General USGTF profiles from Golf Teaching Pro magazine,
the International member publication of the USGTF

Winter Issue 2003
 Marc Gelbke  Kevin Bohach

Fall Issue 2002
Jack Charron  Charles Hunter  Bruce Sims  Robert Rusay  John Malizia  Tammy Harris  Charles French  Steve Kisner  

Spring/Summer 2002
Robert Rusay   Bruce Sims   Charles Hunter   Jack Charron
 
Winter 2002
Bob Wyatt   Harold Patterson   Trish Beucher   Wayne Dahlstrom  Fred Featherstone   Gerry Connally   Larry Whelan
 

Kevin Bohach
USGTF Teaching Professional, Davenport, IA

Simply Jump!

Someone once told me there wasn’t all that much to the art of skydiving. You simply take one step and jump! For all you teaching professionals that read this article, don’t be afraid to try something new and jump! Well, I took that jump into the world of the golf teaching professional by attending a USGTF certification course in 1998 at the Ahwatukee County Club in Phoenix, Arizona. Dave Shaver and Mark Umphreyville were especially instrumental in my passing the certification course. They taught me to have the confidence to go out into the world of the golf professional and pursue my passions.

After returning to Davenport, Iowa, I began to search out teaching opportunities. I found out very quickly there wasn’t much formal golf instruction in our area (roughly 350,000 population) of junior golfers ages 7 thru 15. We have Parks and Rec. programs, and some 5 day golf camps that run at most of the golf courses. There just wasn’t any personal or ongoing program for junior golfers to continue to develop in. I had found my pace to “jump” in. With a simple, but expandable plan, I found three driving ranges and several golf courses for me to develop my junior golf program. My program offers 5 day golf camps; 4 days of instruction, usually 1 hour, 30 minutes per day, then one day of a three-hole playing lesson. I hold a 30 minute clinic, usually short game, at the golf course putting/chipping green as a warm up to the students on course play.

I chose to offer multi-camp discounts, or bring-a-friend discounts to build up the number of students in my program. In my third season, I had 80 students, and when I introduced SNAG (see feature article, page 12) to my program, it literally doubled in one season! The SNAG programs we offered at the local school districts were really easy to get started. Once the athletic director or principal saw our product, they immediately saw the benefits for the school kids. We held the SNAG programs at the schools, designed the SNAG courses and even had SNAG tournaments with the juniors. The parental response to the game of SNAG was very enthusiastic. The parents actually got to tee it up and play together with their kids! I also prospected many of the SNAGsters’ parents for private and semi-private golf instruction to help build the adult side of my teaching program.

The National Junior Golf Association has recently hired me as a Regional director and National Program Developer. I would highly encourage any USGTF member to call me about developing Junior Golf and SNAG programs in your area. The fall-out from these programs has expanded my golf teaching business incredibly. I would like to thank the USGTF, Geoff Bryant, and Bob Wyatt for letting us demonstrate SNAG to them, and for the way that OUR organization has chosen to “jump” forward and lead the way in the field of golf instruction. Now that you’ve taken the jump into the world of the golf teaching professional, remember, “people don’t care what you know, they have to know that you care.”

Feel free to call my office at (563)285-PUTT. We have the resources and marketing in place to build a junior golf/SNAG program in your area. Together, ”Let’s keep kids out of the rough,” and get them into golf.