When Geoff Lofstead was pursuing a graduate degree in sports administration at West Virginia University in the mid-1990s, it required him to do an internship.
Lofstead wanted to work in golf but he wasn’t sure where and in 1996 he found an internship at the South Florida PGA section, checking a box for his degree while getting hands-on experience in the business side of the game.
Nearly 30 years later, Lofstead is the executive director of the South Florida PGA, the second-largest section in the country with approximately 2,100 members working in a golf-rich area.
It’s a long way from Lofstead’s early post-college days working as one of three employees with the Iowa PGA section, where he learned quickly that “you did it all or it didn’t get done.”
Lofstead now supervises a staff of 13 full-time employees, plus interns, more than twice the number of employees there were when he became executive director in late 2008, in a region where golf is a year-round calling.
“It’s been interesting how the business has changed here. When I started, there was quite a bit of an off-season,” Lofstead said. “It has evolved into a year-round model with big growth in our foundation. We used to host six junior tournaments a year and now we put on 80.”
Each of the PGA of America’s 41 sections has its own characteristics, and the South Florida section is among the most robust. It is home to many ultra-exclusive clubs while also serving a thriving daily-fee audience.
Lofstead said approximately 75 percent of the courses within the section are private, with a large percentage of those being high-end private clubs. With the section based in West Palm Beach, it’s in the middle of some of the wealthiest areas in the country where golf is an integral part of the lifestyle.
In parts of the section, access to daily-fee courses is limited and the cost of real estate in the region hasn’t helped.
“Definitely in south Florida, land is so valuable it’s hard to make the numbers work [for a public-access course],” Lofstead said. “Over time, the majority of the courses we’ve lost, the land has become so valuable they could redevelop it.”
One exception is the Park, a public course where the South Florida section’s office is located. Considered one of the finest public courses in the United States, the layout was renovated by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner after benefactors underwrote the project with the goal of providing top-level golf for everyone.
“We were involved from the beginning,” Lofstead said.
It focuses on junior golfers, offering $20 green fees for West Palm Beach juniors at a course that last year hosted a prime-time skins game with Rory McIlroy, Lexi Thompson, Max Homa and Rose Zhang.
Within the section, the South Florida PGA Foundation – created nearly 20 years ago by PGA professionals Tom Wildenhaus and Kevin Murphy – has grown into a driving force for youth golf.
“We’ve had enormous growth in our charitable foundation over the last 15 years and junior golf is a cornerstone of that,” Lofstead said.
“You can’t overstate the impact. We like to say our foundation changes lives. (The PGA Hope) program actually saves lives. We know because they tell us.” — Geoff Lofstead
“We’ll sell events out in seconds, certainly in minutes. That’s good and bad. It indicates the demands but it’s bad because we created our junior program 26 years ago to create affordable, first-class playing opportunities for kids close to home.”
With high-end golf developments still going strong in south Florida, Lofstead said the section has adapted to deal with the growth and has been able to make its own contributions.
“The programs for the community are growing and people want to support them. We have had a partnership with Habitat for Humanity since 2010 and our goal is to build a house and pay for it in every county [there are 13] in our section. We have two more to go and that includes one in Puerto Rico.”
The PGA Hope program, focused on veterans, is in its 10th year and Lofstead has heard the firsthand stories of its impact.
“You can’t overstate the impact,” he said. “We like to say our foundation changes lives. That program actually saves lives. We know because they tell us.”
Professionals from the section regularly visit six children’s hospitals in the area with the goal of getting the youngsters outside to introduce them to the game and provide a break from their routines.
While golf is thriving, the section has been affected by changes in the PGA Tour’s structure. Because field sizes are being reduced, pre-qualifiers and Monday qualifiers are being eliminated for three events with south Florida ties, the Cognizant Classic, the Puerto Rico Open and Corales Puntacana Championship, Lofstead said.
It will cost the section 11 days of revenue and exposure that had been a valuable benefit.
“The qualifiers are a revenue source for the sections. They allow all PGA sections that host them to fund some of their other programs and maybe grow the game a little bit or service the membership,” Lofstead said.
“It’s doing something we know how to do and we’re decent at doing. I have watched over the last few years some things changed then changed again. There is always the opportunity that something else could change.”