John Hughes

Please indicate past awards won/recognitions:
PGA Section Teacher of the Year, Golf Digest Best in State

Other awards won (if provided):
Golf Magazine Teachers to Watch List 2026-27, Golf Tips Magazine Top 25 Teacher List 2013-Present

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 600+
Female: 350+
Junior: 350+

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
50+

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
During 2025-26, John Hughes Golf has experienced continued growth in the number of golfers we are engaging and coaching. As well as program numbers. We also consulted and assisted with the increase in player development and coaching numbers at our second facility while conducting a “residency” program there.

Home is In Orlando
My home facility is in Orlando, the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate. Having no lesson or player development programs in place when I arrived in January of 2024, we are now well on our way to creating sustainable and realistic growth going forward. These programs include local clinics, coaching programs for the facility's associates, traditional lesson programs for local and regional clientele, vacation golf school programs, and mentoring programs for assistant professionals of the facility.

Starting with the mentoring programs, I continue to mentor 4 assistant professionals on staff who are associate members of the PGA of America. I assist them with their PGA Education assignments and allow each to shadow me unlimitedly while coaching my clientele.

Each week throughout the summer, the assistant professionals conduct an “Omni Associates Day.” Typically each Thursday, weather permitting, the associate employees of the resort are invited to the golf course to learn skills and techniques as well as play golf with the assistant professionals. I act as a consultant to the assistant professionals as they create lesson plans for each week. I also act as a “set of eyes” to help them improve their teaching style and technique. The program continues to experience light but steady participation. This is due to the various schedules these employees are being asked to work by the resort, as well as afternoon weather being a mitigating factor each week.

Our PGA Hope program has been well attended each session. The golf club assistants typically conduct this program, and all staff are now required to become PGA Hope certified. In all, 2 programs were conducted in 2025. So far, 2 programs have been completed in 2026, with two more scheduled for fall. All to date have been sellouts of 12 military veterans in attendance per program. The remainder of the 2026 programs are anticipated to sell out as well.

Our monthly ‘Open House’ clinics utilizing Eagles Edge that we began in 2025 are still being offered. But offered through the facilities staff. The basis of the program remains the same as I designed these programs. Due to contractual stipulations, their staff needed to take over management of these programs as well as the marketing, both in-house and out-of-house. I continue to serve as a liaison/consultant to the facility staff and occasionally attend as an observer to collect information to help them grow this program in the future.

In 2025, I added six independent contract coaches to assist me with group golf schools and clinics. One of those coaches is now with me at the facility as a “full-time” contract coach. He is taking my overflow of lessons and golf schools. His count of those programs is not included in the questions above pertaining to the amount of gender related lessons and group clinics. Five others continue as “on-call” staff, assisting with larger groups, daily last-minute lesson requests, and conducting their own private clientele programs. It is my intent to bring on at least 2 more independent contract coaches before the end of 2026 to handle the additional group programming we have scheduled for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027.

Growth of group programming is the focus for the balance of 2026 and into 2027. Beginning with our ‘Play Golf Now’ programs. 2026 numbers are equal to our 2025 numbers, mainly due to weather conditions and somewhat to geopolitical items we do not have control over. We plan to slightly redesign and enhance these programs to include an all-day event once a month as well as a series of ‘weekly’ clinics consisting of 4 consecutive weeks. The programs will continue to be divided into 5 themes: putting, chipping, irons and hybrids, woods and driver, and on-course. Enhancements being considered are using more technology to ‘gamify’ each session as well as using the 10-hole par 3 Course on property to conduct on-course within each session.

Complementary skill assessments continue to provide a flow of new golfers to our programs. Most of these assessments are being conducted by the new lead coach in place so he can continue to keep a full schedule of clients. The assessments are still available as a ‘walk-in’ service for hotel guests while asking local clientele to make an appointment. Using FlightScope and its Skills App as a ‘skills game’ is always met with excitement and success of the program. Our conversion rate of the skill assessments remains approximately 30%, with most converting to a longer-term one-to-one program.

The launch of our newest brand, Instant Golf Improvement (IGI), has been at expected rates and returns. Minimal marketing and promotion were made to gain growth with these programs. We were able to meet expectations for participation. Mainly with our remote and virtual coaching programs. The IGI brand is inspired by the book I authored in 2025.

Plans for the remainder of 2025 are to conduct a “free influencer” event in late August of 2026 to prove a new golf school concept. Future paid dates for these programs are in October of 2026 and quarterly in 2027. Regional and national growth for this new golf school program is already in place for 2027 and beyond.

The new golf school format will be marketed as a two-day golf school where you come to “play better golf without fixing your swing.” Each golfer will participate in 5 different “pillar” stations, learning how to aim, learning the carry distances of their scoring clubs, learning how to hit a chip shot, and then growing the chip shot into a manageable way to play golf, and learning how to control distances of their putting. Each afternoon the golfers will be coached on the course, learning how to play smarter with their current skills and not making ‘stupid’ mistakes. The program is based upon the core pillars of strategy and essential skills as detailed in the book, https://InstantGolfImprovement.com

Virtual coaching has grown again in 2026, with over 100 regular clients participating in a month-to-month virtual coaching program. This is a substantial percentage increase over 2025, due to a greater marketing effort being employed on a sustainable basis. I foresee these numbers continuing to grow as we push out more content for these golfers to consume while also growing our presence using the Golf Live App (https://golfliveapp.com) to conduct all virtual golf coaching programs.

Summer Residency Programs
My first year at Omni Homestead Resort was met with excitement and success, both on and off the golf course. The six weeks of golf schools brought 31 golfers to the resort, all for the first time, generating over $50k of direct revenue. The general manager at the time began to speak to me about a more permanent role at the resort. But before everything was in place, he resigned to take a similar position elsewhere.

I am now in discussions with the new managing director to grow these and other programs at Omni Homestead beginning in 2027. These programs include a Homestead-branded boutique golf school experience, as well as daily clinics, simulator clinics, and planning the construction of a learning center.

So far in 2026, the golf school program has introduced Omni Homestead to 26 golfers with direct revenue spend of approximately $40k. Fall schools are close to being sold out, with a total of 20 or more golfers visiting the facility between late September and mid-October. These numbers do not include the 10+ private clients visiting me at Omni Homestead for one-to-one programs with me. We already have the 2027 schedule for these programs in place and anticipate 100+ participants next year.

These programs have allowed the resort to contract with a new independent golf coach. I’ve worked closely with her to establish basic programming, a weekly women’s clinic, and assist with the marketing of her own private clientele. I also use her within the group golf schools as my assistant.

As I did in 2025, I continue to help the assistant pros on staff with their PGA education. I continue to consult with the Director of Golf, the Marketing Director, the Revenue Director, and the Managing Director to establish the renaissance of Omni Homestead as a travel destination for golf coaching and instruction.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
As previously mentioned, remote coaching from both a subscription model and a follow-up model continues to keep golfers engaged with my staff and me. When a golfer participates in any of our programming, they are entitled to “free follow-up.” Meaning, they can reach out to their coach at any time, using any means needed. This includes the use of our video platform, OnForm, and our remote platform, Golf Live App. This also includes traditional communication means (email, text, call). Providing our clients the ability to follow up with no financial obligation has helped retain approximately 28% more clients than previous years. Our commitment to these clients is that we will respond to any request for follow-up questions, video review, or other correspondence within 24 hours of receipt of their request. This practice will continue as is with all existing or new clientele.

The use of an outside marketing/sales provider for group golf schools continues to grow our engagement with golfers who would not normally opt for high-performance one-to-one coaching. These programs also yield ancillary revenue production for each resort in the form of room nights, food and beverage spending, extra pro shop sales, and other spending at the resort during their stays.

Our continued use of handwritten ‘thank you’ cards continues to bring renewal revenue to our programs. It also increases referrals. Personalizing each card is well worth the time and effort.

We also began to include a free copy of my book, Instant Golf Improvement, with each golf school program sold. This has met with positive feedback and more interaction with our weekly newsletters that contain content from the book, our YouTube Channels, and our blog posts.

Many of the other programs I have designed and implemented over the past year were mentioned and detailed within the answer to Question #9.