Meet the manager and the PGA pro

Paul Thomas has been an exemplary head professional at Newport Golf Club for almost a decade. The recipient of Foremost’s Member of the Year Award in 2023, Paul Thomas sat down alongside Newport Golf Club manager, Rhys Morgan, to talk about the facilities at Newport Golf Academy and the community he has helped to build at the golf club.

What makes a good relationship between club and pro? Does it work best when the pro and club’s ambitions are fully aligned?

Paul Thomas (PT): In all the years I’ve been in this industry, I’ve been fortunate to work at various places. I did my initial training at Royal Porthcawl, a world-class venue. The key lesson I took away is that these institutions function brilliantly because of the team and the people involved. They are nothing without our members and customers, but also their functionality is diminished without the right people in place.

Since I began here, we have completed eight or nine projects successfully, projects that I pitched in my initial interview. I’m very proud of my team for that, but it is made possible due to open communication between club and pro. More than anything, I think this taps into collaboration with the department heads and the board and the unity of operations here, all of which are an absolute must.

Paul Thomas (left) and Rhys Morgan

I always go back to the TEAM acronym, Together Everyone Achieves More. I’ve been able to grow alongside my team, and I’m now much better at delegating due to the fact that we’ve trained up a team I trust implicitly to deliver standards and service.

You can only achieve this by leading by example. I wouldn’t ask my staff to do something I’m not willing to do myself. This instils good standards and creates a strong first impression. We have a culture where everyone tries to get better and isn’t afraid of making mistakes.

Some of these things might seem cliché, but my philosophy is to keep investing in people. Managing a team is about creating a culture that grows and prospers.

I think Richard Branson once said, “Train your staff well enough that they could leave but treat them well enough that they don’t want to leave.” That always resonates with me.

How is the team set up around you, and what’s the dynamic there?

PT: Everything comes back to how we employ people. I hire based on the person, not just the qualifications. I can train everything else. For example, my head assistant Scott is honest, hardworking, loyal and open to new ideas. He’s been with me for my entire tenure, eight years. Losing him would be a massive blow to the club and my business.

When someone requests a lesson with Scott, I’m proud because I trained him. It’s also important that my team can come to me with any work-related or personal issues and have a conversation.
Sam adds value in the golf operations department. Sam started from a government initiative and has become very good at delivering the front end. The members love him because he’s honest and gives his all.

Rhys Morgan (RM): I noticed immediately how collective and together everyone was as a team, particularly our heads of department. Our heads of department have strong relationships and are aligned in their thinking in terms of driving the club forward. This alignment with the board’s vision is crucial. We’re all trying to improve the facilities, culture and overall club experience for members and visitors.

Why is a pro important to the health of a golf club?

RM: The head pro and the pro shop are the most integral parts of a golf club. Every member passes through the shop regularly and this makes it a community focal point. We are fortunate to have a great team in the pro shop because Paul has developed a strong culture there. If staff aren’t looked after, they won’t go the extra mile, but our team consistently goes above and beyond, so it’s an absolutely crucial position.

One of the most important aspects of the head pro role that Paul has nailed is the relationship with the membership. Our members love Paul, Scott and Sam because of the level of service they provide. If clubs get that wrong, it can be detrimental to the running of the club and the happiness of the membership. Fortunately, we have got it right here.

Paul, can you talk to us about the Newport Golf Academy and why it is set up with the club’s name and not your own?

PT: This has been a project I’ve led from start to finish but again, once the club realised there was potential to retain more members by allowing play throughout the year, we really picked up momentum. It’s an old golf course, which will stand the test of time, it’s a fantastic layout and it will always be a great piece of property. However, with the inclement weather we get here it was essential to implement some sort of continuity for young people.

When I arrived at the club, the board was very pro-investment and wanted to provide the best experience for the members, they whole-heartedly embraced my suggestions to enhance 12-month coaching and delivery. The land is on the club’s property so I had no qualms as to name the academy after Newport Golf Club, and we built the best possible facility we could, something we’re all proud of. I invested about £25,000 in TrackMan equipment and coaching kit to fit out the studios. It was a shared vision with the club, but I needed to show my commitment by investing personally.

Do you feel that in general it keeps your members more connected to the club through the winter?

PT: The facility undoubtedly helps with the whole retention and engagement of customers. A hundred percent. The more often you can see your members, the better for engagement and retention. Since Covid, we’re seeing a levelling out of the golf boom we experienced, so retaining members is more important than ever. My view for staff and customers has always been that retaining is far easier than recruiting.

When potential new members see the facility, they’re really impressed. We engage a lot of people in coaching, including members and non-members from 20, 30 miles away. This creates an extremely positive first impression and helps with member retention.

We’re currently discussing initiatives to engage some of our less active members and ensure they feel connected to the club, so we will be making a phone call to those guys and seeing how we can enhance their experience.

We used to struggle to coach juniors for 12 months of the year, due to weather. I went to the club and explained, we’re missing a huge opportunity because juniors are the future of our golf club, and we were losing them to other sports. The academy allows us to keep developing these players year-round, which is crucial for their growth.

What benefits do Foremost provide in terms of allowing you to run the pro shop and academy?

PT: Foremost Golf give me comprehensive support from start to finish across my business from buying but also crucially more than any other group right the way through to selling and promoting our proposition to our customers.

The group’s integrated Elite Marketing Programme (EMP) is first class and provides a 360-degree retail marketing solution which helps us to communicate with our members and customers digitally, especially useful during a wet winter to help engage with golfers when traffic flow drops. The programme provides marketing right through to the shop, promoting exciting new product launches and exclusive high margin retail campaigns.

We even have a personal EMP marketing editor (Thomas) who assists with our digital marketing, newsletter, social media and communication of club news, member events, course and competition updates.

The Foremost group also offer an ‘Online Lesson Booking’ system linked in with our EMP digital marketing which helps us manage our academy coaching and fitting appointments. It’s easier for us to manage our business but most of all, it’s better for our customers and, like everything Foremost do, it saves us time, so that we can get on and coach, fit and spend time with our members and customers.

We also use Foremost’s exclusive ‘Central Payment & Invoicing’ system, which is another stand out service for us. It’s like ‘Quikbooks’, where we have a Foremost account manager that looks after us and saves me half a day a week in admin so we can spend time with customers in our academy or members in-shop.

I mustn’t forget David Murch. Dave is the Foremost business development consultant for my region and visits me in-store to cover everything business related and to share ideas and opportunities to help keep driving my business forward.

Your proactive nature has clearly led to consistent improvement at Newport. Where does this drive come from?

PT: I’m not someone who shouts from the rooftops, but I believe in improving and empowering people to become the best versions of themselves. You spend too much time at work to be unhappy, so we strive to do our best every day, a clear philosophy I’ve had throughout my career. The three pillars really have been consistent and open communication, collaboration with the rest of my team and a shared vision into the community we have here at Newport. My early years working at Royal Porthcawl taught me that engagement is crucial, and I’ve continued working on that throughout my tenure here. If I can make someone’s day a little better, make progress in one small area each day, then we’ve achieved our goal.

RM: Paul is humble and won’t blow his own trumpet, but the club is very fortunate to have him. We recently renegotiated his contract, and the board accepted all his proposals without hesitation. This shows how much the club values him and his vision for the future, they know how much good work he has done.

Does that recent renewal give you the confidence to invest in things long term?

PT: Yes, it shows a massive amount of commitment to what we’re trying to achieve, it shows that the team and I are well thought-of. It also allows us to push forward with investments. The strong relationship with the club is vital – the fact that we’re on the same page. The club will benefit tenfold from the agreed plans, as we’re going to be actively bringing in new members, going into schools to offer coaching for juniors and also growing my team. I tutor and assess for the PGA at Level 1. It’s great to see the new breed of PGA trainees coming through their training. I’m planning on employing another PGA assistant, which will allow me to distribute my workload better, expand my team and bring new opportunities but most importantly, provide greater output for the members of Newport Golf Club and that’s what it’s all about.

What does the future hold for the team at Newport?

PT: The club constructed the academy building in 2019 which comprised of four undercover hitting bays and two swing studios. One studio was fully fitted and operational, we plan to fit out the second studio in 2025 which will be a putting studio and simulator room. There’s still a lot to achieve but again, the club are fully committed to the investment because they’ve seen how productive the facility has made us.

When I started here, we had between five and 10 active juniors. We now get almost 40 juniors every Monday night for three hours coaching. We’ve got almost 100 junior members in total, 60 to 70 of whom are actively engaged all the time weekly, which is fantastic, they’re the future aren’t they?