January 2025 CEO’s Report

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New Year’s Day: A Strategic Reset for the PNWPGA and the Golf Industry

Happy New Year! As Mr. Nowlen reported in his December 2024 column, the PNWPGA Board of Directors and your section staff completed our Winter Strategic Planning meetings. By all accounts, our time together was a great success. Most promising to me is the excitement we, all of us, are entering 2025.  

In 2025, I am confident that the services we offer our members and associates will be even better than ever. That’s a bold statement given I had the privilege nearly five years ago to start as the CEO of the greatest section in the PGA. Our work these past few years has been a tribute to that legacy and a commitment to the promise we all make to our membership—to “serve the member and grow the game” with ferocious tenacity and unwavering focus on you.

As many have heard me say, we can do nothing as important as to deliver our members and associates best-in-class opportunities and resources for personal and professional development. In 2025, it is my hope that you will increase your already very active participation in one of the nation’s largest—and its finest—tournament programs. This new year, I invite you to take full advantage of our growing Stay Involved Webinar Series.

In addition to our section’s own, growing calendar of educational sessions, I am proud to announce a partnership I have struck with our friends and colleagues in the eight northeastern sections (Metropolitan, New England, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Western New York, Northeastern New York, Central New York) as well as our fellow District 14 colleagues in the Southwestern Section. The “Education Hub” will offer members in each section attendance—and reciprocal credit—to each section’s webinar schedule, free of charge. This will be especially valuable in the last year of your credit cycle.  

These are but two innovative and aggressive moves the PNWPGA is taking to serve you. There will be more—many more—in the months ahead.  2025 is certainly your year to grow, personally and professionally, and we are here to help you in that process.

2025 is my twenty-seventh year affiliated with the PGA of America. I am very proud that all that time has been spent at the section level, invested in the service of PGA members. During that time, I have learned first-hand that New Year’s Day is far more than a holiday; it is a strategic milestone, offering golf courses, retailers, and service providers a chance to evaluate, innovate, and propel themselves toward growth. The first day of the year serves as a symbolic reset, blending reflection, resolution, and action into a powerful launchpad for the months ahead.

Reflection: Learning from the Past

The transition to a new year is an ideal time for golf businesses to take a step back and assess their performance over the previous 12 months. Key questions arise: What went well? What didn’t? What can be learned from successes and challenges? This period of reflection is essential for understanding customer behavior, evaluating course usage, and identifying trends in equipment sales.

For example, a golf course might analyze its busiest seasons and tee-time bookings to optimize future scheduling. Similarly, a golf retailer could review sales data to determine which product categories saw the highest demand. These insights provide the foundation for setting informed goals and improving customer satisfaction.

Resolution: Setting Ambitious but Achievable Goals

New Year’s Day carries a psychological weight that makes it an optimal time for setting resolutions. For golf businesses, these resolutions translate into actionable objectives. Whether it’s enhancing player experiences, launching new programs, or increasing membership retention, the fresh start of a new year inspires teams to dream big.

Effective goal setting requires more than ambition. The SMART framework—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—ensures that resolutions are both inspiring and practical. For instance, a golf academy might set a goal to increase junior program enrollment by 20% by the end of Q2. By anchoring resolutions to clear metrics and timelines, businesses can maintain focus and track progress.

Innovation: Embracing Change and New Opportunities

The start of a new year also encourages innovation. As markets evolve and technologies advance, golf businesses must adapt to stay competitive. New Year’s Day can serve as a catalyst for exploring fresh ideas and adopting emerging tools.

For instance, a golf course might invest in GPS-enabled carts or apps that enhance the player experience with real-time yardage and scoring. Retailers could explore e-commerce platforms to reach a broader audience, while teaching professionals might adopt virtual coaching tools to expand their client base. By committing to innovation at the year’s outset, businesses position themselves as leaders in the golf industry.

New Year’s Day is more than a celebratory moment; it’s a strategic inflection point. For the golf industry, reflecting on the past, setting ambitious goals, embracing innovation, engaging employees, connecting with customers, and anticipating challenges can transform the symbolic fresh start of January 1st into tangible success.

The key is to approach the new year with intention and action. When golf businesses seize the opportunities presented by this pivotal day, they set the stage not just for a productive January, but for a prosperous year ahead.

Special Announcements

I am very proud to announce the return in 2025 for the Farmers Insurance-Jared Bouchey Hole in One Challenge. Since we began this partnership in 2022, Jared and Farmer’s have awarded $30,000 to eligible Hole in One winners. To learn more about this exciting opportunity, and to become eligible for the 2025 cash prize, please contact Jared Bouchey at [email protected]. 

As always, if I or my amazing section staff team can be of any service, please reach out, [email protected]

Frank Talarico, PNWPGA CEO

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