Latest Accolade is Industry’s Highest Honor
Lake Mary, FL – The PGA of America has announced that its 2009 National Teacher of the Year award recipient is Mike Bender of the Mike Bender Golf Academy, headquartered at Timacuan Golf Club in Lake Mary, Florida. This is the highest singular honor that can be earned by a golf instructor.
“This is very special because it means that my peers – the professionals who have the same passion for teaching that I have – respect what I have been able to accomplish in helping golfers play better and enjoy the game more,” said Bender. “There is no other award that means as much to a golf instructor as National Teacher of the Year and I will do my best to live up to the legacy of the teachers whose names are already on the award.”
The PGA’s National Teacher of the Year Award was inaugurated in 1986 and the two-dozen teachers to reach this pinnacle of the profession include Manuel de la Torre, Dr. Gary Wiren, Jim Flick, Harvey Penick, Hank Haney, Jim McLean, Chuck Cook, Dr. Jim Suttie and Martin Hall.
As Bender has achieved worldwide recognition as a teacher who gets students to make significant improvement in their games, golf’s top players have sought out his advice. Zach Johnson, 2007 Masters Champion and six-time winner on the PGA Tour, has trained with Mike since Johnson was launching his professional career on the mini-tours at the beginning of the decade. LPGA four-time tournament winner Seon Hwa Lee and rookie sensation Vicki Hurst also have been working with Mike for years. More recently, PGA Tour veterans, including Jonathan Byrd, Mark Hensby, Robert Damron and two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, have put their faith in Mike. All told, Bender has helped more than two-dozen PGA, Champions and LPGA Tour professionals with their games.
He began teaching after completing three seasons competing on the PGA Tour in the late 1980s and has been headquartered at Timacuan G.C. since 1991. Recently he opened satellite academies at Stoneybrook East and Stoneybrook West in metropolitan Orlando along with Mike Bender Elite Golf Academies at Sarabande CC in Howey-in-the-Hills, FL and in Seoul, South Korea. These Elite Golf Academies are for competitive junior, collegiate and young professional players who want a world-class, full-time training program that uses Bender’s proven techniques for building champion golfers.
Bender also is well known for his creation of the MEGSA Perfect Practice Equipment, a revolutionary training station that is used by thousands of amateurs and top professionals including 2007 major winners Johnson and Morgan Pressel.
Everyone affiliated with Mike Bender Golf Academies worldwide would like to congratulate him on this outstanding achievement.
For more information on Mike Bender’s instruction and clubfitting programs visit www.mikebender.com or call 407-321-0444.
Contact:
Mike Jamison – 407-328-0500, ext. 1
mike@jamisongolf.com
