Journey To PGA Membership – A Voyage Definitely Worth the Work

Today’s PGAmagazine.com Blog moderator is PGA Professional Donavan Grahn.    Donavan is the PGA head professional at The Territory Golf Club in Duncan, Okla., and recently earned his Class-A status as a PGA Professional.

I can still remember the day, in vivid detail, leaving my 8 to 5 job with weekends off to join the exhilarating occupation as an assistant golf professional at The Territory Golf Club. Many people wouldn’t even consider taking a new job, making less money and working more days/more hours. As I examined the golf business, I found that every day was different. A new day brought out a new challenge, a new learning experience and I was excited to learn everything that I could in golf.

In my early days as an assistant golf professional, I worked very long hours. I can’t even remember working a set shift. I was learning so much every day from my boss and mentor, Tim Johnson. I felt like if I came in late or left early that I would miss a learning opportunity. However, this schedule and hunger for knowledge became my downfall in doing the necessary bookwork to obtain PGA membership.

I passed the PAT on the very first try. Nonetheless, when my Level 1 books came in the mail, I opened them up, became overwhelmed with all of the work and stored them on a shelf to do in my spare time. Two and a half years went by and I realized that I hadn’t made it a priority to type up my work experience activities. You see, I had done most of the required activities through my daily duties. However, I never put aside the time to type it up. Now I was on suspension from The PGA.
 
The word “suspension” hit me pretty hard. I felt as if I had failed. I’d never been suspended from or failed at anything growing up. I came to a crossroads and decided that it was time to get typing. After all, obtaining PGA membership was the whole reason I was working so long and hard. Level 1 was definitely time consuming. I recommend to all apprentices: work on one book at a time. Once you have completed one entire book, it gives you a great feeling of accomplishment. This feeling carries you into being motivated to finish the next book. The next thing you know you’re done with your book work and ready to register for the checkpoint.

The checkpoints and tests were nerve-racking, even for a good test taker like myself. My recommendation for all PGA apprentices is to obtain study guides from peers in your Section who have recently attended the checkpoint that you are going to. The study guides that I received from Mike Hansen, Kerry Petricek and Aaron Kristopeit were instrumental in helping me through the PGM program. I owe many thanks for their help and support!

In conclusion, I highly recommend that every PGA PGM apprentice take a book out of their Level 1 pack and begin working on it right away. Finish one book at a time! Also, find an apprentice in your Section who has recently passed the level that you are currently on and ASK for their help and support. They will understand the situation you are in and be willing to help, I’m sure! Just like any great reward, it takes hard work to achieve!

Comments

[Brendon R. Elliott, PGA Head Professional, Winter Park Country Club and Owner of Little Linksters, LLC]

Great post Donavan! Great advice that I echo to all those apprentices out there.