Scott Hassee

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

Other awards won (if provided):
2018 Alabama Chapter Teacher of the Year, I’ve won the Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional Award 5 Times (twice when it was the Top 50 award) 2019-2023

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 800
Female: 100
Junior: 250

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
300+ (total clinic days / year)

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
We made a big push this spring and summer to expand our PGA Junior League Teams. In the answer below about programming you’ll see how we did this and comparisons to previous years. We only had one PGA Junior League team each of the last two years and expanded it to four teams with a total of 50 participants this summer. This took our total summer golf junior participants from 185 students in 2023 to over 225 students in summer of 2024.

In addition to this, we continued to expand our SNAG golf in local schools. We have served over 2,000 students in 10 schools in 2024. We purchased the SNAG golf equipment in 2023 and have continued to utilize it for this main purpose. We also decided to add a SNAG golf class in the spring of this year and it only had 4 participants in the spring. We tripled the size of that class and had 1 dozen students this fall on Friday evenings. We made this SNAG golf class 75 minutes in length for ages 4-6 years old and while the length of class is a little long for this age bracket we also provided food and drink specials for parents to encourage them to stay and enjoy some time together in the pub while their kids learned and played around with the game of golf.

We added a free junior equipment evaluation in May of this year so that parents could bring their kids out (regardless of age or experience) and get a 30 minute fitting and to discuss the various options for their junior golfer based on their own interests, budget, and goals. We utilize a variety of products from iGen, US Kids, and Ping to get junior sets in the hands of each family. Our Tour Shop also offers club repair services to lengthen, shorten, or repair clubs so kids have the right tools in their hands.

We also added free junior golf supervised practice days / classes for any junior that’s participated in some type of program with us throughout the previous 12 months. We have 2 slated every month and parents can bring their kids to as many classes as they want even if they are not actively enrolled in any paid programs at the moment. This has been a huge hit and I expand on that at the bottom.

The last major initiative we added this year was a rental golf equipment program for our beginning ladies. We saw a need that many of our ladies either didn’t have sets of clubs or the wrong sets of clubs. We currently have 9 rental sets out on loan (students take them home with them like they are their own) which will be returned at the end of the year and cycled back for new equipment in 2025. These sets are rented out for $50/month and those dollars can eventually be used towards the purchase of a set of clubs if they choose to do so. We will continue with this same program in 2025 with 10 ladies rental sets out on loan.

We grew our team substantially this summer and I believe is a big part of our Growth of the Game Initiatives. I have attached the photo of our summer team that included 3 summer interns from the PGM program at MIssissippi State University, and we added two additional full time personnel in Braden Nunez and Zach Crane. Our core leadership team consists of me, Erica Feuerhelm (Junior Program Director), and Elijah Tackett (Ladies Program Director). We have been able to expand every segment of our instruction and clubfitting services with this team to serve people of all experience levels, personalities, and budgets.

I’ve been offering free lessons to staff at the club since I arrived in 2020 to start out on my own at Franklin Bridge. I give roughly 3-5 free 30 minute lessons per week to our staff no matter what department they are in. They can take up to one per month should they desire. I watched my mentor, Hank Johnson offer free help to our team while I taught under him for a decade. Wonderful chance to add value to the staff and is a nice perk of working there as a sort of “benefit” to them.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
We utilize PGA Junior League in our summer activities. In 2022 and 2023 we had one PGA Junior League Team. In 2024 we went to 4 PGA Junior League teams which included 2 13U teams and 2 17U teams. One of our 17U teams also advanced to the Regional Championship in Callaway Gardens finishing in 5th place. This expansion of PGA Junior League led to increased growth in our fall programs, but one of the main improvements we saw was kids getting to know other juniors at the club that developed friendships where they come out and practice together.

Our Nike Summer Camps are regularly attended with 172 and 176 participants respectively in 2023 and 2024. These are 4 day long golf camps that include both half day and full day camps depending on the age and skill levels of the players. Once per week these kids get to get on the golf course as well as a part of their education.

We utilize Operation 36 curriculum and planning in both our spring and fall 8 week junior golf programs. We have shown steady growth in these each year, with our last 4 semesters having 40, 50, 52, and 65 participants. (Spring 23, Fall 23, Spring 24, and Fall 24 respectively).

In 2023 we added a Junior Club Championship which had 60 kids participate. We had several divisions which included an Operation 36 Division at 50 yards and 100 yards as well as an Open and Championship Division. It is set as a Fall Festival style program which includes additional fun games and food with lots of prizes for everyone. Entire families are encouraged to attend each year as they too can participate in the “non-tournament” games that are offered. This years second annual Junior Club Championship had the same number of participants but we had US Kids Junior Tees at two different levels this year so that every age child got to get on the course with the youngest groups playing 5 holes, as well as 9 hole divisions at various levels, and a Championship flight for both boys and girls.

Our biggest initiative in junior golf does not generate any dollars. Our team went into 10 schools with the SNAG Golf equipment for a total of more than 20 days of education. This in-school education and free instruction is a big component of growing the game and adding value to the community at our facility. We are slated to go to 12 schools this school year. In addition to this free service, we have added a twice a month free education for junior golfers that have participated in at least one of our programs in the previous year. We began this program this September and have 2 days set per month where up to 24 kids can come for some additional free instruction and supervised practice. Kids do not need to be active in a current program or lessons in order to attend, they simply have to have participated in some capacity during the year.

In keeping with the free clinic idea, we offer our River Club Members (a preferred rate and range membership at Franklin Bridge) free clinics throughout the year. We give a total of 16 clinics per year with 12 participants in each in the last two years. These members can attend up to 8 total free sessions should they choose to do so. With the increased instruction team and our new Learning Center that is scheduled to open in November of this year, we have scheduled 24 total clinics for our adults that are River Club Members.

Our Women’s golf program has shown substantial growth since we began partnering with Fore The Ladies (FTL) in 2023. We had a total of 75 participants in 2023 and have seen over 120 ladies in various capacities in our programs in 2024. With FTL, we hosted 3 big event days that have between 24-30 participants each, as well as multiple 4 week topic specific series which caters to mostly beginning women golfers though more accomplished players attend as well. We also have our own ongoing series separate from FTL that have shown substantial growth as well (numbers are a part of the above). We participated in the Women’s Golf Day organization this May by hosting an event with 30 ladies that included education on technique and on course play followed by a social hour with prizes and trivia. In the winter of 2023 and 2024 we ran 4 social events for ladies that averaged more than 25 ladies which included rules and etiquette, a trunk show for apparel and accessories, and a self-defense class. We have these programs slated to run this winter of 2024 and 2025 as well.

We added Scoring Schools this year around both of my books on golf course strategy. We have had a total of 12 participants. These programs were designed to help people score better through strategic thinking and on course play. We plan to increase the number of these in 2025.

Our most popular adult program is entering its 5th season. It’s titled Cracking the Code (CTC for short) and is a 4 month off-season weekly training program for adults. the instructor to student ratio is 1:2 with classes of 3-4 people. We cover the entire game and practice regardless of weather conditions both indoors and outdoors as a part of the mental and preparedness training. We have roughly 25 participants every season and recently started our 24/25 program. We consider it a “Biggest Loser” style program and allows us to keep them engaged and working towards better golf throughout the entire winter season with no breaks!

Finally, I continue to run the No Mulligans Podcast that has done over 250 episodes since its inception in 2019 alongside my cohost and good friend Jack Beard since 2020 where we now have more than 50,000 total listens to date. We continue to market this to our students to stay engaged with the learning process and our culture of golfers as our podcast focuses on golf course strategy and mindset. Again, this is another free service that offer to not just our students locally, but we also have listeners all over the globe.