Dennis Estes, a two-time Central New York PGA Section Merchandiser of the Year for Private Facilities and the 2025 Section Golf Professional of the Year, is the PGA of America Head Golf Professional at Cavalry Club in Manlius, New York.
Dennis Estes on the importance of leveraging demo and fitting days for more than selling golf clubs:
In today’s game, the days of your members coming in to buy clubs off the rack are a thing of the past. With massive gains in innovation and specialization of clubs to players, getting fit for new clubs is a must. For those of us at green grass facilities, demo and fitting days are the perfect opportunity to get your players in front of professional eyes, with tools beyond the typical “fit cart” and capture those sales without losing the customer to a box store or major fitting center. For many of us, that first paragraph, while valuable, is a regurgitation of lessons that have been taught to us over and over in the past. But what if we look beyond the demo and fitting days as a club selling tool, and instead look at them as a PGA Professional selling tool? As a PGA of America Golf Professional, your day-to-day is busy, and your plate is overflowing with tasks to complete and customers to satisfy. But when it comes to these demo and fitting events, you must clear your calendar and make sure that you are part of the experience. At any club, but particularly a private club, this is your opportunity to build relationships with your members/customers. You are on the range with dedicated time to that player – just you, them and the fitter. In the eyes of our players, we are the subject matter experts. Sure, the fitter from the name brand is there trying to sell the clubs, but for that customer, you are the validation of the decision and source of comfort for that player that the investment they are about to make is the right one.
Dennis Estes on the business impact of leveraging demo and fitting days for more than selling golf clubs:
Better yet, and we see this all the time, the player is really excited for the fitting experience and shows up ready to fit and buy, but they just don’t have their swing that day. Maybe it’s early in the season and they are kicking off some rust, or maybe they just can’t find a way to get the club face on the ball that day. This is the perfect opportunity as a PGA of America Golf Professional to build that relationship and trust with the customer. “Hey, Mr./Mrs. Smith, we’ve all had a day where we just don’t have our best game, and that’s OK – we see this a lot early in the season. I do see a couple of things with your swing that I would love to work on with you. Why don’t we set up a lesson or two to get these things cleaned up, and we can set up another time to get fit when this vendor comes back?” Perfect – that customer feels valued – you took an interest in their game and reassured them that you care about fixing the problem more than selling them a club. You just put money in your pocket by booking a lesson or two, and you just strengthened a relationship where you didn’t push them into buying, instead building the trust that when you get the swing working better, they will come to you to make that club purchase. Everyone wins. We’re PGA of America Golf Professionals; your schedule is busy, I get it. Make the time to build those relationships, and in turn, your business.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email destes@cavalryclub.org.
