Students Solve Problems Under Pressure for the Philadelphia PGA Section

Imagine a consultant getting a client brief over breakfast and instructions to deliver recommendations before dinner.

That’s the type of quick turnaround faced by students participating in the Marketing Crisis Challenge, an annual business case competition offered by the Dornsife Office for Experiential Learning within Drexel’s Bennett S. LeBow College of Business.

As nine teams comprising approximately 50 students, spanning undergraduate and graduate programs and majors, put their skills to work in solving a real business problem faced by a locally and nationally known brand, they were up against the clock — including strict limits, timed by a stopwatch, during their final presentations.

Before the clock started running, the day started with a briefing by leaders from the Philadelphia PGA (Professional Golfers Association) Section, the partner organization for the 2026 Challenge.

Due to frequent confusion with the PGA Tour — the high-profile home of Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and other golf stars — the Philadelphia Section faces issues with brand recognition, along with a crowded local market with numerous Allied Golf Associations and golf charities. Those factors brought the Philadelphia Section to Drexel to seek external perspectives and potential solutions.

Section president Bob Hennefer came away impressed by the students’ level of engagement throughout the event.

“We gave the students a little bit of information in the morning, and they just ran with it,” he says. “When you have an organization like ours coming from the outside, really engaging and interacting, you get something more than what you read in a textbook or that a professor is conveying to you.”

To address the Philadelphia Section’s challenge, students sprang into action and completed research, planning and design phases on a short timeline. Their final presentations were compressed further still: actionable plans and recommendations for building awareness among youth, amateur and golf professionals and for attracting audiences new to the sport, in under eight minutes.

The Marketing Crisis Challenge, first introduced in 2018, is one of several annual business case competitions hosted by LeBow; these competitions span areas such as finance, accounting, data analytics and operations — all with different external partners — and are aimed at putting core business skills into practice.

“Partnerships like these keep our programs closely connected to the world our students are entering,” says LeBow Dean and R. John Chapel Jr. Dean’s Chair Vibhas Madan, PhD. “They also create opportunities for our partners to shape the next generation of professionals while seeing firsthand what our students can do. That alignment between education and practice is central to our mission.”

This year, among the teams’ recommendations were a revamped social media presence and expanded marketing techniques, including hosting in-person events to attract new audiences. The Challenge’s top teams looked beyond immediate impacts to the long-term financial health and sustainability of the Section, such as partnering with established brands like Urban Outfitters and hosting golf-centered pop-ups with young professional groups and major corporate employers in Philadelphia.

Sherri Dong, a second-year finance major, says events like the Marketing Crisis Challenge fulfill students’ desires to work outside of the classroom in applying skills from their academic studies and co-op roles.

Another leader from the Philadelphia Section, executive director Geoff Surette, noted how his organization stands to benefit from hearing new viewpoints from those outside the world of golf and the sporting industry at large.

“We’re so happy that we partnered with Drexel on this, because it really gives us an opportunity to get a fresh perspective on who we are,” Surette says. “Having these students look at our organization is really important, and we’re going to benefit from that.”