So stephen's question is um hi i'm in my final year at university i'm about to get into the real world to find a job my degree is in business management throughout the lockdown i got back into golf after 10-year hiatus i used to play up 12 when i was about 14 which is good. But stopped shortly after because my dad became injured and i wasn't kind of didn't have the bug to play as much um getting back playing the game last year and it reignited my love okay i realized at 25 i'm not gonna be a professional. But i would like to still be involved with the game at some capacity my concern is that i've not been like a golf school. Or done like a golf focus kind of degree or anything i've got a lack of industry knowledge and experience um but my question sure is rick if you're in my shoes how would you go about getting involved with the golf industry. So stephen he's obviously an intelligent bloke he's doing a business management degree yeah likes the game of golf loves the game of golf he wants to work in golf. So what advice would you give him i think now more than any other time that i know in the golf industry there are. So many jobs in the golf industry that don't require you to hit a golf ball would you like back i remember when i did my pga training. And one of the questions was in the room right everyone put your hand up what do you want to be when you when you qualify do you want to be a player. And let's be honest most fans went up at that point so everyone in the room put their hands up pretty much trying to be a coach again a lot of people put their hands up do you want to be a head pro again a lot of people put their hands up that's kind of where it stopped like there wasn't many options after that you either if you if you were going to do a proper pga studies you do be a player a coach. Or a head pro but now you look at the golf industry as a whole and you think about the range of jobs available like you. For example you work in the golf industry yeah. But this job wouldn't have been available five years ago 10 years ago because you know being a brand manager of a social media business just didn't exist that wasn't a role and we've seen it loads in golf so for steven's answer there i would say if his business management degree comes out really strong that could put him in an unbelievable position to move into the golf world but think laterally. So yes the golf world is a golf club that's where you'd work at even there's roles at a golf club now there's like business development managers there's directors of golf there's um corporate day managers there's a beverage. And finance like beverage and finance doesn't make sense food and beverage managers or fine in in the gulf some golf course as well they actually don't have a product shop that's that's kind of ran by you said a business manager whatever director of golf. Or whatever it may be there's definitely that world that now if you do want to work at a golf club that is something that's new now your your task stephen might be to bring in uh business corporate days into the golf facility. Or to sell memberships to a golf you know into a golf facility or manage their social media business or whatever it may be so that world inside of golf the other world which is still golf is think about all the brands now that are into golf. So you could even go and work for a callaway or a titleist or a tailor-made as again their business strategy development manager yeah what a job title well well again if you had a billion dollars to go. And buy taylormade i mean i would maybe bring stephen on you'd need somebody on board if you bought taylormade. So for that like there are roles in golf businesses as well golf companies um startup companies social media companies that we've seen just go through the roof recently it might even be website designing again if he's a business management i've seen a lot of uh a lot of companies set up now the bespoke website golf club website designers. So they they'll go to a local golf course and you know the local golf course might be run by a committee and you know nobody really knows how to set up a website let's say stephen could go in and offer his services as a bespoke business director to a number of golf courses and set up all their websites to help them bring more traffic into their into their golf club sell more tea time sell more memberships etc i've got a question for you then.
I remember one of the stories that you've told me is that when you were up. And coming um coaching pro at trafford golf center if you had an hour free it wasn't very obviously very common but sometimes when you did you kind of walk down the range. And get speaking to people or whatever and try and get more customers so that was quite kind of entrepreneurial we've come up with a good answer there is jobs out there they're not all about playing. Or whatever for stephen but what advice would you give him to actually go about getting involved how how what should he should you just look for jobs or should he try and reach out should he try something different what would you what would you give him advice wise i mean it's probably quite difficult to make. So i only ever gained two jobs like actually being given two jobs in my life so my first one well i was saying in the golf industry my first job was at mia yeah that was my first job i came out of college. And i was 18. didn't really know what i wanted. And all i did was i typed up a letter explaining my my my position i wanted to work in the golf industry. And assistant professional and i at the time posted it to probably around about 40 golf courses in the uk didn't matter where i wanted where i went where i wanted to go to mainly quite high prestige golf courses because what i wanted to aim aim for really and a lot of the time they came back to me saying we've not got a job available now unfortunately blah blah blah but then.
Eventually obviously i did get a letter back from mia. And they said actually we've got a position would you want to come down. For an interview and i end up getting interviewed and getting the job then.
From that that was my only real i actually reached out to gain a job at that position because again in golf there are there's a lot of competition a lot of people wanting jobs in golf etc. So you could do that you could you could put a business proposal together to all of these major manufacturers if that's what you wanted to work in. Or all these different golf courses an email now you can send just bulk. And you never know you might it might just land on somebody's desk that day who's scratching red going how can we get more business into this into our golf club suddenly steven's email pops up like it did on your podcast email. And suddenly people go oh this looks quite good all right so he doesn't want to make money unless we make money so he's going to take 20 share on all incoming business that's great. And stephen could do that. For 10 different golf courses make 20 on all new business development the next.
Five years sign them all in stephen will be winning then.
Yeah yeah fair enough um apart from that check out it's probably slightly more golf pro centric. But the pga has a jobs board certainly here in the uk so you can go on pga.info forward slash jobs. Or something like that and uh there's a jobs board and again not only are jobs aimed at now assistant pros. Or head pros there are. So many more director of job roles and things that are available now as well i think another thing he's probably overlooking is the fact that when you like you said it earlier on you calloway taylor made your streaks. And every every golf brand has sales reps you might have 12 15 20 in the uk depending on the size of the business obviously but a lot of those sales reps now i've known a lot i've worked a lot some of them are xpga are great players some of them might not be that great a girl. But you know 25. it doesn't always obviously have to know the industry and and stuff like that but it doesn't necessarily massively matter what your ability is. So if he's come out of uni at 25 whatever and there's a job came up at let's just say taylormade or callaway and he applied if he see if he was good he'd nailed his interview there's no reason i don't i wouldn't see his handicap holding him back. And even to some degree is his lack of knowledge in the golf industry that could be seen as a hindrance. But sometimes golf brands quite like that because you might come in i don't know he didn't give enough information but he might have spent five years working in the retail industry at university in a clothes shop or something so he might come up with a different angle it actually could be really beneficial to that brand yeah. And also you could even try retail shops like you know golf shops not pro shops but like your american golf club jobs so anyway good luck stephen he's not going to get put in the price draw. But you don't win any prizes.
