Managing risk and migrating into business as a PGA Professional

15/07/2025

Trevor Newsham and Ryan Done from Heysham Golf Club in Lancashire won the 2024 Foremost EMP Member of the Year award, recognising the continuing growth and success of their business. We asked Newsham about managing risk and building their business

Trevor Newsham has played at Heysham Golf Club since he was a young junior. Having represented the county and studied golf at Myerscough for two years, he became a PGA Professional and then a partner in the business at Heysham in 2014.

Together, Newsham and Ryan Done run ClubFit Golf, which offers an extensive range of services in a studio which is equipped with GCQuad Launch Monitor for coaching and custom fitting. There is also a Swing Lounge complete with GC Hawk Simulator Technology.

From junior golfer to business partner at Heysham

“I first joined Heysham when I was 10 years old. I was a junior member, and I progressed through. I played a bit of county golf and then I turned professional just as I turned 20, and I actually started working for Ryan in the shop at the time.

“Ryan was the Head Professional, worked for him and the shop was owned by a third party called Lakes Golf, who have subsequently become an online clothing retailer called Function 18.

“About that time, I completed my PGA and that was in 2012. I was looking at some opportunities to leave because when you are working just as an assistant, you’re a bit limited as to what you can do in terms of pushing your progression upwards.

“We just came up with the idea. (It) was - how about we take the shop out of this group, start ourselves, become partners with it and then it started from there. In 2013, we had the discussion, and it was 2014 when we started the business and the situation we’ve got now where we’re effectively partners.

The migration into the business side as a PGA Professional

“It wasn’t too difficult because I was always more interested in that side of it originally. I suppose when I turned professional or not long after, I was looking to go down the route of being a director of golf.

“I did the first bit of it with the PGA at some stage, and then we’ve just become that busy and entangled in what we’re doing now, I’ve not gone back to it since. But I was more interested on that side of it, of having a business and being in control.

“Being a bit of a control freak helped that as well!

“When it’s your own business and you’re making all of the decisions, then it helps me to go from working as an assistant, doing the usual stuff, tending to the members, selling stuff in the pro shop – the Mars Bar seller shout – then transitioning into all of these extra things.

“That was a little bit more exciting to me than daunting. It was something I wanted to do and sink my teeth into.”

If you start to think of the risk, you can get lost in not making the right decisions

- Trevor Newsham

Managing risk with investment

“If you start to think of the risk, you can get lost in not making the right decisions. For me, I never thought massively about the risk. We have run our business where our cash flow is healthy, so for example, when we make a decision, generally if it doesn’t work, it’s not going to finish us.

“If I had a retail unit outside of the golf club environment, or I was doing something different, if I was going to build simulators on an industrial estate, that is a much bigger risk. Our business has generally always stayed very consistent, very reliable.

“It will go up most years, maybe a couple of years it’s gone down slightly, but it’s always trended upwards. So, those decisions in my head, when we’re making them were - this is just going to boost us up a little bit more. That comes with confidence in what you’re doing.

“You’ve always seen it work so you think if I’m going to expand and add something different, that’s only going to boost us rather than it be a massive risk. The financial side is a financial risk, but having a business, there are always risks.”