Canadian PGA Member Ted Stonehouse on Promotion of the Game

Canadian PGA Member Ted Stonehouse was featured on golf industry blog "Golf News Now" where several Canadian PGA Members chimed in on what it takes to be successful at promoting their golf business...

Present a Professional Image to Sponsors
by Ian Hutchinson

As Ted Stonehouse accepted accolades for winning the Canadian PGA’s Jack McLaughlin Junior Leader of the Year Award recently, he made sure to say that it was a team effort, a term that often seems empty due to overuse, so the head professional and general manager at Bell Bay Golf Club in Baddeck, N.S., was happy to explain.

For one thing, he says, the junior program requires solid corporate sponsorship and that has come from MacIntyre Chevrolet Cadillac Ltd. and the Lloyd MacDonald Auto Group in the Sydney area, Tim Hortons and Cape Breton Beverages, which distributes Pepsi and Gatorade products.

Presenting a professional image for those sponsors by making sure that students are developing their skills and parents are getting value out of the program requires all hands on deck, not just the ones who are teaching, according to Stonehouse.

“If you’re going to do it and you’re going to do it right, it is most definitely a team effort,” said Stonehouse. “We have three other professionals teaching, so that means your shop staff is still working. Your other other staff is covering for your assistants that are out teaching those days, plus all the set-up.

“We do a white, picket fence. We make it really special for the kids. It’s very special – all pyramids. Hey, they’re kids. They appreciate having pyramids on the driving range to some extent and the older kids certainly appreciate it. That sets a quality that we like to present.

It also means that staff who aren’t front and centre at the junior events have to pick up the slack left by those who are out teaching and setting up.

“We try to utilize the entire facility with the junior program, so even our food and beverage (staff) have to be aware,” said Stonehouse. “They’re busy, but they still know that every hour, they’ve got a (junior) class coming up to get their drink or their treat for that day.”

Stonehouse says he took bits and pieces of his program from the CN Future Links junior program run by the Royal Canadian Golf Association and even from minor hockey programs, with an eye on development and affordability, which underscores the importance of corporate sponsorship in covering costs.

The program includes player photos, on-course instruction and mentoring by Bell Bay members, as well as some pretty cool extras that players get for signing up.

“We have a great package that they get and that’s partnered with our suppliers. Our package includes a shirt, a hat, a gift card and a green fee for a junior to play with a paying adult,” said Stonehouse, adding that Bell Bay also has a junior rental program for kids aged three through 18.

So, the Bell Bay junior program truly is a team effort, not only by staff members at the club, but also by the corporate sponsors who make the program possible through their involvement. That’s an important aspect that can’t be forgotten, according to Stonehouse.

“The final thing is to make sure that everything we do looks professional, that our sponsors are shown professionally,” he said, adding that the benefits of such support has paid off over the years.

“We can’t host our banquet anymore,” he said. “We have over 300 people to our banquet now, so we have to go to the conference centre in town, so it’s just making sure that everything’s at a professional level.”