When Bernie Najar encounters a new student lukewarm about a long-term interest in the game, he understands the dynamic better than most. Forty years before he was named the national 2026 PGA of America Teacher & Coach of the Year, Najar was a bored teenage tennis player who was looking for a way to kill time in the summer. Grudgingly, he joined a clinic run by PGA of America Golf Professional Rod Thompson at Kenwood Golf & Country Club in the Washington, D.C. area and, before long, got hooked.
“He made the game something I wanted to try and, more importantly, he understood how to feed that passion so it would power through the early struggles every player runs into,” says Najar, who is now the PGA of America Director of Instruction at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland. “What I experienced that summer has stuck with me my whole career.
“I want to help other players find that same spark.”
That Najar’s spark was sports-related isn’t a huge surprise – even if golf was a shot with a bit of sidespin. His father Andre Najar was a trailblazing tennis player from Egypt who competed at Wimbledon five times between 1939 and 1950 and represented his country in the 1948 Davis Cup. Bernie grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and flourished as a high school golfer, then stayed local to play at American University on a scholarship.
“I was a finance major, and I was learning about the business world while I played on the golf team,” says Najar. “I was learning how to be a student, and I was also lucky enough to spend time working on my game with Wayne DeFrancesco.”
DeFrancesco, PGA, was then in the heart of a formidable hybrid teaching/playing career while based at Woodholme Country Club in Baltimore. He played his way into five PGA Championships and nine Kemper Opens on the PGA TOUR and won the 2001 PGA Professional Championship – all while working with elite players and earning recognition on Golf Digest’s Top 50 Teachers list and as a Middle Atlantic PGA of America Teacher & Coach of the Year.
“My game got better, but the best part was getting to hang out and watch Wayne give lessons,” says Najar. “It looked like fun, and something that would be a much more fun way to spend your day than wearing a tie and working in an office. I started teaching right after college and haven’t looked back.”
After stints at The Suburban Club and working for ForeGolf Services under Charlie Staples, Najar returned to Woodholme as a teaching professional, where he won the first of four Middle Atlantic PGA Teacher & Coach of the Year awards in 2004 and became the PGA of America Director of Instruction in 2005. The recognition came on the strength of two consistent career tenets: self improvement and utilizing technology.
“I get up every day trying to be a little bit better than I was the day before,” says Najar, who lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife Jennifer (pictured below with her husband) and stepdaughter Amelia. “I’m always trying to get better at my craft. Anytime I see something that might be able to help me do my job better, I’m interested in learning about it and investing in it. It could be as simple as a training aid, or an expensive piece of technology.”
Najar was one of the first instructors in the region to teach with video, and was similarly an early adopter of computer-based comparison software. At Caves Valley, he runs one of the most technologically advanced studios on the Eastern seaboard, with force plates, radar and camera-based launch monitors and 3D motion capture. He also built a comparable studio in his basement at home – complete with an adjustable putting platform – to give remote lessons to clients at off hours.
“It might be a client who is on a golf trip somewhere around the world and needs a look, or a competitive player who is on the road and needs something that can’t wait until ‘business hours,’” says Najar. “I think it’s a critical part of communicating with my students and being constantly aware of where they are with their games and where they want to go.”
In 2012, Caves Valley was preparing a national search for a new director of instruction when PGA of America Director of Golf Dennis Satyshur received a recommendation to consider Najar for the job – from Caves Valley Chairman Steve Fader. Najar taught Fader’s son and helped him earn a a spot on the Yale golf team, and the national search turned into one that spanned less than seven miles. Najar made the nearby move, and has since helped Caves polish its reputation for first-class service on and off the course.
On a given day, Najar will work with club members, elite juniors (the 2023 U.S. Junior Amateur winner and nine of the last 12 Maryland State Boys Amateur champions are his students), club champions, professional athletes and coaches (the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles team facilities are nearby, and team leadership are regulars), as well as elite professionals like World Long Drive Champion Kyle Berkshire, PGA TOUR Professional Ryan McCormick, DP World Tour player Max Rottluff and Challenge Tour player Matt Oshrine.
“My students come in many varieties, and being around people who are highly driven to be successful has helped me understand what it takes,” says Najar. “It starts with not assuming you know everything. You stay open, and you stay ready to grow and pivot.”
Najar’s work with Berkshire is a particularly good example of the pivot – both literally and figuratively. Berkshire started with Najar as an aspiring competative junior player who had an ambition to play college golf. By the time Berkshire was old enough to have a beer legally, they had built a swing that produces more than 160 miles per hour of clubhead speed. Berkshire won World Long Drive titles in 2019, 2021 and 2023, and set the world record for ball speed at 241 miles per hour – about 70 miles per hour faster than the average PGA TOUR player.
Up to that point, Najar had probably been better known for his work as a short game and putting instructor. But Berkshire’s prodigious potential led Najar to deepen his dive into the biomechanical research and physical training study it would take to help a player support a technically sound golf swing at dragstrip speeds.
“We didn’t set out to build a long drive swing, but as Kyle improved it became clear he could compete in that class,” says Najar. “I knew I needed to meet Kyle where he lived, so to speak, and help him develop elements that would let him use his natural advantages to create more leverage and more speed.”
The speed sessions Najar devised replicate the physical, mental and emotional intensity of a competitive long drive session, and help players improve their clubhead speed significantly. Najar uses variations of the sessions with players of all abilities, helping them hit their career-best drives. Bryan Kim won the 2023 U.S. Junior Amateur with Najar’s help, and the current junior at Duke University has gained 20 pounds of muscle and 20 mph of clubhead speed. McCormick went from producing 155 mph of ball speed to 180-plus mph, which helped him earn his PGA TOUR card in 2024.
Najar even transformed his own body and swing with the cutting edge training techniques sharpened with Berkshire. Najar increased his muscle mass and successfully tamed a persistent back issue on his way to 120 miles per hour of clubhead speed before his 50th birthday, and he consistently hits the ball farther than he did in his 20s.
“Those experiences help you learn how discuss performance and how to measure it,” says Najar. “It also helps you realize you can always be better no matter what age you are or how much experience you have.”
The view from Najar’s teaching bay at Caves Valley is quite a bit different than the one at that first clinic he attended as the skeptical tennis player, but Najar remembers – and appreciates – every step.
“I’m so lucky I get to do something every day that I’m fascinated with, and I’m so fortunate to be able to win an award like PGA of America Teacher & Coach of the Year for doing it,” he says. “It’s a reflection of everybody who has helped me along the way, and of my students who have been open to learning. I couldn’t be more honored and humbled.”
