Opinion & Analysis
What does GolfTEC understand that most instructors don’t?
Right now, GolfTEC is dominating the instruction market. Last year, the company had nearly $100 million in sales, and it now controls 25 percent of the golf lesson industry.
A big reason for their success can be explained by their structure:
- GolfTEC advertises to golfers online.
- Golfers learn about what GolfTEC does on its website.
- Golfers schedule and pay for lessons on GolfTEC’s website.
The structure allows GolfTEC instructors to do what they do best — give lessons — while GolfTEC invests into growing its business.
GolfTEC has proven what works to dominate the market, and there is a lot to be learned for golf instructors who have their own teaching businesses. Even if you don’t see GolfTEC as your competitor, it’s clear that they didn’t become a force in the industry by accident. Implementing GolfTEC’s methods in your business can in many cases help golf instructors accomplish their goals much faster and easier than they might have otherwise.
The Changing Consumer
GolfTEC understands where golfers are and how to reach them. The company knows that consumers want to research, schedule lessons and checkout right from their computer or mobile device. And right now, 85 percent of consumers research a business online before committing to any kind purchase.
Things were far simpler 10 years ago. Instructors didn’t have to worry about having a website that sells, being active on social media, running advertisements, or finding ways to reach more customers online. But now they do, because golfers are going digital, and that’s even if you rely on word of mouth.
In today’s world, being online is seen as a necessity. But before diving into the web, you should ask yourself, “Why does it matter?” Well, because when you do it right, it works.
Picture an online system that gets new customers in the door and allows them to book a lesson online. Wouldn’t that free up more time for you so you can focus on learning and teaching. Sounds great, right?
Don’t see getting online as a chore. Instead, see it as way to dramatically improve how you do business. You’ll spend less time selling, scheduling, and managing, and more time with your clients.
In a Golfer’s Shoes
Let’s think about this from a golfer’s perspective. Let’s say you’re a golfer looking for golf lessons, and you don’t know any instructors. More likely than not, you turn to Google as most of us do anytime we need to find something.
This is exactly what golfers are doing today. In fact, the PGA has seen a 43 percent year-over-year increase of millennials (golfers ages 20-34) searching for golf online. They expect to go to your website, learn about you, read reviews, and schedule a lesson. Surprisingly, very few instructors are taking advantage of this very natural behavior.
Let’s compare what GolfTEC is doing vs. the average golf instructor. Here’s a simple breakdown.
GolfTEC
- Shows up across Google for any search terms related to golf lessons.
- Uses smart, online advertising across the web.
- Has a website that builds trust and sells its benefits to golfers.
- Conveniently allows golfers to schedule and pay for lessons on its website.
- Engages with customers after they book a lesson through email marketing and social media.
Most Golf Instructors
- Are not visible on Google Search results related to golf lessons.
- Rely primarily on word of mouth and print advertising.
- Don’t have a personal website (only 3 percent of instructors do).
- Are not building trust with potential customers online.
- Require golfers to pick up the phone or write an email to book a lesson.
- Accept payment by cash or check.
- Are not engaging current or past customers online.
Now, we’ve seen what makes the difference. If you are an instructor, the question becomes: what will you do about it? We’re sitting at a turning point for the future success of your golf lesson business. Consumers will continue to move online. The golf instructors that meet them there will thrive.
To learn more about my company that helps golf instructors get online, click here.
As the editor-in-chief of this website and an observer of the GolfWRX forums and other online golf equipment discourse for over a decade, I’m pretty well attuned to the grunts and grumbles of a significant portion of the golf equipment purchasing spectrum. And before you accuse me of lording above all in some digital ivory tower, I’d like to offer that I worked at golf courses (public and private) for years prior to picking up my pen, so I’m well-versed in the non-degenerate golf equipment consumers out there. I touched (green)grass (retail)!
Complaints about the ills of and related to the OEMs usually follow some version of: Product cycles are too short for real innovation, tour equipment isn’t the same as retail (which is largely not true, by the way), too much is invested in marketing and not enough in R&D, top staffer X hasn’t even put the new driver in play, so it’s obviously not superior to the previous generation, prices are too high, and on and on.
Without digging into the merits of any of these claims, which I believe are mostly red herrings, I’d like to bring into view of our rangefinder what I believe to be the two primary difficulties golf equipment companies face.
One: As Terry Koehler, back when he was the CEO of Ben Hogan, told me at the time of the Ft Worth irons launch, if you can’t regularly hit the golf ball in a coin-sized area in the middle of the face, there’s not a ton that iron technology can do for you. Now, this is less true now with respect to irons than when he said it, and is less and less true by degrees as the clubs get larger (utilities, fairways, hybrids, drivers), but there remains a great deal of golf equipment truth in that statement. Think about it — which is to say, in TL;DR fashion, get lessons from a qualified instructor who will teach you about the fundamentals of repeatable impact and how the golf swing works, not just offer band-aid fixes. If you can’t repeatably deliver the golf club to the golf ball in something resembling the manner it was designed for, how can you expect to be getting the most out of the club — put another way, the maximum value from your investment?
Similarly, game improvement equipment can only improve your game if you game it. In other words, get fit for the clubs you ought to be playing rather than filling the bag with the ones you wish you could hit or used to be able to hit. Of course, don’t do this if you don’t care about performance and just want to hit a forged blade while playing off an 18 handicap. That’s absolutely fine. There were plenty of members in clubs back in the day playing Hogan Apex or Mizuno MP-32 irons who had no business doing so from a ballstriking standpoint, but they enjoyed their look, feel, and complementary qualities to their Gatsby hats and cashmere sweaters. Do what brings you a measure of joy in this maddening game.
Now, the second issue. This is not a plea for non-conforming equipment; rather, it is a statement of fact. USGA/R&A limits on every facet of golf equipment are detrimental to golf equipment manufacturers. Sure, you know this, but do you think about it as it applies to almost every element of equipment? A 500cc driver would be inherently more forgiving than a 460cc, as one with a COR measurement in excess of 0.83. 50-inch shafts. Box grooves. And on and on.
Would fewer regulations be objectively bad for the game? Would this erode its soul? Fortunately, that’s beside the point of this exercise, which is merely to point out the facts. The fact, in this case, is that equipment restrictions and regulations are the slaughterbench of an abundance of innovation in the golf equipment space. Is this for the best? Well, now I’ve asked the question twice and might as well give a partial response, I guess my answer to that would be, “It depends on what type of golf you’re playing and who you’re playing it with.”
For my part, I don’t mind embarrassing myself with vintage blades and persimmons chasing after the quasi-spiritual elevation of a well-struck shot, but that’s just me. Plenty of folks don’t give a damn if their grooves are conforming. Plenty of folks think the folks in Liberty Corner ought to add a prison to the museum for such offences. And those are just a few of the considerations for the amateur game — which doesn’t get inside the gallery ropes of the pro game…
Different strokes in the game of golf, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I believe equipment company engineers are genuinely trying to build better equipment year over year. The marketing departments are trying to find ways to make this equipment appeal to the broadest segment of the golf market possible. All of this against (1) the backdrop of — at least for now — firm product cycles. And golfers who, with their ~15 average handicap (men), for the most part, are not striping the golf ball like Tiger in his prime and seem to have less and less time year over year to practice and improve. (2) Regulations that massively restrict what they’re able to do…
That’s the landscape as I see it and the real headwinds for golf equipment companies. No doubt, there’s more I haven’t considered, but I think the previous is a better — and better faith — point of departure when formulating any serious commentary on the golf equipment world than some of the more cynical and conspiratorial takes I hear.
Agree? Disagree? Think I’m worthy of an Adam Hadwin-esque security guard tackle? Let me know in the comments.
@golfoncbs The infamous Adam Hadwin tackle ? #golf #fyp #canada #pgatour #adamhadwin ? Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz – MaSssuguMusic
Episode #16 brings us Cliff McKinney. Cliff is the founder of Old Charlie Golf Club, a new club, and concept, to be built in the Florida panhandle. The model is quite interesting and aims to make great, private golf more affordable. We hope you enjoy the show!
Last week, I came across a reel from BBC Sport on Instagram featuring Scottie Scheffler speaking to the media ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush. In it, he shared that he often wonders what the point is of wanting to win tournaments so badly — especially when he knows, deep down, that it doesn’t lead to a truly fulfilling life.
View this post on Instagram
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport,” Scheffler said. “To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point?”
Ironically — or perhaps perfectly — he went on to win the claret jug.
That question — what’s the point of winning? — cuts straight to the heart of the human journey.
As someone who’s spent over two decades in the trenches of professional golf, and in deep study of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the game, I see Scottie’s inner conflict as a sign of soul evolution in motion.
I came to golf late. I wasn’t a junior standout or college All-American. At 27, I left a steady corporate job to see if I could be on the PGA Tour starting as a 14-handicap, average-length hitter. Over the years, my journey has been defined less by trophies and more by the relentless effort to navigate the deeply inequitable and gated system of professional golf — an effort that ultimately turned inward and helped me evolve as both a golfer and a person.
One perspective that helped me make sense of this inner dissonance around competition and our culture’s tendency to overvalue winning is the idea of soul evolution.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has done extensive research on reincarnation, and Netflix’s Surviving Death (Episode 6) explores the topic, too. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, the idea that we’re on a long arc of growth — from beginner to sage elder — offers a profound perspective.
If you accept the premise literally, then terms like “young soul” and “old soul” start to hold meaning. However, even if we set the word “soul” aside, it’s easy to see that different levels of life experience produce different worldviews.
Newer souls — or people in earlier stages of their development — may be curious and kind but still lack discernment or depth. There is a naivety, and they don’t yet question as deeply, tending to see things in black and white, partly because certainty feels safer than confronting the unknown.
As we gain more experience, we begin to experiment. We test limits. We chase extreme external goals — sometimes at the expense of health, relationships, or inner peace — still operating from hunger, ambition, and the fragility of the ego.
It’s a necessary stage, but often a turbulent and unfulfilling one.
David Duval fell off the map after reaching World No. 1. Bubba Watson had his own “Is this it?” moment with his caddie, Ted Scott, after winning the Masters.
In Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, reflecting on his 2011 Super Bowl win, Rodgers said:
“Now I’ve accomplished the only thing that I really, really wanted to do in my life. Now what? I was like, ‘Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn’t give you true happiness?’”
Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
Eventually, though, something shifts.
We begin to see in shades of gray. Winning, dominating, accumulating—these pursuits lose their shine. The rewards feel more fleeting. Living in a constant state of fight-or-flight makes us feel alive, yes, but not happy and joyful.
Compassion begins to replace ambition. Love, presence, and gratitude become more fulfilling than status, profits, or trophies. We crave balance over burnout. Collaboration over competition. Meaning over metrics.
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can apply this same model to nations and cultures. Countries, like people, have a collective “soul stage” made up of the individuals within them.
Take the United States, for example. I’d place it as a mid-level soul: highly competitive and deeply driven, but still learning emotional maturity. Still uncomfortable with nuance. Still believing that more is always better. Despite its global wins, the U.S. currently ranks just 23rd in happiness (as of 2025). You might liken it to a gifted teenager—bold, eager, and ambitious, but angsty and still figuring out how to live well and in balance. As much as a parent wants to protect their child, sometimes the child has to make their own mistakes to truly grow.
So when Scottie Scheffler wonders what the point of winning is, I don’t see someone losing strength.
I see someone evolving.
He’s beginning to look beyond the leaderboard. Beyond metrics of success that carry a lower vibration. And yet, in a poetic twist, Scheffler did go on to win The Open. But that only reinforces the point: even at the pinnacle, the question remains. And if more of us in the golf and sports world — and in U.S. culture at large — started asking similar questions, we might discover that the more meaningful trophy isn’t about accumulating or beating others at all costs.
It’s about awakening and evolving to something more than winning could ever promise.
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Someone
May 22, 2017 at 10:38 pm
This article is garbage. Title misleads thinking that it was going to explain how golftec is somehow better at improving your game over golf pros. Instead it’s about business? This is a GOLF site…not a damn forbes “how we made our millions” business column. I could give two craps about golftecs advertising or how they reach their customers. What I do care about is the service that golftec offers and how good it is compared to other pros and instructors. What a HUGE waste of time…article is worthless to golfers that actually want to know about GOLF, not the “business” of golf. Has GOLFWRX lost its direction? Do they let anyone write now? Geez…where is the quality control…
Jim
May 22, 2017 at 6:12 pm
I have to admit they were very honest about the commitment needed by the client and the time it would take to make various was longer for some issues than others.
We were never told to lie or sell quick fixes… quite the contrary, to explain WHY it will probably take 40 weeks or even a full year to make these changes and habe them
Jim
May 22, 2017 at 6:21 pm
…it ate half the comment…
And HAVE THEM take hold on the course, which any real instructor knows is true if say a solid 18 decides he wants to do this, and get to a 7 or 8…
It’s the “quality & experience” of the instructors that’s BS. Sure, folks get better with time, and learn from the more experienced ones at the center they’ll go to, but I had 2 cats in my 10 person GT ‘U’ class that had virtually NO lesson experience AT ALL, and 2 who had done ‘ a few lessons’ or the jr clinic… they don’t care WHAT’s actually taught – as long as they use people’s biomeasurements and get them into ‘positions’…
Jim
May 23, 2017 at 1:59 am
They were selling franchises – which is what I was interested in. Great national exposure, net presence etc.
I would’ve MOST DEFINITELY RUN IT MY WAY, and hired & trained my staff personally but they aren’t looking to bounce. They believe, and they have significant $$$ invested.
They’re just total users, dishonest, and have NO quality control other than occasional ‘peer reviews’ where coaches are periodically supposed to randomly review the lesson recap a client recieves and rate it….
I’m offended anytime I see any promo for them, as the skeleton is definitely there to actually be really good. And there are indeed good coaches in there…but it is NO WAY honorable, honest or consistent….
A shame…
TeeBone
May 24, 2017 at 5:18 pm
GolfTEC’s been around for over 15 years, and last year was their best ever. Pay attention. Your rambling, incoherent posts make no sense. The only consistency is your negativity towards any instruction that doesn’t conform to your schizophrenic system. You’re clearly not a professional instructor, so stop acting as though you you have any idea what the hell you’re talking about.
Jim
Jun 2, 2017 at 10:44 am
Obviously you can’t read. Nothing to do with disagreeing with any ‘system’. Actually agree with them on the fact there are no quick fixes and they are honest about that.
Their boiler room complete disregard for their pros and complete lack of any instructional belief ot other than to contort every body type into the same positions. … bite me
stephenf
Jun 2, 2017 at 5:15 pm
If I understood your earlier comments, you’re a PGA member. Is that right? I’m just getting at the “clearly not a professional instructor” allegation.
Either way, I don’t see the point in worrying about someone who thinks 15 years in the business and a great year last year are proof of good business practices and good golf instruction. Just dumb.
Chris Cruz
May 22, 2017 at 4:32 pm
Derek,
If you are reading the comments to this article, I commend you, your insight, and initiative. I own a small web production and strategy shop, and I think your assessments are correct.
The only feedback I would give is that the headline is a bit misleading and polarizing. The polarizing part is good to a degree, but not when it misleads the user from content they would expect to see when they click on the article. Or when it stirs up undesired predispositions in the user thats about to view your content. As this headline did.
Many folks read the headline and the rest of your story didnt matter to them, they were too focused on a headline that reads positively for golf tec instruction which your story doesnt even really talk about.
Something more accurate to description would be something like “How GolfTec’s Digital efforts attribute to their success and how you (the instructor) can benefit” Obviously thats too long I’m no copywriter. But you get the point, anyway, applaud you for your initiative even as a student, and just trying to provide some constructive feedback for you.
However, I agree with other WRXers on this thread. Golf wrx doing all this advertorial is kind of a bummer, but i get it. It’s a business and you need revenue, still a bummer.
Kenn
May 22, 2017 at 12:36 pm
Okay, after one lesson at GolfTec they isolate several swing faults that must be remedied. What happens next? Simply identifying your swing faults is surely not enough, and then practicing on your own is futile because you don’t know if you are doing the changes correctly. Must you return to GolfTec on a regular basis to check out what’s happening to your swing? How do you eliminate your swing faults after the Golftec session?
Steve S
May 22, 2017 at 8:47 am
Basically this is a very nice ad for the author’s company Dotbound. The website states “We help teaching professionals sell more lessons while making life easier.”
So another ad disguised as a legitimate article. GolfWRX should have charged him for the space.
Judge Smells
May 22, 2017 at 7:09 am
The only difference is Golftec has more overhead costs than your local pro
Alex Jackson
May 21, 2017 at 9:31 am
All you guys bashing GolfTec obviously didn’t read the article. It has nothing to do with their method/how they teach. The article is about how they market themselves and make it easy for the student to book and pay for lessons.
Greg
May 21, 2017 at 10:39 am
Exactly, the author (Derek) seems to be a very enterprising young man and I’m impressed with his insight and initiative. His premise of the trend does seem to be true base on the number of instructors we see that are taking advantage of websites, YouTube, online lessons, online memberships, blogs, forums, etc. Think of Shawn Clements, Clay Ballard, Monte, etc…etc. I would agree with Derek, that instructors not expanding their marketing/product to fully use the “internet” run the risk of being marginalized even if they do have a club (private or public). I’m not an instructor, but I fit the golfing consumer profile Derek described.
TR1PTIK
May 22, 2017 at 12:10 pm
Agreed. I don’t care for GolfTec’s instruction (based on reviews, I’ve never been), but I still enjoyed the article and thought it was completely relevant. The author wasn’t trying to sell anyone on anything. To sum it up, the article suggests that teaching pros could learn a thing or two about online presence from GolfTec (i.e. SEO, e-commerce, etc.). After reading, my first thought was to share with my course pro to pick his brain and suggest some new ways for him to generate business at his course.
larry
May 21, 2017 at 7:51 am
Anyone going to golf tec is an absolute idiot, find a teaching pro at a private club there always the best.
setter02
May 22, 2017 at 7:10 am
About as solid a statement as can be said for someone who knows nothing, congrats!!! Very good blanket statement, you should feel proud of how hard it would be to pick this one apart…
Judge Smells
May 22, 2017 at 1:13 pm
I could not agree more, Golf is played outside on grass not inside on a computer screen
Mat
May 20, 2017 at 7:18 pm
GolfTec is only doing one thing right. They are commoditising a business that had been traditionally attached to golf facilities. The rest of it is scale, and they’ve been able to build scale because they are not attached to single facilities.
It doesn’t make the instruction any better; if anything, it makes it worse.
Billy
May 20, 2017 at 5:48 pm
I visit golftec once. They got gc2 so I asked if they have hmt. Well.. the instructor didn’t even know what’s hmt
Dat
May 20, 2017 at 4:39 pm
Golf tec singlehandedly ruined my swing for a month after I went for a free consult I won. Never again.
Mat
May 20, 2017 at 7:21 pm
Yep. They fit you into their one swing, on carpet. Having said that, they’re like half the instructors out there anyhow; they have “the book” on a swing, and try to get you to emulate it. They should be helping you find the most repeatable action for your body, but just as in equipment, distance sells. So the generic lesson gets the yardage number up as the main success metric. Not healthy.
Caleb
May 20, 2017 at 2:04 pm
I’d take this a lot more seriously if there wasn’t a GolfTec ad right next to the article.
Zak Kozuchowski
May 20, 2017 at 6:18 pm
Caleb,
That ad you’re seeing is a third-party ad based on your search history. GolfTEC is not a GolfWRX sponsor.
setter02
May 20, 2017 at 9:54 pm
And all the ads are ruining the site!
The dude
May 23, 2017 at 4:54 am
….another one who doesn’t understand..