OF THE YEAR JAKE BURLING,PGA WILDERNESS RIDGE CC LINCOLN, NE - Nebraska PGA

A S S I S T A N T
P R O F E S S I O N A L
 O F T H E Y E A R

    JAKE BURLING,PGA
   WILDERNESS RIDGE CC
       LINCOLN, NE

Contents

•   Core Responsibilities
•   Scheduling and Supervising
•   Tournament Operations
•   Merchandising
•   Player Development
•   Additional Responsibilities
•   Supplemental Material

                          ASSISTANT GOLF PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR   2

Dear Special Award Committee Members:
Dear Nebraska PGA Special Awards Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to submit my application for the Nebraska Section PGA’s Assistant Golf
Professional of the Year Award. I appreciate the time commitment necessary from the special awards
committee to review all the member packets and I am excited for the committee to review my
qualifications.
I have been at Wilderness Ridge for the past 10 seasons where I started my journey as an outside service
staff member right out of high school. After a few years I was able to move into the golf shop and increase
my responsibilities. It was at that time that my interest in golf really peaked and ironically was approached
by then Director of Golf Chris Thomson, PGA about a career as a PGA Member. Golf became my passion
and I saw a great opportunity to follow that passion and quickly entered the golf professional training
program. After only two short years I was able to realize my dream and became a PGA member! Since
that time, I have continued to increase my responsibilities at Wilderness Ridge which I have outlined in the
enclosed packet.
I appreciate all the Mentorship over the years form many individuals that have helped me along the way
which makes it truly an honor to submit my qualifications for the prestigious Assistant Golf Professional of
the Year Award.
All the best to the committee,
Jacob Burling, PGA

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Core Responsibilities
• Procuring and operating outside events
• Merchandising, buying product , creating floor displays and promoting product.
• Counting and reporting monthly inventory
• Planning and running member events & leagues
• Helping plan and operate our player development programs.
• Run budget proformas for: Labor, Merchandise sales and rounds of golf
• Lead instructor for our facilities corporate training program “ True Service”
• Operating and managing ,Jonas POS , TEK GPS management, & our members online tee / phone app

In the Fall of 2020 Chris Thomson retired from Wilderness Ridge and with his absence I was asked to take on a fair
portion of his responsibilities.
• Coding & submitting Invoices for payment
• Contracting all outside events and communication with the event
• Hiring staff both outside service and golf shop staff                                                              4

Scheduling and Supervising
Over the past 3 seasons I have overseen the scheduling process and supervising our staff. This includes outside service , golf shop
service and PGM/ PGA Apprentice interns.
This season scheduling was almost back to normal from 2020 and covid staff levels for our golf department . Through December, we
had a budget of $92,000 in hourly wages and have only spent $82,000 while maintaining customer service levels.

What was a great tool for me to keep track of budget, I have a custom built excel sheet that calculates the total hours each schedule
has so I know how many hours each staffer has per week for overtime control, along with total hours scheduled. At the end of this year
our GM has purchased us 7 shifts, so I won’t need to rely on excel any longer. 7 Shifts is an online and phone app-based scheduling
system that has additional features from managing hours, email reminders and full staff emails.

I like to encourage & schedule a few employee team building events during the year where we go out to dinner or do an escape room.
Building some comradery among the staff. This year has been difficult, but we have been able to have some small dinners for our 6 full
time staff members.

Additionally, I am the lead instructor for our corporate all staff customer service training. I train between 75 –125 staff members per
year in our Kemper Sports “ True Service Training” This is our foundational guide to how we treat and service our customers/
members. This is a 2- 3-hour class taught 2 to 3 times per year. It is for all service staff,
Including f&b , course & grounds and golf staff.

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Tournament Operations
I oversee many aspects of our tournament operations. This year was a sharp change operations in becoming a private country club.

In 2019 we had 62 events either outside or member based. In 2020 we were only able to host 23 events, based on covid restrictions.

Fall of 2020 I took over tournament coordination including event set up, check lists, score cards , cart signs , course set up i.e., hole in one prizes
and flag prizes, and overall point of contact.

With covid we have developed and few options for customers to make our events more social distance friendly: Giving out gift cards to
participants to come back for dinner or take out food, in lieu of a banquet dinner. Using the driving range tee or parking lot to space out how we
staged our outings. Expanding the seating for awards and banquets to our deck where people felt more comfortable sitting outside but still part
of the event. We would also deliver lunches on the course, so players could eat in their cart

                                                                Revenue Generated:
Over the past couple seasons, I have been able to bring in a few large outings Including HUDL, Winn water, Junior Achievement , Norris Titan
Twister, NWAGA Fund Day.
In 2020 we were able to bring in a couple new outing as the lock down policies lessened. That helped us generate a little revenue at the end of the
season: Air Force Association & Generous Connections those two events brought in $18,000 in revenue

This year the above events that I brought in generated a little over $50,000 in golf and banquet revenue. Plus, additional beverage sales from the
bar cart and café.
( Junior Achievement , Norris, Nawaga Fund Day AFA, HUDL)

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Tournament Continued
  I can’t take full responsibility for this gain as many people are so important in this aspect of our business. Especially Tami Nagle our Sales Director who
                                                               runs the F&B side of all our outings.

                                                               Total Tournament Revenues
In 2018 - 2019 we had growth of $46,000 in our outing business. In 2019 we did $146,000 in outing revenues, in 2020 we did $96,000 in the half covid year.
This year 2021 we were able to do 170,132 in golf and banquet revenue. This is a 14% growth from 2019. That is the best comparable year.

We are already contracted in 2022 to have $180,504 a 6% growth.

One of our biggest successes is we were able to move all our events to Monday’s and were able to keep about 70% of our prior business, and that let us
minimize member displacement.

Sometimes hosting a golf event for fundraising seems expensive, So I have also built a calculator on excel that I share with our events and show them how
they can raise $6,000-$10,000 by hosting a golf event if they have the time to get sponsors and players. It allows you to input for entry fee and sponsor
money and subtracts out fees owed to the facility. ( Attached at the end of the Slideshow)

This year was amazing for member events. We sold out every event and had a waiting list on most. A few listed below.
Member Guest had 144 players up from 136
Member/Member had 112 players up from 60
Stag Guest days averaged 60 players up from 32

For each member event I am responsible for the sign-up flyer , registration, event creation in golf genius and to finalize the event with scoring and awards.

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Merchandise
Over the past few seasons, I have been heavily involved in the merchandising plan. From Buying to displays and running promotions. In 2020 I was about 80% of total
buying, and in 2021 I am 100% in charge of the merchandise program for the club. I’m lucky to have a great team help me with decision making. Over the past 4 years the
number one thing I have learned is to involve second opinions who are not afraid to tell you what you bought is not good or you should look at this brand.

I began to get more involved in our merchandise and buying program in 2017. Our first year we had a total merchandise sales of $136,416. Over the next few years, we have
raised our total merchandise sales significantly, in 2018 to $170,269 and 2019 $193,000 and 2020, $200,093. This year 2021 we were able to sell $225,300 That is and 11%
growth year over year.
One of our biggest successes to this I signed us up to be the Nebraska hub for PXG fittings. In 2021 this agreement we received 10% of all sales PXG made at our facility and
20% on any referral sales. This added up to be $15,230, which is an additional 7% in merchandise. In our P&L statement it is recognized as other income as it does not have
a cost of goods associated with it. ( included in the above number) This revenue had zero labor cost to it.

In 2020 we had to change some things up. We lost over 1500 event rounds this year and those are worth a minimum of $20,000 in sales, or 10% of our prior year total . We
were able to keep moving forward with many of our covid sales opportunities on top of getting all our outside event business back.

Most importantly I am surrounded by a staff that wants to see Wilderness Ridge succeed. Mike Schuchart , Sarah Pravecek are always encouraging sales , fitting clubs , and
getting our members excited to buy and try new merchandise. They also provide feed back help in buying and finding new ideas for the club to try.

Programs in 2021 that have led to more sales.
-Fit Friday We ran a fit Friday, on select Fridays from April—July My self ,Mike Schuchart & Sarah fitted all the clubs that we have and increased our club sales.

Wilderness Wednesdays ( Member Guest Days where all of the entry fee is paid back in shop credit/ food) We paid back $14,600 in shop credit.

             I purchased some bulk logo items direct from suppliers to help bring down COGS a few percentages points. Ball markers, Divot repair tools, and water bottles.
Ball markers $.70 , Divot repair tools $1.45 , Water Bottles $3.50. This allows for us to keep normal prices on high volume items use them for flag prizes.
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Golf Instruction /
        Player Development
• From the golf instructor side of things, I have had the privilege of helping grow Wilderness Ridges player development
programs to what they are now.
• I have been a part of the planning and creative team for this program for 5 years now and seeing how it has grown &
changed over these past 5 seasons is crazy.

• We have over 250 kids , all different skill levels and ages. This past season we had over $50,000 dollars come through as
player development revenue. And we were able to payout instructors over $25,000 dollars. Great additional income for,
having fun at work and being able to better your self as a teacher.
• I was an integral part of the team that won the 2019 NGCOA national player development award
• My player development responsibilities:
• I Help Teach our: Junior camp, Pee-wee camp, Junior league, Get Golf Ready, Team golf, Girls only program.
• I assist in coaching our team golf team and Junior golf league.
• On the individual lesson side of things, I have given 65 lessons up from my 45 private lessons the prior year
• Teaching has been something I plan to schedule more time for along with my other responsibilities. My goal is to be
able to give 100 lessons while maintaining a work life balance.
• My passion in the golf business is more in operations and merchandising. However, I enjoy being able to make a
difference in somebody's golfing career and helping them achieve their goals.
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Club Technology
• Over the past couples of seasons our Owners have invested heavily in new technology to Wilderness Ridge. Adding Textron GPS to our cart fleet,
  along with adding a new online tee sheet platform through our Point-Of-Sale system Jonas.
• I am responsible for the implementation, Member issues, general upkeep and questions.
• General Overview of what those are:
Textron GPS-
      •   Working with our Course Super making sure that we have all the correct boundaries zoned properly.
      •   Greens, tees, out of bounds, Cart path only special blocks that can be turned on after heavy rains.
      •   Teaching members how to use the system.
      •   Teaching staff how to operate the system for when I am not available to assist
Jonas Tee Sheet & App
     •    Making the monthly tee sheets and blocking them for events and leagues.
     •    Making sure each tee time is linked to the correct sales amount for members, non cart plans, or guests of members so it tracks in our
          rounds counts.
     •    Setting each of our members up with a log in and password.
     •    Teaching our members how the mobile side of it works. Setting up their phones or tablets if needed.
     •    I have been able to get just over 90% of our tee times made to be made on our app or on our website. That has been good in two
          aspects. It drives volume to our website so our members see other events that we might be putting on, like wine dinners or live music.
          Also, our phone rings significantly less allowing my golf staff to better help our customers in the golf shop.
     •    Currently working with our marketing staff, to create a new website hosted by Jonas

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Additional Responsibilities
This year I have been fortunate in being put in a place to help with the budgeting process. Our GM has asked me to be more involved in this process planning when
expenses will hit the golf department. Open to buy Merchandise, Range Balls, GHIN, Score cards. As well as estimating revenues for certain golf line items.

Things my GM has had me do in this process:
•   Create a month-by-month labor budget proforma that gives an hourly breakdown of dollars spend in each month.
•   Design a spread sheet that gives a month by month break down of rounds played by each category . i.e., Tournament rounds, member rounds, league rounds.
•   A breakdown of anticipated lesson revenue for all professionals for 2022
•   A breakdown of anticipated merchandise sales for 2022
•   I assist with membership sales, for the past 3 seasons I have split membership sales 50/50 with Chris Thomson, and now I assist our membership director Tami
    Nagle with membership leads and signing up new members.

•   Section Volunteer Service
•   In 2021 I was able to participate on the Education Committee with Greg Gilg . It was a great introduction into starting to become more involved with the section
    and assist in finding way to help fellow PGA professionals.
•   Assist in the operation of the Stage 1 PGA Tour Qualifier, Evac carts, roping off the driving range, water coolers, filling range balls.

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Rounds Report

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Outside Event Calculator

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2/1/20XX   PRESENTATION TITLE   14

FLYERS AND REGISTRATION

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THANK
 YOU

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