We’re back, offering thoughts and advice on how the PGA Professional can step forward and be the leader this industry desperately needs at this moment. And to reflect that urgency we’ll make every day a Friday. We’ll send a thought a day that you can share with your team and your management.

Here’s a suggestion from Mike O’Donnell, Snr Director Coaching and Player Development at the PGA of America.

Ask your club for a list (with phone numbers) of golfers over 65. If you’re a private club, they’re members. For pay and play venues, its people who play at the facility.

I’d add an additional selection tool. Can they give you the names who fit that criteria, and who management consider to be “occasional golfers”.

Just over 55% of golfers are considered occasional. Its from this pool that membership resignations often come from. Its this pool that sees golfers disappear from the game altogether.

Each day, try and call 6 off your list. We have seen a real spike in the number who pick up. People confined to home in fear want to talk to people.

This is your opportunity for care and compassion. But brighten their life. Ask about their game and their best memories. Ask what more could the game do for them? You’re looking to find the VALUE that golf could offer them.

You’re not “selling”. You’re building a relationship. You’re establishing trust. You’re offering yourself as that person’s ‘expert-guide’ going into the future.

Right now, the ‘plan’ you’re supporting is that this golfer is going to stay with the game when this is all over. If they can come and enjoy 9-holes walking now, then that’s a bonus.

If you’re at a private club then the value could be extra-ordinary to the club. If you reached 50 occasional golfers who are over 60 and saved 5 who would otherwise have resigned, you’re in the hundreds of thousands of dollars saved for your golf club. That telephone has become gold!

If you’re at a public facility, how many extra rounds would that 50 play at your course in the next 12 months? How many extra people would they bring along each time. Even if it was just 5 extra rounds each (with 3 partners – that’s 5 x 4 = 20) and that’s a 1,000 extra rounds (20 x 50).

And do you know how many other golfers the person you call will tell that THEIR Professional called to see how they were doing?

“The PGA Professional is the engine of growth in the golf industry. You are needed more than ever, right at this moment”

If you have any ideas, they will be gladly received and shared.

We will add all the ideas we see and come across to our “Beacon of Hope” page,
www.retailtribe.com/pages/beacon-of-hope#.
Feel free to use any of those ideas to help your community.
Be a beacon of hope.