Lorne Rubenstein’s – ‘The Final Putt – The Canadian PGA Club Professional’
The Final Putt – Issue # 1
Golfers from coast to coast have played their opening rounds of the season as I write my inaugural column. And in a rite of spring surely as locked in as watching the last round of the Masters, here’s what just about each and every Canadian golfer must have done before he or she teed it up in that much-anticipated first round.
I’m referring to the golfer stepping into a club’s pro shop and saying hello to the Canadian PGA pro there. Maybe a new pro or assistant was there to greet the player. Maybe the professional has been at the club for only a few years, or decades. But one thing is certain: The moment was an enjoyable one.
Questions from golfers to one of the 3,600 club pros from Newfoundland to British Columbia: “What’s up? How have you been? How’s your family? Did you get away during the winter for any golf?”
Questions and responses from the pros: “My family’s great. How’s yours? It’s been an interesting off-season. We’ve made a few tweaks to the shop and we have a new young teaching pro I think you’ll like. You’ll find all kinds of new merchandise. We’ve also come up with a couple of new tournaments that I think you’ll enjoy. I know you want to get out there, so go ahead, but I’d like to talk to you about some things we’re doing with our junior program this year as well.”
I could go on and on with this exchange. Having been around the game for some 45 years, I think I have a pretty good idea of a club pro’s job description. Then again, it’s always changing, always progressing, always developing.
You don’t just become a golf professional.
You’re always becoming a golf professional.
You’re always learning and honing skills you’ve had for years and learning new ones. We live in a digital world. It can be as important to know about GPS systems as the latest swing theories. It’s important to understand hybrid clubs and high-tech shoes.
When a golfer walks in to the shop and wants to talk golf, the golf professional has to know golf. Thoroughly. Between those walls in the shop resides an encyclopedia of the modern game—the Canadian PGA pro, that is.
I’ve been looking through my Canadian PGA files and came across a document titled The 14 Skills of the Golf Professional. This is from a while back. The number of skills required has only increased and probably can’t be quantified or even separated the one from the other. But in another way this list tells me that there’s always been so much to being a club professional.
The list: playing ability; teaching ability; expert knowledge of golf equipment; bag room operations and service; power cart fleet management, operations and management; caddy programs; rules of golf; organization and supervision of play; practice and driving range operations; merchandising; accounting, bookkeeping and inventory control; staff training and development; ability to project a good public image.
These requirements came into focus over the years since 24 Canadian golf professionals gathered on July 11th, 1911 at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club. Their mission was to form an association of golf pros, which became the Canadian PGA. That didn’t happen formally until September 8, 1938 when the Canadian PGA was actually incorporated under the Companies Act, Dominion, Letters Patent. But the point is that the club pros banded together in 1911 because they recognized that an association would best serve the needs of the growing game. That’s never changed.
Now, as the 2010 golf season continues, Canadian PGA pros will build on the work of their founders. You will continue to become as good as you can be at your professional. You are part of a new initiative called PACE, or Professional Advancement and Career Enhancement Program. You are part of a continuum, and you are extending it forward, forward to 2011 and your Centennial.
Good luck to each of the 3,600 Canadian PGA members in this new season. Good luck in your own journey. Let the season begin, and you and your profession thrive.
Lorne Rubenstein
The Final Putt
Canadian PGA
Golfers from coast to coast have played their opening rounds of the season as I write my inaugural column. And in a rite of spring surely as locked in as watching the last round of the Masters, here’s what just about each and every Canadian golfer must have done before he or she teed it up in that much-anticipated first round.
I’m referring to the golfer stepping into a club’s pro shop and saying hello to the Canadian PGA pro there. Maybe a new pro or assistant was there to greet the player. Maybe the professional has been at the club for only a few years, or decades. But one thing is certain: The moment was an enjoyable one.
Questions from golfers to one of the 3,600 club pros from Newfoundland to British Columbia: “What’s up? How have you been? How’s your family? Did you get away during the winter for any golf?”
Questions and responses from the pros: “My family’s great. How’s yours? It’s been an interesting off-season. We’ve made a few tweaks to the shop and we have a new young teaching pro I think you’ll like. You’ll find all kinds of new merchandise. We’ve also come up with a couple of new tournaments that I think you’ll enjoy. I know you want to get out there, so go ahead, but I’d like to talk to you about some things we’re doing with our junior program this year as well.”
I could go on and on with this exchange. Having been around the game for some 45 years, I think I have a pretty good idea of a club pro’s job description. Then again, it’s always changing, always progressing, always developing.
You don’t just become a golf professional.
You’re always becoming a golf professional.
You’re always learning and honing skills you’ve had for years and learning new ones. We live in a digital world. It can be as important to know about GPS systems as the latest swing theories. It’s important to understand hybrid clubs and high-tech shoes.
When a golfer walks in to the shop and wants to talk golf, the golf professional has to know golf. Thoroughly. Between those walls in the shop resides an encyclopedia of the modern game—the Canadian PGA pro, that is.
I’ve been looking through my Canadian PGA files and came across a document titled The 14 Skills of the Golf Professional. This is from a while back. The number of skills required has only increased and probably can’t be quantified or even separated the one from the other. But in another way this list tells me that there’s always been so much to being a club professional.
The list: playing ability; teaching ability; expert knowledge of golf equipment; bag room operations and service; power cart fleet management, operations and management; caddy programs; rules of golf; organization and supervision of play; practice and driving range operations; merchandising; accounting, bookkeeping and inventory control; staff training and development; ability to project a good public image.
These requirements came into focus over the years since 24 Canadian golf professionals gathered on July 11th, 1911 at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club. Their mission was to form an association of golf pros, which became the Canadian PGA. That didn’t happen formally until September 8, 1938 when the Canadian PGA was actually incorporated under the Companies Act, Dominion, Letters Patent. But the point is that the club pros banded together in 1911 because they recognized that an association would best serve the needs of the growing game. That’s never changed.
Now, as the 2010 golf season continues, Canadian PGA pros will build on the work of their founders. You will continue to become as good as you can be at your professional. You are part of a new initiative called PACE, or Professional Advancement and Career Enhancement Program. You are part of a continuum, and you are extending it forward, forward to 2011 and your Centennial.
Good luck to each of the 3,600 Canadian PGA members in this new season. Good luck in your own journey. Let the season begin, and you and your profession thrive.
Lorne Rubenstein
The Final Putt
Canadian PGA