As the end of 2013 draws near, it is a great time to reflect on our year but also to recognize people in our industry that help grow the game in so many ways. I hope that you all have accomplished your goals and are ready to set new ones for 2014. I have had an outstanding year thanks to so many of you and my outstanding team (Adam Ohsberg, Maggie Simons and Alex Van der linden). I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your efforts as I have learned so much from you and enjoy watching your continued growth as professionals and as outstanding people.  Being recognized as the Carolina PGA Section Teacher of the Year is such a huge honor and I am so humbled by this award. Awards like this don’t happen without a lot of help and guidance from my mentors. The people who you choose to be around you says so much about who you are and what you stand for.  I hope that the way I conduct myself has made a small impact on the attitude and direction that our industry is heading. The days of putting yourself in a little box, protecting the information and best practices that you have accumulated over the years and refusing to share it with anyone in the hopes that you may get ahead of the next guy is OVER. The days of sharing, discovering through continued research and mentoring others is what we must focus on going forward. Our game and the ones following in our footsteps are counting on us to set the example and share what has been passed down to us with them.  This is the only way that we are to improve our skills as coaches and how we will be able to help guide the average golfer to improvement. This is the what I call the Cycle of Evolution For Growing the Game.  Even though this list focuses on Twitter, the use of social media has grown in many ways and has allowed us as coaches a platform to provide golfers and other coaches with valuable information that will help us all grow and improve.

The Goal Of The List

The main goal of this teacher list is to highlight individuals that are ACTIVE on twitter and doing the following: 1) sharing quality content 2) engaging with other coaches and golfer…which means answering tweets, using debate in a healthy way (no bashing other teachers) 3) promoting and lifting up other coaches to improve and recognizing good work

Requirement To Qualify for List = Must have at least 2000 Tweets (as I promised from last year). Next Year will be 3000 minimum

It has been incredible to see the growth in the number of tweets and the number of followers from last years professionals. I have a couple of special categories for a few amateurs that are doing some great things and a couple of sport psychologists as well. I also am recognizing some of the coaches that I feel have a lot to share but didn’t quite make the tweet count. I hope this will motivate you to shoot some video, start a blog, reach out to some of these coaches that can help you. because they will be willing to help in many ways. I don’t want to hear the excuse that you are too busy teaching and that your lesson book is full. I am pretty sure that most of these folks are busy, I know that I am…..you just have to make it a priority and view it as important. Twitter should be a part of your improvement plan for 2014. Before I get to the list, Happy New Year and I hope to meet you all at the #tweetup13 in Orlando. So here you go…………………!!

Congratulations to the 18 new inductees that are the first on the list so you can click and  follow them!

Number of Tweets

• Steven Giuliano                                         3722
• Mark Russo                                                5409
• Jeff Smith                                                   2417
• Mario Bevilacqua                                      3316
• Jim Ragland                                               3786
• Kandi Comer                                              4566
• Mark Strong                                               2546
• Virgil Herring                                             3062
• Brad Myers                                                4442
• Bill Devore                                                  5616
• Andrew Steep                                            12500
• Steven McDaniel                                       6579
• Joe Jezzard                                                4913
•  
• Steven Aumock                                         4348
• Martin Chuck                                            2775
• Steve Dresser                                           4101
• Bill Schmedes                                            2353
• Todd Halpen                                             18800

• John Graham                @johngrahamgolf                   59000
• Sara Dickson                 @sara_pga                              26670
• Jason Helman               @jasonhelmangolf.com          6601
• Rob McGill                     @golfprorob                           10459
• Kirk Oguri                      @kirkoguri                             19576
• Andrew Marr                 @andrewmarrgolf                10676
• Dennis Sales                   @dennissalesgolf                   11365
• Andrew Rice                   @andrewricegolf                   4884
• Mike Fay                          @mikefaygolf                       11091
• James Ridyard                @jamesridyard                     12121
• Vikki Vanderpool           @vvanderpool                        5243
• Mark Sweeney                 @aimpointgolf                      5104
• Brad Redding                  @bradreddinggolf                   6304
• Ed Bowe                            @bowegolf                              6489
• Mark Durland                  @durlandgolf                          2708
• Andy Griffith                    @andygriffiths1                      6250
• Ryan Chaney                     @oraclerio                              6912
• Rick Grayson                    @rickgraysongolf                   5237
• Ryan Crysler                      @ryancrysler                       20241
• Josh Boggs                         @boggspga                             2791
• Hugh Marr                          @hughmarr                           5069
• Erik Barzeski                     @iacas                                      7865
• Mitch Walz                         @walzygolf                             7902
• Robert Campbell               @rcampbellgolf                     2282
• Petri Parviainen                 @piiter77                              8496
• Ian Peek                               @ianpeekgolf                       7124
• Jamie Donalson                 @golfdonaldson                     8281
• Keith Stewart                      @kjpga                                  2323
• Matt Diederichs                  @mattdgolf                          18400
• Blake Graham                     @blakegrahampga               17200
• Denise Hastings                  @hastingsgolf                         2147
• Brett Packee                         @brettpackeegolf                4772
• Joe Mayo                             @trackmanmaestro             7879
• George Connor                   @connorgolf                         3237
• Denis Pugh                          @Dpugh54                            9737
• Derek Hooper                     @derekhoopergolf               2193
• TJ Yeaton                             @tjyeatongolf                     2750
• Chris Gibson                        @chrisgibsongolf                4196
• Jesse Struebing                   @jstruebs                             6739
• Kate Tempesta                     @KTUrbangolf                  3047
• Andy Gordon                       @andygordongolf               4545
• Martin Park                          @parkythepro                   13254
• Kevin Flynn                          @kflypga                             6949
• James Martin                       @James_W_martin         2671
• Meindert Jan Boekel          @BKLGolf                            5722
• Donal Scott                           @donalscott                         4415
• Michael Balderstone            @mjbalderstone                  3098

Here are a few amateurs that are doing a great job of growing the game through social media

1. Ricky Lee Potts –@rickyleepotts aside from the many talks that he has given at PGA shows and such about how to use social media, he is leading the way with his incredible Google + Golf (almost 10,000 members) group. He utilizes the group to promote teaching professionals with his Friday Foursome hangouts as well as sharing information with golfers all over the world

2. Nick Chertock –  @golfprogress. Nick is an avid golfer that has started several groups on Facebook including the most popular (Golf Teaching Professionals) group which attracted over 200 top teaching pros to the first LIVE forum at the PGA show. Talking about thinking out of the box . You don’t want to miss this years as it is going to be awesome.

2. Rich Hunt – @richie3jack  Rich is doing some incredible analysis on PGA tour stats that is changing the way golfers and pros are thinking about different parts of the game. Make sure you get his 2013 golf synopsis that can be found on his twitter page.

Sports Psychologists – Dr. Bhrett McCabe, PHD , Andy Morrison

Up and Coming Twitter Coaches (Guys and Girls that have alot to share and need to tweet more)

Corey Lundberg, Brandon Roby,Cameron McCormick, James Hong, Alex Pisano,         Adam Ohsberg, Maggie Simons,Alex van der Linden, Megan Padua, Tim Cooke, Scott Chisholm, Allen Burton, Skip Maiwald, Tom Stickney, Travis Lloyd, Aaron Olson

Thanks so much for reading and feel free to share!

Guru