GBD SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010
GOLF DEVELOPMENT 17
The PGAs of Europe website is serving as an excellent communication tool with members, partners and professionals from all over the world
the annual seminar series (called Te Learning Zone this year) at the show, where business experts share their knowledge with visitors. Te PGAsE stand is a hub of good advice and goodwill as professionals and friends of the PGAsE negotiate three hectic days of floor-walking and business meetings. Apart from seeing this good work in action, GBD team members have
also learned much from attending the biannual Coaching Conferences in the past, organised wholly or in part by the PGAsE, and these have been genuinely inspiring events for the PGA pros taking part. Visiting the team recently at Te Belfry I arrived amid a buzz of
activity. Much is being planned, with lots to discuss about training initiatives, Ryder Cup development work, and the revival of a growing tournament diary which PGA professionals can play in for prize money and prestige, while the National PGAs involved can use the tournaments as a launch-pad for the sport’s growth in their area. I meet PGAsE chief executive Ian Randell, who is always full of
beans; partly I think because he plays football nearly every weekend in the season (he’s also a keen golfer and skier) and also because he is clearly passionate about the direction in which his working team is heading. And while his sporting hobbies loom large for him, it was for a
very different reason that the Olympics had been on his mind. Te Olympics is seen as one of those areas that the PGAsE and the leading individual PGAs can embrace powerfully to make a massive impact for golf around the world. Recent news of the PGAsE involvement in a ‘world alliance’ of PGAs fits in with both this Olympic ambition and the operating ethos of the PGAsE perfectly. Ian Randell said: “Two years ago the PGAs of Europe established
seven operating principles – areas of activity in which we would ‘work together’ with our Member PGAs for the betterment of themselves, their PGA professionals and most importantly the game of golf as a whole [see panel, overleaf ]. “Two events have occurred during the last year or so that to my mind
will significantly enhance our efforts to develop the game; firstly, golf achieved the status of becoming an Olympic sport from 2016 which according to Peter Dawson, chief executive of Te R&A ‘represents the biggest grow-the-game opportunity in our sport’, and secondly, the formation of the World PGA Alliance brought together ten leading PGAs to agree at the inaugural meeting the adoption of professional standards for PGA membership. Te PGAs of Europe will play a very active part in ensuring the success of both of these.” After two decades in operation the success of the PGAsE model has
been used as a blueprint for the establishment of this new world body, the World PGA Alliance, drawing on and using expertise from the leading 10 PGAs, including, of course, the PGA of America.
Ian said: “Status as Founder Members of the World PGA Alliance
represents a place in the global golfing hierarchy of which everyone concerned in our development over a 21-year period can feel justifiably proud. “I’m in my fourth year of this privileged role and I continue to find
the post, as a cog in an administration that in the past, present and future is blessed with the sole objective of nurturing the well-being of golf, both absorbing and satisfying on several fronts. “Much of the first couple of years was spent examining ourselves and
our Member PGAs so that we were able to assess the current situation and build foundations and a strategy for future progress. Having completed this, our emphasis has now shifted to implementation of this strategy. “Te key to this is that we are now in a position where we can offer
the tools and services to assist the development of the game at no matter what stage of the golfing evolution continuum a country is on.” Tis is a key point. Te PGAsE is able to offer comprehensive
guidance to an emerging golf country but it is often the case that the enthusiastic country concerned is so new to the sport that it lacks infrastructures, including a network of coaches. “In some areas, hardly anyone or even no-one plays off scratch or is of
professional standard,” said Ian. “Tat shouldn’t be a lasting barrier for development. At the outset, we can still help them to create a basis for coaching that can help introduce people to golf and enjoy the sport.” Ian added: “Tis often starts through our management of the Ryder
Cup European Development Trust or through the professionals that deliver Te R&A Golf Development Programme. “In the period between August 2009 and July 2010 we undertook 15
visits to countries around the world and this enables us to assist them in laying the foundations for the structures for golf administration, professional education and coaching. “A toolkit has been developed that enables these countries to help themselves under the watchful eyes of our golf development team.” Ian keeps stressing that education is the cornerstone to the work of
the PGAsE because educated coaches and PGA professionals lie at the very heart of successful golf development. Te PGAsE recognised that full recognition of a professional education
programme takes many years to achieve and is dependent upon both levels of resources and a critical mass of trainees. Te organisation has developed an Initial Professional Education Programme (IPE) for the benefit of emerging golfing nations in Europe which offers a bridging programme to fulfil the needs of the market in the short term. Tis initial education cannot be treated in isolation or completed without a roadmap to gaining full PGA education, either through working towards achieving a recognised education programme in the
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