Chris Hubbard, the 2023 Southwest PGA Section Youth Player Development Award winner, is a PGA of America Golf Professional and the Director of LPGA*USGA Girls Golf – Tucson, Arizona.
Chris Hubbard on the importance of promoting girls’ golf at your facility:
I’m celebrating 13 years as a PGA of America Member, many of which were spent as a superintendent at several courses in Arizona and Hawaii. During those years, I was also an instructor for the LPGA*USGA Girls Golf – Tucson, Arizona organization. After six years of teaching, I took over as the site director. As the site director, I answer to our Board of Directors and run 8-10 clinics and 8-10 on-course play days per year. With the industry relationships that I’ve forged as a PGA of America Golf Professional, we are able to facilitate these events at gracious golf courses and clubs throughout our area. When the summer heat becomes a major factor, we are offered times during the late morning and early afternoon, but we have opted to plan indoor events instead. For instance, we have a local indoor studio called Good 2 Great Golf that has four Trackman bays and is considered one of Tucson’s premier golf training centers. Outdoor play days, when more suitable, are nine-hole events, but to play in these tournaments, kids must have attended at least one clinic, so they have been taught the basics. These clinics happen thanks to a great network of volunteers we have who engage the girls, teach them the fundamentals of the game and encourage them to keep practicing, learning and ultimately competing. Each participant pays $30 to sign up at the beginning of the year and pays $15 for each event, which includes lunch, snacks, tee gifts and range balls. We fundraise to subsidize our program through a huge online auction each year and sell raffle tickets for prizes that have been donated to our organization.
Chris Hubbard on the business impact of promoting girls’ golf at your facility:
Girls’ golf remains a demographic with significant growth possibilities for organizations like ours, as well as green grass golf courses and driving ranges. We currently have almost 50 girls under my purview in Tucson, 70 percent of whom are very active in the program. I speak to various women’s clubs and organizations throughout Tucson to promote LPGA*USGA Girls Golf and garner their support in advertising our efforts through their individual networks and channels. Growth in participation in our organization only serves good purposes – growth in the revenues at courses and ranges in the area, an increase in sales of clubs and golf apparel for this demographic, more robust middle school and high school golf participation and competition, an outlet for the young women that they might not have considered before, leadership opportunities to give back to our program after they’ve aged out, college scholarship opportunities and so much more. Consider what a vibrant girls’ golf program can do for your club, course or range in lessons, play and more extensive player development programming.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email hbb319@aol.com.
