Ketola to operate new Golf Performance Center at Grande Dunes

Dale Ketola has been operating his Potential Golf instruction school for the past 4 ½ years at a couple locations, but he is giving up the name for his next endeavor.

Ketola, a former member of the Coastal Carolina men’s golf team who graduated in 2003, will be the director of instruction and club fitting at The Golf Performance Center at Grande Dunes, which is slated to open by March 1.

A building that houses two hitting bays on the side of the driving range at the Grande Dunes Resort Course that was previously part of the Mel Sole Golf School is being renovated, and brand new fitting and teaching equipment is being purchased for the center.

Ketola opened Potential Golf at Farmstead Golf Links in 2012 and he moved to River Hills Golf & Country Club in Little River last spring.

Executives with Founders Group International, which owns and operates both River Hills and Grande Dunes, approached Ketola about opening the new business.

“It’s something they wanted to do for awhile and the timing was right,” Ketola said. “I’m super excited about getting involved. I think it’s going to be a great place. I think the possibilities are endless with what we’ll be able to do out here.”

Ketola has been at the Grande Dunes facility for the past month and has an office in the cart barn adjacent to the hitting bays. “I’ve worked every day since I started except for Christmas,” Ketola said. “It’s fun to develop all these programs.”

Instruction and fitting will include the use of high-speed video and FlightScope radar technology, and mental game instruction will include the use of technology such as a FocusBand, a headband that measures brain waves and helps improve focus and performance.

“I’m a big fan of anything I can measure, so a lot of things I use can be measured,” Ketola said. “It’s going to be the only place in Myrtle Beach or close to it where you can go get fit and see the ball fly outdoors with the technology we’re offering.”

Equipment from TaylorMade, Callaway and U.S. Kids Golf will be available for fitting, and equipment from additional companies may be added based on demand.

Michelle Kempe, FGI’s director of retail operations, will be involved in club fitting and an intern from N.C. State will assist Ketola.

Ketola will also have affiliate professionals with specializations across the country that will visit to work with students or provide seminars or clinics. They include sports and performance psychologist Dr. Bhrett McCabe, who works with several players on the PGA and LPGA tours, and Rusty Estes, a club fitter who travels with the PGA Tour for Fourteen Golf.

Ketola has been teaching since his college days, before he graduated with a marketing degree, and is currently giving lessons and club-fitting at Grande Dunes.

He earned Class A PGA status in 2008. He worked at Bay Tree Plantation from 1999-2006, taught at Pawleys Plantation from 2006-2010, and taught from 2010-12 at the Greg Norman Champions Academy, located at the time at Long Bay Club.

Junior Golf will be a big component of Ketola’s programs. He is the director of the Myrtle Beach Chapter of the South Carolina Junior Golf Association Hootie & the Blowfish Chapter Series and plans to be the coach of at least one PGA Junior League team based at Grande Dunes this summer.

It will join area teams at River Oaks Golf Club, The Dunes Golf and Beach Club and Wachesaw Plantation, and juniors won’t have to be affiliated with the performance center to participate. “It’s a really fun way for kids to get involved and used to playing with other kids,” said Ketola, who also wants to educate the parents of juniors to help them make good decisions about their childrens’ opportunities.

“They’ve been really accommodating here,” Ketola said. “We’ll develolp new things for the kids – tournaments and practice and playing opportunities. It could be a really good place to do all sorts of stuff. The juniors will have some nice places to go play tournaments, hit balls and practice.”

GolfTEC leaves market

GolfTEC is not seeking a new location for its instruction business that was located inside the now-closed Golfsmith Xtreme retail store in Myrtle Beach, so the company has left the Grand Strand golf market after a more than three-year run at Golfsmith.

Golfsmith was acquired late last year by Dick’s Sporting Goods in partnership with liquidator Hilco Global, and Dick’s implemented a plan to close about 60 stores, including the Myrtle Beach location, while keeping 30 open.

GolfTEC recently had as many as 200 locations in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Korea, but more than 80 of those were in Golfsmith stores. Andy Hilts, GolfTEC’s vice president of Instruction and Education, said the company is now down to about 170 locations but expects to be back around 185 in the near future.

“The challenge for us as a thriving business was to be a partner with one that wasn’t thriving,” Nilts said. “It’s been a challenge for us to pack and move because we don’t want to lose students.”

GolfTEC is based in Colorado and utilizes patented technology and cameras in its instruction. It had three locations in South Carolina, but those in Myrtle Beach and Columbia have been shut down and only Greenville remains.

“Our business there [in Myrtle Beach] wasn’t spectacular, and we’ve tried to prioritize where our businesses performed the best and strategically choose where we can rebuild,” Hilts said. “It’s been challenging for us where you have a lot of transient people and there is a lot of competition for instruction in that market.”

The Myrtle Beach location employed up to three instructors and had two just prior to its closing, including PGA-certified coach Josh Slawiak. “I would imagine we would revisit [the market] in the future, but not at this time,” Hilts said.

A Golfsmith store in North Myrtle Beach that was a former Golf Dimensions store was shut down on Oct. 23 as part of a proposed Golfsmith reorganization plan following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in September.

It was one of 20 stores out of 109 U.S. locations that were closed as part of the plan, and all but the remaining 30 have since been closed or are closing. The NMB Golfsmith did not contain a GolfTEC business.

Redding selected

Instructor Brad Redding, who is based at the International Club of Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet, has been selected to be a presenting speaker at the PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit from Jan. 22-23 at the Orange County Convention Center.

It is a precursor to the national PGA Merchandise Show at the convention center.

Redding is one of about two dozen teachers who have been chosen to present and will involved in a small panel discussion on “Faults and Fixes.”

In addition, Redding’s student, Connor Burgess, who in November won the George Holliday Memorial Junior Championship at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club, has been named the 2016 Virginia State Golf Association Junior Boys Golfer of the Year.

This past summer the Virginia Tech signee qualified for both the 2016 U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur championships, earning medalist honors in amateur qualifying, shot 71-66 to win the prestigious Fox Puss Invitational and represented Virginia in both the Virginia/Carolinas Junior Matches and Mid-Atlantic Junior Invitational.

Redding is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher in America, PGA Master Professional in Instruction, a seven-time PGA Section Teacher of the Year, and one of the top teachers in South Carolina according to a Golf Digest survey of teaching pros.

Pearson steps down

After creating the Tidewater Patriot Day Charity Golf Tournament and running it for 12 years, Tidewater Plantation & Golf Club resident Bill Pearson is stepping down as tournament director of the Tidewater Charity Tournament Committee.

He will remain as a TCTC Trustee and adviser to new director John Mouco, a TCTC Trustee and tournament volunteer for the last two years.

The tournament raised $62,025 for charity as a result of 2016 fundraising, and over the last 12 years the charity tournaments at Tidewater have donated over $473,000 to local charities. Pearson has led other fundraisers as well.

The tournament annually featured wounded veterans as special guests and participants and will continue to provide for charities that serve the area including the Folds of Honor, North Strand Helping Hand, SOS Healthcare, North Strand Housing Shelter and The Miles for Smiles Program at the Little River Medical Center.

The 2017 Tidewater Patriot Day Charity Golf Tournament will be on Monday, September 4 at Tidewater. Visit www.tidewatercharitytournament.com for more information or to register.

Flood victims benefit

The Canned Goods Open will be held Thursday at Crown Park Golf Club and will benefit the victims of flooding caused by Hurricane Matthew and its aftermath in October in the Nichols community.

The format is a four-person team Texas scramble and the entry fee is $100 per team plus $40 in canned goods. Registration and lunch are at 11:30 a.m. and precede a 12:30 p.m. shotgun start. Professionals and amateurs are eligible to participate. Prizes will be awarded for top finishes and skills contests.

This story was originally published January 9, 2017 at 11:39 PM with the headline "Ketola to operate new Golf Performance Center at Grande Dunes."