Dr. Paul Callaway, the first Director of Golf Fitness on the PGA TOUR, is the Director of Golf Fitness at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton, Illinois.
Dr. Paul Callaway on the importance of offering complimentary presentations and workshops:
When starting out in most businesses or establishing roots in a new location, developing a client base and promoting awareness of your services are vital to growth and success, as well as in achieving your goals. After almost four decades in golf fitness, my reputation and expertise often speak for themselves within our industry. However, as new golfers come to the game, or the focus of their instruction changes from the technical aspects of the swing to the body’s role in attaining those positions, golf fitness becomes a more pertinent topic. Creating awareness of the importance of golf fitness and the benefits to one’s golf game is the first step in building a golf fitness program and helping your students play better golf and live healthier lives. Over the years, I have held complimentary presentations to bring that awareness to members and local public golfers. These one-hour workshops introduce golfers to the concepts that have shaped my business and the field of golf fitness. To attract those individuals who are not currently working with one of our PGA Professionals, and might not be aware of the services I provide, I use our extensive email database to invite golfers to the complimentary presentations and workshops that I conduct almost every other week during our off-season. This engagement has been an effective method of growing my client base and teaching others about the importance of golf fitness.
Dr. Paul Callaway on the business impact of offering complimentary presentations and workshops:
Participation in these sessions varies, but we often welcome between 25 and 50 individuals per session. After sharing the core introductory information that golfers should know, I invite interested individuals (usually at least a dozen attendees) to a free individual screening, during which I gather some basic information. I learn more about their current total golf performance experience – scoring average, driving distance, fairways and greens in regulation statistics, putting statistics, their perceived greatest strengths and weaknesses and the primary golf performance element that, if improved, would help them better their game the most. I perform a complimentary “standing” and “golf address” posture screening to help them directly relate their body structure to their golf swing function based on the law of “structure governs function.” From that point, they would come back for an extensive two-hour paid evaluation that further adds to the foundation of an individual plan of action based on the data and feedback gained. I collaborate with our PGA Professionals to ensure we are on the same page with any mutual clients. Some of the golfers I work with have instructors elsewhere, and through conversation with the client and analysis of his or her skills, I determine any deficiencies and address them one by one. Much of my clientele comes to me through word of mouth. But I still write articles and contribute to blog posts to continue to disseminate this vital information. After all, I often say that I learn something every day by looking, reading and studying the actions of my peers and the information they share. Meanwhile, all these years later, golf fitness is increasingly considered a mainstream component of player development, just as much as golf drills on the range or a good old-fashioned playing lesson on the course.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email drpaulcallaway@yahoo.com.
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