Letter From Bryan Nicholson, PGA Director of Golf

With this being my first letter for 2023, I want to take a moment to wish all the members that I have not yet seen, a very Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe, healthy, and energizing holiday season. As we look ahead into this upcoming year, what an exciting time to be a member of the Sahalee community! Fresh on the heels of the electrifying announcement of the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, I’m excited to be working with our Sahalee Board and leadership to continue building our brand as the best of the Northwest!

I’ll begin this month by sharing that I recently returned from Orlando, Florida and the annual PGA Merchandise Show This annual gathering of the industry spans almost 70 years, and I recently did the count and discovered that I’ve attended nearly 20 of these gatherings! (Time flies, doesn’t it?) The Orange County Convention center was robust with vendors and attendees from around the globe My biggest takeaway from the Show, and in conversation with many peers from around the country, is that our game is in a very healthy place. Spurred by the “COVID” effect, our industry experienced record growth, and a renewed enthusiasm for the game we all love. Our challenge as an industry is perpetuating that momentum and taking the game to new heights. While many facilities may not be able to take on more rounds of golf (Sahalee did 46k rounds in 2020) we can certainly continue building the momentum of introducing the game to more people, and focusing on renewed ways to create social experiences that focus on my 3 “F’s” fun, friends, and family!My time in Orlando was spent sourcing vendors for products to improve our operation from the practice tee to the bag drop area and our locker room spaces. Additionally, I spent time putting together some of our fall (July – December) golf shop merchandise plan – and sourced several tournament prizes and gifts. I always come away from the Orlando Show was renewed vigor for the industry I’m passionate about, and 2023 was elevated with an exclamation point!

The start of 2023 will bring some staffing changes to my team that I would like to take a moment to share In January, Assistant Golf Professional Justin Sturdy announced that he had accepted the top Assistant Professional position at Waccabuc CC, an hour outside New York City Justin will be tasked with running the tournament operations and assisting with the junior golf programming at Waccabuc My goal as the Director of Golf is to prepare my team for the challenges and skills to be successful in our industry While it’s bittersweet for all of us when this happens, I am both excited and proud of Justin, as this is a big step in his career as a PGA professional Justin’s final day at Sahalee will be Friday, February 17 I am working on the search to replace Justin, and there will be some big shoes to fill on the tournament operations side

Speaking of searches, I am excited to announce that I recently concluded a lengthy search to identify our next Head Golf Professional of Sahalee. As many of you might recall, Jacob Lippold left our team in early August to pursue outside endeavors away from golf. Since then, I have been working both regionally and nationally to find the best fit for our team and Club culture. I am delighted to announce that Caleb Kraus, Head Golf Professional from The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, checked all of the boxes and will be joining our team as the next Head Golf Professional at Sahalee! A Washington native, and graduate of Washington State University, Caleb has been recognized by the Western Washington Chapter PGA as Golf Professional of the Year on two occasions. Having spent the entirety of his career in the Greater Seattle Area, PNW golf is in the fabric of his DNA. Throughout the process, Caleb excelled in communicating his desire to help build our great team culture and sharing our collective pursuit of building the best of the Northwest for the Sahalee membership I am thrilled to have Caleb as part of our team, and we look forward to his arrival at the end of the month

Our 2023 Golf Event schedule has been released, and I am excited for all the excitement it will bring We also bring back the Sahalee Player’s Championship in September, and I’m excited by the work that our SPC Committee has already undertaken There will be much more to discuss on the SPC, but I really want to thank the leadership of our Golf Committee, led by Chairman Brian Selby, in continuing to pursue participation across the board in all of our club golf events We achieved 75% participation from the membership in at least one golf event in ’22, and we are striving for 80% here in ’23 Overall, our goal as a team working with the Golf Committee is to encourage opportunities for participation in events by offering a wide assortment and balance of golf events that focus on fun, member engagement, promote camaraderie, as well as competition

I am going to throw my golf instructor hat on for a moment and encourage everyone to think about how to improve and play better golf in ’23. One of my personal goals this offseason was to continue my education on understanding the changing evolution of speed in the game of golf. Today’s modern game is focusing on building better athletes at the highest levels. The key is transferring that knowledge and applying it to work with the recreational club golfer. I can share that the teams at the Titleist Performance Institute, and 2020 PGA Teacher of the Year Mark Blackburn have provided me some valuable insight that I’m looking forward to implementing. If you are curious, or committed to making some significant improvement in your game, please come talk with our team. We can help you to enjoy better golf and to play your best. This upcoming year, we will have several group clinic opportunities, and next month I’ll talk about our Sahalee Ravens Junior Golf Program.

I’ll leave you this month by letting the membership know that we are actively working on a comprehensive “Sahalee Golf Guide” that will contain all the information for the new season, including instructional programming, tournament & event calendars, junior golf programming, retail programming, and other exciting pieces of information We will share this with the membership in March!

Here’s to a great 2023 season, and we look forward to serving you!

Fairways and Greens, Bryan