By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
Growing engagement on the range and across our golf facilities is primarily driven by PGA of America Golf Professionals who are teaching, coaching, hosting events or managing the golf operations. In the cases where the club’s GM is also a PGA member, he or she is overseeing the entire facility. With the growth of the game we’ve seen since the pandemic, education of our future PGA of America Golf Professionals is vital to continue this momentum.
Jon Fowler, the PGA of America Director of Instruction at Stone Creek Golf Club in Oswego, New York, is a six-time Central New York PGA Section Special Awards winner and a 2020 Section Hall of Fame Inductee. Im addition to three Merchandiser of the Year Awards and a Golf Professional of the Year Award, Fowler was the 2015 Section Bill Strausbaugh Award winner and 2024 Section Player Development Award winner. Both honors recognize his commitment to teaching, coaching and mentoring.
According to the PGA of America, “The Bill Strausbaugh Award bestows special recognition on a PGA Golf Professional who personally displays outstanding integrity, character and leadership through a commitment to mentoring and making significant impacts on the careers of PGA Professionals.”
The PGA of America considers mentoring the support of professionals in managing their own development so they can maximize their PGA career potential. “The PGA mentor empowers, enables, advises, challenges and encourages professionals to enhance their professional skills, strengthen their level of service, improve their work performance and become the PGA Member that they aspire to be.”
“After serving several years on the Central New York PGA Section Board of Directors, I sought to develop a means for our senior professionals and Life Members to remain engaged in the Section outside of just providing additional playing opportunities,” Fowler explains. “Mentorship of our Section’s young PGA Associates struck me as a meaningful endeavor and a way for our seasoned professionals to share their many years of experience. After all, our current head pros and industry leaders have such busy schedules that it makes it difficult for them to be true mentors outside of the daily grind of the workplace. I felt it was important to keep these young prospective professionals in our business before they got overwhelmed by the bookwork and left the game for other career opportunities.”
As a result of Fowler’s desire to create engagement between his Section’s long-time leaders and their aspiring professionals, the Central New York PGA Section mentorship program was established in January of 2023. This program enables Associates to learn from their volunteer mentors on the phone and face-to-face. They can ask questions about their tasks they have to perform under the PGA Professional Golf Management Program (PGM) and seek guidance on other aspects of career growth. They acquire a better understanding of the career path options available in today’s golf industry and what knowledge, expertise and training is needed for each. At the range level, this grasp of the business leads to increased range usage, programming participation and revenue.
“What started small just more than three years ago has grown with the participation of such storied New York PGA of America Golf Professionals as Mike Doctor, Jack Conger and Steve Nacewicz, the PGA of America Head Golf Professional at Crestwood Golf Club in Marcy, New York,” Fowler adds. “In fact, Steve took the program a step further last year by implementing a tournament for our current PGA Associates, other young men and women considering a career in golf and the senior professional mentors. With a field of 44 players in a Captain and Crew format, we paired up golfers strategically to maximize the networking and social benefits to the young people.”
Younger professionals, such as Dylan Plis, a new PGA Member who works in the Central New York PGA Section office have been hands-on in helping Associates with their bookwork. In addition, Caroline Curry of Timber Banks Golf Club & Marina was instrumental in recruiting Associates for the inaugural golf tournament. They have been vital in motivating the Associates and promoting the merits of becoming a PGA of America Golf Professional, a feat Curry is pursuing.
Whether it’s participation in special events, meetings with mentors or the simple reassurance of knowing there are PGA of America Golf Professionals in the Section who care enough to help nurture the next generation of pros, the Central New York PGA Section mentorship program has grown in a short time with the dedication of many good people. Not only does it keep the Section’s senior professionals engaged, while providing them the satisfaction of giving back, but it also helps the Associates complete the duties decreed in the PGA’s PGM Program. It provides a foundation and structure that they can build upon, checking off one box at a time while building a network of colleagues who’ve been there before.
When it’s all said and done the ultimately beneficiaries are the facilities, members and golfers of the area — well-run courses and driving ranges that provide entertainment opportunities and venues to hone one’s golf skills.
“We’re considering collaborating with the Western New York and Northeastern New York PGA Sections going forward, as those partnerships across upstate New York will help continue the momentum we’ve built in golf since the pandemic,” Fowler concludes.
