In their own words: Robert Maxfield

The chief executive of the Professional Golfers’ Association looks forward to this month’s Ryder Cup and details how the organisation is engaging better with golfers.

I am delighted to be given the opportunity to write this column in Ryder Cup month and everyone here at The Professional Golfers’ Association is looking forward to what promises to be one of the most exciting matches yet.

The PGA has a long association with the Ryder Cup, dating back to its very beginning in 1927. We are proud to be a founding partner and Samuel Ryder asked The PGA to be trustees of the famous golf trophy.

The gilded figure at the top of the 17-inch trophy is Abe Mitchell – one of the PGA’s most famous members. A former captain of The PGA, Mitchell was one of the greatest players of his generation. He was also a PGA professional, a personal coach to Samuel Ryder and he went on to play in three Ryder Cup matches.

Mitchell’s legacy as coach to Ryder remains as poignant now as it was many decades ago. Almost all be best players in the world have at some point been coached by a PGA professional including all of this year’s European Ryder Cup team.

It’s important to remember the important role our 8,000-plus members play at all levels of golf at clubs across the UK, Ireland and overseas. At the heart of every golf club is a PGA professional who enhances the golfing experience of people of all ages, ability and gender.

To help with this, the PGA One Golf Network was launched last month with the aim of better connecting and engaging golfers. The benefit to golf clubs is the launch of a golf marketing and tee time distribution site (GoPlayGolf.co.uk) and The Golfer Card, which is a data registration system for players in the UK, helping clubs collect data from an estimated 1.5 million golfers.

We will have a team of passionate and hard-working PGA professionals providing free lessons to the public at Le Golf National throughout Ryder Cup week. Back in July at the Open Championship, our coaches spent a combined total of 750 hours giving over 3,000 lessons, and it was more of the same at the Women’s British Open last month.

It was a special moment for Georgia Hall as she was crowned champion at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, and just like Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari, Hall owes much of her success from a junior player right the way through to the professional ranks to PGA coaches.

Hall’s victory will hopefully inspire more females to take up the game and comes at a time when our We Love Golf campaign is really starting to make an impact. The campaign aims to highlight the female focussed programmes already being delivered by PGA professionals across the world. Search #WeLoveGolf on Twitter or visit facebook.com/WeLoveGolfPGA for more information.

To find out more about The PGA and how our thousands of PGA members across the UK, Ireland and overseas can benefit your golf club, visit www.pga.info.