Case study: Pete Styles, Director of Golf qualification

15/05/2024

The Director of Golf qualification is designed for PGA Professionals who are already performing effectively in the role as well as providing a framework for those who aspire to such a role.

Pete Styles falls into the former category having been appointed the Director of Golf at the Trafford Golf Centre 12 years ago. He now oversees 60 staff, including 12 Professionals, having been the person who gave Rick Shiels and Peter Finch their jobs at the hugely busy facility in Manchester.

The Director of Golf qualification is delivered through seven tailored units including Personal, Strategic, Operational and People Management as well as Finance, Marketing and Customer Service. Styles has recently completed the qualification and he explains what went into the process and reasons behind furthering his career.

The reasoning
I am a golf coach at heart, and I still love coaching today. The concept of assisting people to get better every day probably encouraged a bit of self-reflection in that I should be trying to get better every day also.

In terms of my continued professional development, this felt like the right thing for me to be doing. I’ve been doing the job of Director of Golf for 12 years, previously I had never passed a qualification for it, like a lot of people who end up in managerial positions.

You kind of find your way up there through hard work, through loyalty and longevity, but not necessarily qualifying for a different role as you go. To validate the job that I do and the qualifications that I have, I felt this was a great industry benchmarking process.

The timeline
It is as quick or as slow as you want it to be. It took me just under a year but there were periods where I wasn’t doing anything towards the qualification because it was a busy time of year.

I would then find a bit more time in the quieter months and move things forward fairly quickly. You could probably sit down and do it all in a fortnight but that would be quite intense. For me it was working through it at quieter times of the year.

The benefits
There were elements of going over what I already do as I’ve done the role for a period of time, there were certainly times when I had to question myself about do I know this, or have I done this previously? I didn’t necessarily have to go away and bury my head in a book and learn a quantity of information for this qualification, it was more having to validate my knowledge.

My assessor Mansell Richards was very good, and he would ask ‘have you written a business plan?' or 'have you written a marketing plan?’ I was able to dig those things out, refresh them, bring them up to speed and use them as evidence to show that I had the skills and knowledge. I would suggest that my knowledge base conforms to the concept of being ‘a mile wide and an inch deep’.

A Director of Golf might need a broader appreciation of all aspects of golf plus marketing, accountancy, HR-related issues and legal facility compliance, particularly if you are going to start managing a large number of people. There is a wide spectrum of information there to be considered.

As a company we outsource some of that work to specialists, we have an accountant, a marketing manager and health and safety consultants, being the director of the facility you must have an understanding even if it is not an in-depth knowledge.

There were some great learnings that I had around leadership styles and questioning the types of leadership that I use daily. Do I use different leadership styles with different departments across the facility and different people across the facility?

The format and flexibility
I completed the first module in a written format, my assessor asked for my feedback, I said that I really found the writing to be time-consuming and not a very efficient use of my time.

Mansell was very gracious, and he really worked with me, and we started to do phone interviews. On a Monday morning, on my way to work, I would ring him, and we would talk for half an hour or so. We would discuss the topic of the day that he would set me and sometimes he would set me some homework in advance where I could do my research. Other times it was just questions and then he would set me a written piece to say can you validate all the things that we have talked about?

Because I had done a lot of that work in the past, I was therefore just able to evidence base and drop information in. It would be questions like have you got a training plan for your staff, have you got a disciplinary procedure, can you share your health and safety policy? This was very beneficial and really reduced my time and I was able to impart a large amount of information very quickly.

An experienced PGA Pro who has been in the industry for 10-15 years should want to develop their understanding more because if you don’t get this qualification, then somebody else will.

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The future
I certainly think we are seeing a trend that the forward-thinking golf clubs are now understanding that they shouldn’t necessarily just be run by a committee but that it needs to operate within a framework of a proper business, and it requires proper leadership and direction.

The perfect person to offer that leadership is somebody who understands business and golf.

A PGA Professional with a Director of Golf qualification, is surely the ideal candidate. An experienced PGA Pro who has been in the industry for 10-15 years should want to develop their understanding more because if you don’t get this qualification, then somebody else will.

The career progression
If I were ever to apply for another role then I would like to show that I have continued my professional development over the period and I haven’t become stagnant in the role that I am in. Within my role as Director of Golf at Trafford Golf Centre I feel I’m a more competent leader because of this qualification, it has made me think about things in the right way and it has given me the confidence that we are working in the most productive way.

Find out more on the Director of Golf qualification here.

Register your interest
To register your interest or to book onto an Induction Day please contact Member Education Department on cpd@pga.org.uk or 01675 470333.