Scott Hassee

Please indicate past awards won/recognitions:
GRAA Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional

Other awards won:
2019 PGA Alabama Chapter Teacher of the Year

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 500
Female: 150
Junior: 400

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):
We partnered this year for the first with two different organizations to grow the women’s segment of the game. ForetheLadies and SheGolfs with Travelers. SheGolfs was run through the local Travelers Insurance Organization and we served as their first location outside of the national home office to run this special program. We ran 3 separate clinics with 30 ladies in total from their organization. More than 75% of these ladies were brand new to golf having never played. We covered each aspect of the game focusing on the putt, chip, and drive so that they could be equipped enough to play in their corporate outing later in the fall. Approximately 15 of those 30 came out and participated in their first golf outing fundraiser as participants and not just volunteers. ForetheLadies headed by Abby Liebenthal reached out early in the year to find a local partner to promote womens golf initiatives in the Nashville market. We offered 3 large group classes averaging more than 30 ladies per class, utilizing our 3 main instructors again covering the drive, chip, and putt. We also offered through them 3 separate “lesson series” of 4 sessions that went more in depth to teach them every area of the game (averaged 8 ladies per session for these and they we designed it so they could pick and choose which classes they could make). Lastly, we offered a Happy Hour Nines on 3 different occasions where they come out and play golf later in the evening during the week to enjoy a fun and relaxed round at our club. In total we saw over 100 new ladies as a part of these programs.

Separate from the ForeTheLadies Organization we ran 4 other Ladies Programming series for our members and current students. We currently have added some additional winter programming that is a social feature through our instruction programs to keep them engaged with the game of golf. Our winter social series starts in Novemeber with a women’s trunk show followed by a womens empowerment and pathway to success in December and January. Signups are currently at 25 ladies for the November event. We have promoted one of our instructors, Elijah Tackett, to Ladies Program Director to focus even more heavily into this segment of instruction for 2024.

We added a Junior Program Director, Erica Feuerhelm, in May of this year to grow and expand and restructure our junior segment. We started with our Nike Summer Camps and ran those camps for 7 weeks. We saw 158 kids this summer (up from 78 in 2022) and many of those added to our fall program. We continued to run a PGA Junior League team against area clubs but no growth in this particular segment was seen in 2022 from previous years. Our fall 8 week junior program (that uses the Operation 36 model) more than doubled from any previous spring or summer 8 week program. Previous years were at 20-24 and we topped out just over 50 for this fall adding an additional program for kids 4-6 utilizing the SNAG Golf Equipment. A first for us this fall was to add an Inaugural Junior Club Championship separate from the previous years club championships. It will be hosted on Sunday October 22nd and has over 60 kids signed up. We have multiple divisions (Championship, Open, Operation 36 – 100/50 yards, and a SNAG Golf Division). This is a first for us and a very exciting start with that volume given that in previous years as a part of the overall club championship there were never more than 10 kids signed up with only 4 in 2022. We have also added a winter program this year for kids interested in an in-depth game development utilizing all of our teachers and meeting three times per week. We have 16 kids signed up for this program as well. Lastly, and a big addition, is that Erica and I have volunteered at the local elementary schools this fall to teach SNAG golf in their PE classes and train their teachers to do so as well. We have gone into 3 schools thus far for multiple days at each and have 3 more on the books for the remainder of the fall plus more on the books for the spring of 2024. We have also gotten approval from the County School District to become the sole group to educate and train their teachers on the usage of SNAG as they seek a grant to purchase 1-2 sets to be distributed around the county. We will present on November 6th at their career development day to a room of more than 50 PE teachers and coaches. Our focus will be to let them experience SNAG for themselves and how to effectively run it at their schools with our volunteered assistance. We also added a “Parents’ Night Out” program twice this fall for the parents to drop off their kids in the evening so they can go out on the town and have an evening to themselves. We’ve had 10 kids participate in those and look to grow that more into 2024.

We added a simulator league this spring that had 8 teams of 3 participants utilizing our GCQuad to play courses around the world in the evening hours in the first few months of the year. This lasted for 3 months and included a fun “tournament series” at the end to determine the final winners. Note: We have a one-bay studio so only one team participated at a time.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
As mentioned above in question 11 we had ongoing lesson series (both internally and with ForetheLadies) to keep those women engaged throughout the season. We added a Ladies Night Out in addition to those programs to have an instructor float between groups to teach the game as they played nine holes in the evening. We ran this on 5 separate occasions in the spring and late summer. Also as mentioned above we have our upcoming winter social series for our ladies to keep them engaged with the game of golf through fun evenings and activities in order to have them ready for golf in the spring.

My podcast continues to run and we shoot those on the back patio at our club twice per month. We usually have roughly a dozen people come out and listen to these and have a strong following from our students and club members that listen to the podcast on the regular with over 40,000 listens to date (over the last 3 years).

We do 4 free clinics every month with an attendance of 8 students per clinic. We have two teachers at all clinics and do this for our River Club Members at the club. This time is volunteered by our instructors and not paid and it is one of our favorite ongoing classes to run. Members can get up to 4 one hour clinics and 4 30 minute clinics throughout the year. It’s a member favorite service and allows us to test new teaching concepts and engage more deeply with students/members and for them to engage with one another. 32 “free sessions” every month throughout the year! Tons of fun for us and them!

We partner with a recruiting organization called RSA scouting and host several course strategy seminars for a number of their players. These are 2.5 day in depth sun-up to sun-down programs for the better players later in high school looking to advance their knowledge and understanding of the game. This has been a huge success for us with several of these players recording personal bests and significant tournament wins within a short period following their time here.

We added a lesson package titled “Total Game Package” that quickly became a huge hit as it provided “ongoing coaching” on every aspect of the game: Two full swing sessions, two short game sessions, and one 9 hole course management session. Customers often repeat this package is it takes a complete look at their games. While not specifically “programming” it is an important and popular service we offer that keeps them engaged.

With our Nike Summer Camps and fall programs, it needs to be added that we utilize our more elite and older junior golfers to help coach these camps. Mentoring is an important part of what we do so our older kids jump in and volunteer to help our younger kids. In addition, those that volunteer also are mentored by a number of our college players who come in to work for the summer in various capacities at the club. This is our second year doing this and we had 10 juniors volunteer at various points throughout the summer.

Last, and our favorite, is our adult winter CTC 4.0 (Cracking the Code) program that allows students to receive weekly coaching through the hardest months of the year (Nov-Feb). This program takes a strong “martial arts style” approach pushing them heavily on their technique, teaching them effective physical and mental practice routines, and teaching them in depth course strategy. We have 27 students scheduled for this fall (which heavily fills our lesson books) and it involves all 3 of our teachers in their unique skill sets to grow.