Written By: Claude Brousseau, PGA Master, Director of Player Development at Wailea Golf Academy
Aloha! For the last five years, I have served as the Director of Player Development at Wailea Golf Academy in Maui, Hawaii, where over 70% of the players who come to the academy are visitors. I’m incredibly grateful and lucky to call Maui home, however, it creates an environment ripe for high turnover.
To build a successful, recurring coaching business in the land of “here today and gone tomorrow,” I’ve had to develop a specific approach with highly efficient technology, rapid results, and improvements that have led to being voted Hawaii’s #1 teacher by Golf Digest each year since 2019.
Here are my four keys to success that any golf professional can implement into their business.
Create Immediate Value, Simply
Whether you teach in a vacation destination or not, you’re competing against endless activities and often time away from someone’s family. We only get one chance to show them instant value if we want them to return.
My key is focusing on simple adjustments that golfers can feel and then validating those changes with clear visuals. I’ve been a longtime user of V1 Sports coaching tools, including their recently released V1 COACH app, which makes it easy to record and analyze a player’s swing right there on the lesson tee. By combining in-lesson adjustments with visual feedback, I help golfers connect what they’re feeling with what they’re seeing, making the learning process more effective. The idea is matching feel and real.
What golfer doesn’t like a gift that shows them exactly how to play better golf?
That is why everyone who takes a lesson with me receives multiple video recaps sent from my V1 COACH app directly to the player’s free V1 GOLF app. These recaps include voiceovers, so players can easily access and recall exactly what we focused on anytime when they are at home. Once they are connected with me in the V1 GOLF app, they can continue to chat and send me their swings from home.
Staying in touch with the players after they leave Maui is key to building long-term relationships and repeat customers. I send at least one piece of communication to my database every month, showing that I’m invested in their journey to realize their full golfing potential. This strategy has yielded 75% repeat customers for many years.
For years, my communications were spread across text, email, chat, and phone calls, but now I can send personalized messages, share drills, and track their progress all within a single app. This consistent follow-up not only reinforces what they learned during the coaching session but also keeps them engaged and keeps Coach Claude in their mind as THE resource for their game.
Since a majority of players visit me less than once a year, organization is crucial. For years, I found myself scrambling to piece together a student’s history from various sources—swing videos in one place, drills in another, and lesson notes scattered across emails or notebooks. Now, using my V1 COACH app, I can quickly access a player’s full profile, including their swing videos, drills, past communications, and detailed notes from previous lessons. Not only does this save me time but it makes each golfer feel like they’ve been top of mind, even if it’s been a while since their last session.
By focusing on these four strategies, I’ve been able to turn visitors into a loyal community of golfers who return year after year. Whether your customers are local or just passing through, the right approach can turn a one-time lesson into a lasting golf relationship. You will have golfers for a lifetime.
Warmest Aloha!
