The news for the industry isn’t as bad as often portrayed, Paul Levy, who is also the General Manager of Toscana CC in Indian Wells, Calif., told those attending an industry summit. “There are a lot of really great things happening out there and we as an industry, especially the leaders, have to talk positively,” he said.
Paul Levy believes that a few positive thoughts from the people inside the golf industry would go a long way to helping the sport’s outlook on itself, The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, Calif., reported.
“There are a lot of really great things happening out there and I think sometimes, people like talking about what’s bad as opposed to what’s good,” Levy, the new President of the PGA of America, said during a keynote speech at the Coachella Valley Golf Industry Summit, which was held on January 16 at The Club at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., The Desert Sun reported.
Levy, who is also the General Manager at Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells, Calif., was just one of the highlights of the second annual summit, The Desert Sun reported. The gathering was organized by Desert Classic Charities, the non-profit group behind the CareerBuilder Challenge tournament (formerly the Bob Hope Classic) that will be held January 19-22 at PGA West.
The summit, hosted by the tournament’s Director of Sales, Bob Marra, brought together golf officials, golf course owners, managers and superintendents and manufacturers of golf-related products, The Desert Sun reported, to provide a forum for an exchange of ideas for an industry that has been plagued by reports of course closures and a drop in participation in the sport over the last decade.
But Levy, who has helped to develop several courses for Sunrise Company, said the negative talk only hurts the golf world, The Desert Sun reported.
”One of the key things we have to do, and I am going to talk to you a little bit about collaboration, is that we as an industry, especially the leaders, we have to talk positively about the game of golf,” said Levy, who began his two-year stint as PGA President in November.
In many areas, Levy noted, the news for golf is not as bad as it has been portrayed, The Desert Sun reported. While he admitted that golf was overdeveloped in the 1990s and into the 2000s, and that course closures were a natural correction to that overdevelopment, he added that not all of the closures were because of a decline in golf.
Many closed courses were either nine-hole courses or courses with green fees under $40, Levy pointed out. In addition, he said, “There is a pretty good percentage of them, and I haven’t been able to find the statistics, where of those courses, the land was too valuable.
“Even if the course is doing okay, making a little money or breaking even for the owner, the course was there 30 years ago and it was out, as we say in Louisiana, in the boondocks,” Levy explained. “Today, it’s on the beltway or in a geographic location where they couldn’t help but sell the land.”
Levy also highlighted gains that have been made in growing the game, The Desert Sun reported, as did members of a panel that included representatives from the Southern California PGA, the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) and the First Tee of the Coachella Valley.
Nikki Gatch, who played high-school golf at Palm Desert (Calif.) High School before attending Oklahoma State University, and is now a player development regional manager at PGA of America for Southern California, and a member of the Board for the Southern California Golf Association, said the golf industry should be focusing on junior golf to help produce a new generation of players, The Desert Sun reported.
“It is our responsibility to provide additional programming for [juniors],” Gatch said. “We are starting to see so much more of that [and] a lot more interaction with juniors. It is the center of golf where we have seen the most growth.”
After being stagnant at about 2.5 million junior golfers though programs like the PGA Junior League or First Tee, Gatch said, that number grew to more than 3 million in 2015. “That’s tremendous. That’s a great growth in that area,” she said. “And with juniors comes more introductions to the parents and mom or dad.”
Other initiatives, like the SCGA Youth on Course program that provides discounted rates and access to courses, and the First Tee instructional and educational program, were also discussed at the summit to highlight opportunities for growing the game, The Desert Sun reported.
The summit also featured a panel on how golf courses can work to improve themselves in difficult times, The Desert Sun reported. And a third panel, moderated by Craig Kessler, Director of Governmental Affairs for the SCGA, talked about ongoing water issues in California, even as the five-year drought in the state appears to be easing. (Word in the last week from federal officials was that with heavy rain and snow in Northern California in the last few weeks, 42 percent of the state is no longer in a drought and that the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is at about 150 percent of historical averages.)
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