By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
Online golf instruction really took off during the pandemic, with many PGA Professionals engaging their students via Zoom and FaceTime to analyze swing videos and provide feedback that students could apply in the comfort and safety of their own homes. At Quick Fix Golf, they were doing this prior to COVID entering our lives, and they’re going strong with this coaching model today.
Headquartered in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, Quick Fix Golf consists of PGA Professionals Bobby Lopez, the Founder and Darren deMaille, a GRAA Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional. Quick Fix Golf provides virtual golf instruction that is facilitated through the Quick Fix Golf app and includes verbal feedback, reports and training regimens geared towards the individual.
Bobby Lopez, PGA
Lopez and deMaille got together about five years ago when deMaille was teaching a friend of Lopez’s. The student told Lopez he had to check out this new instructor of his and they came together not long after. Lopez chalks it up to timing. He says he got lucky and appreciates what deMaille has brought to the business.
Quick Fix Golf was the initial brainchild of a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, whose idea in 1999 was to create a website where golfers could access a dropdown menu of swing faults (slice, hook, etc.) and pre-set information would be provided to correct the problem. He offered the website to Lopez for a great price and the company was born.
Lopez started conducting online instruction almost two decades ago, when he did a video with Be Better Golf. At the conclusion of the video, he invited viewers to email their swing videos for a free review and analysis. He received almost 1,000 responses and had more than a third of them sign up for an online program that he put together for them. He knew he was on to something!
Darren deMaille, PGA
Quick Fix Golf offers an initial swing analysis free of charge, through which they provide 7-10 minutes of specific feedback on the student’s swing and even more pre-recorded video drills that he or she can utilize immediately to rectify the issues cited by Lopez and deMaille. They also offer virtual lessons through Zoom where the professionals engage students one-on-one in a live online setting.
“We ask the student to record themselves doing the drills that we prescribe to them so we know they’re doing them correctly,” deMaille says. “This is part of the initial free analysis.” Lopez adds that 60-70 percent of these free analyses turn into a paid lesson package.
“Although we still do some in-person lessons, we want to go online exclusively,” Lopez says. He adds that they’re close to that goal, despite the fact that he recently had a student who wanted to hop on a plane and see him in person after the stellar results achieved in the virtual format.
The Quick Start Program is a 30-day program that focuses on one swing fault with unlimited analysis within that timeframe. The 30-day period ends with a live virtual lesson where Lopez and deMaille wrap up the information on the one swing fault and ideally sell the student into membership and additional virtual lessons.
Membership includes access to a multitude of informative blogs, articles, videos and analysis, as well as discounts on live engagement to help students get better and find more enjoyment in the game. Lopez and deMaille also host live classes on YouTube that engage members and their guests in a specific topic with each session.
Lopez currently does a majority of the virtual lessons, while deMaille builds the feeder system through in-person coaching at Tupelo Bay Golf Center, a Par 58 executive course and practice facility in Garden City, South Carolina. They also have an indoor golf simulator, club repair room and green screen studio where they create videos.
It’s a wonderful team and a concept that continues to grow. With many decades of golf expertise between the two PGA Professionals, Quick Fix Golf is the ideal setting to improve your swing and take that first step to a lifetime of fun in the game of golf.
