Matt Creech, the 2016 Northern Ohio PGA Section Golf Professional of the Year, and Jennifer Creech, the 2021 Northern Ohio PGA Section Player Development Award winner and the 2019 Section Youth Player Development Award winner, are PGA of America Golf Professionals and the Co-Owners of The Golf Dome in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
Matt and Jennifer Creech on the importance of trusting that someone can find their golf home anywhere:
Two years Matt told the story about how we had just purchased the golf dome, done some refurbishing, had opened it for only seven weeks and already had 2,000 people come through the door with classes and the like sold out. Well, what’s happened since has expanded greatly. The business was previously operated by nongolf professionals, and it was really ‘just’ a driving range. We took our expertise as green grass PGA of America Professionals and put our spin on it to make it a quality practice, coaching and entertainment facility. Seven PGA Of America Professionals work here now, with more Associates to come. It’s great that we can have this many PGA of America Members branding themselves as coaches and learning the business here. It’s working out really well for them, and also for our family from a work-life balance perspective. We work a lot, but we can balance our schedules with our two teenage sons’ baseball and golf activities and put our family first.
Matt and Jennifer Creech on the business impact of trusting that someone can find their golf home anywhere:
Our women’s program went from nothing to 180. Our PGA Jr. League dome program has 100 participants. There’s a real safety blanket knowing that golf is booming, but I believe that quality golf instruction and programming is always going to be in demand. I’ve run private clubs as a Head Professional and General Manager, and coaching is always the backbone of a great operation because golfers who take lessons play more, buy more and support the facility more. Having the credibility of the PGA of America badge behind us as we started our own business also helped. The opportunity to purchase The Golf Dome was really good for us, and the demand for golf gave us some peace of mind as we were making the decision. We both followed along the green grass pathway for 25 years, and now we’re writing our own narrative. Instead of making presentations to a board or an owner, we just bounce ideas off each other. There are swings and misses, but we decide which chances to take and we can follow our passion with our ideas. Golf right now is on fire. We have a new connection of our own with nearby Tanglewood Golf Club. We have over 500 junior golfers enrolled in our clinics, camps and academies with 100 of our juniors participating in our PGA Junior League program at Tanglewood. There are so many people who want to play golf, and all you have to do is give them good customer service and care – it works for old and new players, and at all economic levels.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email jennifercreech@pga.com and matt@thegolfdome.com.
