Michael Wenzel

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

Other awards won:
2011 IPGA Youth Player Development Award, 2014 U.S. Kids Master Professional, 2019 Golf Digest Top 40 Under 40

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 100
Female: 50
Junior: 500

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
35

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
This year we launched a new 9-Hole Teen league for players that have graduated out of our 13U PGA Jr. League. We started this program in the fall and had 4 new players. The program consisted of 2, two-hour practices and 4 games over 6 weeks. We will offer this again in the spring and summer and expect it to only grow.
This past year we expanded the number of golf camps we offered with the PGA Camps program, adding 5 more ½ day afternoon camps where we could, and adding another week of camp later in the summer.
During the early spring we launched a Swing into Spring with Movement Clinic in the simulators at the club house, as we are closed on Mondays for rentals.
We continued to offer our PGA Jr. league in the summer and based on the size of the program over 72 kids we were able to send three teams to the playoffs again. With the popularity of the summer program, I offered a late season PGA Jr. League team for the second year in a row and 19 kids continued to play for an additional 4 weeks.
This past year I continued to run our 18-Hole Youth League to help prepare players to make their high school team in the spring, summer and fall. This has also been a great way to merge our 9-hole youth travel team league and help my eighth graders better prepare for high school tryouts. While the kids play, I actively coach them offering tips and strategies on course management, shot and club selection as, well as the mental game on how to rebound after a bad shot or bad hole. This year I had 8 players make their teams which helps our local team maintain its competitive advantage amongst the bigger high schools in our area.
This past winter we started offering our Girls Golf Clinics indoors at our winter location, which offers three hitting areas with technology. Two of the hitting areas utilize the Full Swing Kit Launch Monitor and Simulator, and our third we utilize Trackman with a 15 x 15 x 10 hitting cage. This past winter we had 18 girls participate, which was a great way to keep the girls engaged in golf, as well as give our LPGA Apprentice an opportunity to teach during the winter.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
Each year at the club we host our own club championships for men, women and junior players In addition, at the end of each league season I run a parent/child event on our 9-hole course to help create a sense of community for all the families involved.
I’m also in charge of running our 9-hole simulator league at the club on two Full Swing Pro 2.0 Simulators We offer a fall/winter and winter/spring season. The fall regular season is 6 weeks long, and the winter season is 8 weeks long. The league is comprised of two player teams playing for a gross combined score each week, and they earn points toward playing in the single elimination playoff matches. Throughout the regular season we have them establish a handicap, and during the playoffs the handicaps are applied at 70%. We found this strategy to be a great way to keep the games more competitive. Due to my efforts, I have been able to expand our league to grow each season. Our fall league in 2024 we had 46 players, and this fall we have a record 72 players. Our winter league in 2024 had 32 players, and I was able to get it to 68 players in 2025.
This created a great problem for us, and I had the goal of having more teams participate in the playoffs than the one 16 team playoff bracket. We expanded to have two 16 team brackets that way only a few teams are eliminated each season. Each week teams earn points, and based on their total points at the end of the season we group them into an odd or even bracket, and they are assigned their rankings 1-16 in each bracket accordingly. Using the NFL as an example we created the American Golf League Division, and the National Golf League Division. We crown a champion for each division which takes place after 4 weeks, and on the 5th week we have each division winner play and compete for the Overall League Champion. During the league we have a closest to the pin contest each week and for the first three weeks of the playoffs. We award fun prizes from the golf shop, and give out gift cards to the club for 1st – 3rd places in each division, and then give a prize for the Championship which is a winner take all match, and each team gets an adult beverage and an appetizer to share. We have a perpetual trophy that we putt the winning teams names on each season to recognize their accomplishment.
During the spring I assisted my wife with starting up a golf club at St. Mary’s School in Buffalo Grove. This was a program that had happened over a decade prior, and we brought it back and had 14 kids participate. I assisted with putting together the curriculum and helping recruit volunteer coaches to help run the practices. We created a new school golf logo featuring the Bison mascot and created shirts and caps for each participant. This helped provide a new sense of community at the school and created more interest than anticipated for grades 3-8th. For the last practice together, they played on the Buffalo Grove Golf Course which is within walking distance of the school, and we sponsored a pizza party afterwards. Kids that participate in this program have also participated in our PGA Jr. League, Parent Child and youth stroke play tournaments at Heritage Oaks.

Parent/Child Event – After last year’s success I decided to run this event again, and the participation was even greater than last year. Our attendance went from 54 players to 72 players. We had two divisions, 11 & under and a 12 & over division. Each participant received a Heritage Oaks ball marker, and we had 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes for the low scramble score winners in each division. In addition, we had a CTP contest on Hole 3 & 8, and a long putt on hole 6. To keep the competition about the kids and a true golf test, each child needed to use three of their drives and one approach shot on either of the Par 3’s. The kids had so much fun, and it was great to see their smiling faces.
The past two seasons we have held an annual Halloween Golf Fest inviting children between the ages for 4-11 to enjoy an afternoon of golf ball decorating, candy corn relay race, pumpkin roll relay race, guess the number of candies in the jar, as well as refreshments. Other contests included Best Costume, Funniest Costume, Scariest Costume, and best Partner Costume. The local garden and nursery “Reds” across from the course helps us with donating the pumpkins and gords, and I am in charge of organizing and promote the event, and our academy staff runs the day of activities.