Blake Sharamitaro, PGADirector of Golf,Family Golf & Learning Center,St. Louis, Missouri2023 Gateway PGA Teacher & Coach of the Year
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s the leader of a coaching staff that taught more than 7,000 lessons last year, PGA of America Golf Professional Blake Sharamitaro is leaning into the mesh points of instruction and related areas to help players improve – and to keep them coming back to his facility as customers beyond the lesson tee.
Sharamitaro is the Director of Golf at Family Golf & Learning Center, a St. Louis standalone range facility with year-round heated and cooled hitting bays, a nine-hole short course, three indoor simulators, a golf shop, indoor practice facilities, a fitness center, a restaurant and a club repair/fitting center.
“The mesh points of coaching are a huge part of our business,” says Sharamitaro, who won three 2023 awards from the Gateway PGA Section: Teacher & Coach of the Year, the PGA Player Development Award and the PGA Junior Player Development Award. “All our clients have different needs, and we try to be a one-stop shop for everything they need. Our clubfitter on-site just had his best January ever, we just hired a full-time trainer offering golf-specific training, and we have a strong PGA Jr. League program to get juniors and families involved.”
Sharamitaro is careful to not only cater to golfers who want the most premium experience in this holistic approach. Instead, services like clubfitting and fitness are offered as an add-on, or as advice during a lesson.
“Paying for a lesson on its own might be a big deal by itself, and not everyone wants to go beyond that,” he says. “If someone can’t afford to add fitness sessions or a clubfitting, we make sure that all our coaches are able to offer solid advice that will help them, and if someone wants to step up from there, they can. It helps our customers see our PGA of America Coaches as their golf experts, it helps our credibility, and it keeps them on site even if it isn’t driving specific revenue in fitness or fitting.”
Sharamitaro is also working with partners to add new wrinkles to Family Golf & Learning Center’s coaching arsenal. 2024 saw the facility add the popular Operation 36 program for beginning golfers. Family Golf was already using multiple Golf Genius products throughout the facility, so adding the Operation 36 curriculum was a good fit.
“Operation 36 has been a very good investment for us, given the demand for beginner instruction and how many coaches we have conducting programming,” Sharamitaro says. “We wanted a model where whoever was teaching, each session looked the same and was easy for the coaches to plan and organize.
“We started it with juniors, and we expanded it to adults and pretty much every session sold out. Now we’ll have 30-40 players out there trying to pass their next level on a Saturday or Sunday who wouldn’t be out on our par-3 course otherwise. We’ve enhanced the program and added an intermediate level to Operation 36 this year, and registrations are up quite a bit already in 2025.
“It’s a matter of keeping people engaged as they get better and move up, both through coaching and areas like fitting and fitness. When people are happy and making progress, they keep coming back.”
