By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
With the summer upon us, the 2024 GRAA Awards Applications will be available in late August as the country’s public, private and stand-alone facilities strive to be a Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Top 50 Facility. In addition, PGA of America and LPGA Professionals seek entry on our list of Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professionals.
PGA of America Golf Professional Kenneth Leech, the Academy Director for the Don Law Golf Academy at Osprey Point in Boca Raton, Florida, has earned that honor twice before. Leech’s journey in golf started when he was just five years old right there in Boca Raton.
“I had hit a few balls with my dad when I was 3 years old,” Leech says, “but I really found a love for the game and enjoyed playing it at five. My dad took me to a driving range where I met Don Law, another GRAA Award Winner. He showed me a trick shot where he caught the ball in his hat, and I immediately fell in love with the game. Don has been mentoring me since that day in business and through the golf industry.”
Leech enjoyed a pretty successful junior career, which led to playing college golf at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. After four years of college, he decided to turn pro and play mini-tour events, Monday qualifiers and Q-Schools in hopes of making it on the PGA Tour one day.
“After more than three years of traveling and playing, I decided to join the PGA of America and work in the industry full-time with the focus of mentoring young junior golfers and helping them with their hopes and dreams of one day becoming professional golfers,” Leech explained.
When Leech joined the PGA of America, he sought mentorship from Law and was hired as an assistant professional. His focus is now on instruction and is thankful for the many mentors he’s had and the lessons learned from many teaching professionals.
“I will continue to seek more knowledge from other professionals,” he adds, “as the golf industry is an ever-changing entity in which we should always be growing and improving. Many professionals have helped shape my career, but Don Law has always been the guiding light to help me reach my goals.”
The programming at the Don Law Golf Academy is quite extensive, as it’s one of the largest academies in South Florida. With 15 teaching professionals at the Boca Raton location, they offer programming for juniors and adults and have students of varied levels of play.
Leech says they encourage group lessons and classes because the groups encourage camaraderie and overall enjoyment of the game. Their junior programming is considered the largest part of what they do.
“We offer classes that introduce the game to four-year-olds and facilitate high-level training for golfers up to 18 years old who hope to become college athletes one day,” Leech adds. “We offer full-time training programs that involve academics, training and boarding – this is our most immersive program as we help our juniors through their daily lives, golf training, tournament play and social interactions. With such expansive programming, it is important to have willing and knowledgeable staff to execute the operation.”
Don Law Golf Academy employs multiple PGA of America Golf Professionals who are like-minded in their efforts to help their clients attain their goals. They offer daily adult classes to help students play better golf and enjoy their experience at their course or club. While group programming is a large part of what they do (as mentioned), Leech says they see private instruction as necessary to accompany the group lessons for students to get the most out of their learning experience. Academy administrators create individual packages to best fit each client’s needs and create programming based on what will help them best.
“In recent years, there have been huge advancements in technology in the golf industry” Leech admits. “To best help our clients, we have to know the current state of their golf game, and technology helps us determine where they are in their journey. We do simple assessments and create a plan based on their skill level.”
Some of the technology used includes Trackman, FlightScope, Foresight Sports, BodiTrak, Sportsbox AI, Blast Motion, SAM PuttLab and HackMotion. They add training aids to help clients learn faster.
“Teaching well is about gaining experience, and over 20+ years in the industry, Don has learned ways to help our clients more efficiently and expedite their learning. Technology has indeed helped us do that,” Leech says.
When asked about trends he’s seeing in the industry, Leech says, “Trends seem to come and go and then resurface in the industry. From a professional standpoint, I believe the work-life balance is becoming more prevalent and will continue in the industry. I believe the PGA of America has put great initiatives in place to require better work-life balances within their businesses and facilities. This initiative will help keep employees in our industry and help them continue their growth as professionals.”
When it comes to instruction, Leech says teaching trends will always come and then circle back again. “What can help one person may hinder or distract another,” he says. “I believe there will be major progress and growth from AI systems in the golf industry in the next five years. They have already made huge strides in markerless 3D data capturing and the data collection will only be more refined and accurate in the future. This will become a prominent system in our teaching and coaching practices. Topics about golf instruction will always be up for debate. Many theories have been proven with factual data because of recent technology, and technology will continue to advance, as will our knowledge of why things happen in the golf swing. We may never completely understand it all but we will get pretty darn close.”
