By Steve Pike

With roles and responsibilities transforming the golf course landscape, are golf professionals as we know them a thing of the past or a window to the future?

A banker by trade, Steve James is a bottom-line guy. That’s why James, now the general manager of Pebble Brook Golf Club in Noblesville, Indiana, recently posed a question that golf course owners have asked themselves for years: How important are PGA professionals to the overall operation of a golf facility?

It’s really an “eye of the beholder’’ issue. That is, some golf course owners and operators believe the cost of a head PGA professional and one or two assistants is cost-prohibitive and not worth the expense. Others believe it’s difficult to operate a credible golf course without someone who holds a PGA certification and is flanked by assistants striving to achieve the same accreditation.

“It truly depends on what kind of facility you’re at and what its goals are,” says Bruce Gerlander, a PGA professional and general manager of Orange County National Golf Club & Resort in Winter Garden, Florida. “There are certain situations where it’s paramount to have a PGA professional and some where it doesn’t matter at all—and some in between.”

Only one year into his career in the golf industry, James probably didn’t anticipate the firestorm his question would set off among course owners and PGA professionals. Nevertheless, his query is a valid one, perhaps even more so given the tough economic times many courses are facing these days.
“I know that PGA professionals make a fairly decent compensation package,” says James, who employs a head PGA professional and assistant PGA professionals at Pebble Creek. “Couple that with assistant professionals and it creates a salary expense [on the facility]. All of a sudden owners are probably taking a look at expenses and paying a management team, which includes paying a PGA professional significant dollars.”

How significant is the financial burden? The PGA of America did not respond to inquiries regarding salaries of its members, but a 2006 study from the organization indicated that the average salary of a PGA director of golf was $85,000 per year. Meanwhile, a director of instruction took home approximately $55,000 annually, and a teaching professional grossed about $35,000 per year.

“Do we need a PGA professional?” James says. “Probably not. But the other side of the equation, which I struggle with, is if you don’t have a PGA professional, what is the impact of play on your course?”

The Heart of the Matter

Indeed, the concept that lies at the heart of James’ original question is what value PGA professionals bring to the modern golf facility. For Bob Mauragas, vice president of golf operations at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Georgia, the answer is simple: quite a bit. In fact, if faced with the situation of hiring two equally qualified candidates for a job but only one of the candidates was a certified professional, Mauragas says he’d always opt for the PGA member.

“There was a period of time when people felt like having a PGA professional didn’t mean much,” Mauragas notes. “But the industry now recognizes the strength and education a PGA professional brings to a facility. In this ever-changing world of trying to increase service to members and guests, it’s become a challenge to find people who are multi-task-, multi-management-oriented.”

To that end, the PGA of America offers its four-year Professional Golf Management program whereby students can work through the course independently or enroll in one of 20 accredited universities nationwide that administer the program. In addition, the PGA offers continuing education classes for its members to become well-rounded business people.

“We’ve been asking more and more [responsibilities] of our golf professionals the past few years as the business of golf has changed,” explains Gary Dee, executive vice president of Heritage Golf Group, a San Diego-based course management firm that owns and/or operates 17 clubs in seven states. “But we still believe the competency of a club, whether it’s a private club or daily fee, is the golf operation and the caliber of service that’s given. In that regard, we think the value of having a PGA professional has gone up.”

Mauragas is also quick to point out that a growing number of PGA professionals are becoming superintendents and club managers. This, he contends, offers proof that golf professionals “are wearing more hats than ever before and meeting the challenges.”

With these new roles and responsibilities has come a new look for today’s golf professional. Rarely do you find the “old school” PGA pro who cares more about developing his or her golf game, playing in tournaments and “talking the game” at the club level than nurturing the business.
“Today, that’s totally different,” says Terry Geller, president of St. Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, a facility recognized as one of the oldest golf clubs in America. “He’s part cart manager and part club operations manager. I think it’s the melding of their responsibilities that makes them worthwhile. Today’s professional brings a tremendous amount to the job.”

For proof, Geller references his own head professional, Charlie Hicks, who has been at St. Andrew’s for nearly 20 years. Hicks serves as the club’s tournament coordinator, handles public relations, functions as the cart manager and coordinates the playing schedule for the golf course. In short, Hicks oversees all of St. Andrew’s golf-related issues.

“There are some things that could be handled by a manager, such as golf shop merchandising, but the scheduling of tournaments, the planning and conducting of instruction clinics—those are things that could never be done by someone else,” Geller notes. “He has a sense of our members’ needs.”

Not all facilities have the depth of resources—or even the desire—to be St. Andrew’s Golf Club. At Butter Valley Golf Port in Bally, Pennsylvania, course owner and GCSAA-certified superintendent John Gehman has never employed a PGA professional in more than 20 years of business.
“I have no desire to add that headache to the operation,” Gehman says. “I see no need for that level of instruction when you’re trying to lure ‘entry level’ people to the game. Sure, it takes more than handing a guy [or woman] a set of sticks and turning them loose, but it doesn’t take a card-carrying professional, either.”

The way Gehman sees it, golf professionals are part of what’s wrong with the game, at least in terms of its growth and viability as a business. “I believe the PGA professional has helped create an atmosphere of elitism that this industry can no longer afford,” he says. “Besides, regardless of what the PGA [of America and its members] tries to tell us, anyone can learn to fold shirts.”

Gehman’s final comment undoubtedly stings a lot of PGA professionals, but it hits particularly close to home for Larry Salsman, the PGA head professional and director of golf at Sycamore Creek Golf Club in Osage Beach, Missouri.

“The PGA must stop short-changing us by selling us as instructors and shirt-folders,” Salsman says. “We are businessmen and can make a difference to the bottom line in our specific line of work. If the PGA doesn’t start realizing that lessons are an amenity that a course can choose or not choose to have, we will all be out of work.”

An Issue of Credibility

Regardless of personal or professional opinions about value or job descriptions, many industry veterans believe that certified PGA professionals bring a level of credibility and many of those “little things” to a course or club that facilities without a pro just don’t possess.

“There seems to be a trend where business owners bring in a golf manager or business manager, but they lack the intangibles a PGA professional brings to a facility,” says Sean Taylor, a PGA member and director of golf at Wintergreen Resort in Virginia. “A PGA professional has experiences in the golf industry—he [or she] understands the metrics that push the needle one way or the other.”

Then again, many observers believe the value of a PGA professional and the true worth of the various “intangibles” that he or she might offer is directly proportionate to the type of facility where he or she is employed. “Certainly different clubs have different functions,” notes Joe Webster, owner of The Dye Preserve, a private club in Jupiter, Florida. “At a public course or resort, you’re basically just greeting new people every day. At a private club or local club, the head professional, I hope, becomes very good friends with every member.”

Mary Hafeman, a PGA member and director of golf at the LPGA Resort in Daytona Beach, Florida, agrees, although she’s a bit more pragmatic with respect to the bottom-line impact club pros should have on their facility. “You want people who can develop a good operation and business plan where you can hopefully create a profit,” she says.

Finally, some advocates are quick to point out that PGA professionals help attract better employees for other areas of the business. Call it golf’s trickle-down effect. “Assistants have to work under a PGA professional in order to get their certification, tapping into a better workforce market,” says Brad Hauer, a PGA member and director of golf at Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Florida.

Truth is, training and certification in areas such as agronomy and food and beverage increase a PGA professional’s value to a course owner. According to John Easterbrook, executive vice president of operations at Troon Golf, the world’s largest golf management company, the men and women who are able to successfully multi-task over a variety of channels are the ones who will ultimately drive the industry forward.

“We’re looking for good managers—that’s the bottom line,” says Easterbrook, a PGA professional since 1984. “We’re looking for managers who can motivate people, who can read a P-and-L sheet, and who can basically lead their team.”

Interestingly, Easterbrook has an outlook that stands in stark contrast to the one that prompted Steve James’ initial question and the outpouring of opinions. “You basically now can have a PGA professional who understands the game and runs the business—you don’t necessarily need to have a club manager and director of golf. And in today’s economic environment, that creates value.’’

Steve Pike is a Florida-based freelance writer.