Robb James

Director of Golf/Head Professional

Royal Mayfair Golf Club, Edmonton, AB.

By David McPherson

Royal Mayfair is an established private club founded in 1922. Prior to coming to Royal Mayfair as an assistant pro in 2006, James was at Victoria Golf Club in Edmonton. He was named head professional in 2009 and made several changes to make his staff more visible to members — getting them out of the shop and spending more time playing, teaching and fitting. The result: hard good sales in the shop have increased and there is a better rapport between his assistants and the members.

Here, James explains this best practice:

Get out of the shop. We’ve made changes in the last couple of years to get our professionals to be more active with our membership. Our new golf shop is not connected to the main clubhouse, so there was a fair bit of disconnect compared to the old building where members had to walk through the pro shop every time they were on the property. The first couple of years I was here, I was working in the shop so much I didn’t have time to teach and fit, which often leads to retail sales. So, when I got the head job in 2009, I said I was going to build a job for my assistants that I would have wanted to have when I was an assistant. The biggest thing that was missing was our members’ access to our professionals.

There was tons of feedback last year following my first season as a head pro regarding the increased accessibility of the professional staff and the ability to get out and network. Each of our pros (me included) are scheduled one shift a week on the first tee. In the past, we had a first tee host, but they weren’t golf professionals. They didn’t understand the Royal Mayfair program where there are tournaments and events that can be promoted. They were essentially just checking golfers in. Having the professionals on the first tee increased the participation in our events.

Saturday mornings were my mornings. It allowed me to get feedback from members. They no longer walked off the golf course and went right to their car, forgetting about the comment they should have passed along. Right off the 18th green, I would ask, “how was your round today?” And, if there was something that needed to be addressed – whether it was course conditions or pace of play – I could address it right then.

We also moved the demo equipment outside, so it was more convenient for members.

In 2009, when the economy was quieter, we saw our hard goods sales spike because we got equipment into members’ hands and let them try it before they bought it. My assistants also all increased the amount of rounds they played with members and the lessons they taught, and, more importantly they did it while they were here. They didn’t need to do their eight-hour shift and then do four hours of lessons. We had enough coverage for the shop.

Reaching out to the next generation, James adds that they’ve also created a website specifically groomed to juniors to take away any intimidation of going down into the men’s or ladies’ locker room.

The junior program has softened at our club. All of my staff had good junior programs at the clubs we played at as kids and we didn’t want to see that go away. We revamped a few things and changed our clinics around. The one exciting thing we did was create a website for them. Here, they can build their own profile with their name, age and their highlight of the year. The idea was to increase participation in our junior programs.

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