“Develop Young Talent: Creative Coaching for Junior Golf”, with renowned PGA professional Kevin Britt. With over 30 years of experience and a track record of coaching notable players like Dustin Johnson (LIV Golf), Kevin shares his insights on fostering young talent through innovative and structured coaching programs. This highlights actionable strategies for golf coaches looking to enhance their junior golf programs and support the next generation of golfers.
#golfcoaching #juniorgolf #golfpros #golfmanagement #support #futureofgolf #golf
um do were you able to watch any of the PGA Championship at all or are you pretty busy I did not I was I caught a little bit of it um maybe Friday night but I I didn’t watch any of it live okay I was I was really busy this last four days so yeah yeah unfortunately I’d love to watch PGA yeah and you’re remind me where you did you grow up in the Columbia area where did you where did you kind of grow up for the most part Florida and Fort Myers okay and then Florida and then I moved to Hilton Head I was in Hilton Head at palet Dunes for five years and then we up the club in Charleston and then I went from there to Lexington and then chapen right around the area and then I was I’ve been in sparber about eight years okay got it I was curious what your ties were to South Carolina so that makes sense now right very cool all right we’re going to get a few more minutes we have a few folks hopping on it’s like uh about 20 or so on right now we’ll give it a few about we’ll get kicked off around 103 so if you need to grab a quick drink of water um feel free to do so before we get going um like my daughter said she’s gonna she’s watching on on her uh on her end in Charleston so awesome awesome good very cool yeah that’s a I Love Charleston area it’s a not a bad place to live for a little while my black lab’s trying to get outside I’m on my screen in porch I’m off the okay all good grab him he’s my he’s my buddy boy buddy he doesn’t like me out here without him so I hear you bust Buster the lab I love it yeah so are you big uh USC South Carolina fan or were you I I went to Florida State I’m okay that’s right I used to teach uh PE golf at University of South Carolina okay I’ve never been a fan of the gamec or Clum yep I gotta all right we will go ahead and get going 103 on Friday afternoon eastern time so thank you everybody for tuning in we have folks from all the country uh hopping in today so appreciate everybody on uh for taking some time out of your day to listen in to a special guest we have today uh this Kevin Britt who is a been with operation 36 since I believe 2016 is that right Kevin yes follow 2016 right follow 2016 so I really appreciate Uh Kevin taking some time out of his day as well but um we got some exciting things to share with you uh to go over and I just want to share a couple quick notes about Kevin as you can see on the screen there he’s been at this for quite a while 30 years as a PGA member uh he’s as of late was 2023 CB cpga teacher of the year uh and has been best in State Golf giant Golf Digest 2019 to 2025 and most recently 2023 cpga mountains chapter education shair he sent me a list of over some some other accolades I don’t think we would have had enough room on the screen for him so he’s been he’s like I said he’s been at this for a while he’s got a a bunch of knowledge and hopefully he can share some of that with us today um but we’re super grateful to have him on today to to share some some thoughts and uh some ideas he’s had over the years also do wanted to make note of some former students that he’s had the pleasure uh to teach and that’s Dustin Johnson William mcgurt and Lauren Stevenson so um I’m sure he’s got a lot of really great stories from over the years from um several years of teaching and and a lot of wisdom so we’re lucky today to get an hour of his time to to share some of that so that being said we’ll go ahead and and kick off into just a couple questions um actually before I do that let me just let everybody know if you do have any questions for Kevin or for myself throughout the call today there is a Q&A feature at the bottom uh where you can pop in your your question and we will do our best to answer it live and if we can’t we’ll answer it at the very end so uh please keep that in mind and this is also being recorded So if you do have to hop off for a lesson or you’ve got to get going um we’ll make sure to uh get you a recording or you can reach out to us and we will send you a recording perfect that being said let’s go ahead and uh dive into maybe just a quick question to start us off Kevin which is um if you don’t mind just sharing a little bit about what got you interested into op 36 what kind of Drew you into it right well I was uh I started at the Country Club of Spartanburg I moved up from the chapen area in Lexington uh back in uh February 2016 and uh right off the bat we used the US kids platform and I was just looking for something a little bit more in detailed and I felt like operation 36 had so much to offer I was I’m really good friends with Jason Sutton he was up at Carmel and he told me about Maggie and and they were running operation 36 at caramel they were one of the first clubs so the only other one at the time in South Carolina that was running the club to my knowledge was Mark La point so we were kind of like the second one in South Carolina to get on board um obviously over the years there’s been tons of changes upgrades and everything is really for the better uh the operation 36 uh team and platform uh to me just gave us uh something to help us uh kind of got our way with building uh group programming it’s it’s I mean there’s so many things that I still don’t use because there’s so much to offer through the platform so awesome no thanks for sharing that yeah it’s a small world um with you being in uh kind of the Charlotte sparenberg area Jason um and Maggie actually Maggie was kind of a little bit of a role model for me growing up uh when I was going through high school she was at carel and I was in the area and um remember seeing op 36 there before this is before I even went to college or was I grow at the time and then started to started to learn about it so it’s really cool to see that um you know you started to pick up on it and uh now want a very very good program in fact he’s a your master master coach and op 36 and we can talk a little bit more about how you got there in a second but um perfect and another quick question is do you think you could tell us a little bit about the the programs you’re currently offering at Carolina Country Club yes so uh I’ve been at Carolina Country Club about three years it’s it’s not a it’s kind of a mediumsized club as far as membership goes uh mostly seniors um not a lot of families at at Carolina but it it seems to be flipping over just a little bit um but we’re running uh junior programming three different Junior programs we have a six to n year old a 10 to 12 and a 13 to 17 year old class and then we have a ladies operation 36 program as well been doing for about two years so I’ve been running the Juniors for three years out there and the ladies for about two years um and it’s all been really good I mean we we’ve been limiting our numbers a little bit um at my last previous club we had bunches and bunches it looked like uh a zoo sometimes we had 70 kids per semester at the Country Club of sparenberg ran about 250 kids through the program in several years that I was there Carolina’s not quite the numers that is but U I think our quality has been pretty good so um I’m I’m kind of more about that right now and and then I’ll I’ll be able to expand our class sizes to some degree bringing uh bringing my daughter on to work with me in June I a recent graduate from College of Charleston so it’s going to let me expand our classes our ability to expand with the U with quality that I’m looking for that that we we’ll be able to have that we haven’t had recently so okay so that’s that’s unique so you’re you’re in a position where you have the opt you have the opportunity to start operation 36 at two locations so um that’s something that um I know some folks on the call maybe are interested in maybe adding another location or starting their first if you can just kind of walk through what what did that look like maybe you can think about first uh when you were at Country Club of Spartanburg and then secondly in Carolina the process of marketing and getting it up and running what did what did that process look like for you right originally we had we hosted um typically every semester when we got started at the Country Club of Spartenburg we hosted a an kind of an informal but somewhat formal meeting um prior like an orientation meeting prior to the semester starting I think that’s a fantastic way I’ve gotten away from that just a little bit I’ve done that once at Carolina Country Club and we we have so much repeat business that and I’ve been limiting like I said our sizes to some degree that I haven’t done that a lot because I’m not looking to grow it but I think moving forward like into the fall we’re going to be looking to grow that so kind of get get back into that growth mindset but uh I think if you have people out and you explain to them what you’re doing and you know and and you kind of share with them everything that’s involved I mean from a price point standpoint it’s fantastic the the operation 36 platform allows them so much uh opportunity to grow uh at all different levels uh because it can take any golfer and get them to start whether they’re an advanced player or or an intermediate or beginner player and I I think there’s a spot for everybody in what we offer so it’s it’s been great really good across the board and I think starting a you know a platform like operation 36 at any club is just going to be a huge benefit to the club awesome I like one of the things I really like that you said there was um you’re able to provide an offering for just not beginners I know operation 36 is is marketed heavily towards beginners because it’s a great introductory into the game but you’re looking at it as also a way to collect intermediate and also potentially Advan and how you phrase it Market it for sure and you’re going to have to to have a conversation but with the with that advanced student um but what does what is that conversation what has that looked like in the past have you ever received push back about from from intermediate or whether they’re adults or Juniors or or fathers saying you gotta you’re starting me at 25 yards away really like so do you have any any moments or times in the past where you’ve had that conversation and how how have you handled that yeah well you know I’m so passionate about learning from the hole backwards that I think that when I explained to him like you know all good golf like we start from the hole and work backwards and I’ve always thought that way even prior to operation 36 and when I got in originally it was it was still in dio golf but uh when I got involved with that to me that was a home run because it matched exactly what my beliefs were so starting on the green work figuring out how to get the ball in the hole working Your Way backwards and I think one reason we have success is I mean we have kids literally putt every class and you know putting is such a big part of the game but um if you can like develop those skills as an early at an early age like most people when they start out they have no speed control they don’t how to read green so we get into all that we get into greens reading we get into aim how you aim your putter face and then you know try to hit it down your aim line and with the right speed so we concentrate on those four fundamentals of putting and uh and and we we go over literally every time we go you know in a class uh we we’re going over putting so we work from the whole backward so I think when people get talking to me about it I mean I’ve I’ve had some people you know I’ve had like you know a 14year old kid start in our high school age class are like really I got to start at 25 yards I’m like yeah why don’t you go see how how low you can do I said matter of fact you know we had will mcgurt out you know at country called Spartenburg and and he played from 25 yards and you know and he took it as an opportunity to see how low he could shoot so why don’t you do the same thing so you know if you if you can get a tour player doing this then why is a 14-year-old intermediate golfer thinking they don’t need to do it so and I mean if they go out and shoot 25 or 26 okay then go do that from 50 yards as well so you know we work them all the way back so you know I think that it’s just a fabulous way to learn how to play golf and and the people that are really that really kind of get where I’m coming from I mean they understand it because you know it just makes a lot of sense yep no that’s that’s I think you’re spot on with the narrative is everything it’s it’s it’s like hey let’s if it’s you get that better player that maybe adult male is saying what you you to make me go back all the way to 25 yards I’ve been playing golf for 20 years or you know the better player little ego check and it’s let’s see how low you can go um you know the tour average is a 22 or let’s see how close you can get to that so I think that’s a very smart way to do it um also I’m sure you you’ve probably tried the yardages a little bit or sometimes Maybe um that would be a good thing to have parents do or assistants do just to give a little little heat check there as well because it’s a great way to get everybody on board in in line of what’s it’s not it’s not all that easy it’s going to take a couple reps and couple a couple cracks at it so um I think that’s a that’s a great way to kind of go about that that that conversation um abely I think for you know going back to it like a beginner I mean let’s say I get a lady and she’s 50 years old and she’s never played golf before it’s fairly overwhelming to get back at the tab box I mean it may take five or six or seven shots or eight shots to get to the green and then finally you’re up there and then you three or four Putt and it’s kind of deflating where this gives you an opportunity to putt for an eagle or put for birdie and and you know and maybe it’s just one hole where they have a gr hole and they they chip one in or they you know they chip it up there a couple feet and make a two on a hole and they’re just static you know so it’s a it’s a great way for every ready play go have you found that by having introducing this challenge or this game of of operation 36 they all have a goal of shooting 36 and once they hit their challenge Point have you found it where they they kick in into like this for lack of better words addiction I got to go out and try to beat the yardage and they’re practicing and playing more you notice that at your facility where they’re like I gotta go I gotta go pract I gotta beat this yardage what has been the impact at your facility I see some do that you know you can tell when people are a little more competitive than others but yeah the competitiveness comes out in them when they shoot 37 maybe two or three times in a row and they’re like they’re getting irritated with it so you see them out there working a little harder practicing a little bit more with the wedges and putting and you know and then they finally get it but uh yeah definitely I think it drives them it’s something to motivate people it drives them to to practice more and play more for sure cool and in regards to motivation that’s something that you’ve been over the years it’s you seems like you’ve done a really good job as a mentor and and role model be able to motivate and educate young and and young golfers and and adult golfers um and creating a a culture of of learning and and performance do you think you can share with everybody in the call a little bit about how you think this about this is or can you share how you think about this and specific things that contributed a high performing environment like a get that creating that environment where folks are competing against each other for a little bit right um I think all all of our group programs with operation 36 we treat it as uh kind of a team training environment so we say hey you guys are a team we’re g to come out here we’re going to compete against each other first of all we’re going to practice together we’re going to be supportive we’re going to be encouraging and then at the end of the class we may have a competition so you know sometimes it gets to where they’re kind of doing that and then over a period of time so I think every facility I’ve been back to back down to weed Hill and armo where I really started teaching a bunch of Junior golfers uh we had um we tried to create an environment where we encourage the kids to come out and stay before and after their lessons and after their groups because you start seeing them hang around and next thing you know they’re having chipping contest and fighting contest and and um and and we just encourage that like crazy because uh all the all the ones that have gotten really good they never show up on time for a lesson and never leave when the lesson’s over they always come early they always stay late and now we’re starting to see kids at our at our club they go to class and then soon as class is over man they go the first te and they’re they’re hitting and they’re going to play anywhere from four to nine holes after class and and I’m starting to see more and more kids do that we’ve we’ve got a couple that have kind of taken the lead and I mean it’s amazing how much better in the last six months and a year that these kids have gotten because they’re out there just pushing each other and when they compete against each other and push each other I mean that’s like a a magnifier on learning so 100% yeah and I feel like a lot of the especially at country clubs I would say and I mean and and and public facilities too if if juniors in the area you do tend to see like those like they call them like packs like range Rats the packs of kids that are just they go they travel together they go to the the short game area together they have some chiming contest and they go get lunch inside together and they go out back out and play nine hole they come back in and hit the driving R creating those packs of students that are that just kind of grow together and challenge one another it seems like that’s something that you’ve started to develop almost organically just with your classes and you all of a sudden you have kids go on playing after class and then they just keep going right um perfect um in regards to the team at atmosphere or team aspect you were saying in your programming or in your typical op 36 class or program how have you brought that into that into the class is it how have you structured that to create that team feel right so uh there’s lots of ways but maybe through set of drills uh you can do that but you can have like um I do it a couple different ways so you might do it with two kids and they’re partners and you play an alternate maybe like alternating shot putt match play against another two kids and then you have a around Robins so at the end of the at the end of the format you have you know two versus two then two versus two then two versus two so let’s say you have 12 kids out there and they all play each other and then you play off so but they have to rely on each other from a teamwork standpoint because it’s a true alternating shot they have to literally alternate every F so you know they start getting a little nervous because they don’t want to let their buddies down and then you know you you see the effort go way up the other way is like you can split the kids in half and have some type of competition where you know we we work off skill point chips at our club and if we have some type of chipping contest or a home run derby contest or whatever all half the kids are on one team half are on the other and they’re all cheering each other on so we’ got the Green Team and The Blue Team let’s say and they’re they’re out there working and at the end I mean they’re they’re excited to win stuff so it’s I think when they get out of that team comp get into the team competition format I I think once again it’s just a magnifier on learning they don’t get so mechanical it’s more skill based it’s more competition based and you’re de like for us we’re developing kids to train for competition and skills versus maybe bogging them down with mechanics I mean we we do some mechanical stuff as well just like anybody but we do a lot of competition a lot of skills training okay with that in mind uh what is like your typical structure to look like for somebody that signs up for a program for juniors and then you’re also offering this for ladies as well uh right right so I do a little bit different um our Juniors just because I have a developmental mindset I I I I feel like if I can get the kids out at least two hours a week with me and our classes and our team that are we have a lot better chance to develop them so all of our Junior operation 36 class since I’ve been in Carolina have been 10 week semesters and we were we meet twice a week so every class meets for two hours a week so our six to nine year olds and our 10 to 12 year olds meet Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour and then our 13 to 17 year old class meets Wednesdays for two hours and it gives us a little opportunity as well especially with that group to work on the course uh maybe do a do like a pickup operation 36 match it gives us time with two hours that we have a lot of flexibility on what we can do but also I think they get used to practicing longer because I think for the better players you know you don’t just come in and come out and practice whether it’s 30 minutes 15 20 minutes or an hour I think if you can kind of get used to practicing for a couple hours a day and getting kind of used to that kind of goes qu pretty quickly so you get them used to training a little bit a little bit different that way and uh it gives us the opportunity to coach them uh two hours a week so you know for me if I can get a get one of the kids in the class to to come out twice a week that’s eight hours a month and then if they do maybe two private lessons a month now we’re at 10 hours a month and you know you can do a lot of good with somebody if you’re coaching 10 hours a month so a little bit of Team concept A little bit of individual concept and some training and man people can get a lot better and then the women we do uh we do one hour a week with the women kind of more traditional for oper 36 I do eight-week program with that uh both programs the women and the Juniors we have a playing concept as well we do um we do play once a month with everybody so the kids actually play three times over 10 weeks and the women play twice over the eight-week program so um but it’s worked out well it’s a good fit for our club uh at my previous stop we also had two other classes we had a we had a a four to five-year-old class and um and then we had an advanced class as well on top of the 13 to 17 and with the amount of kids we had over there we had to do that but it it really allowed uh we had a lot of really good golfers that just kept staying on our program because we had that advanced U class that they kind of slipped into and our 13 to 17 year old class is a little bit like that now it’s kind of half Advanced and half beginners to intermediate so those Advanced players are still there but at my previous Club you know having the ability to have the advance class only they didn’t feel like they were going to be around beginners so it kind of helped them stay in class a little bit better okay well that makes sense that’s you really created this whole environment for juniors and adults and it’s the focus of of training and you know training in groups and training together and just really showing them that it’s it does it’s not just a one day week thing you can show up to it if you really want to get better your skills you got to show up you know maybe one or two hours a week with me and then during that time you can educate them on how to how to train I think I’m sure you guys have done a really good job of using that time to teach them because a lot of times Juniors and parents don’t really know uh what exactly they practice and by having these two hour blocks you have built into the week they probably getting you know lots of good drills and and ideas of what to do right yeah it’s it’s it’s really worked out well I think from a like I said because there there were quite a few kids that started an operation 36 that are just currently in the Carolina playing some really pretty good golf right now that started back in our program at Spartanburg and uh and then now that Carolina starting to see some some of these kids turn out really good and then other kids that aren’t as competitive I mean yeah cre skill that’s going to last a lifetime and you know and golf’s such a it’s such a great sport for all levels of players what depending on what they’re trying to look out of it I mean we always talk about the elite players and the advanced players but I mean if we can get just anybody playing golf that l playing golf and enjoys the game for whatever reason they’re playing I mean that’s such a good thing as well yep 100% um one of the things that I’m curious I just thought about this one of the things with operation 36 that it allows for is students to find different challenge points right they’re going to be everybody’s going to on their different path some students are going to progress faster than others uh when a student get to that Challen to their challenge Point what has been I guess some some of the things or best practices that you’ve been able to share to help them I guess get past or overcome or work through that is there anything you can pinpoint or it’s an overall um idea of what you’ve tried in the past maybe that has worked or hasn’t worked you can share yeah I think there’s there’s so many individualisms you know with golfers that I think everybody’s a little bit different like nobody to me should have the same swing everybody should be a little bit different on what they’re doing but so is like if somebody’s stuck at some kind of yardage well maybe they’re not maybe their strategy is not very good like I got I got one fell right now he’s having a hard time from 150 but he hits his driver like 180 and we have a lot of trouble around our greens so it’s kind of like he’s in between maybe if it’s into the wind he can hit driver but then he puts himself if he misses the green with a tough up and down so hey maybe do you hit seven iron and a wedge or you know so maybe you can go over with him or take him out on the course it’s so it’s what I’ve done with him the last maybe two out the last three weeks is okay you’re having a lot of trouble from this yardage but um um like let’s go out and take a look and see what’s going on so if I let them play the first four holes kind of the way they’ve been doing it you might want to say well okay let’s maybe you want to suggest this or that because like every shot you’re hitting you’re bringing a bunker into play or bringing a water hazard into play and you’re having to hit this perfect shot so try to let’s play the easy shots in golf so even if you have to hit a a nine iron and a pitching wedge or something like that to to make the 150 work punch it down there whatever you need to do but to give yourself a shot to where you’ve got a second shot into the green with a wedge in your hand so I think it’s just different depending on the golfers but people can’t get stuck and I think you know as a coach try to be encouraging to people because it is a tough game I mean it it’ll you you know right in the teeth sometimes it’s it’s a hard hard game so you know I think teenagers and kids are hard on their yourself anyway some of them get really frustrated you know other kids can be mean you know there’s lots of things so as a coach I mean the more encouraging we can be um having fun out there having a good time you know just kind of leading by example I mean some of the best things we can do as coaches so yep 100% that’s that’s very good advice and that a lot of times I think especially with kids is expectations it’s you know that instant gratification they’re used to now say they think their expectations oh I should beat this yardage in two attempts three tries they can beat a video game level in two tries like three tries why can’t I beat this yardage and shoot 36 and three tries so um you’re right golf can kind of kick you in the teeth and it takes you know you some you can wake up one day and play great and wake up the next day and something could be a little bit off and your mindsets now gone so um the expectation management has that been I guess to elaborate on the last question is is there any other things that you’ve you’ve asked or or shared with Juniors to help with that expectations whether it’s a student or a parent yeah absolutely I mean perception and expectation sometimes are way off like yeah somebody just thinks whatever like hey my kids got a pretty good swing you know and their 10th graders uh you know I’d like them to play at Clemson I’m like well you know what are they ranked in the state right now want to be 120th and I’m like well it’s not happen you know so but if you are willing to do this this this and this right so have to get better so I I had a young person come out the other day and and uh they said they really wanted to get better I mean this person was a somebody that’s probably shooting around a hundred and they really want to get better at golf so come out and take a two- hour lesson which is which is pretty uh pretty intense for somebody that’s a 100 shooter and uh especially me because we work pretty hard out there and um and so I said what what’s your plans for practice and and you know moving forward to to to get a lot better because they said they really want to get a lot better and and uh they’re like well I probably practice you know most every day in the summer for about 30 minutes I’m like all right well let’s times that by five because we or six or seven or eight or 10 because we we need to look at it you know about five to six hours a day practicing at least five or six days a week and because if you really want to play college golf if this person was a eighth ninth 10th grader I mean you have to be realistic that other people are out there working hard and to shoot the numbers they shoot there’s a reason they’re doing that so it it takes a lot but you know if you if you love the game it’s not really worked that much anyway like you should love to be out there and love to be with your friends and love to be having a chipping contest with somebody and if you just like kind of doing it by yourself put your headphones in and listen to some great music and and work on your game whether it’s on the swing or on the course but most of the great players I’ve taught led to play golf they love getting on the course they play their best golf when they play a lot of golf and I think getting on the course is something that’s it’s kind of Disappearing to some degree with all the indoor facilities and then with time allotment so you know you be realistic with people and be like you got to really play and it takes a lot of time you know I think I think you can help them get better if you explain to them but you you got to be real with people I mean I probably lost some students because you know I might have somebody that’s not very good and they want to play college golf and you’re like hey you got to work really hard and you know you got to do something different than what you’ve been doing and they get offended but you know yep now that’s a good point I mean I think parents would apprec appreciate honesty right with um you know as as our children are getting into the game but it’s been hard to to pin Point like a a pathway or model that’s consistent across the board like like you said every every student’s going to be very different um based on their their Drive their motivation levels and what they want is going to be differently some students just want to make their middle school or High School golf team some students want to be play go to a top division one college and play in college um but everybody’s you know is different and that conversation to the to the the parent and the student about that is is tough but I think taking the route you and say hey this is this is what it takes I mean it’s just it’s right you got to dig it and find it in the dirt this is exactly what it’s going to take and um I’m here to support you and guide you but uh it’s gonna versus sugar coating it that’s really good on you to to do that and say hey this is it’s not an easy easy route by any means but um we’re here I’m here as a coach to help you through it and I’m going to be your biggest supporter and cheerleader but at the end of the day it’s going to become on you but um ABS absolutely yeah um awesome kind of going over moving down another question here um we had okay oh with ladies so you did not ladies program is fairly new to Carolina right um it just fairly launched not too long ago a year or two ago is that right right yeah two two years ago we’ve had the ladies so I think we’ve just finished up our fourth semester maybe okay how did that what did that process look like getting it off the ground was it is it just did you have one or two ladies tap your in the shoulder that her caught wind of the playing component or what did that look like um I just thought it it was a neat at our club um and and so I went to the owner and talked to him about it and we have we have one individual owner at our club it’s not a privately owned board board type club but uh I went to him about it and talked to him and you know the support at Carolina Country Club’s been fantastic you know whether it’s members or non-members U the ability to get on the driving range get on the golf course they have been fantastic both the head golf professional and then they owner Tim Dunlap um it’s the support’s been great so starting a women’s program and then you know if you’re starting a junior program you’ve got to have the support from the club um I mean there to convince somebody to let you do something like that is so beneficial for the club both financially the growth growth of the club and uh like if they’re trying to grow membership trying to get more business in it’s such a beneficial thing to have it at your club but as far as the ladies go I just thought it was a big need at our club to start training some of the ladies we we have a little pot of ladies playing a couple of them that play regularly still haven’t gotten involved I maybe they think they’re too good to get involved with with what we’re doing I I don’t know but I feel like everybody can benefit from it and U uh I think first uh for the most part it’s been a great experience at our club with the ladies I’ve I have thoroughly enjoyed it um we did an offseason winter program for some of our operation 36 ladies that was an indoor only training it wasn’t really a semester but we end up going nine weeks uh indoors only and we did all kinds of fun stuff the ladies got so much better through the winter um and kind of worked on a lot of functional movement type things um didn’t really play our you know the weather’s just kind of shaky around these parts in upstate South show around in the winter time so it was kind of a fun thing and then uh but those were all operation 36 ladies so we had I don’t know I’ve I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly I I think it’s so much fun to get to coach people you get to meet so many people it’s such a benefit for your membership and uh and I just think it’s such a win-win to to get involved with coaching you know anybody caned Club because of the member benefit and the relationship benefit that you have you know with your club members have you noticed that uh any more like um husband and wife’s out in the court like with the ladies that are in your program have you noticed it’s more active at the club or is they been have they just been mainly just look at as a social time to get out or have you noticed and really catching on catching catching on and really wanting to get out and play more with their either spouse or friends or they gone and maybe maybe it was there a lady that didn’t feel confident in booking a tea time and now she’s out there playing a lot do you have any of those situations that you have uh yes absolutely yeah we’ve had uh I’ve definitely seen more women play with their husbands and play and get involved with our ladies group that plays on Thursdays uh we have a ladies Golf Association and the numbers have definitely gone up since I’ve been there uh we have um have I mean really cool success stuff I one lady was complete beginner she was too embarrassed to go play golf because she just wasn’t any good but now she’s doing she’s done every operation 36 class we’ve had now she’s taken private instruction she’s going play and now she’s beating her husband and I’m loving every minute of it because you know they I think that um you know you go from you know a complete beginner that is embarrassed to play golf because they don’t want anybody think badly of them because it’s it’s hard you know it’s it’s an uncomfortable situation to go out there and hit bad shots in front of people as a beginner and and then now she’s out there playing a lot of golf and playing with her husband playing with her friends playing in a ladies group now she’s talking about playing in tournaments I mean it’s pretty cool man so it’s been it’s been really good it’s it’s been such a great thing for our club that’s great that’s awesome to hear I know it was probably a jump for you I know you’ve done a lot of Junior you know Junior base but it’s probably pretty cool and refreshing to kind of getting doing some adult classes after teaching some of the seven even five six seven year olds for a little while and kind of got to structure the classes and talk to an adult but um thanks for sharing that we have had a couple questions come in while you’re talking jumping back into Juniors a little bit and kind of the development uh of Juniors and and parents as well so one question comes in that’s that’s asking how can Juniors and their parents learn that developmental golf which is with a mission statement is necessary if juniors are to become committed to the sport of a of a lifetime too many options taking their interest in Easy fixes right I think it’s there’s so many things that the kids can do nowaday days whether it’s inside or outside um I think if you just do your best to enjoy every part of it and just like I said before lead by example to some degree and to get the kids to see how much fun that other kids are having doing it that that it’s kind of infectious they they’ll want to do that as well um and as far as playing for a lifetime I mean that’s kind of what we talk about so much it’s not just the competition maybe a us kids tournament or scga tournament or whatever it’s it’s it’s bigger than that it’s a game of a lifetime and I mean and I think little kids should play Bunches of stuff because it helps them become better athletes like when you have kids that are five six seven eight nine years old man they need to run and jump and and throw stuff and play baseball and softball and basketball even if it’s just with their friends but if you want to be a really good athlete you you need to cross Trin like crazy as a young person and learn how to compete and learn how to be on a team it’s all good and if you can fit golf in there somewhere I think that’s such a that’s such a great way to get going and then you know as as you get a little bit older and if you’re pretty good and you want to streamline golf a little bit more that’s okay by the time you’re in your early teens and and mid- teens you know to where you say oh you know we’re getting pretty good at this and I’d want to do it full-time you know but the people that I think learn to compete as athletes and and learn to train and and get more athletic from those young childhood moments of playing team sports I think it’s great that’s really refreshing to hear because I know at least when I was getting into coaching um even with OP 36 a few years ago I think it was 2015 or 16 we did semesters you know spring and a fall and it was always kind of tough at first it took a while whenever a student would just leave after the spring and not I won’t see him until the next spring it’s like oh let’s just keep going let’s keep going but he had baseball he had football he had all the other things going on this summer stacked up and um and it was just unbelievable the the amount of maturity and growth that had gone on over a year’s time because of those other sports like you said but as a coach I was like golly I lost a student like oh my goodness I’m not sure enough he’s back the next year or or maybe two years or three years down the road you know maybe there was enough impact where they can they’re going to want to come back but um I’m sure you’ve had a couple of s situations like that before yeah for sure you know you know especially I I always try to encourage it um so I don’t I mean me personally I don’t think they should only play golf growing up I think by the time you’re about probably 14 or 15 though if you’re really high level you need to just kind of streamline that because it’s just so timec consuming if you’re going to play in tournament so if you’re playing like football or basketball or baseball it just takes away from a Time standpoint you just can’t catch up so um I I mean I’ve had some kids play high level division one golf that played soccer and basketball and things like that through high school but um I think it does get you behind just from a Time standpoint so I like their I like a lot of training early I like to taper it off a little bit as they’re kind of pre-teens and then and then kind of streamlining a little bit more around 13 to 15 years old so but that’s that’s just kind of what I recommend and and uh it’s been pretty successful I mean DJ grew up he played all kind of stuff growing up you know he just didn’t play golf as a kid and I also I think one of the secrets too for these kids get used to playing with adults because like you know I mean he was a prime example his dad a lot of people I don’t know but Dustin’s dad was a PGA member he was a golf pro at Mid Carolina Country Club down in Prosperity South Carolina and um Dustin played with all the old guys all the time and he gambled with them and that’s how we learn how to play golf like it’s it’s unbelievable if you can get out of your comfort zone there’s so many kids that are afraid to play with people and they kind of are sheepish a little bit well it’s a hard game you got to be used to being able to talk a little smack and you know like get involved with some competition and and uh and go play with the old guys and and be able to fit in and and have communication and you know as a as a as a young person to be able to verbalize with adults and to get out there and play golf with them and feel you know feel secure about that because I think that in itself’s a huge learning uh Advantage for kids so I that’s another thing you know we talk about but I try to encourage that as well to get them to play with the adults as much as possible and people they don’t really know it’s okay you know you know as long as it’s a safe environment in the situation so no 100% that’s that’s great I think it’s that’s one of the the big things is when you’re learning a game or learning something new it’s it’s already it can be a little bit you know overwhelming but the more you can kind of introduce yourself into different situation environment with other students in a similar boat or a little bit have a little bit more experience the better I think that’s one of the nice things that with and nine hole events in operation 36 that it allows you to do as a coach is you can you control the pairings and you could kind of move students around with some of the better players for one n hole event or maybe you group one of the better players with all the younger students who are newer and they can be a role model so um I think that’s a great idea to kind of if you do have those better players um you know have them you know encourage them to go play with adults or some of the better players at the club to kind of get a taste of um you know that environment right because you know I mean I see some kids that all they only go out there with their mom or dad like yeah and that’s the only person they play with so when they go play in a tournament they’re playing with other people and they get out of their comfort zone so bad yeah so the peer aspect of competition and peer pressure and the way you compete against your friends I mean it’s important to get on that and then once again play with people that are better or people that are older or whatever so that’s another good yeah that’s that brings up a good point as far as tournament like local tournament play is there a specific do you have any kind of gay I know it’s probably Case by case but do you have like a general gauge of when a student you feel like is ready to go play in a tournament like for a junior is it do they get to a certain yardage in op 36 or is it more of a social or what what is what is your gauge for when a student is ready you feel like they’re ready and can handle um you know a local you know low-level nine-hole tournament I think when it’s really young you know getting involved with us kids tournaments U they get used to competing um and it’s it’s kind of low pressure kind of lowkey we have an entry level a tour in the upstate of South Carolina called the GSA they seem to do a pretty good job with you don’t have to have a resume to get in it so anybody can get in it some of the higher level South Carolina junior golf events uh I mean you you have to you either have to qualify or you have to have a resume to get in some of these events CGA events you know uh some tournaments are first come first sered but I think when the kids like I mean they’re going to be wanting to compete like I think sometimes it’s a shame when I see a kid that’s really really high level talent wise and the parents won’t take them to play in a tournament whether they can’t afford it or they put too much time into their s or something else so the parents have a huge role in junior golf as far as you know being able to give the resources the kids need encouraging um taking them to the tournaments I mean bottom line it costs a lot of money I mean when I was taking my a you know a golf tournament it’s it’s $1,000 I mean you pay the entry fee you got two or three nights in a motel you got gas you got food you know and then you’re buying a yardage book and all this other stuff and I mean so there is some expense with it I mean if you’re trying to get it a little bit more lower level try to find some local stuff where you know you don’t have to you don’t need a hotel room and you can just and commute to daily but you know there’s I think everybody’s different and then but some kids are just more competitive so I think those kids you know they they kind of push for it more than more than others but uh you know I I don’t know I think competition kind of breeds upon itself like people that are competitive want to compete people that aren’t so competitive don’t really want to compete so and so and unfortunately some people are like that it’s just they’re just not competitive and so competition kind of freaks him out have you noticed in the past like in some of the Juniors you’ve taught either at Spartenburg or at Carolina that’s gone through op 36 that they this comp competitiv came about through op 36 like you did these nine whole events and they play these yardages and they realized that they’re progressing I think they got to maybe a 100 yards and like oh wow like I didn’t you know I’m doing they look in the lens of their of like looking at everybody else and saying oh I might be moving a little bit faster and have they been like oh maybe I should try to do this and play a tournament have they has that happened or have you think of any situations or something like that where bre started to breed those better those players that recognize that they are you know separating themselves from a beginner intermediate standpoint yes absolutely um I saw with uh quite a few kids I mean it’s it’s amazing I mean some of them stand out uh poppy Dawson um she’s been in operation 36 the entire time I’ve pretty much been teaching it for the last eight years uh she started with us when she was about 5 years old over at Country Club of Spartanburg she she still comes to my operation 36 classes today she just finished third up in the US kids tournament the Carolina’s Nationals uh Carolina’s uh up in Pinehurst this past week and and she’s still in our classes we had um some other kids as well Arley Jennings um who I don’t work with anymore but she’s a wonderful player she started pretty much as a beginner in operation 36 classes uh with myself and John whis over at the Country Club of Spartanburg and she’s taken her game to a really high level Moses suzuku he’s U he’s another one complete beginner and now he’s playing all over all the time competing at a pretty high level he finished third this past week as well we have the marinick kids that were in our classes uh Jonas marinick and Kyrie both just won at Pinehurst this week Kyrie’s in our class he’s a six-year-old he’s he’s ridiculously good he won down a jackal and then he just won this and Pinehurst but these kids I mean they’re starting in operation 36 and you know you never know but you can kind of tell like when people are competitive like it takes them to another level like before I did Operation 36 when I’d have Junior classes we’d have competitions and things like that and the kids that hated losing those are the kids that do well in the tournaments I mean they they want to compete they want to win they love competition ition they love having a putting contest they love just competing in general so you can kind of see early you know if people are competitive and uh I think it makes a big difference I mean everybody’s not wired that way some kids they freak out but um when it comes to competition they rather not compete they just want to be out there for fun and that’s perfectly fine as well there’s there’s a place for everybody so but you can you can tell but we’ve we’ve had some great success stories with operation 36 that when we were at the country Co of Spartenburg uh we started operation 36 over there and when IID gotten there the boys hadn’t been to swartberg high hadn’t been to State uh the state finals in 16 years and I think my third year there they they got to the state finals and finished in the top five so and those all those kids came out of operation 36 so at the time so very cool and it was it it’s it’s been really cool man it’s been a lot of success it’s and the platform has just allowed us to grow the game you know success as well awesome perfect thanks for sharing that we do have um just a couple more questions we’ll wrap up I know want to I don’t want to take too much of everybody’s time today but really do appreciate Kevin being on and everybody else for their time but couple more questions then we’ll wrap up here at the top of the hour but did have a question come through in regard to um those better players when they and and when they’re managing their emotions so the question is do you include mindfulness or training managing emotions during the round with your more skilled golfer who either want wants to or already playing competitive junior golf so any kind of I guess mindfulness or managing emotions training what what does that look like or anything like that yes talk about it all the time um I think in the last 10 years I’ve I’ve probably spent more time studying psychology of performance and golf and other other things as well in life Sports um to help to help these people training for competition but yeah we talk about it all the time whether it’s uh I don’t know I I think I think all the people that I’ve trained over the years they’ve all had great attitudes on the golf course they’ve all understood how hard the game is to be patient to work hard to treat the game with respect to treat your opponent with respect and uh and I just feel like U you know we train for that a lot because through our drill and through our competitions that we have in classes um it it helps those athletes train that way and I think mentally it gets them tougher but you know it’s once again working with kids is a little bit different because you can coach them up you know adults already have so much information in their head and maybe they’re wired a certain way but I think everybody can improve mentally I think it’s obviously the difference if you have three or four people that all hit the ball pretty well usually the person’s mentally tougher or somebody that just hates to lose um that person’s GNA end up winning in the end over a period of time so yeah no 100% with those Juniors that are kind of middle middle age middle of the pack say 10 to 13 year olds how much time would you spend on like the mental side with them is it something that you incorporate in the class or is there additional resources you might provide for them or um what what does that look like yeah one of the books I try to get all the Juniors to read learn to win by Dr Morris Pickins uh Dr Mo’s a it’s real simple information he uses the four RS method we talk about that in class um and when the kids can understand that hey this is the way you do it they they don’t really you know because even their parents will be yelling at them to focus and do all this stuff but like they don’t understand the fourth R is relax so after you hit your shot it’s okay to talk about other stuff outside of golf and we encourage that so we we kind of go how you do that but uh and you know the ones that are a little more serious I say hey man go on Amazon by learn to win so I probably need to have 100 copies of it at my office but uh I’ve got I’ve got a couple and they just keep disappearing but uh yeah that and um I have a couple of my better players um that that were having a little bit of trouble with performance and they’re working with my brother-in-law Brian Wade he’s uh based out of Tallahassee works for tignum and u a big company they do a lot of performance psychology uh performance type things all over the world and he’s super smart and he’s working with some of my players and it’s definitely seem to help but we’ve got some other local folks as well but uh for the most part I mean as a coach you need to have some of that basic background because you know there’s an instructional part of coaching there’s coaching part of coaching the mental performance part of coaching course management whatever there’s lots of parts we wear a lot of hats you got to definitely need to have a little bit of that going on and you know studying how the brain works there’s so many college coaches or High School coaches that are detrimental to people’s game uh I see it all the time with different players at different places the things that the coaches say to these kids is just incredibly crazy U it’s negative puts people down discourages them like so as a coach or a parent like the parents please encourage your kids like you know if you want them to play well I I promise you they’re trying if they go out there and they play bad I mean don’t just blast them on the way home like you know you can talk about it but some of the times if they’re really struggling I mean they’re nobody’s hurting worse than them already so you know try to be encouraging try to understand that’s a hard game and uh and you know also be realistic like if you’re not getting the results that you’re looking for from a performance standpoint point maybe you need to change of practice so work a little harder and so as a coach it’s okay to say that as well like you know your results are based on what you’re doing so you know if you do this this and this and this this is what your results are so you might want to change it or maybe increase your time or whatever whatever the problem is so we can definitely help in a lot of ways as a coach but um I think that experience you know that I’ve had coaching for a long time allows me to feel pretty comfortable and confident with with players as far as just giving them advice and encouraging and and you know and just Ling on your students man like you know they they need that sometimes they need to kicking the fanny and you know sometimes they need a hug so uh I think you got to figure out which one’s the best at the time you know if you’re if you’re helping these people out so yeah that’s that’s fantastic Kevin that’s that’s great advice I mean kids are going through everything kids are going through all kinds of things as you know at school and at home and everywhere and so the best we we can do as coaches is just be there and you know support them in the best way we can I love what you said is you’re not trying to mess up they’re not they’re doing their absolute best they’re not trying so as in the car ride home parents for and you it’s much support and love they can and just be there to to be their biggest fan but um awesome one more uh what was the name of the book one more time for some listeners that that that didn’t miss it that you recommend learn to win Dr Morris Pickins Le learn to win you all said Greg Curtis mentioned a book confident athlete by Tammy mathini I think that’s competent athlete as a recommendation too if anybody else is interested um perfect awesome well we got about three minutes left I just kind of want to wrap up with a um maybe one final little question for you Kevin and then we’ll we’ll be on our way um for any new coach or coaches that’s looking to create a thriving program or enhance their current program but they aren’t feeling the strong support of management what would you tell them or recommend to them I I mean I would set up a meeting and you know just show them hey economically growth of the game if we build it from the ground up with new players I mean I don’t know how anybody with a brain can look at you know from a developmental standpoint I mean I I’ve I’ve been around clubs before where you know you’re at you’re at maybe over here teaching and you talk to somebody about going to another club and teaching and they don’t want you there because they’re like well you’re going to take all the lessons and I’m like no I’m G to come in and create a program and develop more lessons so like if you want the assistance to teach more bring in somebody that can develop develop golfers because it’s going to lead to more like there’s there’s C there’s a couple clubs in the upstate that don’t have teaching profession these other kids and people that are serious about golf They Go other places to take lessons so why would you not have a good instructor on your on your site so I I would just show them number one the numbers the numbers don’t lie like if you have a good instructional program it’s going to bring a lot of Revenue and growth if you’re looking at for a growth for your Club some clubs aren’t looking for growth they’re already full but then you look at service how do use service your remember well one ways to have great relationships service in your membership with the coaching aspect of the game through instruction having a good instructional team on board uh but you know the problem is like I said you go to other clubs and there’s some pros that just don’t want a teaching pro coming in because they’re you’re either gon they’re worried about you taking lessons or they’re ego just won’t allow you to walk in the door because they’re they don’t want another Pro on the staff everybody gets a little bit funky in that regard we get very Territorial and things and of course I don’t want somebody just showing up at our place teaching without you know going through the proper channels but um but if they were to come on board as a team under the umbrella and Coach together and build something special that’s a different situation which would be more than welcome so uh we have I think that uh going to Facility Owners you just got to show them there’s so much information and research out there I don’t have any of that in front of me but so I can’t give you numbers but there’s substantial growth at clubs that have good development programs so and I’m sure it’s accessible on the website the web yep no that thanks that’s thank you Kevin thanks for sharing that and we’re we’re also for anybody that’s looking for case studies or help with with that um please reach out to us we’ll be happy to help provide you with some any information to help you if you’re looking to enhance your or develop your program further or come on um and that’s the one roadblock in your way of of how can I convince manager we be happy to to have a conversation with you you can reach out to our team um and we’ll be happy to to point you in the right direction um perfect I’m going to uh share my screen back here let’s see final thing I did did did want to just mention uh real quickly before we hop off today Kevin you’re actually one of our first coaches to get certified in operation 36 I think you took an online was it online certification that did I did uh I did an online uh did it over about three weeks kind after work came home worked on it in the evenings it was fairly timec consuming but it was very informative very detailed and uh I I thought the certification at the time I did it was was really good um do you want to talk to them about hosting we’re hosting one yeah absolutely so uh this past year um 2024 we have resumed in-person orientation or in-person certification so this is for current coaches and for coaches that are just want to become certified and operation 36 they don’t necessarily have to be running the program if this is something that you would be interested in it’s a two-day certification it’s a Hands-On training where two two or three coaches will be or uh team members from operation 36 will be delivering these two-day the two-day training where you will be diving into how to run operation 36 using some of the tools diving into the plane component the curriculum um and developing you know your starting point for a op 36 program your facility to find out more U I would recommend going to our website just go to operation 36. golf click on golf Bros and then you’ll see a tab for new get certified and on this page you can find everything you need to know excuse me everything you need to know and what to expect for the certification as well as you know what you can learn and the agenda for each day is two days and we will be having one in August uh August 4th and 5th at Kevin’s home course at uh at Carolina Country Club August 5th and 6th right there um so if you are in the area and you’re tuning in just keep that in mind you can pop on the website and register there we do have a discount for coaches that are currently running off 36 so if you if you wanted to sign up please uh reach out to us and we’ll make sure we give you the appropriate discount code but um we’re we’re having these ran all over the country throughout the year so if you have any questions about the certification or want to register um just HP on the website and you’ll be able to find everything you need there all right well I think we’re at the top of the hour now I really appreciate everybody hanging in making it the whole hour I wanted to say big thank you to Kevin for taking this time out of his day he’s a busy busy coach and and and teacher there at the club and teaching all weekend so I appreciate you taking some time on Monday to be with us also want to thank everybody else for hopping on as well taking some time out of your Monday to be with us with OP 36 and with Kevin to hear a little bit more about uh junior golf development uh and how to you know help our players get better that’s what we’re here to do and if anybody wanted to contact Kevin um Kevin gave us the okay that you can you can do so by either emailing him with the email on the screen you can also find him on Instagram and his handle at Kevin Britt PGA so um if you have questions at all about uh any of the things we talked today or just want to pick Kevin’s brain a little bit further feel free to reach out to him um and as always feel free to reach out to us at operation 36 we’ll be happy to answer any questions um or if you’re interested in learning more about how to become a licensed location we’ll be happy to help you there as well but um that being said Kevin thank you very much for your time and um hope everybody has a great one rest of their week thanks again appreciate you have me on thanks Kevin we’ll talk to you soon thanks bye see you
