SCC’s First Trip to The PGA Show and NGCOAs Golf Business Conference 2025!
It was an exciting week ramping up my efforts to build the Scratch Counseling and Consulting network. Just two months ago, I decided to move forward with offering behavioral health services to the golf industry. Since then, I’ve had opportunities to speak with the industry’s leading voices and influencers. The journey certainly continued as I took a quick but gratifying trip down to Orlando, Florida, for the Golf Business Conference 2025. I was honored to be the only one representing the social work profession at the event!
The networking was important, but the education and insight into growth were impressive. I learned how an industry steeped in tradition, dogmatic rules, and social norms is working to reform, grow, and expand its offerings to younger, more progressive generations. This is a game that was never considered to be a sport for the masses, but the business—having experienced exponential growth in the past four years—is primed to expand its services to attract people seeking different golf experiences.
I didn’t expect to come away with so many ideas about how social work and behavioral health services fit into this new and progressive movement of growth. Not only are golf course owners looking to improve efficiency and service with technology, but they are also striving to make golf more accessible for everyone to enjoy. However, looking through the lens of employee mental health, I see some challenges with the imminent growth of the game.
The industry is still experiencing employment shortages, and the country remains in the grips of a mental health and substance use crisis. The two are likely not mutually exclusive. The golf industry seems to be riding a high following its recent popularity boom, with everyone working to capitalize on the sudden surge of interest in the sport. However, one pressing issue was still at the forefront of my mind: How can professionals who are spread thin and under immense pressure to perform and provide exceptional hospitality services continue to do so without appropriate staff support? The revenue projections are intoxicating, but without support, these teams are going to burn out.
It’s a perfect example of the challenges of capitalizing on demand when the infrastructure or scaffolding cannot support it. It’s as if the golf industry is trying to build a modern, 100-story, green-building skyscraper with a five-star rooftop restaurant—but forgetting to lay a concrete foundation. Instead, they are building on sand. The stability of the workforce, regardless of talent and expertise, is at risk due to workplace stress and burnout.
There are plenty of professionals working alongside golf industry staff to support this growth—consultants, coaches, and researchers all helping leaders improve staff productivity and enhance customers’ enjoyment of the game. However, I repeat: I was the lone behavioral health professional at the event. It’s going to take time, education, and faith for these industry leaders to prioritize their staff’s mental health needs and recognize that performance issues are often behavioral issues. Motivation and attitude are psychological constructs that may sometimes require mental health treatment to address.
As the stigma around mental health services decreases, the fact that I was even present at a golf industry event is promising, to say the least. Each owner, operator, executive director, or club manager I spoke with expressed interest, excitement, and hope for the services I was proposing for their organizations. More importantly, almost everyone I spoke with had a personal story about how mental health or substance use had impacted their lives. I was grateful to connect and share my story with so many, and I gained a new respect for the leaders who have mastered their craft in developing golf into such a multidimensional industry.
