Agroup of award-winning PGA of America Coaches from around the country shared a series of learning moments at the 2024 PGA Teacher & Coach of the Year Conference, held Dec. 1-4 at Pinehurst (North Carolina) Resort & Club. The ninth annual invitation-only gathering, part of the PGA Magazine Conference Series, provided an interactive opportunity for coaches to discuss their successes, challenges and plans for the future.
More than two dozen award-winning PGA of America Coaches participated in the conference, which sported the theme “Your Next Climb.” Attendees took part in a series of hands-on presentations, panel discussions and highly interactive breakout sessions at Pinehurst, giving them a chance to compare notes and share ideas with their peers.
“I’m extremely proud to be here,” said Justin Klemballa, the PGA of America Director of Instruction at Paradise Valley (Arizona) Country Club and 2023 Southwest PGA Section Teacher & Coach of the Year. “I had heard from other coaches how cool it was, and I’m really excited to get some new perspectives on what we do as coaches. I heard ideas that spark my thought process in a new direction.”
A survey of attendees revealed the group boasted a collective average of 24.5 years of golf instruction experience per coach, and saw an increase of 6 percent in their coaching businesses while working with an average of 500 students last year.
The highly decorated cohort of attendees ac counted for more than 61 individual Section PGA Teacher of the Year awards, and included two national PGA of America Teacher & Coach of the Year winners: 2024 honoree Joe Hallett and 2011 recipient Mike Malaska.
Hallett and Malaska started the 2024 PGA Magazine Teacher & Coach of the Year Conference with “Coffee With Coaches” discussion that included a Q&A session with their peers. Each discussed how they’ve grown their networks of fellow coaches and learning experts, and how their approaches to the business side of golf instruction have evolved over time.
“I’ve learned that my team is more than just the coaches on my staff – it’s my entire network,” said Hallett, a PGA Master Professional and the PGA of America Director of Instruction at Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee. “My network now includes people from a lot of specialized areas, like fitness, mental experts, clubfitters. I love to ask them wacky questions and learn from their knowledge to improve my own skill set.”
“It’s easy for us as golf coaches to get isolated in our own worlds sometimes,” added Malaska, the owner of Malaska Golf and PGA of America Director of Instruction at Ocotillo Golf Club in Chandler, Arizona. “Coming to a conference like this is a great way to communicate back and forth and see the way other coaches put their businesses to gether. You’ll see that we’re much more than golf instructors; we’re human development specialists.”
Attendees also enjoyed “Balance With Bernie and Baile,” a fireside chat with award-winning PGA of America Coaches Bernie Najar and Jason Baile, as well as presentations from presenting partners Foresight Sports, Golf Genius and the PGA of America.
Two mornings of breakout sessions included topics such as a recap of 2024 successes, ways to raise your value to your facility, how to use technology to build relationships with modern students, and trends that attendees see impacting golf instruction over the coming years.
The conference also featured hands-on sessions led by Hallett, Malaska, Baile and two-time Carolinas PGA Section Teacher & Coach of the Year Rick Murphy that gave attendees a chance to ask questions of their peers and demonstrate coaching methods and instruction concepts about areas of the game like putting, bunker play, student assessments and how a student’s body and fitness impacts the golf swing.
Conference attendees also played a lightly competitive scramble on The Cradle, the Gil Hanse-designed 9-hole, par-3 course at Pinehurst, as a way to take networking onto the golf course.
“The ability to share with others what we do and why we do it is so beneficial,” said Kevin Ward, the PGA of America Director of Instruction at The Golf Stable in Prairie Village, Kansas, and the 2023 Midwest PGA Section Teacher & Coach of the Year. “I got ideas to take back home on how to be more efficient with my time, and teach more people better in the time I have.”
Presenting partners for the 2024 PGA Teacher & Coach of the Year Conference included Foresight Sports, Golf Genius and Pinehurst Resort & Club.
