Ambassadors of New Ideas

Every person who enters the golf teaching business pioneers their own career in accordance with their unique talent and ideas. Successful teachers possess a genuine love of people, optimism, determination, and a sense of humor. 

That’s what makes the USGTF so unique. We are a family of golf teaching professionals from diverse backgrounds that has initiated employment from the many opportunities at hand.

On a recent trip to Japan, at the invitation of USGTF-Japan president Shuichi Yaginuma, I recall one gentleman, Mr. Shoji Ohta, who had created an entirely new marketing strategy for beginning golfers. As he drove me to the golf course one day, he explained that his client base exceeded 500 students. That prompted me to reflect on how many lives all of us have had the opportunity to enhance over the years.

With 35 member nations that currently make up the World Golf Teachers Federation and 17,000 members worldwide, each member has their own legacy, however humble. For me personally, I knew that teaching professionals must be specialists in their field. There was a need for better teachers and the public deserved it. In creating the USGTF back in 1989 and the WGTF several years later, I knew that, by establishing an organization that provided equal opportunity and consideration for each person, we would succeed – and together we have become an irresistible force.

In the summer issue of Golf Teaching Pro, this concept of individual success stories prompted us to initiate a Top Fifty golf teaching professional list. A worldwide list had never been done before. After all, there are 25,000,000 golfers that happen to live and reside outside of the United States. I must say that the response was outstanding and the stories so interesting that, as ambassadors of new ideas, we decided it deserved its own publication, which will be forthcoming in a few weeks.

A common theme among the individuals who contacted us for inclusion on the list was that, once they had found their true passion or life's work, they seem to have hung on, no matter how difficult the vicissitudes of the endeavor. One member from Connecticut e-mailed me, explaining what the actual experience of teaching golf had done for him as a man. He explained in part that he had learned to know people and their many personalities – he knows he is wiser, more tolerant, more understanding - and that teaching golf has given him a chance to develop a feeling of independence, which goes hand in hand with self-respect.

At this writing, we have a full field for the $25,000 10th annual United States Golf Teachers Cup at The Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas, October 17-18. This is always a very special event for teaching professionals. Many top industry partners will be present and we look forward to seeing many of you at the tournament. Official results will be available online at www.GolfTeachingPro.com.

We hope you enjoy this fall publication. Happy teaching.