LAKE MARY, FL (October 14, 2008) – The super success of the Mike Bender Golf Academy has been noticed and rewarded by Golf Magazine.
In the November issue of one of the world’s leading golf publications, the Mike Bender Golf Academy is named as one of America’s Top 25 Golf Schools. Individually, Bender is ranked among the “Top 10 Greatest Instructors in America” by Golf Digest magazine.
The Mike Bender Golf Academy is located at one of Central Florida’s most popular golf courses, Timacuan Golf Club in Lake Mary, just north of Orlando. Bender recently expanded to two other Orlando-area Kitson & Partners properties – Stoneybrook West and Stoneybrook East.
The magazine highlighted in its article why golfers should go to the Mike Bender Golf Academy by saying the academy’s “highly trained staff provides off-the-charts attention to small groups.” In fact, unlike many of the other schools on the magazine’s list, the Mike Bender Golf Academy actually custom tailors a golf school program for each participant based on length and intensity requested, individual needs for improvement and the golfer’s general skill level.
Schools are available year-round at the academy and can include personal instruction with Bender, who is ranked among the “Top 10 Greatest Instructors in America” by Golf Digest magazine. Ty Krieger, the academy’s director of instruction, and Cheryl Anderson, 2006 LPGA National Teacher of the Year, also teach the academy’s school programs for individuals and small groups.
The Mike Bender Golf Academy began gaining in popularity following successful professional tour seasons by some of his top students in 2006. It skyrocketed following Zach Johnson’s Masters victory in 2007.
Along with Johnson, Bender’s other professional tour students have included two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, Skip Kendall, Mark Hensby, Jonathan Byrd, 2006 LPGA Tour Rookie Of The Year Seon Hwa Lee, tour winner Joo Mi Kim and many more.
“To be recognized for your efforts by a publication like Golf Magazine is very special,” said Bender. “We are proud of our work both here and at our other locations.”
Kitson & Partners’ C.O.O. Of Clubs, Mike Rippey, sees the value of the relationship between Bender and Kitson.
“Mike Bender’s teaching ability and swing theories have always been solid, long before they were validated by success on the professional tours,” said Rippey. “We are fortunate to have him as a partner, and we believe this recognition by Golf Magazine is very justified.
The criteria used in the GOLF Magazine evaluation process included:
Breadth of programs
Student-to-teacher ratio. The smaller, the better.
Technology. The panel favored schools that applied advanced technologies (video analysis, 3-D modeling and even platform analyses) into their lessons plans.
Instruction quantity. The more the better. Schools that spent more time on the practice tee were favored over those that split time between practice and play.
Facilities and accommodations. The Panel awarded schools with state-of-the-art practice facilities with the complete range of full-swing, short-game and putting practice areas.
Staff experience. Staffs led by more knowledgeable and experienced teachers were favored over those that employ even a partial percentage of non-PGA or LPGA teaching professionals.
The Mike Bender Golf Academy is located at Timacuan Golf Club just north of Orlando off I-4 in Lake Mary. Timacuan is a semi-private, 20-year-old Ron Garl design with two distinctly different nines. Membership programs and daily fee specials are available at Timacuan, ranked as high as No. 14 in Florida.
For more information about Timacuan, call 407-321-0010 or visit golftimacuan.com. For lessons or golf school information contact the Mike Bender Golf Academy at 407-321-0444 or visit www.mikebender.com.
Contact:
Mike Jamison
407-328-0500
mike@jamisongolf.com
