By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
It seems like we’re seeing more and more NEW Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) award winners with each passing year. These golf professionals are not newbies in the business, however. They are seasoned experts in the field of teaching the golf swing and mentoring their students…and they’re busier than ever.
PGA of America Golf Professional Jason Sedan is one such example. He earned his first GRAA Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional Award in 2023 but has almost 20 years of experience in the golf industry. Sedan graduated from the Professional Golf Management (PGM) Program at Coastal Carolina University and has coached golfers in New Jersey, New England and Florida, even working for two years under Butch and Claude Harmon at the Floridian National Golf Club in Palm City, Florida.
“I was a 10-year-old baseball player when my two uncles first took me to the driving range in Edgewater, New Jersey,” Sedan remembers. “I could connect right away but had a lot to learn leading up to my first round of golf. For my 12th birthday, I was able to register for access to the Bergen County (NJ) course tee time system and booked my first round at Rockleigh Golf Course. I fired a smooth 136 with my grandfather in the pouring rain…and asked how soon we could come back to do it again.”
Sedan says he was a late bloomer but got more competitive playing varsity golf during the spring of his junior year of high school. With no college recruitment opportunities available at the time, Sedan sought warmer weather to continue his golf training and chose Coastal Carolina University’s PGA PGM Program.
“CCU led to some fantastic summer internships back home in the New York Metropolitan area,” he explains, “which allowed me to go even further south. In December of 2006, I took a job at the PGA of America’s then flagship facility – PGA Golf Club in Port St Lucie, Florida.”
Sedan trained with dozens of Top 100 Teachers as they traveled to Port St. Lucie during the winter months, and he spent summers competing in section tournaments. After three years in Florida, Sedan accepted his first of four Director of Instruction positions, this one at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey.
Sedan would head back to FLA for a Director of Instruction opportunity at Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach in October of 2012. The next spring he became the PGA of America Director of Instruction at Lake Winnipesaukee Golf Club in New Hampshire but did not leave Orchid Island. Sedan would now split his years between New England and Florida – summers up north and winters down south.
He left Vero Beach for that stint with the Harmons in 2019 and is now the Director of Instruction at Old Marsh Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, while still summering in New Hampshire.
He’s touching a lot of members – motivating some to get into the game and helping others attain goals in golf they might now have thought possible. Through his own education, Sedan is impacting golfers year-round. He’s one of only a couple dozen PGA of America Golf Professionals to attain all PGA career certifications. He’s been a featured instructor on the Golf Channel’s SwingFix and has been a contributor to New England Golf Monthly. He’s also certified in a number of the leading golf technologies – Trackman, AimPoint Express, K-Vest and even TPI, bringing fitness to his player development programming.
Sedan is also among Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers in America and has earned the #1 Teacher honor for the state of New Hampshire every year since 2017.
Sedan believes in assessing each student as an individual and ensuring they comprehend his coaching so they can apply it to their training and on-course play. He breaks it down so students understand that success in golf stems from solid contact that marries accuracy and distance for total control of the golf ball. The concept might be easy to understand but the game remains a challenge for golfers of all skill levels. PGA of America coaches like Sedan are there to help.
“Having recently renovated the Learning Center at Old Marsh Golf Club, I’m fortunate to use some of the best technology on the market including Trackman, Foresight, Swing Catalyst and SAM PuttLab,” he boasts. “With so many great tools at my disposal, I still find my greatest coaching successes happening on the golf course. In fact, I prioritize three days per week to practice and play nine holes with students to better understand their process on the field of play. Without a doubt, golfers behave differently on the course, and I’ve been so lucky to strike a balance in my coaching programs to take that into account.”
Looking ahead, Sedan says AI will advance the diagnostics of swing tendencies tremendously.
“Determining “what” is happening in a golf swing quicker than in the past, and finding suitable treatments before a golfer gives up has always been the tact of a great coach,” he says. “Different players connect in different ways, but it will be interesting to see how we can make quality information and logical solutions readily available to the masses.”
Sedan is so passionate about “on-course” instruction that he named his teaching business after it. Check out his On Course Golf website today!
