Meet the PGA pro: Stephen Gordon

Alistair Dunsmuir
By Alistair Dunsmuir July 20, 2018 16:10

The winner of the 2018 ‘TGI New Partner of the Year’, the PGA professional at Bangor Golf Club talks about maximising revenues from his pro shop

What daily challenges do you face in running a pro shop and teaching?

My biggest challenge in this first year has been learning to delegate to my staff. I have two very good assistants in Sam and Max but I had a problem at the start of wanting to do everything myself!

How do you manage your day in terms of keeping on top of things in the shop and teaching?

We use technology. We have a diary for teaching on the iPhone calendar that each member of staff has access to read and edit.

We also have a WhatsApp group which keeps us all on the same page.

What year did you turn professional?

2008.

You recently won the highly coveted TGI ‘New Partner of the Year’ award. Congratulations! For you, what has been the focus of attention that enabled you to drive the business and win this prestigious award?

Just making the most of all the services that TGI Golf Partners have to offer its partners and actually tapping into the wealth of knowledge and experiences of its partners.

Stephen (right) collecting his New Partner of the Year award from TGI Golf retail consultant, Chris Taylor

I leaned on fellow professionals in my area such as Paul Vaughan, Stephen Crooks and Michael McGivern.

I took onboard all the advice they had for me and I put it into action. There was also a huge amount of help and support from the council and members of Bangor Golf Club.

Finally there was the patience and understanding of my wife, I couldn’t have done it without her.

What have been your career highlights – both playing and employment?

I have nothing of note to sing about playing wise – yet!

I hope to change that in future. I have never really committed myself to playing competitively and the practice that goes with it.

I have always been really interested in the coaching side of the game.

I commit most of my time to helping other people with their golf game!

Employment highlights, I suppose working in Orlando for a few months was amazing.

I met some amazing people there who I still keep in touch with today.

Young golfers are the future of the game – what are you doing to support junior golf and introduce kids to the sport?

We coach kids all year round. Junior members receive free coaching all year round.

Our junior membership has strong numbers and we run several coach camps through the year to attract new kids to the game.

A lot of PGA pros and professional shops are having to be a step ahead of their competitors in their offerings and technology – what additional added value services do you provide your members and visitors?

We have a Trackman launch monitor which adds a whole new dimension to both coaching and custom fitting.

We do plenty of yardage charts with golfers and help to identify gaps in their bag which could be due to poorly fitted equipment, or maybe a loft / lie issue.

We recently added a loft and lie machine to our workshop to provide an on-site solution to this.

A lot of golf clubs are now offering academy membership to introduce people who are new to the game. Is this something Bangor offers?

We have been running both men’s and ladies’ beginners in golf coaching classes for seven or eight years now.

We run a six-week coaching course and at the end we offer the participants the chance to take up a two month trial membership of the club for a small fee, which also includes two private lessons with one of our professionals.

You’ve been a member of TGI Golf for slightly over one year, what was it that appealed to you about the TGI business model and in what ways has the relationship contributed to the success of your business?

Just like I mentioned earlier, I spoke to a lot of my fellow professionals and it was a complete no brainer.

TGI look after their partners so well, we have a retail consultant (Peter Smyth) who has been a big help to me and the partners themselves look after each other.

If I have any problems or issues I have a group of professionals containing experts in every field to tap into and guide me to a solution.

There is a constant flow of new golf products and apparel – how do you manage what you stock and when you stock it, so you can meet the needs of members and visitors to the club?

We are only a small shop so we try to keep our stock levels pretty tight, holding smaller numbers of styles but covering most sizes.

A lot of our chosen suppliers now provide an online ordering service, so if we don’t have it in store we can usually acquire the customers’ desired goods within a few days.

Failing that, we can again tap into the members of the TGI group. We have Facebook and WhatsApp pages to ask if someone else has the goods we need.

If you have any questions or would like any advice on PGA professionals, contact the TGI Golf Partnership via tgigolf.com

 

Alistair Dunsmuir
By Alistair Dunsmuir July 20, 2018 16:10
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