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Welcome to Season Eight of the Getting Better Now podcast!

We kick things off with an important conversation about a topic you’re all too familiar with.  There probably isn’t anyone listening that didn’t either read or hear about the Golf Digest article “The Club Pro Crisis”, published earlier this spring.  Author Shane Ryan dove deep into the personal stories of a number of PGA Professionals, who opened up to him about their struggles in our industry.  For those of us in the business, it was both familiar and a little bit (if not a lot) depressing.  We all read the article saying to ourselves, “Yep, I’ve done that.”, “That’s right, that happened to me too.”, or even “You think that’s bad, how about this one?”.  

Since the article put a spotlight on why our industry is struggling and what the job of a PGA Professional is really like, the good news is that a lot of people saw it and were awakened to our reality.  Personally, I had former members of mine reach out and ask if all this was true and what I thought we needed to do. Solving this problem has to start with an awareness from decision makers that there is indeed a problem, and thanks to Shane Ryan, the ball is rolling a little faster now.  

That’s why I wanted to bring him on the podcast and talk more about the article, the people that he spoke to, and his thoughts on what the problems are and how we can solve them.  My goal is to put as much attention on this issue as I can, and hopefully this episode helps.  If this gives you one more opportunity to send something to the leaders at your club to help prove that you need change at your facility, then please use this as a way to help.  You know all of the stories that you’ll hear about, because you’ve lived them.  But don’t assume the members at your club or the owner of your course knows them too.  As Shane tells us, Golf Professionals have leverage like never before and an opportunity to force change for the better.  We just need to make it happen.

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