Tony Clark is impressed after recently meeting with Tim Regan, 16 years a golf professional and head PGA professional at Aston Wood Golf Club in Sutton Coldfield.
Regan is a golf psychologist, Hank Haney Certified Coach and Nike Golf Ambassador. Over the past three years he has played, and continues to play, an important part in the spectacular development of Aston Wood Golf Academy. It’s a great example of a PGA professional working in partnership with an owner with shared goals and ambition.
Outlining his approach Regan states, “At the Academy our focus has been on providing a great learning and practice environment for members and visitors with a real attention to detail. We have heaters on the range, use the best mats and even have a large mirror, chair, table and cup holder at each of our 13 bays. Our private teaching and fitting bays are probably as good as any anywhere in the world. We have the latest technology including the FlightScope launch monitor and V1 professional for swing analysis, super slow motion cameras and most recently PlaneSWING for a truly kinaesthetic experience.”
Regan wasted no time in announcing PlaneSWING’s arrival with posters and a page on his web site dedicated to PlaneSWING at http://bit.ly/Tim_Regan_Plane_Swing. So whilst Regan has learnt his coaching craft through studying the philosophies of the best teachers in the game including David Leadbetter, Butch Harmon, Hank Haney, Scott Cranfield, Pete Cowan and more, he’s also fully aware of the importance of marketing his teaching skills and his location.
And this is the point. You have to reach out to golfers through various mediums if you’re serious about growing your business. In Regan’s case he’s not only grown his teaching revenue though investment in equipment and marketing, he’s also brought in an increasing number of non-members. Not only is this good for Regan’s business it’s valuable foot traffic and revenue for Aston Wood Golf Club and plays an important role in growing the game.
Regan confirms, “My teaching business has both grown and completely flipped from 70/30 in favour of members to 70/30 in favour of non-members and that’s been down to marketing and word of mouth. Plenty of our members know people that would like to improve and/or play the game and we give them every encouragement to bring them along to Aston Wood Golf Academy. With four teaching professionals working here we offer a comprehensive service.
“We coach golfers of all levels from beginners to elite level and fitting, and consequently club sales is an increasing important part of our role. This is one of the reasons we invested in PlaneSWING. Getting a golfer that’s receiving regular coaching on their ideal swing plane means we’ll deliver a quicker and better fit. It didn’t take me long to realise that my width, angle of attack and release improved within minutes of using PlaneSWING and the PowerSLIDER”.
On Regan’s advice Aston Wood GC has also installed a practice bunker, an ‘entertaining’ chipping zone, a putting green and a standalone ‘golf conditioning fitness centre’ with the very latest fitness equipment. He comments, “Well obviously the short game is critical to lower scores so we give it plenty of attention whilst trying to make it fun. But fitness is often overlooked especially by the mid to high handicappers and older players. With the fitness centre we can teach golfers golf-specific exercisers to help them get stronger, more flexible and stay free of injury ultimately giving them the best chance possible to play the game better for longer.”
It’s clear having visited Tim Regan at Aston Wood GC that along with the owner Colin Crawshaw, general manager Simon Smith and team, they all share the same vision to create a world-class golf and leisure facility.
For other PGA professionals in the UK looking to build their business I’d recommend a visit to Aston Wood Golf Club. Tim Regan can be contacted via timregangolf.co.uk or on 07795 672930.
Tony Clark is Owner/Managing Director of PlaneSWING Golf and a business consultant with Clark Management Group Ltd. He can be contacted at 01604 830880 or by email at onplane@planeswing.com