Managers

30 Jun 2011 admin

Do You Have What it Takes to be a Golf Club Manager and Leader?

By Dr. Patrick J. Montana USGTF Level IV Member & National Course Director US Golf Managers Association OBJECTIVES 1. To learn more about the skills required for being a leader and manager. 2. To assess your own leadership and managerial ability INTRODUCTION Managers cope with complexity: They look at what needs to be done (planning and budgeting), pull together the people needed to get the job done together (organizing and staffing), and ensure that people do their jobs (controlling and problems solving). Leaders, however, cope with change: They look at what needs to be done by setting a direction rather than planning and budgeting, pull people together to do the job through alignment rather than organizing and staffing, and ensure people do their jobs through motivation and inspiration instead of controlling and problem solving. The purpose of this exercise is to assess your skills and determine if you have what it takes to be a leader and manager. INSTRUCTIONS Read each of the following statements and circle the number that best represents your self-perceptions, where 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree. Keep in mind there is no right or wrong answer. 1. I can separate my personal life from work/school 1 2 3 4 5 2. I see myself as a good coach 1 2 3 4 5 3. I communicate my ideas clearly 1 2 3 4 5 4. I regularly prioritize what I need to get done 1 2 3 4 5 5. I am on time for meetings/classes 1 2 3 4 5 6. I am positive and upbeat 1 2 3 4 5 7. I am results-oriented rather than problem-oriented 1 2 3 4 5 8. I take responsibility for my actions 1 2 3 4 5 9. I do not blame others for my mistakes 1 2 3 4 5 10. When working in a group, I work with members to solve and prevent problems 1 2 3 4 5 11. I don’t have to redo things because my work is thorough and complete 1 2 3 4 5 12. I do not procrastinate on projects/tasks 1 2 3 4 5 13. I do not get distracted when working on projects/tasks 1 2 3 4 5 14. I work well in a group 1 2 3 4 5 15. I am people oriented, not just results oriented 1 2 3 4 5 16. I listen to others beyond just the words being spoken 1 2 3 4 5 17. When working in a group, I am more concerned with the group’s success than my own 1 2 3 4 5 18. I adjust well to different communication styles 1 2 3 4 5 19. I praise others when they are doing a good job 1 2 3 4 5 20. I work at getting ahead, but within appropriate boundaries 1 2 3 4 5 TOTAL _____________ SCORING & INTERPRETATION Compute your score by adding the responses for all 20 items. The questions in this survey were designed to give you feedback on your skills in the following areas: (1) personal stability, (2) productivity, (3) self-management, (4) communication, (5) boundary setting, (6) work quality, (7) teamwork. All of these skills are found in good managers and they represent necessary skills for leaders. Arbitrary norms for leadership skills: Excellent leadership skills (95-100) Good leadership skills (85-90) Moderate leadership skills (75-80) Low leadership skills (65-70) Poor leadership skills (60 & below) If you’re thinking about a career in golf club or golf resort management, you may want to consider enrolling in a United States Golf Managers Association Certification course and increase your employment opportunities in this growing global field by developing your managerial and leadership abilities even further. For additional information, please check out our website at www.usgolfmanagersassociation.com [Questions for this survey were adapted from interlink Training and Coaching, The Leadership Assessment Tool,” www.interlinktc.com/assessment.html. Training and coaching, 3655 W. Anthem Way, Box 315, Anthem, AZ 85086.]

16 Jun 2011 admin

Golf Strategy as it Pertains to Business and Vice Versa

Introduction It has been my observation that many golfers who stumble their way around the golf course in a haphazard manner could improve simply by applying principles of business strategy to their game. In like manner, business leaders who stumble through daily business happenings could likewise improve their “business game” by observing and applying proper strategic golf practices. To this end, I will discuss four basic concepts with you: Strengths/weaknesses, long-term planning, short-term planning, and the streetlight concept. I hope you will find this enjoyable and thought-provoking. Strengths and Weaknesses Prior to playing a round of golf, it is important to understand your game and its inherent strengths and weaknesses. Each of us has certain parts of our total game that stand out. And, we should capitalize on this whenever the situation presents itself. In like manner, we each have areas that we do not like or handle very well. These should be avoided as much as possible. If we play a round of golf that generally follows the pattern of maximizing our strengths and minimizing our weak areas, we will in all probability have a better day. But, on those exceptionally poor days, we generally find that we fall into the trap of playing into our weaknesses. This can be the result of losing composure, the golf course layout, or more likely a combination of the two. As with golf, businesses also exhibit strengths and weaknesses in relation to the market, competition, and the environment in which they operate. It is vital to analyze these characteristics of the businesses and that of the competition. How many times do we see a firm dive into a new business, only to watch them fail for no apparent reason? I suggest to you that had they better understood strengths and weaknesses, perhaps they could avoid mis-matches. As in golf, playing to your weaknesses or a competitor’s strength can have a disastrous outcome. Long-Term Planning The concept of long-term planning as it applies to golf entails developing a strategy for the entire round. A tournament situation might include strategy for several rounds on consecutive days. The purpose of long-term planning is to review each hole and analyze a strategy for where to be aggressive and conservative, what clubs will be needed, effects of weather changes on the play of the course, etc. In other words, given the known and unknowns, how should I approach this course and its mix of holes, taking into account my strengths and weaknesses and that of the golf course? In business we conduct the same type of planning. Our goal with long-term planning is to develop a strategy that takes into account the business, its environment and climate, and strengths and weaknesses of both the business and that of the competition. While the long-term plan for a round of golf covers 18 holes, the plan of businesses will generally cover a period of five to ten years. However, some companies (notably the Japanese) have attempted to develop very long-term plans covering decades of time. Short-Term Planning Short-term planning is often termed “annual” planning by strategists. In the realm of golf, it involves strategies for each hole, shot by shot. Therefore, one would have 18 short-term plans that add up to the achievement of one long-term plan. Each hole strategy must comply with the overall plan and take into account your strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of the golf hole. Every hole has an aggressive route and a conservative route. It is the golf architect’s job to show you the hole but not necessarily make it crystal clear to you. It is your task to decipher the layout and determine your best course of action, given your personal strengths and weaknesses. In similar fashion we develop short-term (annual) business plans that achieve the goals necessary to carry us to the achievement of the long-term plan. It is our road map. And too often, I see companies spend a great deal of time developing the map, only to throw it out the window as we start down the highway. The thought is that we can find the place we are headed for with some instinct (the Daniel Boone symptom). The same type of derailment takes place on the golf course. You know you should hit a 3-wood on the tee and lay up to a safe landing area, but your buddies hit a driver into the trees and so out comes the driver. Misery surely loves company. And, it is no surer true than on the golf course and in the towers of commerce. Streetlight Concept The concept of the streetlight says that during a round of golf, there are situations that call for caution, aggressiveness, and conservatism, much like the stoplight with its yellow, green, and red lighting system for traffic flow. In golf, we refer to a situation that favors our strengths a green light situation – go for it! In the case of a situation that lures one of our weaknesses, we call this a red light. Play very conservatively and avoid a pending disaster. Yellow-light situations are those that hold elements of both your strengths and weaknesses. You should use some caution, but don’t be too conservative (a little risk / a little reward). A yellow-light situation can also present an opportunity, late in the round, to be aggressive providing you have the confidence to pull off the shot. If you do, it generally means shaving a stroke off an otherwise routine approach. Businesses often hold similar situations. And, the streetlight concept can be beneficial, if you understand your strengths and weaknesses. We should be very aggressive in green-light situations that clearly favor us or in which we hold an advantage. In like manner, red-light situations that clearly do not favor us, or more likely favor a competitor, should not take up too much of our time or resources. Yellow-light situations should be looked upon as potentially rewarding opportunities, but might not work out the way we plan. It is a calculated risk-situation and may or may not fit into our plans at this time. If it does, then go for it. If not, pass it by. Other opportunities will present themselves in the future. Closing Remarks In closing, let me thank you for allowing me to share these thoughts with you. I hope you find some wisdom in this approach that helps both your golf game and your business game. As a final comment, let me leave you with this thought. Golf has been described as a microcosm of life itself. If that is so, then perhaps by applying these strategic approaches and seeing the value in them we can take that approach with other aspects of our being, and in total improve the quality of our lives. Maybe the Scots had more in mind than simply replacing war practice with golf. Perhaps even the Scots did not fully understand the experience that golf would bring to our lives.

16 Jun 2011 admin

The Golf Club Manager and the Club Superintendent

By: John C. Fech University of Nebraska-Lincoln Introduction A lot of knowledge, time, and effort are necessary to keep the golfscape functional and aesthetically pleasing. As a golf club manager, you must ensure that your superintendent has a well-organized yet flexible maintenance schedule and reports to you weekly in this regard. The Value of Scheduling As with most tasks at hand, it’s best not to rely completely on your own memory for the details of what, when, and where. Notes from previous years to supplement your recollections should be the foundation of assembling a quality schedule. Information gathered from weekly meetings with staff can supplement, providing detailed information, recollections, and history. Involving golf maintenance crew members is not only an informational step; it gives recently hired workers a sense of understanding and connectedness. Without the opportunity to provide observations to the superintendent, new hires often feel disenchanted, taking on an “I’m a dime-a-dozen strong-back dude to them” attitude. Essential Practices Weekly meetings with your greens superintendent are essential. Many of his procedures are predictable and regular, as routine as changing the oil in your car. They are not only important in their own right; various cultural practices have a major influence on the number and severity of pest problems. For example, core aeration is a common practice that leads to improved drainage of the playing surface, and subsequently, reduced infestations of crown and root diseases such as summer patch and anthracnose. Common practices can prevent pests in the ornamental landscape as well as the recreational surfaces. Pruning is a practice that removes diseased or damaged wood from shrubs and trees. Tissue of this type is quite susceptible to pests such as cankers and borers. Regular inspection of ornamental plants and usage of proper pruning techniques is crucial to their success in the golfscape. The most common essential practices for turf include monitoring and managing thatch, topdressing, verticutting, core aeration and slicing. An important (but sometimes avoided because it’s time consuming) operation is the irrigation audit, a procedure designed to make sure that the distribution uniformity is as efficient as it can be. (Sidebar – Weed scientists tell us that there are between 10,000 and 40,000 weed seeds per every cubic foot of soil. So, since the pest is so prevalent, so likely to occur, preventing them through preemergence herbicide applications is routine. Also, it’s easily justified. Most pests are treated for on an “as needed” basis, but annual grassy weeds and white grubs are the exception. The other pests are best managed through Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a model that utilizes all available methods to keep pests at acceptable levels. IPM strategies include cultivation, seed selection, disease resistance, insect resistance, proper irrigation, balanced fertilization, separation of turf and ornamentals, equipment calibration and proper timing of all inputs.) Inspection Should Be Scheduled Too Certain pests – insects, diseases, weeds – call for inspection on a regular basis to make sure that they can be nipped in the bud in the case that they do arise or start developing. A pest calendar is one of the best ways to plan for the future. Because horticultural pests have a way of repeating themselves, the three-step protocol of looking backwards to gather information, considering current weather trends and planning pest control with a calendar is a sound approach for the current year’s potential problems. A pest calendar will be helpful when scheduling pest control applications, both from an equipment and labor standpoint. If the calendar shows a large number of expected pests in a certain time frame, more workers can be scheduled and materials purchased to accomplish the work. In turfgrass, silvery thread moss, chinch bugs, sod webworms, pythium blight, armyworms, spittlebugs, yellow and purple nutsedge, goosegrass, crabgrass, white grubs, bacterial wilt, stem rust, billbugs, basal rot anthracnose, algae, and mole crickets are common pests to monitor while scale, aphids, apple scab, cedar apple rust, borers, pine sawfly, pine moths, powdery mildew and decay should be regularly noted on ornamentals. Closing A good greens superintendent is well-trained and versed regarding any of these potential problems. The golf club manager, although not trained specifically in this area, should always seek to learn from and become more aware of all turf maintenance and procedures that can affect play at his facility.

16 Jun 2011 admin

Customized Putting

To stay ahead of what golf insiders tell me is the newest putting trend on the PGA Tour, it may be time to prepare your students to play a round of golf with two different putters and two different strokes. Special Edition “Insider Instruction” By John Andrisani There’s a new putting trend coming in golf, and since it truly is revolutionary, it promises to help the largest percentage of the 30 million golfers who play golf in America and whose handicaps remain high owing to poor putting skills. This new system for teaching putting will also come to the rescue of Golf Magazine’s 3.5 million subscribers, who I’m told putt just as poorly as they did when I was senior instruction editor, and surveys back then showed that 60 percent of our subscribers three-putted an average of five times per round. And, from what I have heard through my contacts, true golf insiders who follow closely the teaching scene and what the top tour pros are up to, students who visit golf schools across the country and pay too much attention to the power game and too little attention to their real nemesis – putting, the department of the game that has more to do with scoring than any other – will show improvement, too, as a result of this paradigm shift in putting instruction. What’s more, players who have failed to break into the single-figure handicap bracket, and also those who cannot seem to improve just enough to go from a one or two handicap down to scratch, will also turn in lower scores and accomplish their dream goals thanks to this new putting trend involving equipment and technique. In thinking about the state of the information age, computers, and the golfer’s limited leisure time due to the economy, I continue to stress the importance for all of us to learn to crystallize our instructional messages down to fewer words. Taking this cure, let me get to the point about the dramatic shift coming in putting instruction and what I recommend to start teaching your students. 1. It is now thought by many that the same putter cannot be used to hit short putts and long putts without manipulating the stroke, and that these stroke adjustments almost always lead to trouble. You might think of encouraging students to carry two putters: An upright model, for putts fifteen feet or less, and a putter featuring a flatter lie for putts over fifteen feet. 2. Many realize that the same type putting stroke should not be used for all putts, and this holds true whether that one stroke is the upright, straight back-straight through method deemed the best by Dave Pelz, or the flatter, inside-square-inside method that short game guru Stan Utley promotes. The player needs to employ one stroke for short putts and one stroke for long putts. Short Putt Technique. The upright lie will encourage the player to swing the putter along a straight back-straight through square-to-square path, which is something Tom Watson did better than anyone during his heyday when he seemed to knock in every pressure putt inside fifteen feet and was winning lots of major championships. Tom only started getting in trouble when he began experimenting with employing the same flatter stroke he used on long putts on short putts. John Daly and Phil Mickelson tended, naturally, to swing the putter on a flatter inside-inside path on short putts, but both superstars found out that this type stroke tends to impart such over-spin on the putt that from short distance the ball will tend to spin out, even when it hits the back sides of the cup. Daly won the British Open after switching to a more upright putting stroke on short putts. Phil started winning majors, too, after changing strokes. What’s more, you’ll be surprised to hear that “Lefty” is the player setting the two-putter trend. The press has kept this quiet, but the insiders I stay in touch with have assured me that Phil has played numerous rounds with two putters in his bag, and has improved dramatically when using the upright putter on short putts, and the “flat stick” and flat path stroke on long putts. Encourage your students to stand closer to the ball than normal on short putts, with their eyes directly over the ball, and to control the square-to-square along-the-target-line stroke with the big muscles in their arms and shoulders. Because standing tall at address raises the player’s center of gravity, and in response also the position of the hands, the tendency is to elevate the putter at the end of the backstroke and hit up on the ball slightly in swinging through impact, with the latter increasing the effective loft of the putter. For best result, then, recommend the player play with a putter featuring only 1-2 degrees of loft built into the clubface. Long Putt Technique. When teaching students the address position for putts over fifteen feet, particularly really long ones, encourage the player to stand farther from the ball, with the hands lower and the eyes a couple of inches inside the target line, as Ben Crenshaw always did when sinking long “bombs” on Augusta’s tricky greens enroute to two Masters championships. A putter with a flatter lie will help promote the desired open-to-shut putting stroke that you can best picture by imagining a door opening, as the putter-face should ideally do on the backstroke, then closing slowly but steadily on the through stroke, with the face of the putter returning to a square yet slightly hooded position at impact; square to the ball and square to the hole, in a similar way that the door starts closing and finishes in a position that’s square to the wall. This type of open-to-closed stroke encourages the ball to hit the ground sooner after being struck, rather than “skidding” or going airborne just after the putter-face strikes the ball, and makes for a purer roll with good distance control, provided the student-golfer uses a putter with four to six degrees of loft, as the added loft in the putter will counter the effective loft of the putter being reduced dramatically at impact due to the nature of the stroke. In working out things in the putting department with your student, encourage him to experiment with various loft putters in the aforementioned range, just as any good teacher does when recommending a driver that is fitted to the player’s new swing and changes in trajectory of shots hit with the “big stick.”

12 May 2011 admin

The Future of Golf is Alive and Well in St. Lucia!

My name is Peter Trevor David, a United States Golf Teachers Federation and International PGA golf teaching professional with 27 years experience. In 1979 my father passed away, which was a shock to my family, he being the only breadwinner. It made life very difficult, so at the age of 12 decided to find a way to help my mother with my two younger sisters and went looking for some kind of employment. But, being 12 at the time, no one wanted to hire me, so I decided to go find a caddy job part-time at the Cunard Hotel Golf Course, which was only minutes away from my home. The professional there at the time was from Great Britain and he gave me a test in math and English, which I passed. He then offered me a position as a caddy, which was the beginning of change in my life, leading me to become a golf professional certified by the USGTF and the International PGA to date. In 1982 the transformation began when Stuart Woodman, the pro, called me into his pro shop and asked me to caddy for some VIP named Nigel Mansell, who I found out afterwards was a Formula 1 race car driver. As a caddy, I was able to carry the bags of many VIPs such as Nancy Lopez, Frank Carson, members of the band A-Ha, and many others. I eventually became Stuart’s assistant and he trained me like I was his own son. I was sent to the UK to train with other professional friends of Stuart’s every year in the summer, which exposed me to bigger golf courses and a change of climate to experience. In 1986 Stuart left, and I became the golf course manager and head pro, and in 1990 I was offered a job to manage a golf course in Torino, Italy, called Golf Club Igerasolli. In 1992 while on vacation in St. Lucia, I was offered the job to revamp the then-called Cap Estate Golf Course, and also to re-create an atmosphere which no longer existed at that facility, which had lost all its members due to the conditions and lack of golf course maintenance. I took up the responsibility, and within three months had the club up and running and had members returning and paying their memberships once again, as well as bringing in new members, which gave me the chance to give many golf lessons. Presently, I am setting up the island’s first golf academy, which officially opens on July 2 this year. I also have a program that started on May 4 for the less fortunate children in St. Lucia, to help create new opportunities and to help transform the youngsters into productive citizens. My dream as a West Indian professional golfer is to take golf to the ones who believed it was not possible, and being endorsed by the IPGA and the WGTF, I know that the sky is the limit.

12 May 2011 admin

Teaching Students How To Be More Proficient With The Driver

By Bob Wyatt, Jr., USGTF National Coordinator

In past issues of Golf Teaching Pro, the driver swing has been discussed using tour stars Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie as examples. Now, it’s time to focus some thoughts on ways to communicate the basic fundamentals of the driver to your students.

As a golf teaching professional, you must keep in mind just how sensitive the subject of the use of the driver can be. Everyone seems to want more distance, which tends to result in an overly aggressive, out-of-balance lunging at the ball. I typically see a student who is so concerned about creating clubhead speed that the proper techniques required are often forgotten.

If I run into this situation, I often find a simple explanation on the design of the driver has a positive effect on the student. One example is the length of the driver; another, the dead weight. The driver is the longest, lightest club in the bag. This being said, the student needs to be aware of the fact the length of the circle for the driver swing is longer than any other club due to its length. This, coupled with its overall weight being the lightest, means the student need not force the issue of speed.

The student must learn to feel the additional time required to complete the driver swing. This should prove encouraging to your student, because the degree of physical strength required is much lower when replaced with the proper techniques. To quote an old, very wise saying, when swinging any golf club, “Allow the swing to create the force.”

The proper application of grip pressure is the key ingredient to sensitizing your student to the golf club. I suggest you have your student think of the grip pressure on a scale of one to ten; one being the lightest, ten being the tightest. Three to four might be a good number to start with, but always remind your student never to intentionally increase the grip pressure during the course of the swing. Grip pressure changes do occur during the swing. However, this process takes place in the form of a reaction rather than a forced action by the player. To put it another way, the clubhead should dictate to the hands, not the other way around.

Ben Hogan was considered by many of his fellow touring pros, including Jack Nicklaus, to be the best driver of the ball ever. Mr. Hogan often was quoted as saying, “Awareness is what most people lack, not capability.”

What Mr. Hogan was pointing out was the lack of appreciation in regard to pre-shot routines so many recreational golfers are guilty of. This, again, is when you the teacher play a major part helping your student understand and develop solid fundamentals with the driver as with every other club.

Let us review the four fundamentals found in the pre-shot routine:

THE GRIP

Hold the club in a light unified manner. This pressure will change during the course of the swing, but as in all golf swings, the clubhead dictates to the hands in terms of pressure change, rather than the hands dictating to the club.

POSTURE

Have your student assume an athletic ready position, bending over at the hip joint until the shoulders are over the balls of the feet. This is a very important step in assuring a balanced static position. You must have static balance at address if you are to have dynamic balance during the swing. Keep a watchful eye on your student’s head position to ensure it stays in an up position. People are often given misleading information pertaining to keeping the head down. This type of information, however well-intended, can cause the student to intentionally put the head down between the shoulders. The student’s chin now interferes with the proper rotation of the shoulders, which in turn will cause your student to be off-balance.

BALL POSITION

The driver ball position is usually played slightly more forward in the stance than compared with the other clubs in the bag. This is due to the fact the ball, in most cases, is on top of a tee rather than on the ground. The angle needed to properly execute the driver swing is a bit shallower into the ball as compared to the fairway woods or irons.

ALIGNMENT

To complete the process of the pre-shot routine for the driver, lining up correctly is an absolute must. Let’s assume your student is a right-handed player. Have him or her position the face of the driver exactly where the ball needs to go. The body now needs to be positioned left and parallel of the target itself. Your student needs to clearly understand the importance of allowing more room left and parallel to the target than for a short or middle iron, due to the length of the driver coupled with the target being further away. This, for some, can create an optical illusion, which often translates into the player lining up right of the target. To help overcome this tendency, position yourself directly in line with the student’s target line as your student is going through the pre-shot routine. Repeat the process until your student is visually clear as to where the clubface is pointing. Once the club face is aimed correctly, the likelihood of a balanced golf swing tends to go way up. The reason is really quite simple: If the ball is traveling in the direction desired, the path of the club and the path of hands and arms are moving parallel to the body while the hands, arms, and club are in front of the body. This helps ensure a smooth, balanced, and powerful move through the ball. It’s very similar to walking or running. In both cases, proper technique dictates the arms and legs must move parallel to one another in a smooth rhythmic manner. If your student is off at set-up, the swing path will tend to be across the body or too far away from the body while in the strike zone. This will undoubtedly result in an out-of-balance weak move through the ball.

To sum this all up, the driver the most exciting club in the bag to most recreational golfers. In reality, it is a defensive position club designed in most cases to get the hole started. Get too aggressive with the driver and you run the risk of an off-line, undependable outcome.

10 Feb 2011 admin

Golf Course Management Schools

Back in a simpler time, golf courses were run by the owner/owners of the facility, and golf course management schools weren’t on anyone’s radar. As the game grew into the 20th century, the golf professional became the mainstay of the operation, and golf course management schools still didn’t exist.. Fast-forward to the 21st century, and the business of golf is one that would not be recognized by those of 100 years ago. Receiving training in all facets of the golf business has become necessary for those who wish to work in the industry, and golf course management schools have cropped up in order to satisfy this demand. Golf course management schools first gained traction in 1975 at Ferris State University, and the success of that program has led to others. One of the benefits of these other programs is that there are programs tailored to individuals who have various needs. A four-year program designed for 18-year-olds might be best for that particular age group, but most people come into the golf business later in life, and such a program is ill-suited towards these individuals. Most people would benefit from golf course management schools that have a streamlined process. Some offer programs of a year or more in length, but only one of the golf course management schools – the United States Golf Management Association – offers a training program that takes only a few days. All topics pertinent to the business of golf course management are covered, and the program is ideal for those who already have real-world business experience and have no need to take a year or more to re-learn what they already know.

10 Feb 2011 admin

Golf Course Management Companies

Managing a golf course is a very specific activity, and various golf course management companies have sprung up throughout the years in order to satisfy a demand. Perhaps the owners of a particular course are not in a position to manage the course themselves. Perhaps they are looking to outside experts to improve the bottom line, or maybe they simply don’t want to run the course. This is where golf course management companies can provide a valuable service. Those who own golf course management companies know that they have to do an outstanding job and provide great service, or else they will find that they will not survive in a very competitive business. Golf course management companies are looking for candidates who are well-trained and qualified, often seeking out candidates who have furthered their education in the field. Programs such as four-year college curriculums have been developed to meet this need, but also there are other programs that take less time. Perhaps the most notable of these programs is the one run by the United States Golf Management Association, which uses individuals actively working in the field of golf management as instructors at its certification courses. Successful attendees have found employment with various golf courses, not only around the nation, but around the world. And, golf course management companies seek out successful attendees of the courses, too, because they know that they have been given a well-rounded education in the business of golf management.

10 Feb 2011 admin

Golf Management Jobs

The business of golf is quite varied. It might be thought that the general manager or director of golf at a golf course have the only golf management jobs in the industry, but the fact is that golf management jobs come in all sorts of varieties. Your off-course golf shop retailer also comes into play when discussing golf management jobs. How about the lead superintendent of a golf course? Certainly, it might be said that he has one of the best, but perhaps also one of the most stressful, of golf management jobs. How does one get started in working their way into upper golf management? Well, one way is to start at the bottom. The old-school method was to land a job as an assistant professional, or even as one of the pro shop staff. You learned the business well this way, but it would take years before someone could work their way into a golf management job that was considered upper-echelon. Younger people might gravitate today towards a four-year program offered by an accredited university, but again this takes many years. As a result, the certification course offered by the United States Golf Management Association has been well-received by those who may not necessarily have the time or inclination to wait years to achieve their goals. Candidates who have successfully gone through the USGMA program have found a variety of golf management jobs in a variety of settings. As the program is conducted by those currently in the golf business, those who are looking for a way into the many golf management jobs available are finding the USGMA program the very thing they need to give them that extra edge over others in the business.

10 Feb 2011 admin

Professional Golf Management

When one thinks of the phrase “professional golf management, ” one might have the vision of managing a professional golf event. While that is certainly the case, professional golf management is much more than that. The business of golf continues to thrive in these difficult economic times. While the participation rates have leveled off in recent years due to the economy, people who play the game are some of the most ardent participants of any recreational sport. Professional golf management becomes vital in order to make these participants happy. Golf courses know that they have to put out a good product in order to retain the customers they have, because if they don’t, they will simply patronize the course that does put a great deal of care into their facility. Courses that are successful know that professional golf management of their facilities goes a long way in assuring a product that golfers will seek out. Facilities that fall into disrepair are ones that quickly lose their player base, and these are usually the ones that do not have any professional golf management staff – or, at the very least, managers who are ill-suited for the job. Those seeking a career in professional golf management should look into a learning curriculum that prepares individuals well for the challenges ahead. The United States Golf Management Association has done that, using individuals actively working in the field to conduct its training and management courses.