Ryan McGinnis

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:
2022 Central New York PGA Patriot Award ; 2020 Central New York PGA Player Development Award ; 2018 Central New York PGA Assistant Professional of the Year

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 1,300
Female: 125
Junior: 160

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
65-70

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
The growth of the game programs that I initiated in 2024 included PGA Jr League, PGA HOPE, Drive Chip Putt Clinics, Decade Golf Course Management, Junior Golf Academy and Open Clinics. My PGA Junior league golf program consisted of 2 teams with 28 total participants, up from 16 participants in 2023. PGA HOPE remains the largest program in the country with over 350 participants in 2024. Our PGA HOPE League took on its second year. This league is a post program activity to keep engagement and drive teamwork. The Drive Chip and Putt clinic was designed to help local participants learn the strategies needed to advance to the sub-regional with the dream of getting to Augusta for the National Championship. In our first year we had 9 participants and 5 advanced to the sub-regional. Decade Golf Course Management had 6 participants in its first year. This 3-hour course got my students to understand the importance of course management and how with proper strategy we can shoot lower scores. My Junior Golf Academy ran for 5 months, all winter. Each month I held 3 classes every Saturday. Each class consisted of 10-12 participants. Open clinics focused on all aspects of golf. My ladies clinic had 10 participants weekly. My additional class saw 6 participants weekly. With all of these programs my end goal is; how do we retain golfers while giving opportunity to build new golfers. I believe all of these programs do just that as we target the needs of every golfer (Beginner to Competitive) and develop plans for continued growth within the game.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
In order to build engagement you need to first develop a plan. That plan is the pathway for all of your students to achieve a desired goal. a lot of this starts with private instruction. This gives me the ability to work 1-1 with my student to build out the plan. From there I begin programming additional opportunities that include; PGA HOPE LEAGUE, PGA JR LEAGUE, DRIVE CHIP & PUTT CLINIC, DECADE GOLF and OPEN CLINICS. The PGA HOPE LEAGUE was designed to provide additional opportunities and post program engagement for our veterans. Giving our veterans an opportunity to work as a team while learning the game has been extremely successful with over 80 participants. PGA JR LEAGUE is designed to introduce kids to golf in a fun/social environment. Building our weekly practices and matches gives kids an opportunity to engage in golf throughout the summer months. The DRIVE CHIP & PUTT CLINIC was an opportunity for my students to build out a game plan to give the best chance to advance, whether that be mechanics or proper strategy. DECADE GOLF is a mindset. My course on this gave an inside look at how the best players in the world manage their way around the course. We also looked at how to practice so my students can continue to improve. My weekly clinics give extra opportunities to my students to come out and practice what we are working on in a supervised practice environment.