Entry 25.3

Alright, it’s time for the largest gathering of golf professionals in the world. The PGA Show is one of my favorite times of the year. This will be my fourth trip to Orlando for the event and every year it gets better. When it comes to the PGA Show, I am a post-Covid baby. I never attended the show prior to Covid shutting down the world. I constantly hear how much bigger and more fun it was pre-Covid, but I can’t go back in time to experience it. So, whatever. What I can do is make each and every show the best that I can make it for me. The first year that I went was an as assistant when I worked at Highland Country Club here in town. Honestly, it was probably the best way that I could’ve experienced the show for the first time.

My then boss has been a PGA Professional for over a decade and knows plenty of people in the industry. The first lesson I learned was how important of a networking event that the PGA Show is. I met a ton of people during some of the meetings that Micah had set up. This was the first Show post-Covid and I was told that it was quieter than normal with a lot of the major companies not showing up. What that meant was a lot more attention on the smaller businesses and startups that did show up. After our meetings all day Wednesday Micah turned me loose on the show floor on Thursday. I found a ton of interesting stuff and took every business card that was handed to me. Because it was quieter, I had the opportunity to speak with someone at every booth that caught my eye. I started building my own network. When we met back up later that evening, Micah was surprised at all the interesting things I had discovered in my wanderings. Some of those products made it into the shop and then flew off the shelves. Some didn’t pan out. I found this putter grip that had a ball picker built into the end of it. Micah and I both thought it was perfect since it felt like a large SuperStroke grip but because of the weight port on the end of most SuperStroke grips, we couldn’t attach our normal ball picker. My guess is that some of the original ten grips are still in the club repair area at Highland. Friday I experienced the true treasure of the PGA Show for the first time: education. It wasn’t anything glittery or glamorous, but for me, it made the whole trip worth it. That first educational experience was U.S. Kids Level 1. But that one experience turned the PGA Show into a treasure trove for me.

Sometime in November or December leading up to the 2023 PGA Show, Brock sent out an email about the PGA National Teaching and Coaching Summit the Sunday and Monday before the Show. I had feelers out for educational opportunities already, but this was exactly the kind of information that I was looking for. I signed up immediately. My second show was going to be different than my first one. I was still an assistant at Highland Country Club but this time I was not going with Micah; I was going on my own. This Show ended up being the show that changed the course of my career. In my search, I landed on The Ultimate Golf Lesson, a series of seminars both filmed and live taught by Mike Adams and Terry Rowles. In the live sessions, Mike and Terry bring in some of the other top minds in the industry like Dr. Phil Cheetham, Dr. Mike Duffey, Bruce Rearick and others. I also met David Edel, Ricky Murphy, Monique Thoresz and more. More names for my rolodex should I ever come across something while teaching I needed help with. After adding that to my calendar I had the Sunday and Monday before the Show booked and Friday and Saturday at the end of the Show booked. But what was I going to do in the middle? Then I stumbled on The Open Forum. Think of the nerdiest of golf nerds (and amazing teachers, coaches, researchers, and inventors) all getting together in one place to talk about the most cutting-edge information in the business and combine it with the legends. It was there I met Chris Como, Dr. Sash MacKenzie, Randy Smith (coach to Scottie Scheffler), Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott (Vision 54), David Leadbetter, Jim McLean, Dr. Erik Henrikson and Joe Mayo to name a few. Imagine the wealth of knowledge when you have Randy Smith, Pia Nilsson, Lynn Marriott, David Leadbetter, Jim McLean, Mike Hebron, and Mike Adams all on the same stage, at the same time, answering questions live from the audience. If you can’t take something away from that, then I can’t help you. The best part is that during the whole thing, you can just slip away and talk with anyone who is willing to talk, and I haven’t met anyone there that won’t. It’s the whole point of The Open Forum: discussions and information sharing from people who otherwise may never meet. But what to do with the rest of my time? Then I downloaded the PGA Show App, and everything changed. I found out that tons of booths bring in special speakers and do mini-educational opportunities. I easily filled every hour of my free days and had to make the hard choice about which events to skip for others. And it was so worth it. I have a notebook that I have been filling with nuggets from these small events and others over the years. And I met even more great people. Those eight days in Orlando in 2023 started me down a path of exploration and learning that I am still on today.

The 2024 PGA Show was another new experience for me. It was my first time attending as the Head Professional and Director of Instruction here at Methodist. The Open Forum was even better that the year before. I can still remember the over-the-top spirited Short Game debate that broke out between Parker McLaughlin (aka The Short Game Chef), James Ridyard, Brian Manzella, Jon Dunigan and Joe Mayo. I learned a ton about how much pride these guys take in their work and how inferior my depth of knowledge on the subject was (and still is in comparison). I also had the opportunity to spend almost an hour talking with James Hong, who I had met at the Teaching and Coaching Summit the year before who has an amazing Junior Golfer program. During the Show, I did a little less wandering than I did the year before. Now when I walked up to some of the booths, I was recognized and spent more time discussing coaching on a deeper plane than I had the year before. I was still there to learn, but this time I was asked for my thoughts on certain pieces of technology or methods. Honestly, I was slightly taken aback. After meeting some of the people that I have, I wouldn’t think that my opinion or thoughts would be considered. After all, these are the best and brightest in our industry when it comes to either teaching, technology or both. I finished off my Show spending two more days with Mike and Terry digging deeper into what they have to offer.

This year will be another new experience for me. The Teaching and Coaching Summit is back (it is held every other year) and I will be attending The Open Forum again Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning, I am starting The Stack System Certification with Dr. Sasho MacKenzie and in the evening I get to attend the Alumni function for the first time as an Alumni. I will be wandering the Show Floor reconnecting with my network and hopefully expanding it Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. Thursday evening and Friday morning I will be doing an in-person review of TPI Level 1 with Dr. Greg Rose and Dave Phillips. Saturday will be my first excursion into the network learning experience from Stack and Tilt with Andy Plummer. Always looking for new opportunities to add tools to my toolbox to become a better teacher. I’m looking forward to another Show and all that it has to offer. Don’t just go to go. Take advantage of the opportunity and grow your network.