Compared to other amenities at a golf club or public course, the instruction operation can be tricky to measure and manage. But that’s changing – and the business boost driven by lessons, clinics and programmed interaction with golf professionals is becoming increasingly recognizable.
Last December, the National Golf Course Owners Association conducted a survey of its members posing pertinent questions, one being: “Do lesson-takers spend more money at your facility than non-lesson takers?” The overall “yes” answer was selected by 41 percent – which in and of itself is notably high. Among those who elsewhere in the survey had described instruction as “a cornerstone of our success,” a full 73 percent answered yes to the higher-spend question.
In the vanguard of a move toward sophisticated analytics that measure BVGI, or the business value of golf instruction, you’ll find Invited Clubs (formerly ClubCorp) and its consultant, Retail Tribe. The company’s proactive player-development program and its close scrutiny of the relevant spreadsheets recently produced this eye-catching number: $2.8 million. That’s the add-on dollar amount, at one club for one year, that Invited has generated by systematically connecting golf professionals with club members – in formal and informal instructional activities.
Last year the company showcased a dollar figure of $704,000 that it tied to the efforts of a single golf professional, the talented and energetic Joey Anders, who is based at one of Invited’s flagship facilities, Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas. That six-figure sum was Brookhaven’s single-year net dollar improvement attributable to what Anders did as a teacher and mentor to nurture a combination of reduced attrition, additional spending and newly signed-up members.
There’s a growing belief that coaching-based player development is an idea whose time has truly come.
The acronym BVGI, which is heard fairly often these days throughout the industry, began years ago as internal shorthand at our organization, Proponent Group. Golf coaches who are dues-paying Proponent members initiated the data-collection effort as a means of encouraging their facilities to promote instruction programming and make capital investments in their ranges and short-game areas – and also as an argument for improved compensation.
One of those Proponent instructors is Bob Usher, the 2024 South Florida PGA Teacher of the Year, who recently created a 50-minute slide presentation titled “Measuring Your Value and Making the Case for a Raise.” Usher, who runs the instruction program at prestigious Grey Oaks Country Club in Naples, Florida, described working with the Grey Oaks controller to formulate a simple method for measuring the spend rate (and retention rate) of members who work with Grey Oaks coaches on game improvement versus those who don’t. Their point-of-sale numbers showed non-lesson-takers spending an average of $3,847 annually at the club on hard goods, apparel and food and beverage while, in the same time period, the lesson-takers spent $9,497. A 146 percent higher spending level is a compelling stat no matter how you parse it.
Several years earlier, a study on a larger scale was conducted by Steve Loesher, longtime national director of instruction for Indigo Golf Partners (known then as Billy Casper Golf.) A case study of his titled “Gina” tallied the family spending activity supporting one junior golfer who grew up to become a competitive amateur, with the help of her club’s instruction staff, Loesher among them. He tracked her activity on the facility’s POS system and found that the girl’s family had spent approximately $52,000 (inflation-adjusted) over 13 years on her tournaments, lessons, dues, merchandise and F&B expenses.
Eric Eshleman, director of golf at the Country Club of Birmingham in Alabama and the current PGA of America secretary, did his own research in the same vein. His team reviewed the spending patterns of members at his club and found that those who had at least seven touches with the instruction team over the previous year spent 113 percent more on merchandise and cart rentals than the rest of the membership.
With the proliferation of data sets such as these, there’s a growing belief that coaching-based player development is an idea whose time has truly come. Golfer tracking throughout the Invited Clubs network speaks to that company’s leadership in this effort, as obstacles to the use of the POS function to do so have gradually been overcome. Similarly, the PGA of America job listings increasingly show the “player development professional” title in demand.
In general, references to BVGI have shown up with greater frequency industrywide. A data-rich report published this year by the consultancy Gather (“White Paper No. 12: What’s the True Value of Golf Instructors”) is a notable example. BVGI, as a premise and a term of art, is mentioned prominently in the 29-page document.
Likewise, in the March 2025 issue of PGA Magazine, an article on the Coach Performance Review tool that is part of the PGA Coach platform described advice dispensed at the 2025 PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit. It discussed how to “determine the areas that are most important to [the coach’s] facility type, then easily enter data from smartphones or tablets to create a Business Value of Golf Instruction report.” This exercise, the article said, would “show the value of [coaches’] businesses to their stakeholders.”
On a cultural level, the new emphasis on instruction’s business-development potential comes with a management mindset with the tagline, “culture of improvement.” Longtime PGA of America club advisor Mike Aldrich, now working as an independent consultant, presents on the topic often, citing industry data colored by his personal experiences.
Over four years as head instructor at a club in Tennessee, Aldrich sent invitations for coffee and/or a swing assessment to all new members upon their arrival, easing their acclimation. Using multiple means of communication, he would tirelessly celebrate any and all notable successes his students achieved – including such milestones as winning a member-guest flight, breaking a scoring barrier for the first time, earning a college scholarship or shooting their age. Spend-per-golfer and member-retention metrics at that club proved indisputably that the measurable improvement – and the mere fact of being coached and encouraged – brings a significant revenue result.
Years ago, when top managers at high-end private clubs were asked about the value of golf instruction, they might mention how Mr. Smith got a cure for his dangerous case of the shanks. Sophisticated analytics have replaced that sort of thinking. BVGI is proving itself to be a trustworthy management pillar, as its principles and best practices become better and better known. For any general manager, director of golf or course owner, it’s a category worth learning more about.
Lorin Anderson is the founder and president of Proponent Group, a business resource for golf’s dedicated, full-time instructors with the goal of helping these professionals grow their businesses and build their careers. For more information visit proponent-group.com.