Winning a PGA of America Section award is a feat that most professionals strive for. Sure, it’s not the primary motivation for doing what they do as teachers and coaches in golf, but getting the call or email that you’re being recognized by your peers, not only for your efforts but for the impact you have on golfers of all ages and skill levels, is a special time in a professional’s career. Casey Cline earned such an honor when he took home the Carolinas PGA Section Player Development Award in 2020. He recently earned his first Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Growth of the Game Teaching Professional award.
Cline started playing golf in his early teens, primarily learning at Par 3 courses at first, as he was more serious about basketball at the time. He and his family moved onto the 2nd hole at Sedgefield Country Club (the current home of the PGA TOUR’s Wyndham Championship) at the end of his freshman year in high school.
“Having the 2nd fairway in my backyard was what got me hooked on the game,” Cline recalls. “I remember going out late in the evenings and hitting a few shots on the course and trying shot around the greens. I played a lot of golf with my dad and family friends and became serious about my game when I was 16 years old.”
Cline learned from legendary amateur golfer Bill Harvey, a North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame member. Harvey didn’t normally teach or help golfers with their games, but Cline had played red league basketball a few years earlier with his son Scott Harvey, who would go on to win the 2014 U.S.Mid-Amateur Championship. As time went by, Scott and Casey became friends and practiced and played a lot of golf together. Cline went on to play golf at Roanoke College and played mini tour golf, as well.
“I always enjoyed helping people with their golf game,” he says. “And learning the game from Bill Harvey was helpful, as he thought of things from a player’s perspective. Later on, I sought the help of Rick Murphy, a 2020 Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame Inductee. Rick helped me progress my game to even higher levels. He is always learning and incorporates new information in his coaching. He helped foster my passion for the game and got me hooked on learning more about swing mechanics and the geometry of the golf swing.”
After playing, Cline worked and taught with Murphy (a five-time GRAA Growth of the Game Teaching Professional award winner and 2024 Golf Fitness Association of America (GFAA) Recognition Award winner) at his golf academy in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“Leo Halloran also heavily influenced my coaching, as he is a Golf Stroke Engineer Master (GSEM) with The Golfing Machine and was a senior instructor at the academy,” Cline adds. “Other influential coaches and mentors were Bob Brooks and Jack Lewis. Jack played professionally and was the head coach at Wake Forest. Being around so many great coaches with different perspectives at one facility was a great asset to me early in my career.”
Learning from this laundry list of great golf minds set the stage for Cline’s coaching and player development success. He is currently the PGA of America Director of Instruction at Bermuda Run Country Club in Bermuda Run, North Carolina, overseeing all teaching and player development programming.
Since he got there four years ago, the facility’s lesson revenue has increased by 400 percent. Their PGA Jr. League program has gone from one team of 10 players to now hosting their own in-house league. They had 37 players last fall!
Of course, Cline has implemented technology into his indoor and outdoor coaching, using Trackman and Foresight, as well as Sportsbox AI for 3D motion analysis.
“In the future, I see more use of AI technology. I think this will benefit the instructor as many amateurs will take to self-diagnosing and continue to work on effects rather than causes. They will need help interpreting all the data that will continually become available and applying it to their skills on the practice range and on the golf course,” he concludes.