In many ways, Boca West Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida, qualifies as its own golf city. The sprawling 72-hole facility has more than 5,000 members – most of whom live no more than a golf car ride away – and the development even has its own zip code.
With so many courses and so many players who have been entrenched at the club for decades, it would be easy for the annual influx of new residents and members to feel anxious about fitting in – especially if they’re beginners.
Pam Elders, PGA, is determined to keep that from happening. The club’s Director of Instruction and 2025 PGA of America Player Development Award recipient, Elders is this golf city’s unofficial mayor. She’s not just a teacher. She’s helping new players build both golf skills and relationships that turn the game into a lifestyle.
“When I started here, the emphasis was on giving individual lessons, but I noticed we were missing getting people to stick with the game,” says Elders, who came to Boca West in 2002 after a stint as the PGA of America Head Professional at The Club at Emerald Hills in Hollywood, Florida. “Beginners would come out and take a lesson, but if it didn’t happen for them right away, they wouldn’t continue. I wanted to develop programs that would help people become more connected to the game.
“The social element is the missing ingredient.”
Almost every club has clinics geared toward beginners, but Elders has managed to build programs that emphasize relationship-building between members – many of whom didn’t know many others at the giant club.
“People would come to me and say they couldn’t find anyone to play with, and I thought, ‘How is that possible at a place this big?’” Elders says. “But it can be intimidating if you’re coming to a new place and you don’t know anyone, and you don’t have much experience with the game.”
Elders combines programs like Four at Four – women’s beginner foursomes play four holes at 4 p.m. with a teaching professional in every group – with a matchmaking service that finds games for compatible players.
“I started a Men’s Novice Clinic for players who feel like they’re not good enough to go join a random foursome on the tee sheet. Now, they’ve made their own group,” says Elders. “Those 12 players have foursomes, and they call each other to play. They bought clubs. They’re having dinner together. It’s been great to see that social component grow for them.”
The bottom-line impact at Boca West is hard to ignore. In the first year of Elders’ women’s beginner group program, more than 500 players attended – and 30 percent converted their social memberships into golf memberships. And equipment and apparel sales have increased from $826,000 in 2021 to more than $1.2 million in 2023.
“Golf has given me so much, it’s only fair that I give back,” Elders explains. “People have worked their whole life to become a member at a club like this, and they’re thrown into a social community where you play golf or play tennis, or play bridge to fit in. It’s more than just playing nine holes. It’s great to help people come out of their shell and find their person, so to speak.”
It’s less than 100 miles from Boca West to the old Homestead Air Force Base outside Miami, where Elders learned to play while her father was stationed there during the Cold War. But it’s a different world both literally and figuratively.
“I came from this tiny little town where the base was. It was mostly a farming district. I never thought I would get this far,” says Elders, who was the 2023 South Florida PGA Section Patriot Award winner and the Section’s 2020 Player Development Award recipient. “To think there are more than 30,000 PGA Members, and I’m one of only about 1,000 women.
“Everyone can say what you’re doing is great, but you really don’t know that. Winning this award is just huge.”
—Matthew Rudy
