BY MATTHEW RUDY
Kennedy Swann Bodiford, PGAHead Professional,Tokatee Golf Club, Blue River, Oregon
When Kennedy Swann Bodiford, PGA, took over as Head Professional at Tokatee Golf Club in the fall of 2022, she inherited one of the most visually striking courses in the Pacific Northwest – a parkland layout carved through towering Douglas firs in Oregon’s McKenzie River Valley. The course was already spectacular. Her job was to make the experience match.
“We’ve always had an amazing course with awesome conditions,” says Bodiford, one of the younger Head Professionals in the Pacific Northwest PGA Section. “But it was always a case of, ‘OK, you come check it out, play once.’ Now it’s turned into an overarching experience where people want to come in, they want to shop, they want to stay after the round and get food and drink.”
The programming rejuvenation was the result of both Bodiford’s multifaceted interest in the whole golfer experience and her fresh perspective as a recent college graduate and tournament golfer. Bodiford had a decorated career, playing on a national championship team at Ole Miss in 2021, before competing for one season on the Epson Tour and playing in a handful of LPGA events. When the Head Professional position came open at the club located three hours south of Portland, in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest, she jumped at the chance for a more stable schedule and to have her hands on the steering wheel.
Bodiford’s emphasis on coaching programming (pictured) that attracts a wider demographic than traditional club players has blended with her merchandising chops to produce a dramatic improvement to Tokatee’s bottom line. Merchandise sales are more than triple their 2022 rate, and food & beverage at the rebranded and re-concepted 1966 Bar and Grill have seen a similar trajectory.
The club’s popular Girls’ Golf Night program is emblematic of the shift. Tokatee sits in a valley community of roughly 500 people, and local women between 25 and 50 were drifting in for craft cocktails at 1966 and staying to watch golfers on the course. Bodiford noticed the vibe shift happening and took advantage.
“Everyone was saying, ‘I’ve never touched a golf club before in my life and it kind of looks fun,’” she says. “They developed this itch watching from the outside.”
Her solution was to lower every barrier at once. The format – cocktail in hand, 20 minutes on the range, a scramble on the course, and a nine-hole putting contest where the women play a scramble against Bodiford – is engineered to teach without lecturing. Rules of Golf, golf car etiquette, where to park: all of it absorbed organically during an evening that felt more like a girls' night out than a clinic.
“Most of those women never saw themselves touching a golf club,” Bodiford says. “It's just opening doors for people who would’ve never thought they could belong out on a golf course.”
The ripple effects have touched every revenue line at Tokatee. New golfers are booking lessons, buying equipment and filling restaurant seats. Bodiford calls it a holistic approach – she’s not just coaching swings, she’s coaching golf relationships, a philosophy that ties directly to her passion for merchandising.
“I love merchandising – that’s probably my favorite aspect of the job,” says Bodiford, the Pacific Northwest PGA Merchandiser of the Year for public facilities in 2024 and 2025. “But Girls’ Golf Night has been the most enjoyable thing I’ve done because it’s something different, a demographic I can really relate to.”
The playbook, she says, is transferable anywhere: Find a demographic you’re not reaching. Think outside the box. Test it once and if it doesn't land, move on. “With a pool of customers this small, if it doesn’t land the first time you try it, it probably isn’t going to work,” she says. “But when you show people you’re really listening to what they want and are willing to change it to make it better, you’re going to earn their support.”
