Our goal is simple: to provide insights and perspectives based on academic research and field studies to you, a golf course owner, and to students seeking a career in our profession. We seek to create value for your golfers on a foundation that will optimize the financial performance of your golf course.
We remain chagrined that the PGA Education Department appears to seek answers to the industry’s woes only from within.
You would think to ensure that their educational programs are competitive, they would review strategic plans written by PGA Professional Golf Management Programs students, such as the one completed at Clemson University for the Trails at Chickasaw. You would think that they would seek to review the curriculum, case studies, and test bank of questions used by 15 other educational institutions offering a professional golf management program. The PGA Education Department has chosen not to download from an FTP site these documents provided to them that may strengthen their educational offerings.
Perhaps it is an inherent bias Associations have regarding the quality of their work as to why the PGA’s Education Department appears to operate with very “narrow input.”
To illustrate, Jim Singerling, departing Chief Executive Officer of the Club Manager’s Association in America told me in July, 2009 in the Congressional Building in Washington, DC during a sponsored golf lobby, “The only people qualified to teach CMAA members are those who have a Ph.D. from accredited large universities.” Go figure.
We will continue to take the approach offered by Malcom Gladwell in his book David and Goliath. Gladwell writes about a “Five Factor Model” for success is based on openness, conscientiousness and a certain amount of disagreeableness. He writes, “All progress deepen on the unreasonable man.” And so, we will continue our efforts to open the doors to improve your probability for success in managing a golf course.