Nick Kumpis

Nick Kumpis

Santa Ana Country Club

20382 Newport Blvd

20382 Newport Blvd, Santa Ana, California 92707, US

http://nickkumpisgolf.com

nick@nickkumpisgolf.com

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

Other awards won:
2020 Southern California PGA Metro Chapter Teacher of the year,2022 Southern California PGA metro Chapter Teacher of the Year 2016-17 Golf Digest Best Young Teacher, 2008, 2009, 2010 U.S. Kids Top 50 Kids Teacher, 2011 U.S. Kids Master Kids Teacher

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 550
Female: 500
Junior: 600

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
100 – these include the Ladies beginner class, Sunday junior swing class, Scoring School, Putting School, Short game on course clinic and Driver school clinic

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
Many golfers I have found enjoy the clinic and school setting more than the private lesson setting. Giving golf schools as an option has brought more players out who in the past did not take alot of lessons. 2 schools I launched in 2024 that had great success were the Scoring School and Putting School. The Scoring school focuses on your 3 most important clubs in your bag Driver, wedge and putter. We will focus on the swing for each of these shots but also how to apply them with course management and strategy. The Putting school is so important at our club as our greens are very large, have lots of undulation and are fast. With my Smartline Putting I can show them a better way to read the greens and show them drills to work on their speed control. Both schools have been great.

For all of our junior tournaments we have multiple age divisions including our youngest which is 10 and younger and on a par 4 would play from roughly 150 yards. From our junior program we have a good amount of kids ages 4-7 and for them 150 yards and playing 9 holes can sometimes be too much. So this year I added another divsion. Our 10 and under age we call the Divots so we added the PreDivots. At the back of the range we are able to use 3 of the target greens and make them into 3 holes roughly 50 yards each. It was a huge success as the parents could easily walk and help them play the 3 holes. Many kids did it multiple times and it was a huge success. We have added this new division for all the junior tournaments.
The Ladies Small School continued to be a huge success in 2024. Each school has 4 ladies and we offer about 8 schools a month. With many of the ladies repeating the school and playing more golf we added more specific schools for them, We had one to work on knowing your yardages, uneven lies, and on course time/ course management. Many of them as they start to play more are unsure of their yardages for their clubs. So one of the classes we go through their clubs to help get a better understanding for their distances. This is a huge help for them when getting on the course.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
The junior program continues to offer yearlong programs. In the summer we had 8 weeklong camps for 3 different levels from ages 4 -18 years old. We had about 200 kids participate this last summer. I have worked hard on getting younger kids involved in clinics and camps to start to learn the game and enjoy being at the course. We allow them to start at the age of 4 just like the other sports kids play such as soccer and baseball. They can start with lessons, camps, or clinics. At this age we work on golf skills, overall athletic skills, rules, etiquette and having fun. Some of the best parts of the camp are the poof drill (some baby powder on the grass to hit), hitting water balloons with driver or the final camp day putting contest. We have a ton of kids that repeat the camp many times.

One of the programs that is part of the yearlong junior program is the Sunday junior clinics throughout the year for beginner juniors and intermediate juniors. These clinics are an hour and a half every Sunday afternoon. The last class of the month we have a big putting contest with prizes for the kids. The intermediate juniors do the putting contest and also go on the course for their last class. The kids love getting on the course and teaching them to play is a huge part of our program. This class has continued to grow ever year and the beginner class getting around 15 -20 kids every week.

Another way to get the juniors on the course to learn how to play and give them some competition is our 4 tournaments we have during the year. We have the Junior Club Championship, the Summer Scramble Championship, the Santa Ana Junior Masters, and the Fall Championship. We have 4 age groups – 10 and under(divots), 11-12, 13-15, and 16-18. Each age group plays a different set of tees and play 5 holes, 9 holes, 9 holes and 18 holes respectively. We added the PreDivots ages 4-7 who play 3 holes mentioned in the previous question.

The Beginner Ladies Clinic continued to stay strong and kept the ladies engaged in 2023. We had lots of new/ beginner ladies starting to take up the game but not sure how to get started and needed a way to start. The clinics were offered every other week and were an hour and a half long. The clinics average about 12 ladies a class. The main goals of the clinics were to help them understand how to play the game and to get on the course and enjoy the game. During the clinics we showed them what clubs to use, what is the difference between the clubs, and teaching them the fundamentals on how to hit different shots – driver, fairway wood, irons, chipping, putting. Every other clinic we would take the ladies on the course and play 3 holes with the them. Since they were new we would also had to teach them rules, etiquette, how to make a tee time, when is best to play, how to come to the course and practice and everything you need to know to get started. After a few months some of the ladies starting playing 9 holes on their own, it was great. Over the year we had 30 new ladies playing on the course regularly with more new ladies coming to the clinics. Many of them have brought their friends to the clinics and out to play.

Trackman has a ton of tools to help students and also enjoy the game. One of the ways I use it is using the virtual golf courses and playing golf with the Trackman simulator. The kids really enjoy seeing it and its a great way to play a few holes quickly or hit some specific shots and see them on the course. Its a great tool and every student enjoys it and help them improve their game.

On Course Short Game School – To get a better feel for the short game shots that come up on the course I would take a group of students out on the course and do a short game school. We would start at the first green going over different aspects of the green and the shots that could come up and how best to play them. Then we would hit a few shots from the most common spots. We would go through the front nine doing this at all the greens. It was great for them to practice the actual shots on the course and ask about specific spots they had been in and how the shot could be played. We would do the front nine in one school and the back nine for another school. The students loved being able to hit shots on the course and have me there to see the shots.

I have a good amount of group lessons of 2-3 kids or 2-3 ladies and always work to make sure lesson is fun and provide them with challenges during the lesson. For most newer golfers that are learning the game getting on the course to hit some shots is really exciting and I try to get them out on the course as much as I can. It helps them understand the shots they are working on at the range will be applied on the golf course. It helps them build confidence that they can do it and play on the course. Its also great when they make their first par or birdie and being able to see them do it is great.