PGA Magazine spoke with a group of PGA of America Golf Professionals from across the country to learn more about how they are integrating health and wellness at their facilities to improve the golfer experience and their own bottom lines. The following case studies provide a roadmap for how you may want to promote health and wellness at your facility:
Be a Change Agent for Wellness
Brian JacobsPGA of America Director of Instruction,BallenIsles Country Club,Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
When two-time Western New York Section Teacher & Coach of the Year Brian Jacobs, PGA, decided to move south earlier this year, it wasn’t about sunny skies or warm winters. The longtime athlete and health enthusiast was excited to become Director of Instruction at Florida’s BallenIsles Country Club, a Troon-managed club that has 16 on-site fitness professionals and markets an active lifestyle as one of the main amenities to its members.
“I saw BallenIsles was making a huge commitment to getting its members healthy with a sports complex that has cost millions of dollars, and I don’t think that the members were really seeing the connection between golf and fitness,” Jacobs says. “Now they are, and I feel like I’ve been able to be a real change agent to limit injuries, recover, sleep well and feel well in life for our members.”
Jacobs, who has certifications through TPI and the Gray Institute, has long been an advocate of incorporating health and wellness concepts into his golf instruction. At BallenIsles, however, he and the fitness staff are taking the synergy between fitness and golf to new levels.
“A lot of golf clubs have a traditional setup where the golf staff is over here doing their thing, and the fitness staff is over there. I’m trying to get a pipeline between golf and fitness like never before,” Jacobs says. “It’s really all about wellness. If you can’t move, you can’t be well. It isn’t just golf. Maybe you haven’t been very active and a friend invites you out to play pickleball. You start running and jumping around and you sprain your Achilles or hurt your shoulder. Golf is the same. To function in a sport you need mobility, activation and recovery.”
Jacobs is working to build the golf and wellness connection at BallenIsles by tweaking the traditional golf lesson format to include an active warmup followed by post-session recovery. The old paradigm of fitness being based on how much weight you could lift or how many miles you run is being replaced by pre-activity screenings, stretching sessions and post-activity cooldowns and rest.
“Between Whoop bands, Apple Watches and Oura rings, you’re finally hearing a lot more about recovery, which is great,” Jacobs says. “A lot of people don’t warm up, then they go play 18 and hit the clubhouse to sit down and have lunch, then they wonder why it hurts to stand up and walk afterward. With all the twisting and turning, playing golf is your body going to war. You need a plan to prepare and then recover.”
Jacobs and the BallenIsles staff are getting ready to roll out a program that will allow fitness and golf professionals to collaborate on coaching sessions. Each lesson will begin with a fitness trainer leading the student through a warmup, then the PGA of America Professional will teach the lesson and take the student through a guided recovery.
“That’s the difference between teaching and coaching,” Jacobs says. “We’re making a big commitment to it at BallenIsles, and I think golf professionals can be a big part of helping people make a big progression with their health. Tour players are working out and getting stretched for 90 minutes before they go on the course, then they’re stretching and taking cold plunges and other recovery activities after their round. Activation and recovery can be just as important to our club golfers to help them on the course and in their everyday lives.”
Jacobs tells the story of a 77-year-old golfer who came to him at BallenIsles for help after an injury caused ligament damage to his ankle. Not only was the player wearing a brace and struggling on the course, but he was also unsteady and unhappy with his mobility in everyday life despite regular physical therapy. Jacobs used his TPI and Gray Institute screening skills to learn more about the student’s limitations, then created a new warmup and recovery plan for him that included warmup stretches focusing on pelvic mobility and a post-session recovery.
“After our first session, the golfer told me his ankle felt great, and that he’d never had a golf professional warm him up before a lesson,” Jacobs says. “I can’t expect you to perform if you’re not activated. You can’t swing to warm up, you have to warm up to swing. Now that student is on the TruStretch warming up before playing or taking a lesson, then he’s putting his foot in the cold plunge tub afterward. He was at a point where he wouldn’t hit shots off sidehill lies because he was afraid he’d fall over, and he was worried about his balance during everyday activities, and now he’s thrilled and playing more golf and enjoying his life.”
Jacobs believes this integration of golf and wellness is the future of golf coaching, with physical therapists, fitness professionals and golf professionals working together as a team. He says younger golf professionals are quick to pick up on the benefits, and older students need interventions to keep them active. And once a golfer who was struggling with health sees and feels an improvement, they’ll tell their friends about it the way they’ll brag about having a new driver or making a hole-in-one.
“If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything,” Jacobs says. “We all need physical, spiritual and social health, and golf can be the vehicle for all of those. You’re going to have better relationships if you’re not sore all the time. Life is better when you’re able to move.
“Our bodies can be changed at any age. You can gain strength and neuroplasticity. Even in your 70s, your body is made to move. And as PGA of America Golf Professionals, a focus on wellness can open up so many different revenue streams whether you’re at a country club or any other kind of facility.”