Bob Seganti, PGA Director of Golf at True Blue Golf Club and Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, shared his thoughts on Promoting Social Responsibility that were published in PGAMagazine.com’s “PGA Professionals’ Best Practices: Travel” on April 4, 2019.
This has now been recognized by PGAMagazine.com as one of its Five Award-Winning Travel Best Practices Sponsored by Yamaha.
Bob Seganti on the importance of promoting social responsibility:
During these days of competition in our industry, and PGA Professionals striving to grow the game while growing their businesses, it is also important to consider what we can do for the communities in which we live and work, and the environment as a whole. At True Blue Golf Club and Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, we use social media to promote our events and amenities, while working towards making the world a better place via various social responsibility efforts. For instance, our two restaurants, the Caledonia Golf & Fish Club Grillroom and the True Blue Golf Club Grillroom, are the only two golf course restaurants in South Carolina certified as ocean-friendly by the Surf Riders Foundation, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves, and beaches. Some of the ways we have “gone green” include eliminating Styrofoam, plastic bags and plastic straws, installing special LED lighting that is extremely energy efficient, greatly reducing the use of plastic products, and providing recycling containers throughout our properties, while providing our team members with reusable containers that they can use to stay hydrated with free water, coffee, tea, or soft drinks during their shift. We were honored to attain our ocean-friendly initiative certification in October of 2018, just about six weeks after initiating steps to rid our clubs of these wasteful products and energy-expending lighting. Being able to tout this recognition has provided additional themes and topics to highlight on social media. With over 60,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, our message goes beyond just golf and the great experience golfers enjoy every day playing our courses. Because of our Green initiative, we are able to stand out among our competition and shine a spotlight on our social responsibility.
Bob Seganti on the business impact of promoting social responsibility:
These efforts to conduct our business with the betterment of the environment in mind has become a huge team-building effort. When a team works every day with a common mission and clear goals, success becomes increasingly possible and ultimately probable. One trend that manifested from these social responsibility efforts was the new and unexpected collaborative opportunities that presented themselves. For instance, our facilities are sponsoring an art exhibit at the Art Museum of Myrtle Beach this summer that will focus on the ocean. Because of that sponsorship we are developing a working relationship between us and the museum. Since that relationship started, we are in the process of booking our facilities to host various fundraisers and outside catering events that will boost our food & beverage revenues and bring a new group of potential members or golfing customers through our doors. As with so many aspects of our business, the relationships that have come from our green efforts have provided increased revenues, a new and different client demographic, and a team that is closer and more focused on our common goals. This success is an effect of being proactive. In fact, we have had our own mobile app for more than five years, offered the use of GolfBoards before anyone else in our area, and put USB chargers on our golf cars when others were restricting cell phones from their courses. Taking the initiative in an array of areas has become our modus operandi to achieving our goalT