By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
It’s always interesting to hear how a fellow PGA of America Golf Professional got his or her start in the game. Some have storied junior golf careers, high school, college and more. While others started later and admit that golf wasn’t even a thought at one time in their lives…until it was.
“I got started in golf when I was 15 years old,” says Stacy Mapel, the PGA of America Owner/Operator of Mapel Golf Academy at Hawks Creek Golf Club in Westworth Village, Texas. “I had just finished watching the Celtics play the Lakers at the old Boston Garden on TV in 1982. My father walked into the room and asked me to go hit balls at the college where he was a professor. I was reluctant because at the time, I thought golf wasn’t cool. I soon found out how wrong I was. Afterward, he told me I was a natural and I should take up the game. Soon, I would take his shag bag and ride my bike down to my old elementary school to practice. I fell in love with the game to the point that I stopped playing organized basketball, baseball, football and soccer. Most of my early play was at the Fort Worth city courses such as Meadowbrook, Rockwood, Pecan Valley and Z-Boaz.”
Mapel didn’t play college golf. In fact, he didn’t even work in golf after high school. After high school, Mapel started working for an airline while going to college. As he looks back, Mapel recalls that getting a job with a top-tier airline back in the 1980s was considered a good career choice. To this day, the field still calls many with wanderlust to serve today – travel to far away cities, always on the go and a steady paycheck.
“However,” Mapel adds, “I had always wanted to be involved in sports, particularly golf, since I fell in love with it. That’s when I decided to enter the golf career market and get a job as an assistant professional at a semi-private club in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in 1994.”
As he moved from role to role in the industry, as most of us do, Mapel realized that his true passion in the game was teaching.
“I garnered a reputation as the pro to see to improve one’s game at all three clubs where I was an assistant professional,” Mapel boasts. “A few years after earning my PGA card in 2002, I decided to venture out on my own and teach the game full time, and I have taught at several facilities in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area ever since.”
Mapel, a 2024 Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, has called Hawks Creek Golf Club home for his golf academy for the past seven years. He credits current PGA of America Head Golf Professional Bill Moorberg, and former PGA of America Head Golf Professionals Mike Krsnak, Tony Collins and David Curwen for allowing him to teach at the club and grow his teaching business.
Hawks Creek is a premier 18-hole facility and was once the Carswell AFB golf course before being sold to the city of Westworth Village. The course was renovated by John Colligan 25 years ago and was named the best new course in Texas by Avid Golfer Magazine upon its reopening in 2002. It offers a dual practice facility with an upper and lower range. The lower range is for the general public, while the upper range is for lessons and has its own green and bunker for greenside and fairway bunker shots.
“Most of my programming at the moment revolves around the short game and putting,” Mapel says. “We offer Putting and Chipping Boot Camps designed to not only help students improve in these areas of the game, but to learn in a relaxed and fun environment. I also set up a Putting Skills Assessment Test on the main putting green to allow potential and current clients to test their skills on the greens. This provides me the opportunity to interact with prospective students and enhance my value as an instructor.”
With decades of experience under his belt, Mapel understands the value of today’s golf coaching technology. His full swing coaching and instruction includes Full Swing Kit Launch Monitor, Flightscope Mevo Plus Launch Monitor w/Pro Package, OnForm Video Swing Analysis App, Swing Profile Swing Analyzer App, HackMotion Wrist Sensor, Live View PRO and Blast Motion.
When asked about trends he sees going forward, Mapel says that virtual and online coaching through modern platforms like Skillest and the Golf Coach app will continue to thrive.
He’s also finding that more students than ever have purchased inexpensive launch monitors or installed simulators in their homes, or they plan to. And he sees high-end launch monitor companies continuing to offer more affordable options to their more expensive flagship products.
On the range, Mapel lauds the capabilities of range ball-tracking technology such as Toptracer Range and Trackman Range: “The ability to not only see ball flight, but play a virtual round of golf is enticing and quite entertaining for casual and serious players alike,” he says. “As far as indoor facilities are concerned, we have had a number of these pop up in the DFW area. I believe they will continue to be good income generators throughout the country due to the capacity to practice year-round in a controlled environment. So far, most indications are that home launch monitors/simulators and off-course indoor practice facilities are bringing more people to the game. However, I am a little concerned they could eventually hurt green grass practice facilities and rounds played at public golf courses. We shall see.
For more information about the Mapel Golf Academy, log on to its website today!
