Over the past 49 issues we have showcased people, programmes and promotion through celebrating PGA Professionals involved in all types of roles, profiling some of the world’s greatest golfers, shining a light on golf development activities and projects, delving into the work of the Ryder Cup European Development Trust, and sharing our fantastic Corporate Partners and Suppliers.

We have also provided a wide range of content to PGAs and their members in every type of subject area you can think of that is associated with golf – from human resources to sustainability, marketing to junior golf, and coaching philosophies to productivity hacks, we have provided this open-access content with the aim of engaging and improving those that we look after.

The legacy of IGPN is truly something we are proud of at the Confederation of Professional Golf and we hope it will continue for at least another 50 issues in the future as we continue our mission to develop golf, golfers and the profession.

Issue 50 is timed beautifully with a peak of interest in and out of golf – not long ago, Tiger Woods secured his 15th major, a feat which not only moves him to just three behind Jack Nicklaus’ record, but is something that many had thought was nothing short of impossible.

With an adjustment in timing for the final round, the 2019 Masters Tournament will go down in history as Tiger’s gritty and determined comeback for not only golfers, but also for the thousands of people who would have been able to see him win because of the timing change, or who were simply lured in by the now scientifically proven ‘Tiger Effect’.

And speaking of scientifically proven, there have also been plenty of reasons to celebrate golf right now as we were recently involved with the successful first Golf and Health Week!  Co-ordinated by The R&A with support from many organisations across the world, the week is aiming to highlight the physical and mental health benefits of playing golf and projects being delivered by golf bodies, clubs, and PGA Professionals.

Through the Confederation of Professional Golf’s own channels, and our close relationship with the Golf & Health Projects, we supported the week by creating and curating content using the social media hashtag #GolfHealthWeek, and we thank all those who got involved as well.

I hope we can ride the positive wave that golf is currently on and truly show golf in the light that it deserves. And I can say this with authority, remember to get out and play, it really is great for your health.

Enjoy the read…(and the next 50)…

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

IGPN still continues its mission of providing interesting, relevant and useful content to our Member Country PGAs and their individual PGA Professional Members.

We have had contributions from across golf and many other sports and industries. Not just from within Europe, but from around the world. And from PGA Professionals and a wide variety of experts, academics and figureheads.

This 36^th Issue looks at an area that is, and will likely remain, at the core of what a PGA Professional does – coaching.

We have expert input from our John Jacobs Award for Teaching & Coaching Winner and coach to numerous European Tour and Ryder Cup players, Mike Walker, world-renowned coach, David Leadbetter, and our 5-Star Professional Award winner, Alan Walker, as well.

This information is designed to educate, inform and inspire and is an excellent example of the type of content we are working hard to develop and the direction in which our communications strategy is headed.

We must also remember that coaching is not just limited to the driving range or the playing lesson – we must continue to coach ourselves and our peers to advance all of our skills and become better and better at what we do.

A quick glance at the variety of information on our A.S.K. platform at cpg.golf/ask will immediately show what we mean with content looking at the coaching golf to all manner of abilities, but also coaching and development information about growing the game, careers, productivity, business, marketing, and much more.

This information, together with the delivery and spread of IGPN, enables us to support our Member Country PGAs with their advancement of their PGA Professionals by curating international expertise and making it open and available to those who wish to make use of it.

We will continue to develop our communications into the future across an ever-changing technological landscape, and IGPN will always be a fundamental part of that.

As a final point, it would be remiss of us not to mention Sergio Garcia and his phenomenal win at Augusta National. It was difficult to pick sides on the final day as he and Justin Rose battled it out but whilst Justin would no doubt be a worthy owner of a green jacket, we were all delighted to see Sergio break through as a major champion. Hopefully this is just the beginning…!

If you would like to contribute to A.S.K. or IGPN then we invite you to share this with Aston Ward at aw@CPG.com and hope that you will join us in developing our Member Countries in Issues of IGPN, and the years ahead.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

Sadly for Team Europe our US cousins pulled away strongly in the latter stages to earn their first win since 2008. Our heartfelt congratulations go to Davis Love III and Team USA, and our commiserations go to Darren and all involved in Team Europe.

Result aside, the event was truly a spectacular one – the size and scale of the show that the PGA of America put on was fantastic and it was a pleasure and a privilege to be involved.

It was also an honour to represent Ryder Cup Europe and the Confederation of Professional Golf at the Junior Ryder Cup matches just down the road at Interlachen Country Club at the beginning of the week.

As you’ll see in the below video, the matches are now an integral part of the Ryder Cup and really do act as a feeder for future Ryder and Solheim Cup stars. Again, whilst the outcome wasn’t necessarily in Europe’s favour, the event provides a unique experience to leading young players on both sides of the Atlantic.

Elsewhere in this issue you’ll see various other touch points that the Confederation of Professional Golf has with the Ryder Cup, including the Ryder Cup European Development Trust (RCEDT) and then some excellent interviews with, and insights from, the PGA Professionals that have worked with some of the Europe’s finest players.

We are very proud to manage the RCEDT and during this year’s matches we celebrated ’10 Years of Trust’ – 10 years since the Trust began distributing funding across the continent to organisations and individuals to help them develop grass roots golf. A real and direct example of how the professional game gives back to the rest of the sport.

Over 35 projects in 29 countries have been supported ranging from PGAs, Federations, individual clubs and coaches, education systems and programmes, to golf development initiatives, helping golf to spread and prosper around Europe.

Soon we will accumulate all of this collective knowledge, along with further research of successful programmes, in order to share good practice and information through a golf development hub and toolkit.

Lastly, and whilst not strictly connected with the Ryder Cup, it’s important we mention the recently launched Golf & Health Project that we have been involved with.

Together with researchers from various universities and institutions around the world, the World Golf Foundation and its constituent organisations, and leading academics, there is now solid and researched evidence to support what many of us had already thought about golf.

Golf is good for you – it’s as simple as that. Golfers can live 5 years longer, have reduced chances of getting over 40 chronic diseases, and can have increased confidence, self worth and

self esteem. A message that we can all, no matter who or where you are, can get behind and share to the wider world.

As always, feel free to get in touch with Editor, Aston Ward (aw@CPG.com), if you have feedback, ideas or would like to contribute to IGPN and A.S.K.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

The Confederation of Professional Golf are delighted to be playing our part in the Golf & Health Project that is currently underway, aiming to shine a light on those benefits and back them up with hard, peer-reviewed evidence.

One of these benefits that is widely known and agreed is that golf is a game for life that can incorporate both young and old whilst keeping them on a level playing field for all to enjoy.

Recently there have been a number of good examples but here are a couple of key ones…

Just last week we saw the rise and rise of England’s Danny Willett taking his first major championship and the first green jacket to land on European shoulders in 17 years. Whilst Danny might not be as much of a young-gun as the likes of Jordan Spieth or Bryson DeChambeau he is still a great example of a young athlete fulfilling his potential in the sport.

But did you notice who was up there in the final round of the Masters this year? None other than our 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Bernhard Langer. Continuing to mature like a fine wine, Langer’s 58 years were far from a barrier to his performance throughout the week and was a great example of how a golfer can still be highly competitive not just amongst his peers on the Champions Tour, but also with the future legends of the game like McIlroy, Spieth and Day.

But it’s not just at the elite end of the game where there are some great life-long examples. Our friends at GolfForHer.com drew our attention to this fantastic story in the USA about The Los Verdes Golden Golfers at the Los Verdes Women’s Golf Club in California.

If you are over 90 and a member of the club then you automatically become one of the club’s hall of famers – a ‘Golden Golfer’. They play 18 holes every Thursday from the junior tees to make the game as enjoyable as possible for them. They play on their terms to enjoy themselves and say the game offers exercise, social interaction, maths skills and humour.

“The fact that these gals are still swinging at 90-plus proves that golf is an ageless game.” Ginny Oreb, President of The Los Verdes Women’s Golf Club

We cannot wait to see more of the research findings that are coming out of the Golf & Health project. The research and work produced will give PGAs, their Member Professionals, and everyone involved in the sport, the tools they need to promote it to the outside world as being the most inclusive sporting activity out there.

I hope this Issue of IGPN gives you some insight into a variety of those health & wellbeing benefits, along with some really interesting areas of performance sport, coaching and sports science to really sink your teeth into the subject.

Enjoy the issue, get out on the course and stay healthy! After all as the Farahmand et al. (2009) study in Sweden has evidenced, golfers live five years longer!

Enjoy the issue and as always feel free to get in touch with Editor Aston Ward (aw@CPG.com) if you have feedback, ideas or would like to contribute to IGPN and A.S.K.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

Whether you are a PGA Professional working at a golf facility or an individual working within a PGA, we are all very lucky to say we work in the ‘golf business’. But with such a broad term it is easy to forget some of the key fundamentals that we are all involved with in some way – it might not be directly, but an understanding of how a business functions, grows and prospers is essential to maximise your value.

It is also possible to forget these basics after being involved with something for a long time or in one specific area of the business – time to reflect on all areas of your business and as always applying steps to improve them all through passion and hard work is the key to success. As the quote above from Basketball legend (and avid golfer) Michael Jordan says “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work”.

This issue of IGPN aims to provide a snapshot of articles across a variety of subjects that are important for people working in and/or running a business. You could even use it as a type of checklist to see how much you know about areas such as finance, human resources, commerciality, and marketing in your business.

None of us can offer the ultimate piece of advice for a business to make it succeed, but there are key things that you can get in place to give it the best chance of succeeding, all of which can be taken and moulded to fit your business.

It is especially important in our context of PGAs and businesses that their PGA Professionals operate in, when very often people wear many hats in an organisation. General Secretary, Membership Coordinator, and Head of Training – or Coach, General Manager, and Operations Manager.

Our hope is that this IGPN, along with a huge repository of information on the A.S.K. section of our website, can help you to create the most productive or profitable business possible. Managing your business effectively, keeping a track of its progress both financially and operationally, boosting productivity and efficiency, making it more attractive to sponsors/investors, and – something that I definitely feel is central to success – knowing how to build a great team of people around you to operate the business are all massively important.

Enjoy the issue and as always feel free to get in touch with Editor Aston Ward (aw@CPG.com) if you have feedback, ideas or would like to contribute to IGPN and A.S.K.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

During the Congress in December we took time to look back on the first 25 years of the Confederation of Professional Golf as part of the anniversary celebrations, but we also took a prospective look forward.

So much has changed about the golfing landscape in the past 25 years – the Association has increased its membership from 13 countries to 37, in that time showing how golf has continued to spread across the continent – and so much has changed in the wider world as well. Think about the introduction of the Internet, email, social media, the ever-changing political situations across the planet, technological advancements around the world and more.

Futurists spend their time using what we know and where we have come from to work out where we might go next. So using some of the growth predictions and trends futurists have come up with, we put together our thoughts based on facts such as:

• By 2028 62% of the global population will live in cities
• Wearable technology will be controlled by thought and many jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence
• In 2028 1 in 3 people will live beyond 100 years of age

Using just this tiny handful of statements we considered what effect they might have on the Confederation of Professional Golf, its member PGAs and golf in general – after some thought and discussion even these few things would be game-changing.

And like any good futurist would do we posed some questions:

• How would golf cope with such a high percentage of its players living in heavily populated areas? What facilities would need to exist? What would the effect be on existing facilities? (We also speculated that these could perhaps be solved in part by projects such as France’s 2018 short courses or through new forms of urban golf facilities)?
• How can golf be prepared for advancements in technology and communications, and how can it be ready to embrace new technologies as and when they come along?
• Golf is a sport for life and as such is an aging population a great opportunity for golf to grow? And how can the PGA Professional and golf in general take advantage of this?

Of course foretelling the future is not always that accurate but speculating with educated guesses is never a bad thing. Take the upcoming golf season and 2016’s Majors – how will golf’s new big-three of Rory, Jordan and Jason follow up on their successes of last season.

Much like the European Ryder Cup Team too then… A glance at each week’s leaderboard on the European Tour reveals so many candidates for Darren Clarke’s team it could drive you mad trying to pinpoint a team any time soon – especially with the likes of some exciting young Europeans like Danny Willett, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Bernd Wiesberger, Andy Sullivan, Thomas Pieters to name but a few – which could result in the team looking very different to how it did at Gleneagles. The Confederation of Professional Golf office has selected our picks for the team so we’ll reveal how close any of us were later in the year.

From all of us at the Confederation of Professional Golf, best wishes for a happy and successful 2016!

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

Anyone working in any job will have been a part of this process at some point – whether you are the person searching for candidates, or one of the candidates making yourself as attractive as possible.

In this month’s issue of IGPN we try to balance careers knowledge and assistance not only for people on the hunt for their perfect job, but for those on the hunt for the perfect person as well.

PGA Professionals will all at some time in their career be on both sides – trying to find the right position for themselves to advance their career forward, whilst also looking to create teams that they can work with to be as effective as possible.  But you don’t necessarily have to wait until you’re the boss to get benefit from learning about the hiring process.

Inside this issue you’ll find out how to perform well in interviews with various techniques including controlling body language, how to invest in your career, and how to organise your job search.  But you’ll also find out how to make sure a potential hire fits in to your business’ culture and how to work out what factors matter most to you when hiring a new team member.

All of these things can be useful on both sides – as someone looking for a job, how useful would it be to have an insight into what someone might be looking for?  And as an employer, would it be useful to know what the body language of candidates is saying to you?  With any potential position it’s important to ensure both parties look at it from both sides to get the most out of it and ensure the right person gets hired for the right job.

I’ve learnt that in the golf industry where quite often we’re selling people (it’s the same for coaching in many ways), that recruiting the right people who are going to fit in means not only will the business thrive but they will be happier and a darn sight easier to manage thus freeing up your time for other things.

I have also spoken before in about attitude over experience – ideally you would have both but I would always lean towards attitude if the context is right. It is far more difficult to try and shape the wrong person than get the right person in the first place.  Tools such as in-interview tasks where candidates perform a real-world task actually in the environment they might work in, or psychometric testing are things I have found useful in identifying the right people.

With PGA Professionals continuously rising to the top of businesses the importance of knowing how to hire and how to get hired has never been more important.  Hopefully this month’s IGPN will go some way at least to helping you achieve the most you can in your career and ensure the team around you is the most effective for the job and everyone’s well-being.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

I have been very fortunate throughout my career to be able to see the world as an integral part of my job and I believe that having an international perspective and experience and understanding of other cultures has benefitted me oreatly both personally and professionally. Sharing knowledge and good practice across organisations and PGA Professionals by spending time with people from other PGAs, golfing organisations and PGA Professionals is at the heart of the operation of the Confederation of Professional Golf.

With travel on our minds for this issue, the Confederation of Professional Golf make it our business to provide opportunities for PGA Professionals to travel whether it be to compete in international tournaments or Pro-Ams, educational events such as the recent Coaches Circle in Bulgaria or purely to take trips with clients, providing a world of opportunities.

Our tournament schedule continues to expand and it is fitting that we take a look at some of our fantastic event venues that we are lucky enough to have on our schedule.  We are thankful to them all for their hospitality and support in various ways and I hope that you get an opportunity to visit them either at one of our events or separately making use of the great deals many of these places have for PGA Professionals.

I have just returned from my most recent trip where I was very fortunate to travel to the US PGA Championship with our Chairman, Sandy Jones. Whilst there, we were able to share some of the golf development initiatives taking place across Europe for an interview with SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio.

It would seem to me that there are some fantastic initiatives around the globe to encourage more people to play more golf more often and experience our wonderful sport. It would also seem that golf at the elite level could not be in a better place! The four men’s majors have been full of great golf, interesting story lines and excitement. Jason Day’s win at Whistling Straits (an amazing venue that is sure to provide a fitting stage when we return there for the Ryder Cup matches in 2020) saw him take his rightful place as a Major Champion after several near misses and he now joins Rory and Jordan in making up a triumvirate of twenty-somethings atop of the world rankings.

When you add in the fact that 17 year olds, in the form of Canadian, Brooke Henderson and Germany’s Dominic Foos (a member of the Junior Ryder Cup team in 2012), setting new records on the LPGA and European Challenge Tour respectively – the top of the professional games seems to be in a very exciting place!

I hope you enjoy the read this month and you are inspired by this issue to get out there and explore the golfing world.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

Growing the sport of golf in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable way, aligns with, and contributes to, realising Europe’s 2020 Vision that enables us to influence government and EU policies and create more positive perceptions of our sport.

More people playing more golf more often has a positive impact on its economic contribution, a healthier population, and as long as this is done in an environmentally-friendly manner, then it is easy to promote golf’s benefit to society.

Here are just a few figures from various sources that highlight these positives:

• Golf’s economic contribution to Europe is €15.1 billion
• The sport employs approximately 400,000 people across Europe
• There are proven health benefits such as golfers burning up to 800 calories per round, a reportedly 40% lower mortality rate and up to a five-year increase in life expectancy
• Up to 70% of a well managed golf course can be used as habitat creation for wildlife
• Golf courses, new or old, can enhance the local biodiversity of an area by providing a greater variety of habitats than intensively managed agricultural areas

There are a number of recent initiatives, such as Golf Europe’s ‘GoGolf!’ and the European Week of Sport, which are both about increasing participation in sport, and promoting the benefits of getting involved.

Further examples of the proactive steps being taken by golf can be seen through the work of GEO and the recent report on Ryder Cup’s Green Drive and how it has become one of the world’s leading sustainable events through a variety of activities that will really set the standards for events of any scale in the future.

The BMW PGA Championship is always a highlight on the European golf calendar and their environmental off-course work was hugely strong with their re-use initiative and the donation of materials to various projects and charities.

The PGA Championship week at Wentworth was also special for the Confederation of Professional Golf as we began the celebrations of our 25^th Anniversary year with a Business Club where we brought our Corporate Partners together under one roof. We take great pride in the longevity of many of our Partnerships and the loyalty that exists on both sides – a slightly different take on the word sustainable!

Maintaining social, economic and environmental sustainability in golf and in golf’s businesses is something that should be high on everyone’s priority list and it is important that we promote its understanding and impact as much as we can! We would be delighted to hear of any examples of sustainability – feel free to email them to aw@CPG.com.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

I was invited along with representatives of a variety of golfing bodies to participate in the European Golf Federations’ Conference hosted by the European Tour at Wentworth where amongst other things we heard from the Czech Republic, Danish, French, and German Federations on some of the initiatives they were working on and that had been successful in their countries.

We also received an update on the progress of Golf in the Olympics and the role that it can play in the development of the sport in the coming years, along with a “Challenges Facing Europe” session.

Something we at the Confederation of Professional Golf are particularly focused on is the development of ‘Golf Europe’ – a group of European golf stakeholders collaborating to grow golf and enhance the sport’s contribution to European society.

I joined representatives of the EGA, European Tour, LET and The R&A on a panel that introduced ‘Golf Europe’ and in particular ‘GoGolf’, an Erasmus+ funded initiative designed to engage young people in golf at a pan-European level and enhance the evidence base of the health benefits of golf.

The opportunities to grow the sport that lay in front of us, and future ‘Golf Europe’ initiatives that will be announced soon, must be seized and will surely prove to be hugely beneficial for our sport.

Also this month I was pleased to facilitate a more internal initiative between the CEOs of some of our larger Member Countries.  The first call of what will hopefully be a regular activity provided a platform for them to discuss current topics of interest and share successes and challenges that they face.  I am sure these calls will develop a lot to report in the future and I would encourage people to replicate the idea.

Meanwhile, the first Major of the year was full of excitement as professional golf welcomes a new era of emerging talent and sporting rivalries.

Whilst we all enjoyed seeing Tiger and Rory match up during the final round of The Masters, I must say the thought of a Rory McIlroy/Jordan Spieth rivalry in the future is an exciting prospect and certainly good for the sport as a whole as they each exude excellent qualities both as golfers and as people.  What a great advertisement for our sport!

And so to this month’s IGPN.  Themed around fitting and equipment, the issue explores a variety of aspects that fall within those categories, one such example being custom fitting.

As you will see in the piece later in this Issue from our Corporate Partners, PING, renowned as being at the forefront of custom fitting, there are many benefits for PGA Professionals.

But I think sometimes we sell ourselves short in terms of how important custom fitting is in helping golfers perform and also how useful it can be to a PGA Professional.  There are not many other sports where an almost infinite amount of specification can be made to one’s equipment – and perhaps no other sport where this type of customisation can have such a big impact on a person’s game.

PGA Professionals should always stress the importance of getting appropriately fitted equipment to their students and customers and really make the most of an opportunity to not only help make players better and enjoy themselves more, but also generate revenue.

IGPN is filled with ways to improve your understanding of fitting [in many senses of the word], along with how to capitalise on this knowledge to better aid your clients and customers, as well as your business.  Enjoy the read!

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

I am very fortunate to be able to represent the Confederation of Professional Golf, along with Board Member and Chief Executive of the PGA of Holland, Frank Kirsten, and join officials from PGAs, Federations, Tours and other golfing bodies from around the world for a week that provides a great deal of opportunity to speak with golfing colleagues on the varying issues affecting the game and initiatives to assist its development.

And this issue of IGPN focuses on exactly that…Golf Development.

Golf Development is at the very heart of the Confederation of Professional Golf as we focus on advancing PGAs, advancing PGA Professionals and as a result advancing the enjoyment and playing standards of golfers and introducing many new potential golfers.

Last month I was pleased to be a part of GolfBIC (The Golf Business and Industry Convention) at the Forest of Arden in the UK not far from our Belfry Headquarters. The yearly gathering of British industry representatives was as insightful as ever and I enjoyed the back and forth with my fellow panel members during our discussions on key issues for the industry. Once again growing the game was at the forefront of discussions.

It is in just about every golf organisation’s interests to get more golfers playing more often and we are uniquely positioned to be able to share good practice across Europe and beyond through the network of some 21,000 PGA Professionals who make up the membership of our 36 Member Associations.

As the sole member of the Ryder Cup European Development Trust as well as being service providers to The R&A in their Working for Golf Programme, along with many other activities, the Association, its PGAs and the PGA Professionals they represent should be viewed as experts at the forefront of the development of our sport carrying out much of the development work for both amateur and professional bodies.

The Ryder Cup and Open Championship are just two great examples of this and they are joined on weekly basis by other initiatives and investment across the globe. Just this week it is great to see the addition of the ‘Drive, Chip & Putt Championship’ to the start of the Masters. Operated by the Masters Tournament, the PGA of America and the USGA, it is another fantastic example of organisations working together to promote the sport and create initiatives that continue to stimulate its growth.

Enjoy the issue and we would be delighted to hear of any golf development initiatives that you are involved in. Please contact Aston Ward on aw@CPG.com with these and we will feature the best initiatives over the coming issues.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

I was lucky to be invited to South Africa earlier this month to spend time with the Chief Executive of the PGA of South Africa, Ivano Ficalbi, and his team. It was great to work with them on some details of their operation and to see first hand their work in the country.

A whistle-stop tour of the country took me to three cities in four days along with a stop at the World Club Pro-Am that was defended again by the PGA of Greece’s Henrik Engdahl. It’s been a pleasure to see the event grow in its two years and we’re looking forward to working closely with them on the 2016 edition next year.

Meanwhile this month our eyes have been drawn to the announcement of not one, but two Ryder Cup Captains in the form of Davis Love III for the USA Team and Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke as the European Captain.

We have had the pleasure of Darren competing in the Beko Classic on several occasions and having left his mark on the Ryder Cup, including his fantastic efforts in 2006 at The K Club, we wish him every success in this latest chapter.

We should also take time to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of New Zealander Lydia Ko. To see an ascension from someone so young is incredible.

Back-to-back wins including her second home-win at the New Zealand Open are exemplary of what could easily become full-scale dominance of the ladies game. Lydia plans to retire when she reaches 30 – who knows what she’ll have achieved by then!

This month’s issue of IGPN focuses on marketing and PR and the ways in which PGA Professionals and golf facilities promote themselves and their products and engage with their clients.

Pretty much all of the things I have mentioned above involve marketing and PR – when you stop to think about it then marketing touches more elements of life than you would assume. The success of events, our Organisation’s work, and much more is dependent on the ability to provide value to sponsors, partners, and ultimately the end-user.

The communications side of the Confederation of Professional Golf’s operations continues to be hugely important to the success of our endeavours and with an increasingly digital world, along with more and more discerning customers, marketing yourself and your business properly has never been more important.

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.