Golf Ontario has held Golf Community Meetings with almost 200 of the 822 golf courses across Ontario. At each meeting they take an inventory of the Adult and Junior Learn to Golf at each golf course. Guess what? The results are not pretty.
ONLY 41% of Golf Courses have an Adult Learn to Golf
ONLY 48% have a Junior Learn to Golf program
That means MORE THEN HALF of golf courses across Ontario are doing nothing to Grow Golf!
That also means there is a HUGE Opportunity to grow our sport!
So how do we do that?
1) Creating Golf Communities Across Ontario
I know you all currently at the Golf Course down the road as the guy who’s stealing your business. It’s time to start looking at them as a potential partner. It’s far easier to grow the game working with other courses in the area then to try doing it on your own.
Remember: When you create a New Golfer you create them for the entire industry! That golfer might be loyal to your course but they will still travel and play other facilities in tournaments and events. Do you want to be the only one doing all the work?
Golf Ontario has now visited 9 communities with the hope of getting golf courses working together. Current communities that have been visited include: Kingston, Durham, Windsor, London, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste Marie, Kitchener/Waterloo, Niagara Falls and of course Barrie where the golf communities project began. We need all these communities to start now. Barrie is already showing positive results!
2) Lets get Golf into the Schools
There is no money better spent to expose kids and families to golf then getting Golf into the school system. Unfortunately the school system will not do it on its own so it is the responsibility of Golf Course Owners and Operators to step up and get Golf into Schools.
The Good News – Golf Ontario has been doing this for years and can provide training to your staff. Don’t have anyone on staff in the winter? This is where you start working together. In Barrie we now have 4 people from different golf courses who contract themselves out to other courses to run their programs. I currently sponsor 4 schools (about to be 5) and I pay Stephanie Sherlock from a competitive golf course to run my program. It does work. We are proving it! For more info on how to get started you can CLICK HERE to see many of the resources that are currently available through Golf Ontario. Or call Cuyler at Golf Ontario at 905 852 1101 x 227 (Cuyler chedleymarion@gao.ca) or give me a call at 705 322 1664.
3) Create Learn to Golf Opportunities
I’m not going to lie. This is the hard one.
You to find somewhere to teach. 8 years ago all I had was a small putting green. Since then I have added a big Teaching Net, moved a hole and created a chipping and bunker teaching/practice area and squeezed in a 3 hole Par 3 course. Before that we just taught lessons out on the golf course. It’s not easy but we need to find ways.
You need to find someone to teach. If you don’t currently have a Learn to Golf program you probably don’t have the resources to hire a full time teacher. Why not try to find or even create a part time teacher. The CGTF (Canadian Golf Teachers Foundation) offers one week Learn to Teach Golf Clinics. They might even have someone in your area looking for a teaching opportunity. The PGA of Canada offers Community Coaching Programs. Find a retired teacher who loves to golf and see if they would be interested in taking the course. Talk to golf courses around you that have Golf Teachers and ask if the teachers would be interested in teaching part time at your course. There are lots of options available.
One thing I will tell you that I have learned. The best way to grow your Learn to Golf program is to get together with a few other local golf courses, create a standardized Learn to Golf program (include lessons and green fees – send me an email if you want to learn more) and approach your local Municipal Parks & Recreation department about adding it to their program guide. The only issue here is you need to get on it early because they finish preparing their guides in December!
Moving forward
I (and Golf Ontario) learned a lot going through the Golf Barrie project. I won’t speak for GO, but I will send you out my own thoughts on the lessons learned from starting a Golf Community and working with other owners. I was going to include them in this email but it got so long I thought it might be best to just send out a separate email. Stay tuned. I will send it out in the next week.
Opportunities Coming Up in the Near Future
There are some great opportunities coming up to learn more and to get involved:
The Think Tank – February 20-21st
This event is being put on by Golf Ontario, The Golf Lab and the PGA of Ontario. There are 3 components to this event and they include “Growing the Game”, “Club Operations & Management” and “Teaching and Coaching”. This is a great opportunity for us golf course owners and operators to get together to work on Growing the Game.
