Mike Fay

Please indicate past awards won/recognitions:
PGA Section Teacher of the Year, GRAA Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, Golf Digest Best in State

Other awards won:
Future Champions Top 25 Junior Elite Coach, U.S. Kids Golf Master KIds Teacher, 2 x MI PGA Player Development Award, MI PGA Deacon Palmer Award

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 700
Female: 300
Junior: 400

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
70+

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
Created a POD system of coaching which mixes private lessons with group instruction (supervised practices). The POD system gives golfers choices based on levels of membership. These choices are based upon how much time to learn the game and cost. Adult POD has 3 different levels, Junior POD has 4 different levels, and Mini POD (10 and under) are broken down into 3 session groups that last 5 weeks apiece. Adult POD and Junior POD last year round at our facility.

Both Adult POD and Junior POD is capped at 15 golfers each. Mini POD was unlimited and at one point we had 47 juniors participate.

FORE Ladies Only is a program that runs throughout the year. It comes in a package that includes 5 seperate dates for each session. We where sold out for the year hosting 4 sessions of 6 players each.

Held a new members free clinic which had 5 participants.

Held Zoom calls with the membership over the winter months to engage them with their games.

Was an assisitant coach for St. Catherine of Siena Academy girls golf team. Helping the team to their best ever finish at state finals.

Created “Beginner Mondays” at the club where only beginners were taught when the club was closed. Helping beginners feel more comfortable with learning the game. Each Monday was sold out, This increased participation in our beginner league we host weekly at the club.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
The POD Programs have been a huge success helping players stay on track and have fun learning golf. When you have structured supervised practices and you know one of your team mates will be there, if helps them participate more and be accountable.

Coach Now plays a big part in engaging our players. We use it not only for instruction but to notify them about upcoming events.

Social Media has always played a big part in engaging our players as well. We need to put golf “in their face” to make sure they continue to have fun playing, practice, and get better. We dedicate our social media to our instruction takers and over the past few years more and more of our players like to be recognized for their hard work.

Promoting competitive players is super important. Most of our competitive juniors are looking to play college golf and letting college coaches know who is available helps. Our goal is to give juniors a better life through college golf.