Working In The Golf Business (Your recollections)

[Ironman_32]

Just to thor

4 hours ago, me05501 said:

I think this is an area where job titles are kind of murky and not well-defined. 

 

You would think the "Head Golf Professional" at a club would spend a lot of time giving instruction but that actually seems sort of rare. If a guy in that position wants to prioritize teaching he usually can, but otherwise he's going to spend a lot of time organizing tournaments and the like. Normally the head pro has a financial interest in the pro shop as well and that can eat up a lot of time especially if he does fitting appointments. 

 

A "teaching professional" is not necessarily affiliated with a club. In fact if someone wants to maximize their time giving lessons it's probably better if they aren't in a club environment. Better to be at range or teaching facility where you're not distracted by questions from members about why Bubba is still getting pops in the low ball when he played in the second flight of the member/member. 

 

The guy I see is at a range/teaching facility here. He does both lessons and fittings and probably has about 6-7 hours of his time sold every day. At around $100/hour on average I have to think he's doing okay. His biggest problem is likely not getting enough time off. 

Just to throw some numbers out here:

 

If a teaching pro charges $80 per lesson, to make $150K would be 5 lessons each weekday and 7 lessons each weekend; 1,872 total lessons per day (no days off).

 

$100 per lesson to make ~$150k, is 5 lessons every weekday, 3 each weekend day. (If the pro did 3 lessons everyday at $100 that would be ~$100K for the year). 

 

$120 per lesson to $150k is 4 lessons each weekday, 3 lessons each weekend day. 

 

$150 per lesson is 3 lessons everyday of the week to make $150k. 

 

[iteachgolf]

1,400 lessons a year is 27 lessons a week.  Full time teachers aren’t charging $80 a lesson.  Average is probably closer to 150 or a bit more 

[ChristopherMcDonald]

Worked for 8 years at a country club here in Southern California. It was owned by a larger golf course management corporation which allowed me to play anywhere I wanted within the umbrella for a $10 cart fee so long as my manager called us in ahead. Unfortunately I didn't take nearly as much advantage as I should have. Do remember some good times but the actual work side of the job (food server) was pretty rough at times. 

[rgk5]

I have been in and out of the business on a part-time basis since 1978. From 2003 -2020 I was the Senior Custom Fitter at our local Golf Town location and working 12-16 hours per week sold $7.5 million worth of gear, 20-25% of that custom orders.  It was really enjoyable  90% of the time but the old saying that 10-15% of your customers will cause you 80% of your problems held true some days.

 

I refused to lie to customers and tell them need "X" flex when regular was the best option and it got me into trouble a few times over the customer claiming I was "rude" in telling them the truth.  I retired from this in March of 2021 and do miss the comradery and the excitement of new gear launches.

 

All in, I can honestly say I enjoyed my time immensely and have no regrets.

[MtlJeff]

58 minutes ago, rgk5 said:

I have been in and out of the business on a part-time basis since 1978. From 2003 -2020 I was the Senior Custom Fitter at our local Golf Town location and working 12-16 hours per week sold $7.5 million worth of gear, 20-25% of that custom orders.  It was really enjoyable  90% of the time but the old saying that 10-15% of your customers will cause you 80% of your problems held true some days.

 

I refused to lie to customers and tell them need "X" flex when regular was the best option and it got me into trouble a few times over the customer claiming I was "rude" in telling them the truth.  I retired from this in March of 2021 and do miss the comradery and the excitement of new gear launches.

 

All in, I can honestly say I enjoyed my time immensely and have no regrets.

 

I kinda miss the days when Golftown was really killing it. The company has changed a lot the last few years, and i feel that some of the senior employees are no longer there. I am not sure if that is just my perception or just the nature of the business. But i feel like the model changed.

 

One of the west-island locations of Montreal had a clubmaker for many years who was an incredible club-builder and really nice dude. I used to always bring him stuff to work on, and i think he used to get a kick out of doing my clubs because at the time i was swinging like 120mph and bringing him XPP8s or HOF shafts or other stuff. I actually remember him telling me once he learned a technique on how to remove a shaft from the Diablo Octane composite head from WRX lol...

 

A guy he worked with i also became pretty friendly with (Gary, if you're reading this....). Another guy there in sales was one of the top ams in the province

 

Anyway, when Golftown was really killing it was a really great place for golfers whether you were semi-serious or very serious. I always felt it didn't deserve the "big box" label. There were real enthusiasts there

[isitour]

13 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

 

 

 

Anyway, when Golftown was really killing it was a really great place for golfers whether you were semi-serious or very serious. I always felt it didn't deserve the "big box" label. There were real enthusiasts there

You are fortunate to have a positive experience with Golftown. The ones in my area IMO are nothing more than a Home Depot with golf clubs. They pushed out smaller golf retailers in my area that were excellent places to shop. I had an issue regarding a club that went on sale a week after I purchased it. They actually were disregarding their own price matching policy. The manager was a DB. It was resolved but it left a very poor taste.

Unless its the only place that has it, I shop anywhere but GT. 

[MtlJeff]

1 hour ago, isitour said:

You are fortunate to have a positive experience with Golftown. The ones in my area IMO are nothing more than a Home Depot with golf clubs. They pushed out smaller golf retailers in my area that were excellent places to shop. I had an issue regarding a club that went on sale a week after I purchased it. They actually were disregarding their own price matching policy. The manager was a DB. It was resolved but it left a very poor taste.

Unless its the only place that has it, I shop anywhere but GT. 

 

For sure it could depend on the staff, some markets probably just didn't have enough good people locally to hire. Also my experiences with golftown were all 8-10+ years ago, and as mentioned i do feel that their strategy has changed quite a bit since then. (less inventory, everything geared toward more novice types, the employees seemed younger and less knowledgeable). I got the sense a lot of cost cutting was done, but might be wrong

 

But yeah like 2010 time frame. My local golftown had really good sales guys and great clubmaking department

[Bob Cat]

duplicate

Edited December 15, 2022 by Bob Cat

[Bob Cat]

On 12/1/2022 at 4:15 PM, caeye0710 said:

When I got hired there, I was an 8-handicap. I practiced, played, and drank my way down to a +1 or so. I broke up fist fights between the members, talked cops out of giving our favorite member a DUI for hitting his car with a golf cart when he was smashed, and said Goodbye to quite a few older men and women whose time came to head to the afterlife.

 

OP, I love this.  More, please.  By the way, how old were you in this stage of your life?

 

To others in the business: One of the big downsides I see these days is members texting staff in off hours.

Discuss.

[caeye0710]

1 hour ago, Bob Cat said:

 

OP, I love this.  More, please.  By the way, how old were you in this stage of your life?

 

To others in the business: One of the big downsides I see these days is members texting staff in off hours.

Discuss.

I would’ve just turned 20 around my first day of employment. Apart from the Head Pro and the owner, the rest of us were right around the same age. 
 

Even at 20, everyone may or may not have turned a blind eye when I grabbed a beer. 
 

I remember I didn’t drink much at all around that age, and the first Saturday I worked, the Head Pro invited me to have the weekly “Steak Night” dinner with him at the grille room after we closed down the shop. 
 

I was a little shocked when he ordered me a bud light and said: “Doesn’t really matter around here. No one will ask.”

 

Two beers later I’m pretty buzzed and he and a couple members got a good laugh out of that. 
 

By the end of that summer, I could sneak in about 4 light beers before feeling anything. Now I’m a seasoned veteran 15 years later. 

[Dan Drake]

On 12/14/2022 at 2:36 PM, Ironman_32 said:

Just to thor

Just to throw some numbers out here:

 

If a teaching pro charges $80 per lesson, to make $150K would be 5 lessons each weekday and 7 lessons each weekend; 1,872 total lessons per day (no days off).

 

$100 per lesson to make ~$150k, is 5 lessons every weekday, 3 each weekend day. (If the pro did 3 lessons everyday at $100 that would be ~$100K for the year). 

 

$120 per lesson to $150k is 4 lessons each weekday, 3 lessons each weekend day. 

 

$150 per lesson is 3 lessons everyday of the week to make $150k. 

 

Please don't forget the % that the club/management company charges for use of the space/range balls/etc.  I've seen it everywhere from 0% when I was the GM to 50% at another club.  That said, the 50% club did pay a hefty hourly rate, so while it didn't work out to 100%, it was probably pretty close to 80/20 split.  

 

Happy to answer any other questions here as well.  

[Ironman_32]

12 hours ago, Dan Drake said:

Please don't forget the % that the club/management company charges for use of the space/range balls/etc.  I've seen it everywhere from 0% when I was the GM to 50% at another club.  That said, the 50% club did pay a hefty hourly rate, so while it didn't work out to 100%, it was probably pretty close to 80/20 split.  

 

Happy to answer any other questions here as well.  

1. Do those numbers work out somewhat to what you see/have seen?

2. Do you think there are a lot of pros charging $120/$150 per hour?

3. Have you seen/do you know a lot of pros who make a living just off lessons?

[ChristopherMcDonald]

1 hour ago, Ironman_32 said:

1. Do those numbers work out somewhat to what you see/have seen?

2. Do you think there are a lot of pros charging $120/$150 per hour?

3. Have you seen/do you know a lot of pros who make a living just off lessons?

I can tell you around here, teaching pros for private lessons pull around $100 an hour. If you got a pretty full roster of students, you can certainly make a living off just teaching. 

 

If you're able to teach 40 hours a week, that'll add up to around 2,080 hours a year. $208,000 is good money no matter where you go. Pretty stiff competition out here though. 

Edited December 16, 2022 by ChristopherMcDonald

[MtlJeff]

20 minutes ago, ChristopherMcDonald said:

I can tell you around here, teaching pros for private lessons pull around $100 an hour. If you got a pretty full roster of students, you can certainly make a living off just teaching. 

 

If you're able to teach 40 hours a week, that'll add up to around 2,080 hours a year. $208,000 is good money no matter where you go. Pretty stiff competition out here though. 

 

Keeping a schedule filled 40 hours a week must be a challenge in itself. Not just the actual filling of the schedule, but the maintenance/clerical stuff. Assuming most people are doing once a week that's 35-40 people who could be calling you, re-scheduling etc

 

Of course, you could still do really well if you dedicated 5 hours a week just to office work

 

My wife runs her own clinical psychology business, which is a bit difference because of the amount of notekeeping you have to do (though i imagine golf pros do need to keep some notes on their students) but even doing over 30hrs a week without an assistant can be tough.

 

I mean you do 8 straight hours of sessions, it's 5pm and you have 17 voice mails and need to do notes. It's probably somewhat similar to teachers who would try to keep that schedule. 

[ChristopherMcDonald]

1 minute ago, MtlJeff said:

 

Keeping a schedule filled 40 hours a week must be a challenge in itself. Not just the actual filling of the schedule, but the maintenance/clerical stuff. Assuming most people are doing once a week that's 35-40 people who could be calling you, re-scheduling etc

 

Of course, you could still do really well if you dedicated 5 hours a week just to office work

 

My wife runs her own clinical psychology business, which is a bit difference because of the amount of notekeeping you have to do (though i imagine golf pros do need to keep some notes on their students) but even doing over 30hrs a week without an assistant can be tough.

 

I mean you do 8 straight hours of sessions, it's 5pm and you have 17 voice mails and need to do notes. It's probably somewhat similar to teachers who would try to keep that schedule. 

Yeah it's definitely not for the faint of heart. I imagine if you're teaching 40 a week, you're probably in for another 5-10 of bookkeeping/drumming up new business/etc. I know I couldn't do it. 

[Dan Drake]

1 hour ago, Ironman_32 said:

1. Do those numbers work out somewhat to what you see/have seen?

2. Do you think there are a lot of pros charging $120/$150 per hour?

3. Have you seen/do you know a lot of pros who make a living just off lessons?

I agree with @ChristopherMcDonald, but I'll add a few notes as well. First and foremost, I'm from Florida, where there are at least 250+ teaching days each year.  Our friends from further north do not have near as many and there are only so many hours in the day.  Its one reason why so many teachers are willing to drop $10k+ on a proper launch monitor/simulator so they can continue to generate lesson revenue year round, if they have a decent building.  But even in FL, teachers that I know who would teach from 9am-7pm straight 6 days a week during good weather would be lucky to have an average of 2 lessons per day during poor weather.  So it really does put a premium on maximizing your income when you can, because the down time can be awfully dry.  It's one reason why some of the clubs I've seen have gone to the 50/50 split of lesson revenue, but pay a much higher hourly so that the teacher can survive throughout the winter/rainy season/off season.  

 

As for what good teaching pros charge, yes, I'm very used to seeing $100/hr and up, although I will say it does depend on the market and how competitive it is.  There's also a little bit of the "Scotty Cameron" effect built in there, ie. the more you charge, the more a customer feels like they are getting something of great(er) value.  

 

And yes, the business has splintered enough now that the "Head Professional" doesn't give very many lessons.  Teachers are teaching almost exclusively and are making a good living most of the time doing only that.  

[Dan Drake]

3 minutes ago, ChristopherMcDonald said:

Yeah it's definitely not for the faint of heart. I imagine if you're teaching 40 a week, you're probably in for another 5-10 of bookkeeping/drumming up new business/etc. I know I couldn't do it. 

Not only that, but any good teacher is going to be keeping copious amounts of notes on each student, what they are working on now, what they will be working on in the future, etc.  Also taking classes, watching webinars, getting certifications, etc.  You may "teach" 40hrs a week, but you could literally never stop, if you didn't want to.  You could consume virtually every waking hour with some facet of the business (teaching only, not even talking about GOPS) if you so desired.  

 

Like you said, not for the faint of heart.  

[Dan Drake]

On 12/15/2022 at 10:52 AM, Bob Cat said:

 

OP, I love this.  More, please.  By the way, how old were you in this stage of your life?

 

To others in the business: One of the big downsides I see these days is members texting staff in off hours.

Discuss.

Members texting staff during off hours.  Oooh, that's a big one for me, as I'm a person who needs "off" time.  But, as a recent GM and now Club Manager, that just isn't quite how the job plays out, so I've had to put some systems in place to take care of my responsibilities, but also take care of myself.  But that's mostly staff and my corporation, so non-member needs.  

 

As for members, I'll say what someone very wise told me: "My personal cell phone number is not given, it is earned."  Other GMs and HPs I know give theirs out freely, but with the understanding that they may not get back to you until they are back in the office.  That's one way to go about it, but I'm just not really wired that way.  

[FormerBigDaddy]

I think lesson prices on this thread are way out of touch and largely depends on where you live and who you're getting them from.  I would say $80-$100 an hour is probably a more realistic average.  For every elite high dollar pro there's 10 more pro's giving lessons for $50 an hour at a dumpy range in the middle of nowhere.  Tin cup wasn't making 6 figures lol!  I also think people are greatly overstating how many lessons per day/week are possible.  Most pro's or assistant pro's have other duties that keep them away from the lesson tee and the amount of teaching pro's that ONLY do lessons is pretty small.  You average driving range pro who ONLY does lessons is never booked solid either there is always a ton of downtime.  Realistically the AVERAGE teaching pro is probably going to work their tail off to make 6 figures and have to be in the right area/club.  It's not a easy living and really not glamorous.  

[Mcgeeno]

2 hours ago, FormerBigDaddy said:

I think lesson prices on this thread are way out of touch and largely depends on where you live and who you're getting them from.  I would say $80-$100 an hour is probably a more realistic average.  For every elite high dollar pro there's 10 more pro's giving lessons for $50 an hour at a dumpy range in the middle of nowhere.  Tin cup wasn't making 6 figures lol!  I also think people are greatly overstating how many lessons per day/week are possible.  Most pro's or assistant pro's have other duties that keep them away from the lesson tee and the amount of teaching pro's that ONLY do lessons is pretty small.  You average driving range pro who ONLY does lessons is never booked solid either there is always a ton of downtime.  Realistically the AVERAGE teaching pro is probably going to work their tail off to make 6 figures and have to be in the right area/club.  It's not a easy living and really not glamorous.  

 

I agree, I mean it might be doable for some of these top guys to give 5 lessons a day and 10 on weekends and charge 150 a session or something but I dont think that is the norm at all. 

 

I've never seen that where I live in Canada. A lesson is 50 bucks and the club takes a cut. And the class A pro I work with has to do other things like organize tournaments, meet with vendors, help with staffing and deal with member issues/vendor issues etc. 

 

I would imagine for every guy making 150k running his own school or clinic there are a bunch of dudes grinding out 50k a year jobs somewhere. Two of my good friends are ex-assistant club pros and one is now a carpenter and the other is in finance. 

 

 

[MtlJeff]

4 hours ago, Dan Drake said:

Members texting staff during off hours.  Oooh, that's a big one for me, as I'm a person who needs "off" time.  But, as a recent GM and now Club Manager, that just isn't quite how the job plays out, so I've had to put some systems in place to take care of my responsibilities, but also take care of myself.  But that's mostly staff and my corporation, so non-member needs.  

 

As for members, I'll say what someone very wise told me: "My personal cell phone number is not given, it is earned."  Other GMs and HPs I know give theirs out freely, but with the understanding that they may not get back to you until they are back in the office.  That's one way to go about it, but I'm just not really wired that way.  

 

Hmmmm- how do you feel about messaging your head pro on Facebook Messenger to find out if they have open accounts with say, like Tour Edge , when you have had a few beers at 8PM and want to order new clubs?

 

Asking for a friend

[iteachgolf]

5 hours ago, FormerBigDaddy said:

I think lesson prices on this thread are way out of touch and largely depends on where you live and who you're getting them from.  I would say $80-$100 an hour is probably a more realistic average.  For every elite high dollar pro there's 10 more pro's giving lessons for $50 an hour at a dumpy range in the middle of nowhere.  Tin cup wasn't making 6 figures lol!  I also think people are greatly overstating how many lessons per day/week are possible.  Most pro's or assistant pro's have other duties that keep them away from the lesson tee and the amount of teaching pro's that ONLY do lessons is pretty small.  You average driving range pro who ONLY does lessons is never booked solid either there is always a ton of downtime.  Realistically the AVERAGE teaching pro is probably going to work their tail off to make 6 figures and have to be in the right area/club.  It's not an easy living and really not glamorous.  

I’m not out of touch.  I’ve been in this business for over twenty years.  I very clearly said full time teachers, not the third assistant making barely above minimum wage in a small town and teaching a few lessons on the side or the head pro who works 50 hours a week with other responsibilities.  My info is based on compensation surveys from 3 different independent groups.   I also have all the info on what the average assistant pro, head pro, GM and DOG makes.  I also have the median of all those numbers as well as it broken down by facility type.  
 

Not only is teaching 30-40 hours a week  possible but I can name hundreds of pros that are probably booked with at least 30 lessons a week 90 days in advance, some essentially years in advance. And all of them charge a minimum of $150 and in some cases considerably more

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by iteachgolf

[Dan Drake]

2 hours ago, MtlJeff said:

 

Hmmmm- how do you feel about messaging your head pro on Facebook Messenger to find out if they have open accounts with say, like Tour Edge , when you have had a few beers at 8PM and want to order new clubs?

 

Asking for a friend

Given that the communication was about golf clubs, specifically ordering new clubs under some slight influence of an adult beverage, I'd say its perfectly acceptable!

[Mcgeeno]

1 hour ago, iteachgolf said:

  
 

Not only is teaching 30-40 hours a week  possible but I can name hundreds of pros that are probably booked with at least 30 lessons a week 90 days in advance, some essentially years in advance. And all of them charge a minimum of $150 and in some cases considerably more

 

 

30+ lessons a week at 150+ a pop is a baller of a gig. 

 

Impressive stuff. 

 

 

[iteachgolf]

This is what my teaching tee looks like 6 days a week.  This was about 15 minutes ago

[MK7Golf21]

I use to live a little south of Chicago and in my town there aren't too many full time teachers, I can think of one. The rest are golf pro's and teach on the side for cheap. If you go into the Chicago area there are quite a few more full time teachers, I normally went up to Chicago when I wanted lessons because the full time teachers took it more seriously.

 

Back when I was going up there, the top experienced ones charged around $125-200. I would go to the well known ones from like golf digest lists and I could normally get in 2-3 weeks in advance but their lesson tee's were packed with mostly juniors. They were making bank I'm sure and rightfully so. They put in tons of hours on essentially their own business.

 

You also needed to have a name for yourself I would think to bring in that many people. The well known ones on the golf digest lists were the head teaching pro's at facilities and took most the lessons with the other instructors at the facilities taking in the leftovers or people who didn't want to spend as much, I doubt they were making as much. 

 

I also saw young aspiring teachers come and mentor under the head teaching pro's to learn a business model and get a little experience teaching. They would then apply for head teaching jobs at golf facilities. 

[Phreddy]

I have a friend who is a teaching pro.  He works out of Florida in the winter and the midwest in the summer.  He has one, and perhaps two players on the LPGA.  When I see him in the midwest he might be on campus 40 hours a week, but there is no way that he is teaching that many hours.  There just isn't that much demand at an 18 hole private club.  It strikes me as a rough life.  After 3-4 years he will have a dwindling lesson roster.  Those who have taken it seriously will still be anxious to work with him, but those who take a lesson, don't practice and expect to improve place the blame on the instructor.  It seems like a game of musical chairs.  4-5 good years at a club and then every pro rotate one club to the left.  "Hey, we've got a new pro instructor and this guy is great."  4-5 years later repeat.

[ChipNRun]

I had three different phases, the last two rather brief.

 

My first was as a caddie in the 1964-1972 time frame. Got my real start at a club that had a reputation for training its caddies well. But, two problems: the course was surrounded by residential housing, so we ended up with more caddies than needed. And, member's kids were allowed to caddie. So it there was just one loop to be had, the rich kid got it rather than us "muggles."

 

I moved on to a much longer course in area (Old Warson CC) that was the site of the Ryder Cup and several national-level pro and amateur tournaments. It paid $1-$2 a bag better, and the brats stayed away because it was a long hump for 18. And, member's kids were forbidden to caddie.

 

A decade later came a year as bartender at a country club near where I was finishing college. I had just gotten out of the Marines, and I quickly found out the GM had hired me in part to keep the cooks out of the back bar. Quickly established good control of the liquor inventory, and cut our liquor pouring costs in half. The clubhouse staff was one big family. The GM kept the members happy and took good care of the loyal staff. On Friday and Saturday nights, as the first wave of diners was exiting, he would put on an apron and help bus the tables. Benefits: We got free meals on shift, and got to play golf there on Mondays.

 

Most recent has golf gig has been going on for about nine months. I'm retired from college teaching, and am serving as research coordinator for a female golf instructor and fitness trainer with a unique approach to instruction. We're doing before-after testing of her techniques on her students - especially beginners - to see what improvements in performance her training delivers.

-------------------------------

What someone else did...

 

My wife and I have known our financial advisor for about 12 years. But, he wasn't always our finance guy. For the first six years, he was the head golf pro at our home course. Both of us took lessons from him.

 

Reasons for his switchover: He decided he wanted to get married, and he wanted to actually play golf once in awhile. He says his golf rounds have doubled since he left the industry.

 

Side notes:

• I have noticed that a lot of successful mid-level head golf pros have either a finance or marketing degree.
• At a district golf awards event, I met a guy who went the other direction from our financial advisor. He retired from the banking industry at age 55, and has taken a job as head pro at his small country club in central Illinois. He had a 10 HDCP as an amateur, and is getting ready to take his PAT this spring. 

 

Edited December 22, 2022 by ChipNRun
Spelling.

[PedronNiall]

Worked at a CC in high school. The experience itself wasn't horrid as menial labor is never going to be picnic. The main issues were a GM who had to be the most vile person I've ever had the displeasure of working for or around in my life and members who understood nothing about tipping. The pay part really hit home later as I had a golfing bud who worked down the road at another CC and I found out talking to him after I'd moved on to another job that he was making bank.

 

Big picture it wasn't too terrible because I got unlimited range time and free play on days off if there was an opening. I really wish I'd had a better outlook at that age because I'd have sucked up the meh work environment and taken advantage of the practice facilities and free rounds a lot more.

 

Still, if I were a kid doing it all again now as a kid and had a little of the knowledge I do at this point I'd go kill it at a decent full service car wash/detail place to grind out some good money then play all the golf I could two days a week or so at a semi-private. That or hit it big as a Snapchat crypto bro before I got my first zit and buy private lessons with one of the Liv Tour guys who's all about that money.

 

If you want to truly enjoy golf in any capacity after you're high school age I'd 100% recommend getting the best job you can that won't destroy your body and playing golf in your free time outside of work. You will cherish every moment out in the fresh air doing what you find fun far more than you will if you live and breathe the game to earn your living. If your passion is playing, not teaching, then outside of being a playing professional that much time at the course--while not getting to actually practice/play--is likely to burn you out to some extent and kill the magic that made you love it in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

To give some more insight on the tangent in this topic, it's pretty wild how much pay can vary by location even in the same metro area for teaching pros. I've seen a few pros leave certain courses and start teaching at teaching/fitting facilities only because the money is steadier and they seem to attract a decent number of casuals making decent bucks who will take lessons a lot more often or buy packages they might not even fully use up. I know of others working traditionally at courses who consistently charge $100-150 and keep their slots filled, though it happens that all of them have been Golf Digest featured or have played in tour events at some point so one way or another have the credentials to draw people willing to spend. I also happen to live in a lower cost of living area that still has a relatively outsized minority of residents making well above the national median income. It is the perfect environment to make very good money if you can market yourself because there are successful people who tell their successful friends--likely with higher than normal amounts of disposable income--about you.

 

You know who without question comes out the best, though? The fitters who charge what the market will bear for time on the scope, in the lab, and so on and who do so on their own entirely or by driving their own business and paying nominal fees for access to course facilities as needed. Imagine if you hook the average WRX golf heaux how often they'd be coming back for the newest shaft to match their current swing feng shui. From talking with one I've worked with the margins are beautiful if you know what you're doing. They also seem to more readily work only part-time hours if they like/on occasion and still stay well in the black.

 

Fitters also seem to deal with a lot less bureaucracy, over-the-top networking requirements, hand holding, and unwanted communication outside of paid hours than people over on the other side of the house. For the average teaching pro, at a facility or a course, the number of hours spent learning modules for X, Y, Z thing plus whatever else your course or facility wants you to learn plus selling yourself has to be a killer of all that passion for teaching so many of them go into the field for.

 

As always, thank you for reading my latest novella.

[Soloman1]

Mediocre teachers won’t last long or make much doing it exclusively. They need to be competent because so many of their students come from other students and a reputation for results.

 

The club side of the business is different. Private club gigs are good, but there are the same number of private clubs today as in the 1920’s. Not a huge pool of good paying gigs and politics/contacts are important.

 

Since the shift to golf management companies, the earnings of head pros has deteriorated from a high in the 1970’s when pros owned the shop and merchandise and earned as much as lawyers on average, to kind of “just a job” for many now.

 

At least it’s not a cubicle. 🙂