Allen Terrell

Please indicate past awards won/recognitions:
PGA Section Teacher of the Year, GRAA Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, Golf Magazine Top 100, Golf Digest Best in State, Other (Indicate specific awards below in 3-a)

Other awards won:
Golf Digest Best Academies in Southeast

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 800
Female: 200
Junior: 1100

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
60

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
Free Monthly Lesson Program

Allen offers several free monthly programs. These free programs give him the opportunity to express his appreciation. Examples of this past year’s free lesson days are veterans, active military, first responders, law enforcement, and fire fighters. Through this program, Allen’s golf school has provided over 250 hours of free instruction annually.

Summer Camp

As another way of growing the game, we offer 4 separate three day summer camps at a very low price point. As always for junior beginners, the emphasis is fun. Through our obstacle course (functional movement skill building) and multiple games, the kids first exposure to golf is fun and positive. Again, we provide clubs for any junior without. We have been blessed to sell out all four sessions and had 200 kids’ participant this summer. Out of the 200, 50% were returners and 90% continue participating in golf.

DJ Junior Academy

Allen started the DJ Jr Academy as a way of attracting new kids to golf. The curriculum is very much like the OP 36 programs. The program is for ages 5-13. The program provides weekly group coaching and monthly 9-hole matches. In the effort to remove as many hurdles as possible, we charge the lowest amount of any kids program in the area. As well, we provide clubs for any kid. As they grow, we provide them with the proper length and weighted club. Over the past three years, this program has a 70% growth rate and 95% retention. We started with 4 sessions per week, now we are running 12 sessions with over 60 kids participating weekly.

Free Junior Lesson Day
8 days a year, Allen conducts free one on one lessons to any local junior between the age of 13-18. This junior cannot be a current client and must be a beginner or very new to the game. Through this program along, he has provided over 50 hours of free junior instruction. Over the course of the year, Allen gave more than 200 hours of free junior coaching.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
I started the Dustin Johnson Foundation for the very reason to grow the game and to decrease expenses for junior golfers. The Dustin Johnson Foundation pays for clubs for our junior academy program for those players that are just starting out. We also allow the golfers to trade out clubs if they outgrow the ones that we have given them. This decreases the burden for the family to have to buy new clubs every few years.

The foundation also helps fund our “Building Champions” program by offsetting the fee for private lessons and getting a lower rate for the juniors that qualify. This program is for aspiring junior golfers that want to compete in high school golf with the end goal of playing in college. The foundation has helped fund over 100 different juniors within the community over the last 8 years. This program has also produced over 20 college golfers within the first 4 years and 20 more in the years following.

One last way that I have grown the game with decreased expenses is, I started the Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship. Currently, I serve as the Tournament Chairman. Each year, our committee raises over $90,000 and manages close to 200 volunteers, rules officials, and staff. The tournament has quickly become the top junior event in the United States and 2022 was the 2nd ranked junior event worldwide. This is another vehicle we use as a way to show our local juniors what can be achieved with practice and dedication. As well, this event brings our community together in the effort to grow the game.