The ModGolf Podcast
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00:36:19

Inclusive Team Experiences That Connect Young Adult Golfers - Kris Hart / Nextgengolf (007)

June 20th, 2017

Live Life. Play Golf. This is the philosophy Nextgengolf passionately applies to their mandate to grow golf in the 18 to 39 year old US market sector.

Nextgengolf originated as a Boston-based affordable golf membership program for recreational college students called CollegeGolfPass, which helped make golf more affordable for college students. The company expanded nationwide after merging with The National Collegiate Club Golf Association (NCCGA) in 2013. In the first year of the merger, the company started 100+ new club golf programs and supported over 10,000 student golfers.


Nextgengolf


Over the next two years college golfers kept coming to them saying “thanks for all the help in college”, but kept asking “what do I do now?” after graduating. CollegeGolfPass and NCCGA rebranded as Nextgengolf in January 2014, knowing they could help graduating college golfers. As a result, in 2014 they developed the Nextgengolf City Tour which provides team-based golfing opportunities for young adults in their 20’s and 30’s near major cities.

Between the NCCGA and City Tour, Nextgengolf is the leading entity for golfers in their 20’s and 30’s in the US. At the core of their organization they run great golf tournaments and are in the golf experience business. Beyond running great events, they work hard to provide meaningful content and information to young adults and the golf industry at large. Nextgengolf does not focus on the best golfers, rather they support “the rest” and care about the future sustainability of golf.

This YouTube video explains what Nextgengolf does and why they do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB-tC6B3hBE

In this episode we discuss how in six years Nextgengolf has created a solution that responds to the pain points facing young golfers and their desire to get involved in an engaging, inclusive, team-based golf tournament format. Topics include:

• The history behind and the inspiration that motivated Kris Hart to create Nextgengolf.
• The National Collegiate Club Golf Association (NCCGA), an event platform to grow and support the college student golf community.

• The creation of CityTour, summer golf tournament team events for 20-39 year olds. https://nextgengolf.org/city-tour/

• The power of strategic partnerships the help move your startup forward. Nextgengolf national partner Srixon http://www.srixon.com/ and Cleveland Golf http://www.clevelandgolf.com/ along with supporting partners 18 Birdies https://18birdies.com/ Oxford https://www.oxford.co/ and Golf Channel http://www.golfchannel.com/ help provide the resources and promotional reach to grow their audience.

• Kris' desire to give back to the game he loves by taking personal responsibility to help grow golf. Kris co-chairs the Millennial Task Force for the golf industry, along with speaking engagements at the PGA Merchandise Show each January and providing thought leadership through the Nextgengolf blog. http://blog.nextgengolf.org/

• Nextgengolf's mandate to create the future of golf by innovating to align with contemporary lifestyles while respecting the proud traditions of the game.

Golf Digest wrote a very informative article on the NCCGA called "The laid-back, but competitive world of college club golf". http://www.golfdigest.com/story/the-laidback-but-competitive-world-of-college-club-golf

You can find out more about Nextgengolf and be part of the conversation on social media. Twitter https://twitter.com/nextgolfer Instagram @nextgengolfclub and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nextgengolfclub/