Stefanie Shaw

Please indicate past awards won/recognitions:
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:
Golf Digest Best Young Teachers in America 2018-now; US Kids Golf Honorable Mention.

Total number of individual lessons given per year:
Male: 200
Female: 1100
Junior: 200

Total number of individual clinics given per year:
90

Please indicate any Growth of the Game initiatives your facility/academy has launched over the past year (please give specifics on such programs):
From a junior perspective, my club in the winter has a full school system on property which gives us an incredible base for running junior programs as we have a lot of kids! Ocean Reef has done a great job of offering an after school program for them as well as many holiday camps. Our ladies have many ways to be involved and grow within the game as we offer a 9 hole and 18 hole league. I think this is a really big deal as I’ve had many women go from being afraid to hit balls alone on the range to playing in the 9 hole group, making friends and increasing confidence then making their way up to 18 holes. Each 9 hole group and 18 hole group even offers a free clinic once a week that comes as part of their package once they join a league. I run those clinics and have a full attendance each time. The club is so big that women are constantly meeting others through the clinic that they didn’t know were part of the league! We even offer a men’s 9 hole and 18 hole league which is also very successful and again a free clinic is run once a week by our male teaching professional.

Please share any programming you have made to keep your customers & students engaged:
In the winters I work at a club inside a community on an island. Which means I have a lot of peoples attention because they never leave property. I run many clinics but if someone has never played golf before it can be intimidating to come to those. I started bringing bottles of wine in the evenings to the putting green and named it Wine Wednesday. We post it in the local newspaper and around the club. I go over basic putting and offer drills and games and of course free wine. On average I get 20-30 people a week with our record being over 40 people one night. I make sure to have putters available and we sometimes even chip depending on how many come. I’ve involved other staff members who have interests in teaching and this is a way to help them work on how they present the information and work with members. I have an incredible range of ages and skill level join and have a consistent amount of members who end up booking their first golf lesson because of the clinics. This has been a very engaging program for the club!