State of the ICG (July 2016)
Newsletter Articles

Technically not a newsletter, but a comprehensive review of where the organization is moving (July 2016)

Message from the President (July 2016).

The Mission of the ICG.

Paraphrasing the ICG Mission Statement, our raison d'être is to increase the skills of our profession and to promote our craft and our membership to the public internationally. 

 How are we doing?  Pretty well I think.  Here’s some recent news and what’s in the pipeline for our membership:

I). Professional Education and Opportunities.

1) Chapter meetings continue to be a profound source of growing membership numbers and professional development. The Spain Chapter of the ICG held their first meeting in mid-July. You can read the meeting summary (in both Spanish and English) and watch video highlights here.  Members can watch the seven workshops/seminars in the ICG Resource Library.

The Europe Chapter of the ICG will hold its second annual meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in St. Andrews, UK, from September 9 to 11. You can register here. ICG Europe VP Gerald Friz, has a great schedule of workshops (scheduled presenters include Accra Golf, PXG, Tour Edge, Russ Ryden on Shaft Profiling, various members on Business Models, and many others) planned, and yes, there will be optional golf too! Members from the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, and the USA have committed to attend. I hope you can join us in what will be very educational and fun event at the Home of Golf.

2) Translation of Certification Exams.  One reason that the Spain meeting was so successful (12 of 28 attendees signed up for the Chapter Special) is that entire ICG test bank has been translated into Spanish (thank you ICG VP Spain Agustin Sanchez!). The BOD this week authorized the translation of the test bank into Korean and Mandarin. These tests should be available in 4-5 months and will be announced at the 2017 PGA Show. With the availability of these certifications, ICG VP Asia Eric Ng will hold our first Asia Chapter of the ICG meeting in conjunction with the European Tour HSBC event mid-winter 2017.

3) ICG VP USA Frank Viola continues to produce outstanding webinars (which are recorded and close captioned) and can be viewed here.  Frank has started an exciting new Clubmaker video tips series and has already produced hours of ground breaking videos. Interested in learning more about making custom collared ferrules, making a threaded bore plug with patched screw, and hot melting like the tour vans do? Then view Frank's first close captioned 45+ minute video. We encourage all members to submit club making and clubfitting video tips as we continue to expand our ICG Resource Library.

A great source of information is our members' club making and Clubfitting practicals. Several have recently been posted in our Resource Library section. Outstanding clubfitting practicals are serving as the basis of new Fitting Case Study questions for the online part of our Fitting Certification Exams. Combined with new Webinar questions, we're working to keep continuing education and professional development a fresh and ongoing process.

4) Launch Monitor Course. Besides serving as ICG VP Europe, running the 2016 Europe Chapter meeting and our web site, Gerald Friz has volunteered to serve as Project Manager for our Launch Monitor Course Task Force. ICG VP Canada Don Irving, Eric Ng, Leith Anderson, myself and others will help Gerald create an online course on how to use a launch monitor for clubfitting. As anyone who has attended a Flightscope or TrackMan LM course knows, 95% of the course material is geared towards the teaching professional. The ICG will first develop a Flightscope Clubfitting course (initial Task Force meeting will be in St. Andrews) that will be ready by the 2017 PGA Show. This course will then serve as an outline for a Trackman course, and then a Foresight course. Courses for other launch monitors may be developed as they become available and popular.

5) 2017 Clubmaker of the Year (COY) Awards. Members are already submitting their COY surveys. You can submit your application here. All entrants must be certified by October 15, 2016 to be eligible for reaching the 2nd round (Video Essay) of the process. You can view the videos of the 2016 COYs in the ICG Resource Library.

Why enter the COY? The COY process is first of all a self-examination of where you are professionally. And to quote  2016 ICG North America COY Greg Courtnay's  acceptance speech, "You will learn a lot by applying". Participating in the COY will benefit both your business (see as an example Peter Doyle's case here) and promote the ICG.

II). Marketing and promotional opportunities.

1) Proponent Group Sponsorship. The BOD has approved renewing our sponsorship of the preeminent group of teachers as a ways to continue bridging our relationship and status with golf's top teaching professionals.

2) GolfMDs. Gerald has added the GolfMDs link to our directory menu. All certified members have a listing, and can edit their profile settings. I updated mine this morning. Here's what you do. First log into www.golfmds.com with your ICG email address.  Click on "Forgot password" and you'll receive a link to create your GolfMDs password. You can then edit your profile settings to upload a picture, edit your bio summary, add videos, and so on.  North American members can upgrade their account ($350/year) to enable an online appointment calendar and to take online bookings (with payments!). GolfMDs will also shoot and edit 2 minutes of video annually for premium members. See how easy it is to set up your account by viewing my GolfMDs profile.

GolfMDs is basically a search engine for golfers who are looking for resources (instruction, fitness, nutrition, equipment...) to help them improve their games. It is another way for customers to find you. It also acts as a mini web site which is a great benefit for our members who don't have them. GolfMDs has recognized the ICG as the golf equipment experts. Establish your expertise in the industry by submitting videos to be included in the GolfMDs library. They want content from us. This is a great way to promote your business, the ICG, and clubfitting/clubmaking with golfers internationally.

3) Professional Public Relations. The BOD has hired Sally J. Sportsman to run our public relations.  Sally has a communications background and extensive experience in promoting her golf industry clients in TV, Radio, and Print publications. She will work hard to help us achieve awareness of the ICG by the golf industry and golfing public.

4) Don Irving has secured best column pricing from Golfworks Canada for our Canadian members; The ICG will provide all Canadian Clubmakers and members an ICG Special in support of Golfworks' promotion. Look for the Canada special (expires August 31st) soon.

Please let me know if you have an idea on how to help us keep achieving our mission statement. Continuously raising our standards and generating world wide awareness is the key to our success. I believe this is true for us as individual clubmakers/fitters and collectively as an organization. The ICG will continue to invest in our mission. Our best days lie ahead.

We are the ICG,

Jacques Intriere

ICG President

[email protected]