PROfile: Bo Baker

This month, beginning with Bo Baker, we begin highlighting PNW PGA Professionals who have contributed Best Practices to the Section. We hope their programs will inspire you! Search the full Best Practices archive at https://www.pnwpga.com/bestpractices.

Name: Bo Baker, PGA

Facility: The Creek at Qualchan

PGA Member Since: September 2019

Who or what inspired you to get into golf?

Watching Tiger inspired me to play and get involved. Rob Sanders, PGA was my local Club Pro in Delta, Colorado, at Devil’s Thumb Golf Course. He introduced me to the PGA program and helped keep me on track to membership. I also love to compete and play the game. I wanted to instill this same desire into junior golfers by coaching them through various programs.

How did your market your Junior Golf Academy?

When I was hired on at The Creek at Qualchan, I was tasked with the goal of creating a long-term junior program from scratch. I spent the winter months of 2019 creating brochures, social media posts and email templates that I could start sending to families that played at the facility. Many of these marketing materials came from the Operation 36 Network resource center.

Knowing that marketing materials are never enough, I spent some time educating and equipping the pro shop staff with conversation topics to prospect interested families. A prospective family would receive an email (saved as a template in Gmail) immediately following their conversation with the staff member, containing all of the necessary information about the programs we had to offer and my direct contact information. Having the email template saved in Gmail was a crucial piece to creating and managing leads for the program. It was simple, easy for the staff to use, and timely for the family to receive. We also promoted and hosted a Spring Parent Orientation Meeting that educated interested families about the programs being offered.

We totaled 44 kids in the program with an average of 32 being enrolled for all three 8-week semesters. On top of Operation 36, we also launched PGA Junior League and filled two 13U teams and one 17U team, totaling an additional 27 players.

Is there anything else you would like to mention about your program?

If you haven’t implemented Operation 36 as a critical curriculum in your Junior Program, I would highly encourage you to take a look at it. The support staff at Operation 36 do a great job of helping you get your program up and running, along with technical support of the software. Don’t be afraid to host informational meetings and orientations for your families. The more you can educate parents about the game, the correct expectations for their juniors, and show them a clear set of goals, the more success you will have.

Read Bo’s Best Practice Here

Search the full Best Practices archive at https://www.pnwpga.com/bestpractices.

 

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