And not just people who've held a club, but golfers who can actually play, all the way to shooting par (36) for 9 holes.
For juniors and adults alike, the traditional way in (a bucket of balls and 'good luck out there') makes most beginners quit within their first year.
Our mission is to build the best programming and technology to introduce and progress a beginner in the game of golf.
So every beginner has a fun, motivating path from their first swing to skilled, lifelong golfer.
Operation 36 wasn't designed in a boardroom. It was earned one season at a time on a golf course in Buies Creek, North Carolina.
PGA Professionals Ryan Dailey and Matt Reagan launch a weekly junior program at Keith Hills Golf Club. Three kids, one question: can you take someone from never playing to breaking par from the full tee box?
To keep the game fun while driving real improvement, Ryan and Matt study game design, athlete development, and curriculum design. Every week becomes a live lab: teach, keep what works, fold it back in. The result is a system of 6 levels, 12 skills each, built toward one north star: shoot par (36) for 9 holes. The program grows to 80 golfers a week with 95% retention.
Year four: 40 golfers don't come back. The biggest lesson is that weekly classes alone don't create golfers; playing does. So the question becomes: how do you let a beginner experience success, shooting par, from day one? The answer is to learn golf in reverse. Scale the course to a player's skill level so they shoot 36 from a shorter yardage early in the journey, then earn their way back toward the full tee one level at a time, instead of waiting years. Paired with fun weekly classes, it makes the whole curriculum measurable, and it works so well the program is renamed Operation 36.
Golf pros start asking to bring the program to their own facilities, so expanding the mission means equipping the coaches who deliver it. Op 36 builds coach training, an HQ to support locations, and proprietary software that ships in 2016 to connect golfer and coach and measure the journey. A network takes shape: coaches working together to build the best development program in golf for juniors and adults. By 2019, Op 36 runs at 450+ facilities.
Now an industry standard for introducing juniors and adults to golf, Op 36 sets a public goal: create 1,000,000 new golfers, with every stroke measured in the app.
To accelerate the mission, Op 36 joins the Golf Genius family, the golf industry's leading technology provider, trusted by clubs, coaches, tours, and associations around the world to power the game. Together they bring the development model to more golfers than ever. Today: 800+ facilities, 22 countries, 250,000+ golfers, and over 900,000 strokes lost and counting.
A team of PGA Professionals, builders, and creatives, most of whom learned the game the hard way and are making sure you don't have to.
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
Player Development Consultant
Player Development Consultant
Player Development Consultant
Operations Manager
Product Marketing Manager
Marketing Campaign Manager
Graphic Designer / Merchandise Manager
Graphic Designer
