Rick Murphy

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 (Indicate specific awards below in 3-a)

Other awards won:
PGA of America National Junior Golf Leader Award – 2022 Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame Inductee – 2016 Carolinas PGA Horton Smith Award (education) – 2 Time Carolinas PGA Teacher of the Year – 2008 Carolinas PGA Golf Professional of the Year –

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 850 +
Female: 175 +
Junior: 200

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
30 +

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
“New” US Kids Sessions – I’ve teamed up with US Kids Jim Hardy, PGA to create a more engaging and broader spectrum of sessions to grow youth golf at Rick Murphy Golf and Greensboro National Golf Club as well as the surrounding area. We are currently hosting sessions Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. While growing our youth base over the last two years our intent is to fill these sessions on site and expand to other facilities in the Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, NC areas. Essentially the entire triad area/region we are working to build the largest and effective programing for youth and parents. We are looking for and finding teachers and coaches that we will train at our facility and then place them at other facilities that do not have a youth program or facilities that want to create a youth program at their site. We will train our coaches and send them to these locations at no cost to the facility as well as providing the equipment to them a no charge. We want to grow this area program to reach 1500 youth over the next 2 years. We are on our pathway to accomplish this goal.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
– In addition to this “NEW” youth program, I have expanded my base of technology used in lesson sessions. I’ve recently added GEARS 3D Motion Capture to my teaching and coaching technology and a simulator that will be used with my adult sessions during inclement weather as well as using it to engage youth with gamification.
– I’ve used AimPoint and my Level III certification to expand short game clinics and specialized short game schools/sessions. After an AimPoint fundamentals session on green reading skills, I’ve developed an alumni session that addresses three-putt avoidance and work on distance controls with multiple drills. This session also includes a review of green reading skills and the addition of any new adjustments in the AimPoint Green Reading process. This new session includes how AimPoint can be used to improve chipping and pitching.
– I use multiple fitting days to expose students to the importance of having properly fitted equipment using multiple OEM’s and their reps on hand fitting days and created our own personal fitting days utilizing myself and staff to host these.
– In addressing the fitness of my students along with instruction, I use GEARS 3D Performance Testing. This testing has opened the eyes of my students that want to improve their performance long-term. There are 19 assessments during the testing that will reveal their limitations and where they are vulnerable to injury. After the assessment my students are given a detailed report of where their opportunity is for improvement in stability, mobility and flexibility. This knowledge of their body and where they can make headway has driven their level of engagement in lesson sessions long-term.