You know that feeling you get when you are so close, you can almost taste it? The operative word here is “almost”. On the one hand, finishing Level 2 means I only have one level left to go. On the other hand, I have one level left to go.

When I finished my Level 2, I was happy to be done, but anxious to move on the level 3. One problem, the books weren’t out yet. There was a Level 3 seminar scheduled for late January that I really wanted to attend, but, depending on the timing of the books, this could be a tall task (considering it was mid November). Alas, 2 days later, the Level 3 bookwork was released. Books purchased. Check. Registered for the January Seminar. Check. Wait? The PGA Show is the same week at the Level 3 seminar? Are you even kidding me?? This makes complete sense… I guess I’m missing my first PGA Show in 24 years.

I looked at the books and the portfolio requirements and I set a goal for myself. I wanted to be done by March 1st, 2024. I better get busy.

While Level 2 seemed like it was less time consuming than Level 1, Level 3 was less than Level 2. I did the reading in a weekend. Granted, It was a weekend and it was a LOT of reading in one weekend, but I was through the bookwork in 3 days. I thought I would start the portfolio. I looked at the Teaching and Coaching part first. Reality check!! I had to take a playing lesson from a PGA Professional and it had to be outside. I also had to give a lesson series and the last part was to give a playing lesson to my student, which also had to be outside. With the weeks I needed in between lessons. I realized that it would be Christmas before I was able to do either of these outside lessons. The March 1st goal date was not happening. I now hoped to have both lessons done in March (if Mother Nature cooperates), and be done with everything by the end of April.

I re-read the books leading up to the seminar, but I didn’t touch the portfolio. I thought it would serve me well to wait until after I went through the class work before I started the portfolio. I booked airline, rental car and a nice AirBnB. I invited my wife to come with me. She can work from anywhere, so she came. We had a nice getaway. We took a day before the seminar started and went to Waco, TX. If you’re into Fixer Upper, it’s worth the trip. The weather was cold!! We had snow 2 of the days. It didn’t amount to anything, but I was still snow. Frisco is slightly south of Atlanta, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Besides that, it rained every day. It was too cold and too wet to play golf.

Several of my classmates from my level 2 seminar had also made it through level 2 and were in this seminar. It was nice to see some familiar faces. My wife asked me how many students I thought would be in this class. I had 145 in level 1, 35 in level 2, so I guessed 12. I showed up and we had 55 in this one. 55 is a great number!! PGA HQ, for as busy as it was in August when I was there was deserted this time. Everyone was at the PGA Show.

The first day and half the second day were intensive classroom days. The second half of the second day and the entire third day were a capstone project. This was super cool. We teamed up into 11 teams of 5 and we competed against each other. We had the same golf facility and we made strategic moves to bolster our operation – these moves were then calculated on the impact they would have based on what the other 10 teams were doing. This was a great learning experience!!

The last two days were for Teaching and Coaching. We spent some time outside where it was in the mid 40’s and windy. I didn’t bring clothes for that, and it was chilly. We spent some time on club fitting – my specialty. This session was a waste of time (sorry PGA). It was a brief recap, very shallow based, and we never saw a person hit a golf ball. Pretty pathetic…

While I was there, I managed to work on my portfolio each night. When I got home, I’d say I had about half of the Golf Operations section done. I started the Teaching and Coaching part right away and kept plugging away at the Golf Ops stuff. By early March, I had everything done except for the two outdoor playing lessons. so, now we wait for a couple of good days. Finally, on March 26th it made it up to the mid 50’s, so I got them done. Videos recorded. I read and re-read. Proof read for typos, grammar and general stuff that didn’t make sense. On March 27th, I submitted my Level 3 portfolio.

And now, I wait…