| This past decade there has been an enormous surge in popularity of the game of golf. The number of participants is increasing, new courses, practice facilities and teaching academies are being developed, and there have been numerous technological advances. As a result of this growth and expansion, there is a need for future golf professionals to be prepared with the latest knowledge and competencies to meet the demands of both the consumer and the golf industry.; To meet these needs, the Professional Golf Association of America (PGA) has developed a certification program for colleges and universities that is referred to as a Professional Golf Management (PGM) program. This college degree program is designed to attract and educate highly motivated young men and women to service all aspects of the golf industry. Only a select number of colleges/universities have been certified to offer this program that integrates all of the curricular requirements of a business, hospitality, or recreation major with the PGA's Golf Professional Training Program, plus intensive co-operative education/internship experiences.; Kent State University currently does not have a PGM program of study, however, it does have nationally ranked men's and women's golf teams, a prestigious Carnegie Foundation Research University II designation, over 33,000 students, and is located within a 30-mile radius of 130 golf courses. For these reasons, Kent State University is in an ideal situation to develop a new program in professional golf management.; The purpose of this study was to create an undergraduate curriculum in professional golf management for Kent State University. This program is designed to help increase the number of professionals trained to meet the demands of the expanding golf industry, particularly in northeast Ohio. Input was sought from golf professionals throughout the nation to help determine the importance of the inclusion of specific curriculum items and golf related competencies in a PGM program. The subjects were PGA professionals and PGM directors who responded to a questionnaire using a five point Likert scale to indicate the importance and strength of agreement or disagreement with the chosen item.; The statistical information was described using percentages, frequency distributions, and means through the use of SPSS 11.0 for Windows. The characteristics that were shown to be statistically significant by the subjects were then compared with current class listings at Kent State University. Courses with descriptions or objectives containing, or similar to, the selected characteristics were considered for inclusion in the PGM program. New classes were developed for those characteristics not related, or similar to, any current class offering. All of these classes were used to construct the undergraduate PGM curriculum for Kent State University. |
