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How to Become a Professional Golf Instructor?

golf coach whistle or golf instructor whistle
golf coach whistle or golf instructor whistle

So you are good at golf, but not that good. Not good enough to become a professional, and you are on the wrong side of your athletic prime. What can you do to still benefit financially from your golf knowledge and skill?

The answer is simple: become a golf instructor, also known as a golf coach.

How to Become a Golf Instructor or a Golf Coach?

How to become a professional golf instructor? To become a golf instructor, there is more than one path, and all paths lead to the Promised Land, provided you work hard and smart enough.

Look down below at some of the major steps you should probably consider if you want to know how to become a professional golf instructor.

Step 1: Obtain a Professional Level of Golf Knowledge

If you are going to teach others how to play golf, you obviously need to be an expert in all topics of golf. You will meet all kinds of players during your career: beginners, intermediate players, and maybe even advanced players.

To be able to help these players, you need to be better than them, or at least be capable of pointing out their mistakes that they cannot see. Therefore, you need to brush up on your golf knowledge until you know almost everything about golf! It will not be easy, but it is doable for sure.

One great way to ensure you get good golf knowledge is to study at a golf school. In golf school, you can learn from experts you wish to become like, making them great mentors, as well as good contacts you can call or message for advice.

If you go this route, try to foster relationships with your mentors; mentors are powerful weapons in anyone’s arsenal. There are universities out there that offer golf specific programs, including some verified by the PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association)

Another great way to learn as much as possible about golf is through reading our articles, reading books about golf, and watching tutorials and courses available online. The internet is truly a gold mine, if used correctly, and if you can sift through misinformation, and find the little gold nuggets scattered around.

There is almost no search query in the world that will not return results relevant to what you are searching for. The internet is powerful; use it wisely.

Step 2: Obtain a Professional Level of Golf Skill

At the same time that you are brushing up on your golf knowledge, you should also improve your golf skill until you are very comfortable. You should have internalized all the lessons you have read about within your own game if you are to teach others how to play golf.

Even when you finally reach the point of being skillful enough to teach others how to play golf, you will ideally want to keep staying active, and practicing golf every week at the least. You want to stay in good condition to maintain your skill and long-term health, as well as the perception students have of you.

To improve your own golf skill, you could employ the very person you want to become. Get a golf coach, and you can get better at golf, while directly observing potentially great examples of your future profession.

However, not all golf coaches are good. If you wish to be exposed to many examples of golf coaches, choose a different coach every time you hire one. Eventually, you will be able to pick up on who the best coaches are, why they are the best, and how you can incorporate their own good traits within yourself.

Furthermore, students want to learn from the best. If you are capable of winning some tournaments, no matter how big, you will greatly increase your credibility in the eyes of potential students. In addition, students will respect your word more, pay more attention, and sometimes, even be a little star-struck.

Step 3: Get a Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Certification

Although getting a golfer’s association certification is technically optional, in practice, it is a key that will open many doors in your golf instructor career.

In fact, if you are looking for a job, many employers require some kind of certification before considering to hire you. Furthermore, if you start your own coaching business, you will be taken more seriously if you have certifications to your name, and students will be more likely to sign up.

Some of the golf instructor certification programs you can join include the PGA, the Professional Golf Teachers Association of America, the United States Golf Teachers Federation. The PGA certification is the most prestigious golf certification out there, and having it makes you a professional golfer, just like Tiger Woods or Bryson DeChambeau.

Step 4: Find a job, or look for clients

If you are looking for a job as a golf instructor, you can look at job boards to see if there are any jobs available near you. In addition, you can contact your mentors and your golf teachers to see if they have any opportunities available.

Furthermore, if you used multiple golf coaches yourself, you can contact them for an internship, or if they have too many clients, they can send some to you in exchange for a percentage of the income generated.

If there are golfing facilities near you, such as a golf course, or a driving range, contact the management, or go up to the front desk to ask if you can work there. Make it obvious that you are qualified, and very motivated.

On the other hand, if you are trying to start your own golf instruction business, you should look for struggling players at driving ranges and similar areas, and offer a free lesson to start gaining clients. Once you have clients, you need to satisfy them incredibly well so that they keep coming to you, and send their friends and family your way.

Business is about keeping your customers and making them happy. If you keep your customers happy, you will not lose many, and they will do client prospecting (the process of finding new clients) for you, completely for free. Aim to serve your clients, and they will serve you.

Once you have so many clients that you cannot possibly respond to all the demand, it is time to hire other coaches, and to make sure they can offer your level of satisfaction to the customer.

Once you have excess clients, as well as one or more good coaches at your disposition, you can send the excess clients to your employed coaches, and take a percentage of the income your employee generated in exchange for providing them with a client they did not need to find themselves.

Once you find a formula that works, stick with it, and repeat. Keep adding new coaches to the business, while making absolutely sure that the clients remain as satisfied as possible. The bigger you grow your business, the more difficult it will be keep everyone satisfied.

The key to keeping satisfaction high is not by micromanaging your coaches, but by putting in place business systems coaches must follow to make customer satisfaction close to inevitable.

Step 5: Invest your money wisely

Whether you found a job as a golf instructor, or are self-employed, finding your own clients and charging however much you want, you need to invest your money wisely.

Job security is not necessarily assured, especially in the context of a Black Swan like the one in 2020, and starting your own business gives you variable income, which can feel risky.

For these reasons, you should not spend so much money that you are living paycheck to paycheck. Ideally, you would want to lower your expenses as much as possible so that you have money leftover to invest for your retirement.

Where to invest your leftover money? You should always keep 3 to 6 months worth of living expenses as cash in your bank account. Furthermore, depending on your level of risk, you can add an extra month or two’s worth in an emergency account.

Finally, after you have assured your survival in the short and medium term, a great place to invest is in an index fund, like the S&P500. An index fund is basically a collection of a set number of some of the biggest stocks (e.g. 500 stocks in the S&P500). An index fund is known to be a rather safe investment if you invest your money in the long term (10+ years).

If you plan to keep your money in the stock market for a long time, index funds can be a great choice to start saving for retirement, because they grow your investment by 10%, on average, year over year.

If you take your money out quickly from the index fund, you can experience a loss; this is why it is important to leave your money invested long term.

Once you reach retirement, your salary potentially drops to 0, and you will need money to pay your expenses. Assuming you have been investing in an index fund for 10, 20, 30 or maybe even 40 years, the money you invested will have grown very significantly.

If you invested enough as early on as possible, the money in the index fund will be enough to fund your entire retirement.

Disclaimer: nothing in this article is financial advice; you should do your own research.

Conclusion

There you go! You now know everything you need to know to become a golf instructor. If you need a reminder on certain golf notions, do not hesitate to use the search bar function on our website! Remember to invest your salary in a financially smart way, keeping a long-term perspective in mind!

We wish you a long, prosper golf coach career, that you understood how to become a professional golf instructor, and hope you foster many PGA champions in the future! We believe in you.

How long have you been playing golf? Let us know in the comments down below!

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How To Have a Successful Golf Career? – 7 Keys To Success

golf trophy
golf trophy

How to have a successful golf career? This article is meant as a to-do list, stacked with the most crucial habits to integrate into your life if you wish to win. If you dream of one day being a professional golf player, then religiously follow the tips and advice in this article.

To become a professional golf player, there are many elements you need to maximize if you wish to increase your chances of making the cut. Many people are dreamers, but only a small few actually take action to go after what they want. Be one of those few people who win.

You need to work hard and smart and avoid bad decisions if you wish to become a professional. When it comes to sports performance, one bad decision can completely ruin the rest of your good decisions. Read the entire article if you are truly serious about becoming a professional golf player.

How To Have a Successful Golf Career?

How to have a successful golf career? Down below are some of the most essential elements you need to work on in golf specifically, but they are applicable to life as well. Unfortunately, to maximize your chances of becoming a professional golf player, you need to make sacrifices, and choose where you put your time. Some friendships will deteriorate as a result of you doing what it takes to win.

People around you will look at you like you’re crazy, and even talk behind your back, but you know what you must do. It does not matter what others think, if you are aiming to become a professional because YOU wish to be a professional. Before spending your life getting better at golf, think deep within you whether you are training truly for yourself, or to impress others.

If you are training to become a professional to impress others, instead of doing it for yourself, you will likely live an unhappy life, even if you do become a professional. If your motivation to become a professional is truly for yourself, you will multiply tenfold your chances of making the cut.

Down below, read closely 7 if of the most important elements that allow even average golf prospects to get their chance at being a professional. These sectors are all possible to improve for most people. Remember, you have the choice to make a decision that will help you reach your goal, or one that will destroy your chances.

The 7 Keys to a Successful Golf Career

Down below are 7 of the most crucial keys to having a successful golf career. Follow these meticulously to rise above mediocrity and attain greatness.

1. Good diet & nutrition

What you put in your body, is what comes out. Eat trash, and your performance will be trash. These are blunt statements, but they hold immense truth. Ask any competent nutritionist, and they will tell you to eat healthy, eat enough protein, to have a balanced diet.

You can train in the gym 40 hours a week, but if you do not consume enough protein, you will not get muscle growth. Without extra muscle, you will have a hard time increasing your carry distance. You will put in work, with little return on your time and effort invested. However, if you load your body with good food in the right proportions, you will see results, in the form of both muscle growth and golf performance.

Good nutrition is one of the keys to maximizing the value of your training. Consuming a healthy athlete’s diet will result in giving your body the necessary building blocks to build your physique. As an illustrative metaphor, you want your bricks to be as strong as possible, but if you give your body pudding as building blocks, your physique will not be very strong.

2. Good sleep hygiene

Sleep is one of the most important things in an athlete’s development. During the night, while you sleep, your body uses the nutrients you provided it through your diet as building blocks to repair and strengthen your muscle tissues. Sleep is literally one of the processes through which you experience muscle growth allowing you to improve your carry distance.

Furthermore, your sleep refuels your brain and your mind. When you wake up after a short night of bad sleep, you feel groggy, want to close your eyes, your balance is off, your vision is blurry. With bad sleep, you simply are not putting yourself in a good position to perform well.

On the other hand, if your sleep is top notch, 8-9 hours every single night, at the same time every night, you will feel the difference. Every morning, you will feel more rested, more motivated, happier, and your muscles will grow over time, provided you train. Sleep is a non-negotiable aspect you must master if you are to become a dominant golf player. You will thank yourself if you sleep well. Life is more enjoyable when you are rested.

3. Safe Training – Avoiding Injuries

Contrary to what some people may believe, training all the time can be very bad for your body. In fact, some people are so motivated to train, that they will over train, and injure themselves, causing huge issues.

Some minor injuries are not the end of the world, but it is also possible to tear your biceps muscle, or injure your back. Major injuries like the latter two mentioned will be great roadblocks in your journey. On top of being downright painful, injuries mean you cannot train because you must heal, and that comes with a big opportunity cost.

By opportunity cost, we mean that, for example, if your injury takes 6 months to heal, you will lose 6 entire months of training. 6 months of training is nearly 1% of your entire lifetime (assuming you will live 80 years). If you consider you will retire at 40 years old, then 6 months represents about 2% of your lifetime until you are too old to compete. Know the value of time, and maximize the decisions that will give you the most useful time.

On top of the opportunity cost that comes with injuries, your body will deteriorate considerably during your injury. For example, if you tear your biceps, you cannot train it during recovery, and muscles that do not get trained regularly start to shrink. You will lose many pounds of muscle mass that you worked hard for, just because you trained too hard, and injured yourself.

Fortunately, once we have built muscle, even if we lose it, we experience something known as “muscle memory”. The first time you grow your muscles to sizes you had never previously reached, their structure changes slightly, a phenomenon known as muscle memory. If you stop training for a while, your muscles will shrink. However, when you start training again, it will be faster to grow your muscles back to their maximum size, thanks to muscle memory. Check out this article from Legion Athletics for more information on muscle memory.

To avoid injuries, you should sleep enough, eat a good diet, and stretch after a workout. Do not use more weights than you can handle. Do not feed into your ego when others are looking at you. In the gym, you are your only competition. In addition, when you start to feel significant pain in a limb, do not push through the pain.  Your body is telling you “hey! I am hurting here! I need to take a break”! Listen to your body’s signals, and give it the rest it is asking for. Over time, as you get stronger, you will be able to increase the intensity of your training.

4. Pouring hours into practice

Becoming a professional at anything, including golf, requires a massive time investment. Playing golf only once a week is probably not going to turn you into a professional level golf player. You have surely heard of the saying:

“It takes 10,000 hours of focused action to become a master at any one skill”

This age-old paraphrase definitely holds a lot of truth to it. Depending on your talent level, it might take you only 8000 hours, or it might take you 20,000 hours, but mastery is something that comes with time. Ask PGA tour pros how much time they have practiced, and it is a guarantee that they have spent thousands upon thousands of hours.

You need to put in the time to practice all aspects of golf to become better. A great example is professional golf player Bryson DeChambeau. Bryson DeChambeau did not become one of the best driver hitters on the tour by only practicing putting. He is one of the best up-and-coming players because he practiced all aspects of golf, and on top of that, practiced his driving more than the average professional. Furthermore, Bryson DeChambeau is constantly studying the game of golf analytically and testing all sorts of techniques, balls, and more to try and gain just a 1% edge over everyone else. Bryson DeChambeau is putting in the work, and so can you.

Put in the work, put in the hours, put in the time, and your skills will vastly improve. Life is all about how you spend your time. The only sad thing is that you cannot become good at everything, for example, both at golf, and basketball. However, now that you have read the previous sentence, you have the unique opportunity to become the best at golf of your age, while most other people are still stuck choosing which 5 sports they want to get good at.

5. Saying NO to Drugs & Alcohol

Drugs & alcohol are some of the biggest dream killers, and robbers of happiness out there in the world. Unfortunately, many people go down the rabbit hole of consuming illicit substances to drown their pain, their inability to kick themselves into working towards their dreams, and more. Even worse, many people die from consuming drugs.

But not you. You are different. Avoid drugs & alcohol at all costs. Why would anyone rational and sane ever pay money to consume substances that damage their own body? It makes absolutely zero sense. But you, you are a rational person who knows what is best for them.

Therefore, if you wish to maximize your chances to become a professional golf player, you must NEVER consume any drugs nor alcohol. NEVER give into peer pressure. The truth is, most people on this earth do not know what in the world they are doing. Most people are clueless, and they feel lonely, and want to drag you into their bad habits, so that they feel less lonely. However, you must learn to say NO when offered bad substances.

ALWAYS say NO to drugs & alcohol. Consuming an illicit substance just once can send you down a dark path you will regret forever. As a human to another human, I am telling you right now: do not take drugs or alcohol. Stay strong, do not give into peer pressure, and work towards your dreams while people call you crazy. If you have already tried drugs, STOP NOW. Do NOT let yourself go down this dark path any longer!

One day, you will find your path, hardened by your efforts and training, and you will look back to the people who tried to peer pressure you. You will look back, and see how far you have come, while they are still in the same sad, self-pitying state they were in years before. Trust the process, be kind to yourself, and only consume good things for you, like healthy foods.

6. Avoid Gambling & Bad Investments

It is no secret that golf is a fairly expensive sport to play, especially when you encompass gear, coaching & travel costs. To fund your golf playing and progress, you obviously need money, but there are some things that will rob you of your money, and indirectly, your ability to play golf.

One of those dark things is gambling. Suppose you have 10,000$ allocated for you to play and train golf. 10,000$ is a sizeable amount that could last you a good while. However, if you try gambling this golf money for some reason, you could lose it all, killing your joy related to golf, since you will no longer be able to fund your play.

An important thing to know is that with casinos, gambling games, and scams, the other party always has an edge over you. The games, the machines, the setups; they are all engineered to make you lose more than you win. You will get in a cycle of addiction once you start winning or losing money through gambling, and since you do not have the edge, you will lose all your money.

For the love of golf, if you are fortunate to have money to play and train golf, do not gamble. Simply, do not. You are in a good position, so take advantage of it. If you do not have much money, well then you should even less gamble. If you have an excess of money, you should still not gamble, because every tower only needs one crack to crumble to the ground.

7. Choosing the right social circle

Finally, the people you spend your time with eventually start to rub off you. You need to be selective with the people you let inside of your social circle, of your tribe. Favor honest, hard working people with positive mindsets. Avoid drug addicts, losers, hyper-aggressive, dishonest, manipulative, negative people.

You have two choices in life. Spend time with people who raise you up, creating a beautiful synergy of people who provide value to each other’s lives. Or, you can choose to spend time with bad people who will inevitably cause trouble and drama in your life, bringing nothing but excuses and negativity.

From experience and wisdom of the past philosophers, we can truly, genuinely, only recommend you to choose good people to spend time with. People who care about you and your well-being. People who make good decisions. Do not be afraid to slowly cut negative people out of your life.

If your dream is to become a professional golf player, then you should absolutely favor hard-working golf players who want to work up with you as your friends. Spend time with people who have similar goals as you, but who will not get jealous of your success. Find people who you can grind and become better people with. This is one of the biggest keys to having a successful golf career.

Conclusion

This article was a genuine plea from us to you to make good decisions in life. Life is about the decisions we make and where we spend our time. We want you to succeed if that is what you decided you want for yourself. Follow the keys mentioned in this article to have a successful golf career.

Read this article again, take notes, accept that these are key elements you need to maximize. When people will call you crazy, or boring, or insult you for being different, ignore them, and stay the course. Your journey is yours alone, and no one else should have a say in what you decide you want for yourself. Work hard. Be smart. Use your time well. We wish you nothing but the best.

Which of these keys to having a successful golf career could you improve on? What are you doing to improve? Share your thoughts with the other golfers in the comments! Let’s motivate each other to be great!