Management competencies of golf course directors

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was: (1) to identify differences in response toward the importance of management competencies among golf course directors who held PGA membership in diverse regions of the United States; (2) to identify the differences in the perceived importance of management competencies among PGA golf professionals in disparate types of golf courses (private, semiprivate, and public) in the United States; (3) to determine if there was consistency among PGA golf professionals as to preferred competencies for golf course directors; and (4) to discover the importance of needed competencies identified in the PGA professionals' analysis for golf course directors in private, semi-private, and public golf courses in the United States.

Findings and Conclusions: The perceived importance of the management competencies among PGA golf directors at disparate types of golf courses in diverse regions was tested using the Competencies of Golf Course Directors (CGCD) instrument. Statistical analyses indicated that the importance of preferred management competencies differed among golf course directors in diverse golf environments. Some differences were shown to exist between golf course directors in diverse regions and in disparate types of golf courses. Therefore, there was little consistency in the perceived importance of each competency among golf course directors. Competency factors identified by golf course directors indicated the presence of a 2-factor competency model, which consisted of 76 observed competencies including (1) Golf Operations and (2) Client Care Development. Overall response rate for this study was low (10.3 percent) compared to other online surveys. However, the CGCD explained 36.5 percent of variance in the response group.