Note: This is the report I submitted for the 2023 Carolinas PGA Annual Meeting

Greetings to all Carolinas PGA Members & Associates,

It truly is an honor to serve all of you, and I appreciate the support you have given me for the past 5 ½ years. In my report last year, I updated you about the goals and objectives of the National Employment Committee, as those most often dictate how I spend my time, energy, and attention.  Their five (5) areas of focus included:

• Executive Search

• Recruiting new talent to the golf industry 

• Member Compensation & Work/Life Balance

• Member Support

• Section Alignment with Career Services initiatives

I can report that we achieved measures of success in all of those areas, including:

• Nationally, our team conducted almost 30% more paid searches in 2022 than 2021 as part of our Execusearch service. 

• To help address the labor shortage, the recruiting team from PGA HQ attended 132 events and interacted in some way with roughly 5,400 people looking to get into the golf industry. 

• Nationally, the Career Services team tracked over $7.5 million dollars in compensation increases for PGA Members & Associates, with over $1,342,000 in the Carolinas alone. 

• Employers are beginning to understand the importance of work/life balance. Though it isn’t perfect yet, I have confidence it will continue to improve.

• At the section level, our Carolinas PGA Members and Associates continue to complete and update their Job Seeker Preferences and Compensation profiles, giving me powerful data when talking to employers.

Those are big wins, and we should be celebrating all of them. BUT…something is missing, and it is the “Member Support” piece. With all of those wins, for some reason, PGA Members are still hurting. I can see it when I read emails, take phone calls, and talk to people who tell me they are burned out. I can see it on the faces of many of you when I stand in your golf shop or see you at a Section tournament (I know what it looks like…I’ve been there myself). So I’ve been wondering if my priorities match the priorities of Carolinas PGA Members & Associates, and it appears increasingly obvious that they do not. So as I plan how to allocate my time, energy, and enthusiasm in 2023, my "resolution" is to be more intentional about serving PGA Members on their terms, not on mine. I hope you notice the difference!

Finally, you can see from the numbers below that we had another active year for jobs in the Carolinas. 

Jobs Posted on PGA Job Board (by Job Category) in 2022 (2020 & 2021 numbers for comparison):

Director of Golf – 12 (7 in 2020, 7 in 2021)

Head Golf Professional – 46 (29 in 2020, 34 in 2021)

Facility Management (GM, etc) - 22 (13 in 2020, 21 in 2021)

Teaching & Coaching – 73 (28 in 2020, 49 in 2021)

Assistant Professional – 272 (187 in 2020, 252 in 2021)

Golf Operations Support Staff – 94 (80 in 2020, 97 in 2021)

Sales – 27 (15 in 2020, 48 in 2021)

All Others – 67 (31 in 2020, 42 in 2021)

• "Thank you for all you did getting me up here Mike. It was a great decision for me and my family, Andy is great and really takes an interest in our success. All the best"

• "Struggling to believe it’s real, but I got the job! Could not possibly be more excited!! Thank you for all your guidance and support over the years, Mike!!! Feel like I’m forever indebted to you for always being such an incredible sounding board!!"

• "I need to tell you directly that your assistance in this critical (hiring) decision was off the charts! It is quite obvious that you are incredibly knowledgeable and professional. I will never be able to share how much this has assisted me at such a critical time!"

• "Thank you so much for helping Lexington Golf Club & my son. Dylan is so ready for this opportunity. He really appreciates all the advice you have given him. From one PGA member to another; Thanks Pro😍"

All Active Positions

PGA Compensation Profile - Carolinas Section Participation

Job Preferences - Carolinas Section Participation

Names and emails of people who have applied to the Pre-Qualifier program. PQ applicants purchase and review the five qualifying level courses: Introduction to the PGM and the Golf Profession, PGA History, PGA Constitution, Rules of Golf and Career Enhancement to be eligible to register for the qualifying test through our third party test company virtually.

Please note that PGA HQ does not collect employment information at the time of PQ registration.