Doug Hammer, a three-time GRAA Top 50 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, is the PGA director of instruction at Troon North Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Doug Hammer on the importance of running a Drive Chip & Putt boot camp:
Our Drive Chip & Putt Championship (DCP) boot camp is a four-week intensive program to prep students for the DCP qualifier. Each week, the students go through driving, chipping, and putting stations working on specific drills to enhance their shotmaking ability. Week 1 covers setup and basic skills for short game and creating distance with the driver. Week 2 consists of working on directional games with the driver and distance control with chips and putts. Week 3 focuses on putting everything together with a preshot routine like you see on TV. Finally, Week 4 is mock competition. I started the training program after my own kids competed last year and struggled with the chipping and putting components due to inadequate preparation. So I wanted to set up something to get my kids excited about practicing and get our other junior golf participants ready to take the next step and advance through DCP. The importance for me and our customers is to see our kids have fun while learning skills needed to be successful in a national competition. As for the facility, Troon North has become a leader in player development, and hosting a DCP qualifier enhances that. We want the icing on the cake to be several of our kids advancing to the next level!

Doug Hammer on the business impact of running a Drive Chip & Putt boot camp:
With this being the first year of the program, the long-term financial impact is unknown. But we have seen short-term benefits. We charged $99 per person and allowed for drop-ins from week to week. Overall we had 24 kids attend at least one session. The majority of these kids are already enrolled in our other junior programs. However, we did have five new clients attend and are hopeful they will join us for PGAJL and other initiatives we have currently ongoing. It’s also added some credibility to the completeness of our junior golf program and gives our kids and parents another way to compete with the game of golf. Overall, this is an easy program to implement and can bring some added revenue to instructors and facilities by getting exposure to more kids and parents looking to get involved in DCP.

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