Pitch
An interview with Elliot Godfrey PGA, co-founder and CEO, Pitch originally published in Golf Business Quarterly.
About: Pitch, positions itself as a modern golf club, providing members 17 bays across two sites. Pitch's offering ranges from the provision of lessons to hosting social events
What is your history with the game of golf and the journey that led you to creating Pitch?
I played golf as a junior for England and golf was a big part of my life, but I got to a certain age and fell out of love with it.
I won't name the course, but I played in the Boys' Amateur and my mum wasn't allowed in the clubhouse. For a good few years, I didn't hit a golf ball. I'd moved on to other things when a friend of mine, another PGA pro, came back from coaching in Austria and we went to an indoor golf venue. It felt dated and we saw an opportunity to create something more social, more modern and progressive. That was the beginning of Pitch.
Do you feel a responsibility to use what you've created at Pitch to drive a wider participation in golf?
I'm a bit of a golf purist and we started Pitch to show golf in a different light. I think we've done a good job of that and I do want to help increase participation – I want more people to play golf, I want more people to join golf clubs.
People can practise with us in the week and play a round at their club at the weekend. This is not an 'us versus them' scenario – it should be collaborative. Ultimately, I'd love for Pitch to have a positive benefit on the game and actually get more people playing this wonderful sport.
Do facilities like Pitch and other non-traditional settings help make the transition into the green-grass easier, or are those environments too far removed from each other?
I think there is a difference sometimes between the progressive and forward-thinking environment that we provide and what people may encounter at a golf club. Our ethos is geared towards practical golf in a convenient place; you can socialise, have cocktails, listen to good music. The next step is to get people onto the golf course playing golf, so we do see ourselves as a facilitator.
How do you bridge the gap between golf in the setting you've described and getting people out on the course if perhaps they are reluctant to make that switch?
We see ourselves as a brand that tries to get people onto the course. To that end, we have an affiliation with Mashie and members get a unique portal where they can access virtually all the best golf courses in the UK at a heavily-discounted rate. That's creating a journey that starts at Pitch, where people may come in and not have clubs or have the clothes they'd need for a traditional setting, and once they get to a certain standard they have the option to go and pick a course off the app and go and play golf. I think that's a truly modern golf club, which is what we call ourselves.
What barriers need to be broken down in order to get more people into golf?
I think the number one thing from a beginner's perspective is how expensive clubs are – and people don't know what they should be buying. At Pitch, people come here and we provide brand new sets of clubs, so that barrier doesn't exist for us. Another factor is how hard the game is and the chasm between hitting balls at the range and then going to a full golf course, with par fives and long par fours. That vast gap is extremely problematic. I think more pitch and putt golf courses would be a really good start, that's how I learned to play.
Finally, it's time-consuming. For a return trip to a course to play a round, you could be talking six or seven hours – people often don't have that kind of time. At Pitch,y ou can come for an hour and there's no carting your clubs around or worrying about a dress code.T hat's true accessibility
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