Jake Bader, the 2020 Pacific Northwest PGA Section Oregon Chapter Player Development Award winner and the 2019 Chapter Youth Player Development Award winner, is the PGA of America Director of Player Development at Colwood Golf Center in Portland, Oregon.
Jake Bader on the importance of using group lessons to see more reliable golfers:
I’m beyond happy to say that I’m valued here at Colwood and golfers love to see me in various ways. One of them is our pre-paid group classes. We’ve found the format to be less intimidating, more fun and affordable. We hold these sessions in primetime: 4-6pm on weekdays and 9-11am on the weekends to make this more accessible as well. This has been an on-going transition for us, as pre-paid classes have more of a guarantee to have these times filled and paid versus drop-in clinics where you may only get a couple to show up or none whatsoever. This got enhanced even further when, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic with the golf boom, I was able to cater to more people. KemperSports, who manages my facility and the others in the Portland Parks and Recreation Department, promoted me to oversee the player development at all four facilities. I then took my program to the other three facilities. All facilities and teaching professionals are happy since everyone is making more money while accommodating more golfers.
Jake Bader on the business impact on using group lessons to see more reliable golfers:
The basic financial structure is that my 45-minute individual lesson rate is $90. This group rate – whether it’s Golf 101, Golf 201, etc. or the other classes is $145 for 5 weeks. Add in the length and the additional students in the group and I was able to more than double what I make per hour now. These groups tend to be highly reliable in terms of attendance and have been highly successful. On a yearly basis we average 240 players with 1,200 unique visits. Financially we bring in $25,000 while bringing in over $200 per hour, not to mention all the residuals from the clients. We’ve also seen additional increases in range balls sold, plus the added revenue of more rounds along with added food & beverage purchases. Along with a marketing budget, I’ve been able to really push this and help friends invite friends and make the mood nice and relaxed. What’s remarkable is that during this time that individual rate priced some people out but the group rate priced some people in, making golf the affordable and trendy option in this part of Portland. Look at group lessons, and how you price and arrange them, to see if you can boost the amount of golfers you’re able to help and money you can take home.
If you would like to email the author of this Weekly Insight directly, please email jakebader@pga.com.
