October 2025 Archives - United States Golf Teachers Federation

1 Oct 2025 admin

“PRO” FILE – USGTF MEMBER ADRIAN BERNAL

By Adrian Bernal

It was in the spring of 2008, after playing golf steadily for 10 years, when I was approached by the owners of Targhee Village Golf Course (TVGC) in Alta, Wyoming. They were looking for an additional golf teaching professional as they had seen my progress and how I naturally had the tendency to coach others.

Prior to this in 1992, I was a competitive basketball player with hopes of making it into the NBA, having tryouts with several teams, but ultimately was unsuccessful. Regardless, I was drawn to coaching. I enjoyed coaching high school track, baseball, basketball and other disciplines, but never thought about golf because I did not play until I was 30 years old. Being a well-known athlete in the area, it was a given that I would eventually step into golf instruction once I became good enough and knowledgeable enough to do so.

After looking into the PGM program with the PGA, I was introduced to a USGTF golf teaching professional, Dennis Saylor, who has recently passed, and who was the golf teaching professional for TVGC that season. He was an Associate Member instructor, and he showed me the USGTF program.

Obviously, this fit my desired goals: to be a golf teaching professional. I wanted to be out with the people on the range and watch the joy on their faces as they progressed in their play; that was my passion. Therefore, I attended a certification course in Las Vegas, Nevada, under the instruction of Danny Lopez.

From 2008 to 2018, I was honored with having the title as the Head Golf Teaching Professional with TVGC under the USGTF banner. Throughout my tenure at TVGC, I held clinics for couples, seniors, and children, including giving individual lessons on the range as well as lessons on the course. After my summer clinic, I held a tournament for the children, which they always looked forward to with a BBQ at the end to celebrate.

In 2019, I moved to Maryland, and for the 2019-20 seasons I was the instructor for The Greens at Hamilton Run, a small, nine-hole municipal course in Hagerstown, Maryland, where I held clinics, gave playing lessons, and individual lessons. Since 2021, I have been a private instructor in Southern Florida in the Ft. Lauderdale area offering lessons for all ages and groups through AB Golf School. My continued desires are to obtain a certification in sport psychology (golf) with the USGTF, which is up my ally being a counselor and already doing it to some degree, as well as becoming a Master Golf Teaching Professional by the end of next year.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT – SEO-IN YOON

By Jin-Woo Yoon

When I first encountered golf, I never imagined it would take such an important place in my life. For 23 years, I have taught students at an entrance-exam academy, and I am also a poet, a farmer, and the pastor of a church for people with disabilities. In 2017, I became a USGTF professional and have been teaching ever since. USGTF opened a new chapter in my life — it gave me the chance to help my daughter become a professional golfer.

My daughter, Seo-In Yoon, started golf in sixth grade. Knowing her academic strengths were not outstanding, I looked for a career path I could directly support. Golf seemed like the best option. The first year was full of joy — within six months, she was shooting in the 70s, and in her third tournament, she made a hole-in-one. But once she entered middle school and began playing from the white tees in the finals, we faced a huge wall of competition. I decided she needed guidance from professionals beyond my abilities, so she began taking lessons from well-known pros and moved to the Golfzon Leadbetter Academy. Despite all this, her performance did not improve as hoped, and our relationship grew distant. She felt pressured by me, and I felt the financial strain. After winter training in the U.S. during her third year of middle school, her performance declined sharply. Eventually, she told me she wanted to quit golf — mainly because she felt I was too much of a burden and was making things too hard for her.

Although she continued competing in high school as a golf special admission student, she stopped practicing altogether. Then, in the fall of her first year, after a tournament, she smiled and said, “Dad, I hit it really well today. You know how you told me to hold my axis and kick through with my right foot? I finally got it today.”

That moment changed everything. We started learning club fitting, set up fitting equipment at home, experimented endlessly, and turned golf into a game. We collected training tools from around the world and even began making our own. This brought us closer than ever, and my daughter developed her own swing philosophy and confidence. She went on to take 2nd place at the 2022 JGAK Golf Series, runner-up at the 26th Daejeon Mayor’s Cup, 4th at the 15th Jama Golf Cup in 2023, and finally won the 2023 Warmus Cup. In her first tournament of 2024, she became a KLPGA professional and now competes on the Jump Tour.