Resort Category
Nick Spinnato, PGA, from Ellicott City, Maryland was named the 2018 Middle Atlantic Professional Golfers’ Association (MAPGA) Merchandiser of the Year within the Resort Category, for understanding the needs of his customers and building sustaining relationships with top-level golf companies and their sales representatives Spinnato previously won the award in 2014.
Spinnato is a Baltimore native whose father introduced him to the game of golf at 10 years old. One of Nick’s biggest supporters since he started playing golf has been his father, Nick Sr. Nick’s father taught him the importance of integrity, courtesy, and strength, all of which are foundations to be successful in golf.
In 1992, he became a golf professional and took a job as an assistant professional at Turf Valley. By 2005 he was the Director of Golf at Turf Valley. Within the same year he was the Director of Golf at Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Spinnato continued with both director positions until 2008 when he returned to work exclusively for Turf Valley. In 2007, he was elected to PGA Membership.
Since becoming the Director of Golf at Turf Valley, Nick has generated a 30 percent sales increase in the merchandise operation and continues to build strong relationships with companies like Foot-Joy, Titleist, and Cobra-Puma, so he can enhance product presentation in his golf shop and improve his profit margins. He’s found great success with demo days, trunk shows, and member events like Turf Valley’s opening day party that offers great discounts on top-of-the-line products.
Furthermore, the support of youth golf at Turf Valley is not only evident in the golf shop, but also evident in their hosting of junior golf events like the MAPGA Junior Tour, MAPGA Junior Championship, MD/VA Junior girls matches (Poindexter Cup), AJGA David Leadbetter/ Jos. A. Bank Championship, the MSGA Mid-Atlantic Junior Invitational and the USGA Junior Amateur Qualifier and the MAPGA Capital Cup.
He believes in quality of service and product presentation which is evident in his regular promotions to resort guests. Spinnato is very thankful for all the people who have impacted his career thus far.
Private Category
Jay Dufty, PGA, from Arlington, Virginia has been selected as the recipient of the Middle Atlantic Professional Golfers’ Association (MAPGA) 2018 Merchandiser of the Year Award for the Private Category, his dedication and success at Washington Golf & Country Club (WGCC).
This is the second Section award that he has received as his first was the Section’s President’s Award in 2014. However he was fortunate enough to receive this recognition at WGCC during the 32nd Annual MAPGA Hall of Fame Banquet.
In his 20 years leading golf shops, his first year at WGCC was the most rewarding year based on efforts translating in to sales. He received this award for his work reinventing the buyer experience within WGCC and as a result creating loyal members.
His merchandising philosophy is that any quality golf shop that is successful has a ‘feel’ when you walk through the door and that it is the people which make the difference. Feel can be aroused through quality displays, design, product mix, and people.
Dufty wants the golf shop at WGCC to create an emotion. It doesn’t matter which emotion is felt as long as the emotion is positive. He wants members to feel proud, satisfied, happy, surprised, and very content
His team created a plan to wean out old merchandise, clean up over supplied inventories, freshen up the inventory mix, provide unique buying experiences through creative trunk shows, timely rotation of merchandise displays, and concentrate on hard good sales by promoting their golf professionals as the certified fitters.
As a PGA Professional, Dufty enjoys the mix of variety and consistency that comes with every work day. As a team leader, he takes great pride in developing and executing a strategic plan and making sure that all staff members have a part in the success of the plan.
He has a passion for developing his staff and strives to help them achieve their goals. He is also very involved with the Middle Atlantic PGA on both the Chapter and Section levels. Over the last few years, Dufty has served on the Section’s Membership Committee. Currently he serves as Vice President on the Central Chapter Board.
Dufty graduated from New Mexico State University and earned his PGA certification in 1998.
Since then he has worked at an array of golf venues such as, Oak Tree Country Club in Edmond, Oklahoma, Wildflower Golf Club in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, Rum River Hills Golf Club in Ramsey, Minnesota. He was an Assistant PGA Professional at Blueberry Pines Golf Club in Menahga, Minnesota, and Head PGA Professional at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm.
Public/Military/Semi-Private Category
Aaron Palen, PGA, has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 the Middle Atlantic Professional Golfers’ Association (MAPGA) Public Merchandiser of the Year Award for his outstanding merchandise and professional golf shop management at the Colonial Heritage Golf Club.
Since becoming the Head Golf Professional at the Colonial Heritage Golf Club in February 2015, Palen has managed to switch the majority of all soft-good purchases from full wholesale or retail pricing to off-priced products.
Through relationships with vendors, he has been able to solely purchase closeout products which allow the club to maintain high margins. Palen also came in and added a personal touch to the merchandise display in the golf shop, changing the displays every few weeks giving the shop a fresh feel.
His merchandising philosophy is for every customer to leave as a friend. This is accomplished by himself and his team engaging with each customer and focusing on the attention to detail with each encounter by taking the extra step during every transaction.
This includes walking around the counter to hand the bag with a handshake, following-up each purchase with hand-written thank you notes and letting customers know their support towards the shop means a lot.
Palen has also implemented various promotional events over the year to drive business to his shop. Colonial Heritage ran two very successful hard good promotions in 2017, both being demo days. The first demo day was held in April and had five vendors that represented their 2017 equipment lines.
The second demo day was an exclusive TaylorMade fitting day in September. The event lasted four hours and was marketed as a fitting day for the customers to experience a “tour level” fitting. Each fitting made a purchase with a 10 percent discount on all items purchased.
Palen graduated from North Carolina Wesleyan College with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He also competed on their golf team.
In 2001, he obtained his first golf professional job as the Assistant Golf Professional at the Benvenue Country Club in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He proceeded to earn his PGA Membership in 2007 while working as an Assistant at International Country Club. By 2008, he accepted a new role as Head PGA Professional at The Golf Club at Lansdowne and after his time at Lansdowne, he held three more Head Professional or Director of Golf positions before working at Colonial Heritage.
Contact:
MAPGA Communications
Jeremy Beale, jbeale@pgahq.com
