The question for Howie and me this month is: “Our Mission Statement is very clear. How will you work with the Board to develop successful programs to achieve that mission?”
Our Mission: To Serve our Members and Grow the Game
The beauty of our Section and National mission statement is that you can actually remember it, which is rare for a mission statement. Usually mission statements are long, filled with pompous corporate blather, ignored, immemorable, and have no relevance or meaning for the people of the organization from which it was born. Try mentioning the phrase “mission statement” in your social group and watch eyes roll back in their sockets and the oxygen get sucked out of the room. It’s the #1 social repellent.
However, our 3-year old Section mission statement is simple, elegant, relevant and memorable. Whether PGA National, the Pacific Northwest Section PGA, or your local PGA chapter, the mission is still the same: To Serve our Members and Grow the Game. That’s why the PGA exists and is the primary focus of everything we do in the PGA.
Commitments Supporting our Mission
In support of our mission is our Strategic Vision, made up of three commitments:
- We must be in constant pursuit of excellence and commitment to innovation, collaboration and improvement.
- Teamwork and talent must define our culture and must be exhibited in our communications, accountability, honesty, trust and impact.
- We are committed to diversity and inclusion as it is essential to any activity or program that the Section conducts and/or any practice we implement.
Also in support of our mission, all our programs must meet at least one of the below 6 strategic criteria to be adopted in our Section core activities of tournaments, player development, employment, professional development, community outreach/charity, and governance:
- Protect and enhance the PGA brand.
- Help our members, directly or indirectly.
- Develop new golfers, promote the game of golf and/or make it more fun and enjoyable.
- Position the Pacific Northwest Section and our members as leaders in the business, teaching and playing of the game.
- Develop local and regional importance and influence.
- Strengthen the perception of the Pacific Northwest Section and our members as the tangible connection between the game and all that play it in the Pacific Northwest.
Where the Wedge Meets the Turf: Developing Successful Programs
“Successful” is the key word. PGA National—and by extension our own Section—has had some programs that just didn’t get any traction. When I served as your Section President previously, there were 66 programs offered to our members and very few of them were successful. When you think of “successful” now, think Junior League Golf, Drive, Chip & Putt, PGA LEAD, PGA Reach, and our own in-house tournament program. For programs to be successful, they must be practical, affordable, profitable, attractive, creative, timely and appealing to the PGA Professional with their boots on the ground getting stretched every day at their respective facilities. Ultimately, our value to our owners is in creating happy, returning golfers and revenue, and my value to you and the Board is to spend the next eight years helping you do this through successful programming.
How will I work with the Board to develop successful programs to achieve our mission? I’ll keep it simple with 8 points to consider.
I will work with the Board to:
- First identify why programs fail: lack of resources, no buy-in, lack of relevance to our PGA brothers and sisters, not broad enough, too expensive, etc.
- Assess the Board’s skills and soft spots so that we can properly apply effort and resources to strengthen existing programs and create new ones that are responsive to our changing environment and are practical and relevant to our fellow golf professionals.
- Add “relevance” to our program criteria. It is my personal mission to assure that PGA Professionals remain relevant as the definitive link between our game, our golfers and our business. Without relevance there is no success.
- Implement updated business and demographic data to create the foundation for our future programs.
- Strengthen our mentoring efforts both at your facility level and at the Board level.
- Support the Committees that spawn new ideas and work hard to put them in place.
- Participate in and promote our programs, not just talk about them.
- Offer leadership initiatives for PGA Professionals so that anyone who wants to become a better leader—either at their facility or in PGA governance—has the opportunity and skills to do so. Leaders create success and successful programs.
Tap-In for Bird on the 18th Green
In conclusion, we all must remember that successful programs are a means to an end. In the end, our owners just want two things: 1) happy golfers who invite their families and friends to join them in playing the game they love, and 2) financial prosperity. Successful programs create happy golfers and financial prosperity, and in working with our Section Board—made up of your Chapter Presidents and Vice Presidents—I will keep this in front of us as we serve you, the members, and help you grow the game.
I’m always open to your feedback, whether positive or negative. Feel free to email me at [email protected], call me at Overlake on my direct line at (425) 633-1833, or text or call me on my cell at (425) 246-0448 at any time. I would love to hear your thoughts on successful programs and on how the Board can better serve and support you, our brother and sister PGA Golf Professionals.
See you at the Washington State Open Invitational!
Marcus King, PGA, CCM, CCE
General Manager
Overlake Golf & Country Club