Communications & Golf Development2 min read

Golf Development is the lifeblood of the Confederation of Professional Golf and will continue to grow more and more important as time goes on. 

We have many people working on various elements of developing golf across the continent and further afield including coaching, development of programmes, monitoring of standards etc.  But something I can assist with in my capacity as Communications Manager is two-fold:

1 – Communicating Best Practice Examples and Initiatives

Golf development activities are taking place all the time all over the world but it is safe to say that very few of them will be exactly the same.  Of course general concepts and ideas are followed but locally they will be heavily tailored to the market.

Where communications can help is in developing a library of good practice examples that can then be applied to other places – the best bits of one programme and the best of another could mix and be adapted to create a very effective activity somewhere else.

These resources can be collected and shared effectively with organisations that are interested in creating an initiative or programme with, for example, the assistance of the Confederation of Professional Golf’s Golf Development Professionals and Education Committee.

2 – Raising Awareness of Development Activity

Communications then plays a part in sharing information and updates about development activities.  Using case studies and sharing success stories helps to bolster the resources mentioned earlier but it also gives coverage to specific initiatives that can help them.

A project or programme may also want to gain coverage to promote their work and its outcomes, promote the host facilities, the key supporters, etc.  Often programmes will be supported by commercial entities so promotion will give them coverage and hopefully spur on continued investment and support.

There are some excellent examples of golf development activities out there and plenty put a strong emphasis on promoting what they do.

A good example of strong promotion and coverage from an initiative is this week’s Drive, Chip & Putt Championship – The PGA of America, USGA and Masters Tournament’s nationwide youth golf development program final.

Of course three major organisations in the game have a lot of resources behind them but their methods of communication can still be learnt from and replicated.

Daily articles from the finals, blog posts, interviews with competitors, videos of the event, and fantastic imagery all make for a well formulated comms plan – take a look at www.drivechipandputt.com for examples of how to build content and communicate it around an initiative.

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