A new face will be behind the counter at the Dauphin Lake Golf Club (DLGC) pro shop, this season.
Shawn Woods is the new general manager and golf professional at the local golf course, replacing Ray Karlson, who retired at the end of last year.
Woods spent 12 years at the Neepawa golf course until 2010, when he went to Poplar Ridge at Onanole.
“And then a couple of years at Kenosee and after that, I’ve been on the road as a sales rep for many golf companies,” he added.
Woods decided to make the move to Dauphin Lake when the opportunity arose.
“It’s been a while since the shop or ran a golf course, so I thought it was a good chance to get back into it in my later years,” he said, adding he missed interacting with club members. “I’ve always been in sales relatively my whole life, since I was about 12. So it looked like a good opportunity. It’s not too far from home where I can have that job and still reside where I do.”
While it has been a few years since he has been in a shop, Woods expects the challenges of running a golf course will be the same as when he last did it.
“Building your membership. Keeping your membership. Weather is always an indicator of the year, sometimes. I think keeping momentum going for golf in general. The pandemic was hard on everybody, as we know. On the other side of that, it was probably one of the greatest things for golf,” Woods said.
“So keeping that growth of golf that happened during that time to continue. I think everybody in the business realizes that it’s going to level off and I think it has leveled off a little bit. But it’s maintaining the people that did come to golf during that time and, hopefully, building on that and building on new relationships in the game.”
Woods feels there are some untapped markets available to golf courses, such as junior golf, as well as ladies golf.
“I think that’s gotten so much better, but I think we still have a long ways to go,” he said. “I think as it was before, just making people realize that golf is open to everybody. It’s a lifetime sport. You may think it’s silly before you play it, but once you play it, it’s a very addictive and challenging sport like no other, probably.”
At this point, Woods said it is too early to tell what changes may be made. One thing Woods brings to DLGC is that of a golf professional, which the club hasn’t had for a number of years.
“So there will be a better avenue for them learning the game, I would guess. I love to teach the game, so as far as private lessons or group lessons are way more available to them,” he said, adding one change to the pro shop is it will offer more in the way of equipment. “We’ll be carrying all the name brands. So now they don’t have to go to Golf Town to shop,” he said.
“That’s probably one of my biggest goals is to make sure that people give us a chance at the course to serve all their golfing needs and equipment needs and realize that we can get anything that the big stores can get.”
With this being his first year at DLGC, there will be a learning curve as he learns about the members and their needs, as well as the general public.
Woods has been doing some renovations at the pro shop, but it will be open starting Monday from noon to 5 p.m., on most days for anyone wishing to purchase a membership.
“I’ve had lots of people show up, even in my mess of renovations, just to say hi and pay their memberships. It’s always nice to meet people that are as eager as you to get to know some people already. It’s important,” he said.
At this point, it is hard to gauge when the course will be open for business. Woods doesn’t anticipate being open until the first week of May.
“There has to be a lot of melting and then there’s always cleanup and getting things ready. So I would think we’re likely looking at May sometime,” he said.
