HEATHROW, FL – Golf coaches in Proponent Group’s membership responded in surprising ways to a recent survey—one that that contained a set of questions about artificial intelligence. “We found that over half our member coaches are already using AI for at least some of their administrative and marketing tasks,” said company founder Lorin Anderson. “More than one-third are using AI for lesson follow-up messages and 25 percent are using AI to assist in swing diagnostics during lessons.”
Proponent Group’s 2026 Operations and Compensation Survey yielded these metrics—the first data points about AI in the 18-year history of the annual survey. A 31-page full summary of the findings was delivered to members earlier this month.
Sub-categories within the respondent group include coaches who are W-2 employees, those who work as independent contractors and others who operate multi-instructor academies. The membership is made up of professionals who average of 20.3 years of coaching experience.
“We were interested to see the percentage of coaches working under a golf management company continuing to hold steady at around 20 percent,” said Anderson. “It had gradually increased during the past decade from 14 percent.”
A perennial question about growing the game examines how inclined coaches are to leverage the various turnkey player-development programs. The top performer this time around was, once again, PGA Junior League, holding steady at 64 percent. Operation 36 slipped 7 points (49 to 42 percent), US Kids Golf dropped 2 points (22 to 20 percent) and Get Golf Ready dropped 2 points (19 to 17 percent). “This was the first time we included Drive, Chip & Putt,” Anderson said. “It debuts with our coaches at a 22 percent level of market penetration.”
The annual survey even looks at nitty-gritty questions like continuing professional education. Proponent coaches averaged attendance at 3.8 educational seminars and forums in 2025, up slightly from 3.6 the previous year and 3.4 in 2023. “Historically this has been a critical measure of coaches’ long-term success in the industry,” Anderson commented. “When this number is increasing, coaches are better preparing for their futures.”
About Proponent Group
Proponent Group is the only organization solely focused on helping golf’s dedicated, full-time instructors grow their businesses and build their careers. Founded in 2007, Proponent Group recognizes that even accomplished teaching professionals need a unique array of professional services to build their teaching brand, create job security and grow compensation. If you are a full-time coach and would like access to this or other company-provided support tools, you can join Proponent Group at proponent-group.com.
We’ve harvested all the comp-and-ops information generously provided by Proponent members and packaged it for review in our annual 31-page summary report. To view the full 2026 report, log on to the member-only website and click the green Compensation Survey Results button or simply click this link.
Whether you’re negotiating a new contract, examining industry trends or working to understand all the business opportunities potentially available to you, this report is the first place you should look for help. Most of the data in the report is broken into categories such as Employees, Independent Contractors and Academy Owners, to provide a more accurate comparison to your situation.
While the compensation data is extremely valuable, you’ll also want to dive into the operational information we’ve accumulated….
The all-important annual dollar figures plus an array of other metrics have emerged from Proponent Group’s brand-new 2026 report on member Operations and Compensation. That data reveals how much our coaches are earning for their efforts and how they’re evolving their operations to leverage a changing business landscape. You can read a one-page general summary of these latest findings by clicking this link (or by clicking the NEWS button on our website homepage).
For right now, a few highlights: Average member revenues in 2025 were $210,139, while primary out-of-pocket expenses averaged $32,978—that produced a net after key expenditures of $177,161 across the entire membership. Asking survey participants about their long-term goals, we added a question this time around about retirement nest eggs. The average savings for retirement last year was 8.8 percent of net revenues. More than two-out-of-five coaches saved 5 percent or less for retirement over the past year. Meanwhile, 8 percent of coaches were able to save more than 20 percent of their gross revenues earmarked for retirement.
As mentioned in the March 5 edition of Member’s Minute, overall member revenues in 2025 were $210,139, while primary out-of-pocket expenses averaged $32,978, producing a net after key expenditures of $177,161.
For coaches who offer volume discounts for multi-session packages, the average discount off rack rate for a 5-session package was 12 percent. For a 10-session package it was 15 percent and for a 20-session package it averaged 17 percent.
Online lessons made up only 1.5 percent of overall revenues last year. That percentage has slowly climbed from 1 percent over the past five years.
At the height of the Covid-19 wave the amount of teaching time with students peaked at an average of 32.1 hours per week. Since then, we’ve seen a slow decline to the current 29.6 hours per week, on average. That translates to approximately 1,480 hours of billable teaching time annually (spread over 50 weeks).
About Proponent Group
Proponent Group is the only organization solely focused on helping golf’s dedicated, full-time instructors grow their businesses and build their careers. Founded in 2007, Proponent Group recognizes that even accomplished teaching professionals need a unique array of professional services to build their teaching brand, create job security and grow compensation. If you are a full-time coach and would like access to this or other company-provided support tools, you can join Proponent Group at proponent-group.com.
