Adam C. Smith, the 2016 Middle Atlantic PGA Section Horton Smith Award winner, 2008 Section Teacher of the Year, and a GRAA Top 50 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, is the PGA Head Golf Instructor at The Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.
Adam Smith on the importance of offering a monthly high-performance clinic:
At The Country Club of Virginia, once a month, the golf professional staff performs a demonstration clinic known as the, “High Performance Clinic.“ All of us on the professional staff who teach golf, participate in this one hour class. It takes place at 6 PM, once a month. Our members have, over the years, grown to love this clinic and our number of participants get larger and larger each month. The sessions are performed April through September, which is our peak golf season in Richmond, Virginia. Every golf pro in the event gets to demonstrate how they prefer to hit specific shots, pertinent to the topic of the clinic. Topics are announced at the beginning of the year, in a newsletter blast in March. Subjects include: how to warm up on the range, before play; how to execute each and every imaginable bunker shot; putting tips and drills designed for your putting success; iron play, how to hit more greens in regulation; the long game, how play your driver, woods and hybrids successfully; on the course, observe how your PGA professionals play. In Richmond Virginia, we enjoy six months of in-season golf clinics and our members get a fun, insightful demonstration class from their friendly, approachable PGA golf professional staff, once a month.
Adam Smith on the business impact of offering a monthly high-performance clinic:
To truly grow the game of golf, we all know the importance of giving away free instruction. What better way to do this, than hosting a monthly high performance clinic?! I mean, after all, the members love it! The professional staff gets to have fun together, once a month, in front of a crowd of their fans! It is truly like a one hour golf instruction party. We always host the questions and answers, together as a team, after the one hour clinic concludes. This is great “PR,” as the members get to interact with their golf professional staff for 30 minutes afterwards. During each clinic, the professional staff gets to demonstrate their own unique style of teaching while also demonstrating that we each share the same philosophy on “keeping it simple.“ At the end, we each promote coming back for one-on-one lessons. These monthly clinics are a hit with the membership, and are an opportunity to “ham and egg“ together, as professionals. These clinics continue to yield an investment in follow-up lessons. We find them to be a win-win when it comes to member service and earning income. You should get your team on board to start your very own high-performance clinics at your club! Enjoy growing the game!
