Don’t Putter Around: Golf Life Navigators Finds Ideal Club, Golf-Community Home
By Gary Levine Feb 16, 2017
Naples Herald
With 157 golf communities and clubs in Southwest Florida, each with its own aesthetics, each with varying cultures and conventions…not to mention the range of pecuniary obligations, it’s no wonder that many searching for the befitting course or the suitable home within a golf community err.
Even more onerous is the notion of golf-community home or course selection when one resides over a thousand miles away in the Midwest, the Northeast or beyond the Canadian border.
But envision having a confidant residing in that preferred locality.
Imagine that confidant being a PGA professional.
Consider the value of such an advisor working in unison with John R. Wood, an agency with over a half-century of real estate experience in Southwest Florida.
Golf Life Navigators is that partner…an authority assisting golfers to locate their ideal golf home or club.
It began when Jason Becker, a PGA of America professional in Naples, recognized the displeasure of many Southwest Floridian golfers…displeased with the community that had purchased in or the club that they paid handsomely to join. Those real-estate purchases or club memberships were made based upon hearsay, internet-sales propaganda or grapevine gossip.
Tens of thousands of dollars…or hundreds of thousands of dollars later…the missteps proved costly and exasperating.
As a golf pro, Becker understood how golfers differ. Some play daily while others play occasionally. Some golfers regularly include their spouse; others require regular partners. Those seeking a new home within a golf community may also prefer nearby shopping or proximate dining. Many insist upon waterfront residences or access to marine activity.
Becker identified the need to consider all of the links and life variables when making, in many cases, the largest financial commitment of their lives.
Becker and his business partner, Lynn Josephson, savor assisting fellow golfers. Josephson, a South Florida PGA Hall of Fame member, former South Florida PGA President and Naples-based PGA member since 1974, helped launch Golf Life Navigators to the club industry just three short years ago.
Together Becker, Josephson and their team of experts help assist golfers from Minnesota to Maine and from Carolina to Canada to fulfill their South Florida golf dreams.
Called, by Golf Magazine in 2015, the “eHarmony of golf-matchmaking,” Golf Life Navigators utilizes a club-finder profile they launched in 2016 fittingly titled “ProGuide³.” This proprietary software was designed in conjunction with Iowa State University PhD’s on consumer satisfaction to imbibe a golfer’s inherent needs, wishes, concerns and indulgences.
Once the data is gathered, PGA and real-estate professionals carefully scrutinize and evaluate the ProGuide³ dossier and narrow the search to three or four clubs/communities.
The client is contacted and connected to either a club’s membership director or to a designated realtor (in the case of home purchase). According to Becker, clients nearly always enthusiastically select one club or community from the reduced group. However, in the rare instance that a match is not made, minor pivots in the search process are made until the client is thoroughly satisfied. While a 100% money-back guarantee remains available to all clients, not a single refund has yet to be requested.
Club owners appreciate and applaud the process as Golf Life Navigator members seem to fit ideally and remain active. Clients delight in the tranquility that comes when satisfaction and delight are imminent.
“Information gathered by Pro Guide will change the way people choose courses, clubs and communities,” remarked Becker.
Neither Becker nor Josephson maintain any agendas or preferences. They have no financial interests in any of the prescribed courses or properties…making Golf Life Navigator recommendations thoroughly impartial and data driven.
“From Chicago to Naples, golf can be year-round. Before you pick a Florida club, talk to my friend Lynn Josephson and Golf Life Navigators first.” – Mike Ditka
