Dan Terlescki is the PGA head professional at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida.

Dan Terlescki on the importance of offering a holistic approach to instruction programs:
The Concession Golf Club has a fantastic golf course and practice area, but as a relatively young club we face challenges in making ourselves better known in a market full of established facilities. Where our club is located in South Florida, there is a lot of competition for golf and golf-related services, including instruction and equipment. As a result, lessons from the staff golf professionals and equipment sales have historically been very low. This past season we offered instructional programs that focused not only on mechanics, but fitness, health, and equipment fitting as well. In order to truly offer expert services in all of those areas, we partnered with local businesses to form a team of personal trainers, physical therapists, and club repair specialists. Our professionals were on the range every day with demo equipment, and our TrackMan launch monitor to offer on-the-spot fittings and lessons. If we felt the need to, we would refer our students to our “golf wellness” team for treatment. In order to introduce the concept and get our members to buy into the program, we began the year with a Game Evaluation Day. The entire team was on site in different stations and we created a report card that each student filled out as they rotated from specialist to specialist. At the end they understood what the strengths and weaknesses were for their golf game. The day was very well-received as an offering for our membership, and we were able to successfully introduce our professionals, the team, and our programs.

Dan Terlescki on the business impact of offering a holistic approach to instruction programs:
The impact to our club has been a nice increase in the revenue generated from lessons and club sales. This year we were able to almost double the number of golf lessons given by our professionals, and our club sales increased by about 30 percent as well. Some students even kept their report card from the Golf Evaluation Day and referred back to it when talking to us about their game. Probably more important than anything, however, is the improved relationships that we have with our members. They are now starting to consider coming to us for help when something in their golf game isn’t quite right, which is an important breakthrough.

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