Three Separate Paths Toward Career Excellence
As currently structured, Level 1 of the PGA Associate Program gives every candidate the same broad foundation. The modern program’s real power shows up at the fork in the road that follows. After Level 1, professionals choose one of three career paths: Golf Operations, Teaching & Coaching or Executive Management. The rest of their education is built around the path they’ve chosen.
“After Level 1, Associates choose their dedicated career track,” Marlatt explains, “and go from there within that vertical.”
It’s a structure that lets professionals lean into their strengths rather than splitting their attention three ways, and the recent graduates working in each track are happy to make the case for it.
Golf Operations: Brad Bachman had been the Head Golf Professional at Wickenburg Ranch Golf & Social Club in Wickenburg, Arizona, for nearly four years before he completed his PGA of America Membership, and he chose the Golf Operations path because it mapped directly onto the work he was already doing.
“It applies to what I do on a daily basis,” Bachman says. “I’ve been in golf a long time, but I got more into some of the finite details on the business side of it. You don’t know everything, and I still don’t know everything. It was super helpful, even some of the stuff I’ve done in the past, it was helpful to rehash it, recall it and remotivate myself. A lot of the leadership content, like how to delegate and how to interact with employees, was really excellent.”
For Bachman, the in-person seminars were where the track came alive. His Level 2 group ran 80 strong.
“Hearing from others’ experiences, ‘Hey, this worked really well at our club, this didn’t work so well,’” he remembers. “You hear how different clubs do things and try to implement them at your club, or some variation. Being in the room with your peers and having open discussions was super great. The virtual sessions are great, everybody can talk, but it’s not the same. The in-person stuff at Level 2 and Level 3 was really, really helpful.”
Bachman and his first assistant at Wickenburg Ranch powered through Levels 2 and 3 together and are now PGA of America Golf Professionals helping another Associate at the facility through the process. Though he was already a Head Professional when he started his PGA Education, Bachman says it was a necessity for his career goals.
“Being a PGA of America Member opens up so many different opportunities and career paths,” he says. “It would be tough to move up and move on when the time is right if I didn’t have ‘PGA’ after my name. It opens the doors for endless opportunities down the road.”
Up first for Bachman? Continuing his education in the Specialized PGA Professional Program in Golf Operations and Teaching & Coaching.
“I have education materials access for another year, so I’m going to keep going and make sure I will stand out as a Specialized PGA Professional when I do eventually look at other opportunities.”
Teaching & Coaching: Addi Mann took the Teaching & Coaching track, which fits her feeling that the golf course, not the back office, is where she belongs.
“I knew very early in my career that I wanted to focus on teaching & coaching,” says Mann, a PGA of America Assistant Professional at The Peninsula Club in Cornelius, North Carolina. “I would much rather be outside talking to people and dealing with operations and teaching & coaching than dealing with spreadsheets and numbers at the desk.”
What surprised her was how the Teaching & Coaching career path education sessions in Levels 2 and 3 were run: fewer lectures, and more conversations among peers headed in the same direction.
“The Teaching & Coaching seminars are awesome because they let us steer the conversations,” she says. “They let us talk about areas we want to talk about, and it’s much more of a roundtable discussion than an actual lecture. It was such a great networking opportunity, too; just such a cool experience to be around like-minded professionals with the guidance of the PGA of America Golf Professionals facilitating these great conversations for a week.”
The relationships outlasted the week. Mann, who is from the Philadelphia area and now works in the Carolinas PGA Section, says some of her closest friends in the business are people she met at seminar in Texas.
“I always joke that it takes me going to Texas to meet the people who are next door to me,” she says. “I text with them weekly.”
Mann finished her coursework at the end of February and was elected to membership weeks later.
Executive Management: Caleb Christensen chose the path built for the highest levels of leadership. Currently a PGA of America Assistant Professional at New Ulm (Minnesota) Country Club, Christensen also owns Christensen Golf Academy, and the entrepreneurial pull is what steered him toward Executive Management.
“I love the teaching & coaching aspects, but I felt like Executive Management opened up a few more doors and opportunities down the road,” he says. “It’s a great track to learn the overall, higher-level business side of golf.”
What opened his eyes was the depth and relevancy of PGA Education throughout his time in the program.
“The depth they go into for business planning was really interesting. There are so many different facets to that,” Christensen says. “And obviously in Executive Management, there’s a really big food & beverage component, which I had never really had a ton of experience in. I feel like I can hold my own in the conversation in that area now.”
That kind of specialization is exactly what the three career paths model is built to deliver – and Ballinger, who has watched the program evolve from the old business schools through today’s PGM 3.1, says the difference in what graduates carry into their first jobs is profound.
“The amount of material, the depth, the content – it’s just so much better,” Ballinger says. “Business planning is a foundational topic, and we don’t just teach the information, we bring it to life with a case study. Here’s a golf course. Here are the challenges they’re facing. Walk through the business-planning model: create a mission statement, a vision statement, a value statement. Do a SWOT analysis. Develop goals, objectives and strategies. Then plug it into a budget and see what kind of difference those changes could make to the bottom line.
“We didn’t have anything like that in those days.”
Marlatt sees the specialization paying off in the marketplace, particularly for graduates who come through the four-year university route and emerge with a degree, their membership and internship experience across multiple facilities.
“Over time, students coming out of our university programs will command higher compensation,” he says. “The reason is mobility. Students do internships at three or four different facilities, then graduate and can go wherever the opportunities takes them.”
