Justin Rountree, the 2024 South Florida PGA Section Merchandiser of the Year for Public Facilities, is the PGA of America Head Professional at Eagle Lakes Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
Justin Rountree on the importance of encouraging clinic attendees to do smaller groups or individual lessons:
Our range clinics, which run from November through April, average 15 to 20 participants normally and between 25 and 30 in peak season. Even though we have two PGA Professionals and one Master Professional instructing, along with my assistants, when necessary, it’s difficult to spend much time with individual participants during the one-hour clinics. Usually once or twice a season, I form another group clinic or golf school from my Friday clinics. Someone who lives in our community will attend a Friday clinic and suggest a separate clinic for a smaller group. I’ll have someone say, “I’ve got five women who want to learn to play golf,” so I will end up doing a series for them. Last year, I had a couple of Canadian women come from a development up the road that doesn’t have a course. They had four more women golfers who wanted their own special clinic once a week, so I structured it, and we worked on all parts of the game, ending it with a nine-hole playing lessons/scramble competition. This season, it was a group of women from Marco Island called “Marco Newcomers.” One of my students brought a friend every week; then we did six weeks as a group before they went home for the holidays. There are also many individual lessons, which leads to exponential spending at the club over time.
Justin Rountree on the business impact of encouraging clinic attendees to do smaller groups or individual lessons:
I usually get two new students per week from my Friday clinics, so that’s about 50 to 100 private lessons each year, and that leads to other involvement at the club. For these six-person groups, I charge $50 and hour for each, which totals $300. Private lessons are $125 an hour, and 75 percent of the time those turn into my five-hour series called Total Game Management. I would say my clinics produce an additional $10,000-plus in revenue for me, not to mention club sales, memberships, greens fees and more for the club.
