At Nottingham’s Beeston Fields this week, twenty-five golf clubs from across the region attended the latest ChairNetwork.golf event. As part of this fast-growing initiative, members of The PGA, England Golf and the GCMA were also in attendance for an informative and interactive session.
At the start of the day, all attendees were encouraged to write down the latest challenges their clubs were facing. Jane Carter and Eddie Bullock, ChairNetwork.golf’s founders, then kicked off with an overview of the trends currently demonstrated by the most progressive clubs.
George Conrad, General Manager at Beeston Fields, then gave an excellent presentation on the development of the golf club since his appointment five years ago. Covering refurbishment, marketing, branding, planning, the course, the future and much more, George drew multiple questions from the attendees as the session started to become more interactive.
This interaction developed further as the attendees split into groups to discuss the most common challenges, based on the responses provided earlier. Each group then fed back on ideas to address these challenges.
This session epitomised everything about ChairNetwork.golf as clubs worked together, pooling ideas and experience for the common good.
After a short break, Joe Kelly, Lead Business Relationship Officer with The PGA, spoke about how PGA Professional and the Business Relationship Officers can support golf clubs. He highlighted the services and guidance that The PGA can provide and encouraged clubs to utilise this resource as activity would inevitable develop win-win situations for clubs and their Professionals.
As with the first event at Frilford Heath, the response from attendees was overwhelmingly positive.
Eddie noted one thing which was particularly pleasing, “In the session where the clubs worked together it was great to see ChairNetwork.golf in action. That is what we always hoped for from this initiative and the more progressive clubs are learning fast from each other, delivering stronger businesses so their clubs can thrive”
Jane supported that view, “The more clubs speak to each other, the more they learn and realise that many issues faced by the industry are common to all. By working as a unit, they can help each other create real change at their clubs.”
ChairNetwork.golf now has over 400 clubs across the UK signed up and these events demonstrate the desire in the industry for shared knowledge, new ways of working and a thirst for more information to drive clubs forward.
The next event for ChairNetwork.golf is at Sandy Lodge Golf Club, Hertfordshire on Monday 8th October.
ChairNetwork.golf www.chairnetwork.golf