When Calgary head professional Dean Ingalls moved from Pinebrook to Silver Springs Golf & Country Club in 2015, one of his first suggestions was for them to join the Quebec-based BPG Buying Group.
At Pinebrook, he became well-acquainted with the benefits of BPG membership: strength in numbers in purchasing, a centralized electronic billing system (with just one cheque to cut at month’s end), and the networking and friendships forged with 150 of the top PGA of Canada pros.
“It has been great,” he says. “We save so much time on the inventory side of things, and it adds in the ballpark of $13,000 a year to our bottom line because it allows us to maximize our time and be as productive as we can.
“The early payments and rebates add up, and it’s not like they’ve affected how we buy.”
Then there are the meetings between BPG general manager Martin Boucher, and the group’s 10 to 12 members out west.
“He will come out and get everybody together, and good things come from that,” the 48-year-old father of two continues. “He updates us on the possible new lines; like we’re looking into the Au Noir menswear line.
“And, I enjoy sitting down with the guys. It helps enormously.”
Ingalls grew up playing all sports, and was golfing by the age of six at the local 9-holer in Hanna, Alberta. But he went on to play hockey at Mount Royal College in Calgary (earning a business diploma), before deciding to become a golf professional and heading down to the San Diego Golf Academy for a two-year degree in Golf Complex Management.
As an assistant pro, he had stints at Rossland Trail and Highwood before joining Pinebrook Golf & Country Club in 1996, and being named Head Professional and Manager of Golf Operations in 2011, a position he would hold for many years.
In 2011, Ingalls won the PGA of Canada’s Pat Fletcher Merchandiser of the Year Award while emphasizing that it takes a team to run a successful pro shop. He also spent two terms on the PGA of Alberta Board, and one on the National Allied Golf Association’s Board.
At the par 72, 7056-yard Silver Springs, he and his staff have maintained healthy membership totals of 1,050 in the face of golf’s flagging participation rate.
“It‘s an extremely active 18-hole facility in the heart of the downtown. It’s a luxury,” he relates.
“The thing that we’ve addressed is for juniors and ladies not to be left out, in terms of the game of golf. We’re aware it’s not just the guys. You have to go after the female members.”
The ladies can enjoy such programs as the popular Tips & Sips, while Silver Springs has no less than 210 kids in its Junior Program, and “Family Tee Blocks” have been installed further forward so the course plays at a friendlier 3,622 yards.
“There’s everything for them: junior leagues, junior teams, junior nights,” he adds. “It allows kids to establish a handicap, and make strides at an early age.”
