Craig Renshaw is a PGA member and teaching professional at The Legacy Golf Club in Phoenix, Arizona.
Craig Renshaw on the importance of offering an intense golfer-improvement project:
We all want to see our students improve and we know what it takes, but most people don’t give themselves enough opportunity to improve. I was throwing around some ideas about instruction programs that could help people and build my business, and we came up with the Renshaw Project. I kind of liked the concept that Hank Haney used on Golf Channel, where he had people for a short time and worked on things, but I wanted to do it a little differently. We talked about a testing process and then came up with the name, and we ran with it. We came up with a way to grade people to see if they were making improvement. So what we did with the Renshaw Project was put them through a series of tests: We put them through a Trackman Combine, we do a physical assessment, we would do a K-Vest initial swing to see how their body is, and we’d do a short-game test. Then from all that data, we come up with a game plan to see what areas are their strongest and weakest and then try to improve that. Right now, the way the program’s set up, you have to take a lesson a week plus do some practice once a week for about an hour. At the end of three months, we go through all those tests again. We’re able to show them how they improved over the particular areas we tested. It is intense, and it requires a commitment. I had people who wanted to do it but they couldn’t do it because life gets in the way. With that in mind, we’re also looking possibly developing a mini version of the program, where we’d go through the whole testing thing and do a small version of the program so the golfer could see how with a little bit of work, your game can improve. For example, if a student was hitting their average approach shot to 35 feet and now they’re hitting it to 30 feet, that’s pretty significant – a 12 percent improvement.
Craig Renshaw on the business impact of offering an intense golfer-improvement project:
The program has had a positive effect on my teaching business. I started with one gentleman, and he’s already told a couple of people and they’re interested in it. Word of mouth, to me, is still the best way to get it out there because you know the people who are spreading the word are telling the right people. I can put something on my Facebook page and I may touch 50 people, but who knows if those 50 people are serious or not? Whereas an individual can stop by and say, “You know, I’ve been working on this and I’ve seen a big difference.” And they’re telling two people, and the people they are telling want to golf and want to get better, too. I charge my students $600 to take part in the Renshaw Project, which helps boost my instruction revenue quite a bit. The $600 per person includes a 9-hole playing lesson, a short-game test, the K-Vest analysis and ball flight evaluation. Plus, the inevitable additional lessons bring in even more money.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email golfprocraig@aol.com
Editor’s note: The above comments reflect the opinion and experiences of the submitting PGA Professional and are not endorsed by PGA Magazine or the PGA of America
