Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Sutton.
Hi Jason, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in a small town in West Virginia called St. Albans where I played all sports. I stumbled into golf at 12 years old and the journey began. I played golf at Glenville State College for 4 years before turning professional in 1992. I went down the typical PGA club pro route where I worked at a couple of private clubs in West Virginina, Sleepy Hollow CC and Berry Hills CC. I earned my PGA membership and moved to Charlotte, NC to become a head golf professional. I was an assistant professional at the Northstone Club where I was promoted to Head Golf Professional in my second season. I was always drawn to the teaching and coaching side of the business and my failure as a head professional lead me to my passion as a coach. I lost my job at Northstone and started working for my mentor, Dana Rader at the Dana Rader Golf School in 2001 where I started to build my skills as an instructor and my reputation grew. I worked for Dana for 11 years and where one of my collegues started calling me “The Golf Guru” because of my ability to devour teaching information through all the books that I was reading and my research on learning and the golf swing and the nickname stuck. This is where my brand “The Golf Guru” started. I started a YouTube golf show, a blog and shared videos and articles on twitter and Facebook and my reputation grew. My next step was to get my own instruction program so I took a job at Carmel Country Club. Carmel is a high, 36 hole private club where they wanted to elevate the instruction programming. So I hired a small staff and started mentoring young coaches under me and all across the world. As the director of Instruction I was able to take all that I have learned and create my own framework for coaching which I called “The Five Mastermind Skills”. While at Carmel I started to get recognition from my section and Nationally as I won Carolinas Section Teacher of the Year, The Horton Smith award for providing eduction for section members through my development of the yearly coaching workshop called “Guru’s teaching workshop” that I ran for 7 years. In 2017 I was honored by Golf Magazine by making the top 100 teacher list and was ranked the #1 teacher in North Carolina by Golf Digest. In 2018 I started the Golf Guru Show podcast and Its in its 8th season and currently ranked in the top 100 golf podcasts. The vision was to interview the top coaches and athletes, entrpeneurs and high performers to share their success journey, personal growth tactics and coaching strategies and shared it with young coaches all over the world and I have done that. My next chapter lead me to the low country of South Carolina where I am now the Director of Instruction at the Colleton River Club in Bluffton, SC. I have been here for 5 years and have been able to change the culture of instruction at one of the premier facilities in the country. Since I have been at CRC, I have been awarded the Low Country Chapter Teacher of the Year, The Carolinas Section Strausbaugh award for mentoring and just won the Carolinas Section “Golf Professional of the Year” which is the first teaching professional to ever win this prestigious honor. I have been teaching and coaching for 34 years and have been fortunate to work with Tour players, elite juniors and have helped over 100 (maybe more) kids get college scholarships over my career.
That is a brief history of my career. Let me know what else you need
Accolades:
2013 Carolinas Section Teacher of the Year
2015 Carolinas Section Horton Smith Award Winner
2017 Golf Magazine Top 100 list
2019 Golf Digest #1 Instructor in North Carolina
2023 Carolinas Section Strausbaugh Award Winner
2024 PGA Low Country Chapter Teacher of the Year
2024 Ranked Golf Digest #1 Teacher in South Carolina
2024 Carolinas Section Golf Professional of The Year
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As with all successful people, we all have been through adversity. My biggest failure that spurred me on to later success was my 3 years as a head professional. My club replaced me which forced me to reflect on what I was truly passionate about which was teaching. I was fortunate to get hired by a top 25 Golf School and meet my first mentor, Dana Rader. I was able for chase my goals to become a top 100 teacher and this put me on the path to greatness. I wouldn’t be where I am today if weren’t for this failure.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I teach people to play better golf. I teach all areas of the game and feel like I am well rounded but have a small niche as a putting coach as I teach alot of competitive players, (tour players, college and juiniors) just putting.
My strengths lie in my ability build relationships, read people and get to the solutions quickly. Aside from understanding the technical aspects of all parts of the game (The IQ), I feel like the emotional intelligence (the EQ), the ability to be empathetic, read body language and learning styles and connecting with my players is what sets me apart from other coaches. This is what separates a good instructor from a great one.
What I am most proud of:
I have had many student success stories over the years but 2 come to mind
1. Coaching my son Nicklaus – He played college golf at Tennessee Tech University and transferred to University of Houston for his last 2 years. He is now a Professional Golfer trying to make it on the PGA Tour. He currently is on the PGA Americas Tour. Balancing being a dad and a coach is not easy and has had many challenges. I am the most proud of the outstanding young man that Nicklaus has become. That is more important to me as a father, than the outstanding golfer that he is.
2. I coached Brian Campbell for 3 years after he had lost his PGA Tour card and was injured when we met. I was able to help him get healthy and get his tour card back through the Korn Ferry Tour and he has won twice on the PGA tour in the last 2 years. (The Mexico Open and The John Deere Classic)
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
The book list is long as I have been an avid reader and listener for my entire career. Aside from all the golf books that I have read, I found the self development space to be more helpful to me as a person and professional. Here is short list of some of my favorites:
How to win friends and Influence people by Dale Carnegie
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Failing Forward by John Maxwell (anything from Maxwell)
Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris
The slight edge by Jeff Olsen
Awareness by De Mello
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
Communication and the Art of Persuasion by Jim Rohn (I have listened to all his audio lectures)
Mans seach for meaning by Frankl
The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma
Golf Beneath The Surface by Dr. Raymond Prior
There are so many more…..
Favorite podcasts
The Tim Ferris Show
Golf Beneath The Surface
The Rich Roll Podcast
The Rewatchables
Earn your Edge
Pricing:
- 250/hr private lesson
Contact Info:
- Website: https://golfgurushow.com
- Instagram: @golfgurutv
- Facebook: jasonsuttongolf
- Twitter: @golfgurutv
- Youtube: swingdr69
