Brad Worthington, the 2016 Metropolitan PGA Section Golf Professional of the Year and a two-time Section Professional Development Award winner, is the PGA of America Director of Golf at Pound Ridge (New York) Golf Club.

Brad Worthington on the importance of making the most of the facility you have:

Everyone would love to have all the money in the world and give their facility every toy out there and all the space for every department and every staff member. Unfortunately, that’s just not practical. So you have to make do with what you have and be more creative in the process, something I’ve done here at Pound Ridge, a public facility. Pound Ridge had a stipulation when I began four years ago, that due to our 12-stall range, that a clinic could only be four people. I often held clinics for 10 to 20 at a time at previous facilities, so I had to change things up while abiding by the rules.

Brad Worthington on the business impact of making the most of the facility you have:

I have been able to provide playing lessons, which brings revenue for our ownership and lets me develop relationships with our customers that are invaluable. The pandemic and some ingenuity also have opened doors. Because private clubs were restricting outside coaching sessions, we stayed open to anyone willing to travel to us. Coming through and out of COVID-19, we have used coaching to grow our business at Pound Ridge. People who took sessions during the pandemic are now playing regularly at the facility. And then there’s that special touch – the relationships you build with time on property. One individual in particular during the pandemic was a seven-year-old boy. Due to COVID-19 and his family living nearby, I initiated a weekly half-hour house call golf lesson. We played with whiffle balls in the back yard and had towels as targets. If you landed a whiffle ball on a towel, you earned a milkshake. Fast forward to this past year, and both he and his dad have been taking range and playing sessions. Finally, there’s reaching out to those in the community, which we did via Women’s Golf Day. Being a single-owner public facility, the goodwill we created with a Women’s Golf Day was invaluable. Many community members didn’t even realize Pound Ridge is a public-access facility until they stopped by. Now we even see their husbands playing! The long-term impact of programs like this for women and families is almost priceless.

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email worthingtonpga@gmail.com.