By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
Being recognized as a Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional is an honor for those select few winners and an impressive feat to highlight on one’s resume. Add a Southern Ohio PGA Section Teacher/Coach of the Year Award and a Section Youth Player Development Award, and you’re in the class of Chris Yoder, the PGA of America Director of Youth Player Development at the storied Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.
Scioto has hosted the U.S. Open (1926), the Ryder Cup (1931), the PGA Championship (1950), the U.S. Amateur Championship (1968) and two U.S. Senior Opens (1986 and 2016). Scioto was the home course of a young Jack Nicklaus when he was just getting his legendary career going. His coach, Jack Grout was the professional at the time and reared Nicklaus from the start. Nicklaus would say of Grout that not only was he an expert on the golf swing, but he knew how to motivate and inspire his students, getting the best out of them every time.
With that framework and philosophy preceding him, Yoder, a native of Ashland, Ohio, now oversees the junior golf programming at Scioto Country Club. He played golf as a youth and played on scholarship at Wake Forest University, serving as an Assistant Coach for six years after graduating. He took his shot on the mini-tours and PGA Tour qualifying school and enrolled in the PGA of America’s Professional Golf Management Program in 2012, the same year he started working at Scioto Country Club.
He taught Scioto adult and junior members one lesson at a time for a few years, until 2015, when he dedicated his efforts to coaching junior golfers of all ages, from beginners to those vying for high school and college spots. In 2019, he implemented a complete overhaul of the Scioto Country Club junior golf programming, creating next-level objectives for progressing juniors to strive for. Yoder knew his coaching background could yield a more holistic approach to coaching juniors than simply providing individual lessons. Today, Yoder has over 200 kids in his junior golf program.
“We set out in 2019 to change the culture of junior golf at Scioto,” Yoder explains. “And we’ve done that by building a community. Now, I travel with our junior team to their external events and ensure that I’m there and available throughout the entire tournament.”
Yoder says many of his early students weren’t doing anything between their lessons at the club. They weren’t playing tournaments or competing away from Scioto. In fact, in 2019, his juniors played 10 tournament rounds over the entire summer – in 2023, that total was over 500! “We’re increasing what our kids are doing not only at the club but away from it as well,” he adds.
Yoder had 85 junior golfers participate in the Drive, Chip and Putt competition last year and recently created an internal Drive, Chip and Putt training day to help them understand the concepts of the competition and recreate the pressure of the event, so when it’s time to compete, his students are more comfortable and know what their objectives are.
He has a dozen or more participants every week in the U.S. Kids Golf Junior Tour. From there, they move up to the Southern Ohio PGA Junior Tour and Golfweek Regional Tour events.
In 2021, Yoder built a team concept that included everything from team bags and shirts to team practices and a consistent coaching model. They play tournaments all summer that are bookended by two premier events – one partnered with Atlanta (GA) Athletic Club and the other with the Country Club of Birmingham (AL). Yoder travels with 16 junior players each spring and fall (they’ll also host the events every other year) to participate in a team golf format.
“My kids play other sports, and always enjoy the team dinners and other social aspects of that engagement. I wanted to implement that feature into golf for our juniors,” Yoder says. “We have Ryder Cup-style matches and a coat-and-tie dinner to provide the best possible experience for our junior golfers. It creates excitement and passion for the year.”
Yoder’s junior golf programming at Scioto includes about 150 juniors in his rec programming and 40-50 on his competitive junior team.
In addition to its outdoor range, short game area and putting green, Scioto has an indoor facility with heated bays, Trackman and Swing Catalyst technology. Having these facilities is vital to growing his programming, but having a passionate coach like Yoder is the most important piece of the puzzle. He’s been a U.S. Kids Top 50 coach for the past three years, and as his list of accolades grows, so too will his roster of successful junior golfers.
