By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
With the game of golf growing by leaps and bounds in recent years, bringing new golfers to the range continues to be a huge catalyst for this development. PGA of America Golf Professionals and LPGA Professionals are putting programs in place that draw the beginning golfer, while also honing the skills of the seasoned player.
Chris Knobloch has been doing his part to build a foundation for golf’s future for almost 30 years. The PGA of America Director of Golf at Eagle’s Landing Country Club in Stockbridge, Georgia is a four-time Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional. He’s been acknowledged as a U.S. Kids Golf Top 50 Master Kids teacher and earned the 2017 Georgia PGA Section Youth Player Development Award.
“I started playing golf with my mom’s set of clubs, following my dad to the course, when I was 12 years old,” Knobloch says. “I was enrolled in the junior program at Colonial Country Club in Harahan, Louisiana, where our PGA of America Head Golf Professional was Jimmy Headrick, the 2008 PGA of America Youth Player Development Award recipient.”
Knobloch is proud of the fact that they were both recognized as Top 50 Kids Teachers by U.S. Kids Golf the year Headrick won the national award. “After the award ceremony, I went to speak with Jimmy and I reminded him that I was in his junior golf program way back when. He asked about my dad by name, and we had a great moment that I will never forget,” Knobloch recalls fondly.
Chris Knobloch attended West Georgia College (now University of West Georgia ), where he played for four years and helped coach during his 5th year of school. As he was playing college golf, he started working at nearby Sunset Hills Country Club, kicking off his stellar career in golf.
“Chris Wyant, the head professional, asked me one day what I wanted to do and offered me a position as an assistant,” Knobloch says. “Chris supported me for four years and helped me get my next job after I graduated from college.”
In addition to Headrick and Wyant, Knobloch credits PGA of America Golf Professional Wendell Coffee for teaching him about merchandising and instilling a dedicated work ethic that you need to succeed in the golf industry. “Wendell’s standards were very high and are the basic tools I teach my assistants throughout the year,” Knobloch adds.
He also cites Darrell Knicely, an award-winning professional and long-time head professional at Dunwoody Country Club, as teaching him about delivering a high level of service and a higher level of standards, as well as providing a true training ground to be a good head professional, which he achieved just five years later.
“My teaching passion, especially for juniors, has always been there, as I have spearheaded junior programs at all of my facilities. But it wasn’t until I became a father of two boys that teaching juniors became the focus of my business,” Knobloch explains. “As my teaching business has flourished, I thank Will Robbins, PGA for helping to build my teaching business.”
Knobloch says he has three base programs that are the foundation of his business:
- An after-school program that includes weekly classes where fundamentals are king.
- A summer camp that provides week-long camps to foster a love of the game for beginners and students who are enrolled in his spring and fall after-school programs.
- PGA Junior League that gets kids on the course with a motivating team atmosphere and keeps their families involved and engaged. Knobloch uses technology, such as launch monitors, sportsbox 3D and the deWiz watch, touting that each of them provides useful information to students. He feels that simulator golf will be at the core of teaching in the future as it attracts kids due to its likeness to video games and the added entertainment provided.
