Hawaii Golf Conference

On Thursday, September 5, 2019 the Aloha Section PGA Foundation held the 2019 Hawaii Golf Industry Conference – “The business of the game” at the Kahala Resort and Hotel.

Since 1998, prominent industry leaders have gathered to speak about national and global trends that are currently impacting the game of golf. This past year’s conference focused on our latest Economic Impact Study for the golf industry. It was the third report delivered to the industry since the inception of the conference.

We were excited to have Seth Waugh (Chief Executive Officer) from the PGA of America join us as one of our special guests. Waugh, the former CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, joined the PGA of America in September 2018 and now guides the business and overall strategy of one of the world’s largest sports organizations, serving the Association’s nearly 29,000 PGA Professionals.

Locally, our islands rely on the best marketing strategies when it comes to leisure travel, corporate meetings, and incentive trips. The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) Chief Executive Officer John Monahan shared how HVCB’s professionals on each island focus on promoting “Hawaii’s Avid Traveler” to the U.S. Mainland.

We were also fortunate to partner with PGA Magazine this year whose expertise in travel brought together a panel of industry Executive Directors as well as PGA Professionals from major west coast markets; Brian Folino (President – PGA Magazine), Kevin Heaney (Southern California Golf Association), Troy Andrew (Pacific Northwest Golf Association), Shawn Cox, PGA (Grand Del Mar Golf Club) and David Engram, PGA (Mirabel Golf Club). These experts identified key points to keeping Hawaii an attractive market for the “Traveling Game”.

Efficacy of environmental golf course design and architecture is what Jason Straka M.P.S. does best as Principal for Fry/Straka Global Golf Design. An environmental industry leader, Jason shared how he integrates both functionality and aesthetics into the surrounding environment during his talk about “The Shape of Success”.

The event continues to include multiple opportunities to network with industry leaders, stakeholders, and supporters of the game. During the discussion, we hope to identify major issues and challenges facing the golf industry as we focus our outlook on the future of business and leisure travel.

Year after year, this conference’s success has relied heavily on our sponsors. This conference is a great opportunity to bring together our market partners that are impacted by the success of the industry throughout Hawaii. These market partners include stakeholders from the hotel and hospitality, visitor and tourism, real estate development, resort development, transportation, public relations, and advertising industries.

On behalf of the Aloha Section PGA Foundation, we appreciate your consideration. We humbly ask for your support to further the mission of the conference, which is to develop collaborative solutions and action plans utilizing collective industry resources to both sustain and grow the game of golf.