for local media to promote PGA professionals and their facilities
• Grow and advertise the SCPGA Golf Schools we have piloted over the last year and a half
• More educational opportunities for teaching teachers
• Reduce dues
• Relief fund for Section PGA members
• Compensate our on-site Tournament and Rules staff
• Create an online library

This is just a sampling.  There have been comments about every aspect of the business of golf within the SCPGA and being an SCPGA member.  One of the things I have personally found interesting is the discussions going on within both the Section and Chapter Boards has been as varied as the feedback from our membership.  Thank you to everyone who has contributed. 
Our plan is to gather this feedback from you, the members, to prepare the Board to make decisions at our March Board meeting.  This meeting will take place during the Super Seminar at the Riverside Convention Center on March 21 and immediately follows the Spring Meeting & Open Forum, which will be one final opportunity for you to voice your opinion and provide any more suggestions for the Board on what we should do with the money.   Obviously there is no consensus at the moment. It’s going to be a long and fun conversation. 
Personally, the feedback has told me the SCPGA has been doing the right thing for a long time.   We need to be throwing a lot of our resources at a lot of things, like we already do.  We have a varied membership with a wide range of interests and needs.   Fortunately we now have even more resources available to us, the hard part will be figuring out how best to utilize it to help you, the PGA Professional.

We received a GREAT Christmas gift from the Investment Committee.  They gave us $160,000!  On behalf of the SCPGA, thank you to Chairman Jeff Johnson, PGA and committee members Bob Kummer, Chris Myers, and PGA Members Susan Roll, Paul Levy, Scott Stubbs, Greg Frederick, Ross Fisher, Greg Prudham and Tom Addis (Being a staff member, our CEO Tom Addis technically isn’t a committee member, but definitely deserves the same thanks.)  Thank you, also, to our money managers, Bob Cluck and Jason Levey of Canterbury Consulting.

The Investment Committee was formed after it was decided to invest our income from the sale of our golf courses into an endowment.   Our financial goal for our investment was to grow annually by 8%.  If we reached our goal, the plan was to reinvest 3% to 4% into the investment to grow our principal and maintain pace with inflation.  If all goes well, that leaves 4% to 5% for the Section to spend.  There were some exciting, and nerve wracking, swings last year but when the year was done our goals were met.   Being cautious and responsible, our Investment Committee recommended a 2% spend rate of the initial investment for 2011 and our Board approved this.   These goals, and the reduction in our spend rate, are fairly standard for endowment funds.

Now, it is time to spend.  Over the last couple of years the question of how the money was going to be used came up often and was not answerable.  That decision wasn’t for the Boards that were in place at that time.  The plan was to not tie the hands of the Boards that were in place when it was time to use the money.  Now it’s time for the question.  What are do we do with $160,000?

We want your input.  Please share your thoughts with your Chapter Representative or a Section Board Member.   Click on this link to share your ideas.

The important thing is getting your ideas to the Board.  I always look forward to hearing from you and can be reached by calling 951-712-7843 or at jtpga@pga.com.

Some of the ways to use this money that have been discussed are reducing or eliminating meeting fees, reducing education costs (per the IRS, education cannot be free), adding staff to help with employment issues,  reducing dues and increasing growth of the game efforts.

Reducing dues has been the most popular topic over the past few years.  In the past, in both private conversations and at the podium, I have said that I am in favor of this.  I have since changed my mind, however, for a few reasons.  It just so happens that the $160,000 we have to spend is almost exactly what is needed for a $100 dues reduction.  One of my concerns is yo-yoing the cost of our dues yearly.  We may not have $160,000 next year.   But that isn’t the main reason for changing my mind.  I changed my mind because I think we can get more benefit from this money by not splitting it up 1,700 ways.

Personally, I think the majority of the money should be spent on efforts to grow the game.  If we can get more people to play more rounds of golf I think we will all benefit much more than if we individually save $100.  And more golfers playing more rounds of golf provides a benefit that lasts.  I think we have the ability to do this with our Neighborhood Golf program, combined with our soon-to-be rolled out plan for bridging Neighborhood Golf with golf courses.  I’m excited about this.

There are some Board Members who agree with me and some who disagree.  When we meet in March we are going to discuss all the options and decide together how to best put these dollars to work.  As I did with you here, please take the time to consider about what’s best for the PGA and the game, and let us know.

Happy New Year!