What made you want to begin your PGA Excel application?
I’ve always wanted to continually develop, no matter what it is that I’ve done - it felt like the PGA Excel system was a way of separating yourself from other PGA Professionals, almost like giving yourself a promotion really!
I started this year because I felt like I had accrued enough accomplishments over the last ten years to warrant filling out the application, whereas previously I didn’t feel like I had enough experiences to put in there.
Anything to do with growth, development and participation is useful, so anything you’re doing to bring new people into the game, retaining them in the game, feeding them into membership, things like that, and then when it’s on a greater scale, so anything you do where you have big numbers, again I think is just key.
I do these ‘Try Golf’ games where you get 300 kids turning up who don’t normally play golf. They’re big key factors in driving the game, and I work closely with other governing bodies like The Golf Foundation and South Leicestershire School Sports Partnership, where I help deliver it in schools initially and then we’ve brought the schools to us.
How important is personal development to you?
I think it’s imperative! You have to constantly try to better yourself - the competition in all work environments is so fierce! If you don’t constantly aim to improve your personal development you just become stale and demotivated, and if you don’t keep up with the times, you get left behind.
What does it mean to you to be awarded Fellow Professional status?
I applied for ‘Advanced’ status because you fill out the forms and say what you’re applying for, so I thought that my accomplishments were the level I was aiming for, but naively I didn’t know where I sat really - when the email came through I was massively elated! I feel validation for all the hard work I’ve put in, to get that was just so rewarding! It sounds cheesy, but to be able to have PGA Fellow Professional stitched on my polos on a daily basis - I’m just awesomely proud to have that on there! People get that added value from you now. They think: ‘oh I’m going to go and see Tom. He’s a PGA Fellow Professional, not just your local pro at the driving range’.
