DENVER, CO. – Nick Pelle was sitting at dinner with his family last July when his phone kept buzzing. After a few rings, the 43-year-old GOLFTEC coach and PGA Golf Professional picked up. On the other end was his student, Anders Larson, with exciting news: he had just shot a 7-under 65 in a qualifier for the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic to claim a spot at TPC Deere Run.
“That was probably my proudest moment as a coach,” Pelle reflected. “When [Anders] invited me down to watch him play, that was one of the biggest, most euphoric moments — to see someone you’ve taught play at that level.”
A year later, Larson did it again.
It’s been quite the journey for the duo, which began when Larson first walked into Pelle’s Minnetonka GOLFTEC as a sophomore in high school, looking to improve his game. Growing up between the fifth and sixth holes of Pine Island Golf Course, Larson had always been around golf but spent his early years playing basketball, baseball, and football.
“I never had a formal golf lesson until I was probably 16,” Larson recalled. “I would do the drive, chip, and putt here and there. But you see these kids, especially now, they grow up playing tournament golf and that gives them a big step ahead of the people that don’t.”
Anders Larson’s swing using GOLFTEC’s OptiMotion
Unlike his first try at a golf lesson, however, Pelle’s approach and GOLFTEC’s data-driven system connected with Larson immediately, and he’s been under Pelle’s tutelage since, even though Pelle’s GOLFTEC center near Minneapolis is a 90-minute drive from his home in Pine Island.
“The first lesson I took with the other coach, it felt almost like a drill sergeant — do this, do that,” Larson remembered. “With Nick, right off the bat and to this day, it’s teamwork. If I feel like I want to swing this way, he’s going to tell me why I probably shouldn’t, and if you change ‘X’ then ‘Y’ can happen.”
It’s the GOLFTEC’s system, which seeks to unlock every player’s potential with innovative instruction that’s informed by proprietary game improvement technology – including SKYTRAK+, the leading launch monitor on the market, and OptiMotion, the wireless motion-capture technology that measures moment-by-moment biomechanics.
For Pelle, it has led to a two-decade career that’s included numerous awards, such as the PGA Professional Development Award (formerly known as Horton Smith Award), Minnesota’s PGA Section Player Development Award and a spot on Golf Digest’s Best Teachers list.
“I think that’s probably where we have a pretty strong advantage,” Pelle explained. “There are a lot of videos out there, a lot of Golf Digest articles and magazines. But anytime you could use feedback to actually show someone exactly what it is they’re doing and what the improvement looks like, I think you get a lot of buy-in. It’s not just my opinion; I can now show you how it’s better, and you can see that.”
In preparation for this year’s John Deere Classic, Pelle and Larson simulated the TPC Deere Run’s 14th hole using SKYTRAK and analyzed shots with OptiMotion. “We talked a lot about the 14th hole, a downhill drivable par four. Last year, he didn’t hit driver. I told him to look at the math. The people making birdie on this hole are hitting driver. So he hit driver this year, and although he only made par, it was the easiest par he probably made all day. With a slightly different bounce or break, he could have easily made more birdies there.”
With this guidance, Larson has turned into a formidable player. He’s played in two PGA Tour events. He made an impressive run at the U.S. Amateur last month. And after playing the last two years at Tennessee Tech he transferred to Eastern Kentucky for the 2024-2025 school year.
Larson’s sights remain set on qualifying for more Tour events. “A lot of people tell me, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,’ but for me, this is what I want to do. This is not once in a lifetime. I want to be back, and that’s what I work for every day.”
